A
bypass is a
roadA road is an identifiable route, way or path between places.
or
highwayA highway is a main road for travel by the public between important destinations, such as cities and states. Highway designs vary widely and can range from a two-lane road without margins to a multi-lane, grade separated motorway. In English and U.S...
that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through
trafficTraffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce
congestionCongestion may refer to:try checking out congestion charges.* Network congestion, an occurrence in data networking* Traffic congestion, an occurrence on roadways* Nasal congestion, the blockage of nasal passages due to swollen membranes...
in the built-up area, and to improve road safety.
If there are no strong land use controls, buildings are built along a bypass, converting it into an ordinary town road, and the bypass may eventually become as congested as the local streets it was intended to avoid.
A
bypass is a
roadA road is an identifiable route, way or path between places.
or
highwayA highway is a main road for travel by the public between important destinations, such as cities and states. Highway designs vary widely and can range from a two-lane road without margins to a multi-lane, grade separated motorway. In English and U.S...
that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through
trafficTraffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce
congestionCongestion may refer to:try checking out congestion charges.* Network congestion, an occurrence in data networking* Traffic congestion, an occurrence on roadways* Nasal congestion, the blockage of nasal passages due to swollen membranes...
in the built-up area, and to improve road safety.
If there are no strong land use controls, buildings are built along a bypass, converting it into an ordinary town road, and the bypass may eventually become as congested as the local streets it was intended to avoid. Shopping centres and some other companies often are built there for ease of access, while homes are often avoided for noise reasons.
United Kingdom
The idea of bypasses predates the use of motor vehicles. The first (northern)
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
bypass, the present
Marylebone RoadMarylebone Road is an important thoroughfare in central London, within the City of Westminster. It runs east-west from the Euston Road at Regent's Park to the A40 Westway at Paddington...
between
PaddingtonPaddington is an area of the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
and
IslingtonIslington is the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district in London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, was started in 1756.
Bypasses can take many years to gain planning approval and funding. Many towns and villages have been campaigning for bypasses for over 30 years e.g.
BanwellBanwell is a village and civil parish on the River Banwell in the North Somerset district of Somerset, England. Its population was 2,923 according to the 2001 census.- History :...
in
North SomersetNorth Somerset is a unitary authority in England. Its area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters are in the town hall in Weston-super-Mare....
. Bypass routes are often controversial — by definition they require the building of a road carrying heavy traffic where no road previously existed. This creates a conflict between the those who support a bypass to reduce congestion in a built up area, and those who oppose the development of (often rural) undeveloped land.
United States
In the United States,
bypass routes are a type of special route used on an alternative routing of a highway around a town when the main route of the highway goes through the town. The original designation of these routes were "truck routes" to divert through truck traffic away from the town, but the designation was changed to "bypass" in 1959-1960 by
AASHTOAASHTO, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test protocols and guidelines which are used in highway design and construction throughout the United States...
. However, many "Truck" routes remain where the mainline of the highway is prohibited for trucks.
In a few cases, both a bypass and a
business routeA business route in the United States and Canada is a short special route connected to a parent numbered highway at its beginning, then routed through the central business district of a nearby city or town, and finally reconnecting with the same parent numbered highway again at its...
exist, both with auxiliary signs (i.e. U.S. Highway 60 in
Lexington, KentuckyLexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 65th largest in the United States. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
). Bypass routes are less common than business routes. Many of those that existed before the era of Interstate highways have lost their old designations. For example in
MissouriMissouri is a state in the Midwest region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 18th most populous state with a 2008 estimated population of 5,911,605. It comprises 114 counties and one independent city....
, the old bypass route of U.S. Highway 71 to the east of
Kansas City, MissouriKansas City is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. It is one of two county seats of Jackson County, the other being Independence, just to the city's east...
was
decertifiedA decommissioned highway is a highway that has been removed from service, shut down or has had its authorization as a federal or state highway removed. Decommissioning can include the complete or partial demolition or abandonment of an old highway structure because the old roadway has lost its...
as Interstate 435 supplanted, the remainder that existed as suburban surface route becoming
Missouri State Highway 291Route 291 is a highway in western Missouri. Once designated as U.S. Route 71 Bypass, its northern terminus is at Interstate 435 in Kansas City; its southern terminus is at U.S. Route 71 in Harrisonville....
; around
St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
, what had been Bypass U.S. Highway 50 was absorbed into a diversion of U.S. Highway 50 from
Interstate 44Interstate 44 is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Its western terminus is in Wichita Falls, Texas at concurrency with US 277, US 281 and US 287; its eastern terminus is in St. Louis at Interstate 55 . Interstate 44 is one of five interstates built to bypass U.S...
and
Interstate 64Interstate 64 is an Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. 40, and U.S. 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange with I-264 and I-664 at Bowers Hill in Chesapeake, Virginia. As I-64 is concurrent with U.S. 40 and U.S...
.
In the Interstate highway system in the United States, bypasses and loops are designated with a
three digit number beginning with an even digit. Note, however, that this pattern is inconsistent enough that, as in greater
Des Moines, IowaDes Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
the genuine bypass is the main route (in that case,
Interstate 35Interstate 35 is a north–south Interstate Highway in the central United States. I-35 stretches from Laredo, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border to Duluth, Minnesota, at Minnesota Highway 61 and 26th Avenue East. Many interstates used to have splits or spurs indicated with suffixed letters , but I-35...
and
Interstate 80Interstate 80 is the second-longest Interstate Highway in the United States . It connects downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. I-80 is the interstate that most closely approximates the route of the Lincoln Highway, the first auto trail to cross the...
, and the loop into downtown Des Moines is
Interstate 235Interstate 235 in Iowa, also known as the MacVicar Freeway, is a 13.8 mile-long freeway through the Des Moines metropolitan area. It is a side route of Interstate 35 that passes though the city, while the main route I-35 skirts it...
; or as in
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, where
Interstate 680Interstate 480 is a loop highway that connects downtown Omaha, Nebraska with Council Bluffs, Iowa at a junction with Interstate 29. The entire length of I-480 is a short . U.S...
traverses their
downtown areaDowntown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, and is located in Omaha, Nebraska. The boundaries are 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and the centerline of Leavenworth Street on the south to the centerline...
, which is bypassed by
Interstate 80In the U.S. state of Nebraska, Interstate 80 runs west from Omaha to the Wyoming state border, ultimately terminating in San Francisco, California. When it completed construction of the stretch of Interstate 80 spanning the state on October 19, 1974, Nebraska was the first state in the nation to...
and
Interstate 680Interstate 680 in Nebraska and Iowa is the northern bypass freeway for the Omaha, Nebraska-Council Bluffs, Iowa metropolitan area. I-680 spans from its western terminus in western Omaha to its eastern terminus near Neola, Iowa. For a stretch, I-680 is co-signed with Interstate 29...
.
Another meaning of the term
bypass route (usually simply called a
bypass) is a highway that was constructed to bypass an area that is often congested with traffic. This includes Interstate highway
beltwayA beltway, loop , ring road, or orbital motorway is a circumferential highway found around or within many cities....
s and U.S. Highways constructed to circumvent downtown areas. Examples of these are
U.S. Route 60U.S. Route 60 is an east-west United States highway, running 2,670 miles from eastern Virginia to western Arizona. Despite the final "0" in its number, indicating a transcontinental designation, the 1926 route formerly ended in Springfield, Missouri, at its intersection with the major U.S. Route 66...
bypassing
Williamsburg, VirginiaWilliamsburg is an independent city of Virginia located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads region in southeastern Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 11,998. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
,
U.S. Routes 31U.S. Route 31 is a long north-south highway connecting northern Michigan to southern Alabama, with its northern terminus at Interstate 75 near Mackinaw City, Michigan, and southern terminus at the combined U.S. Route 90 & U.S. Route 98 at Spanish Fort, Alabama...
and
20U.S. Route 20 is an east-west United States highway. As the "0" in its route number implies, U.S. 20 is a coast-to-coast route; however, because national park roads do not have signage for U.S. numbered highways, a gap exists through Yellowstone National Park and splits the route into two sections...
bypassing metro
South Bend, IndianaSouth Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total of 107,789 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...
(the
St. Joseph Valley ParkwayThe St. Joseph Valley Parkway is a freeway in the U.S. states of Michigan and Indiana, serving as a bypass route around Niles in Michigan and South Bend, Mishawaka, and Elkhart in Indiana...
), and
Interstate 75Interstate 75 is a major north-south Interstate Highway in the midwest and southeastern United States. It travels from State Road 826 and State Road 924 in Hialeah, Florida to Sault Ste...
bypassing
TampaTampa is a Gulf Coast city in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of the state of Florida in the United States. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. The population of Tampa in 2000 was 303,447...
and
St. Petersburg, FloridaSt. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The city is known as a vacation destination for North American and European vacationers. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 248,232. As of 2006, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 248,098. The 2007...
. These bypasses usually carry mainline routes rather than auxiliary "bypass" routes.
The first bypass route in the United States was completed in 1958, as Alabama State Route 210 (Ross Clark Circle) in Dothan, Alabama.
Shoofly
The term
shoofly, while common in rail terminology, can also be applied to a short temporary roadway which bypasses a construction site or other obstruction. The U.S.
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control DevicesThe Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices is a document issued by the Federal Highway Administration of the United States Department of Transportation to specify the standards by which traffic signs, road markings , and signals are designed, installed, and used...
uses the term "diversion".
Sweden
In the more densely populated southern part of
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
, many bypasses have been built, both as
motorwayThe OECD has defined a motorway as:Motorways are identical to freeways as a road type, and comparable to the United States's Interstate Highways as a classification....
s and ordinary roads. Many cities and villages however still have main roads right through them.
MunicipalityA municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council.The notion of municipality...
administrations are often lobbying to have a bypass for safety, noise and air quality reasons. In the northern parts of Sweden fewer bypasses have been built, especially in the sparsely populated interior. Here, municipality administrations are often lobbying against bypasses, since they are afraid of losing income from road travellers.
Italy
In Italy the most important bypass, built as motorway, is the
Passante di Mestre-Passante di Mestre :The passante di Mestre is part of the A4 motorway. The objective of this new route is to reduce the existing high volume of auto/truck based traffic passing through Mestre to reach non local destinations like Austria, Slovenia & other Eastern European countries.The new...
(part of the Autostrada A4). Many other bypass were built but outside the motorway sistem.
Popular references
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by
Douglas AdamsDouglas Noel Adams was an English writer, dramatist, and musician. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a...
,
Arthur Dent'sArthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist and antihero in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams....
home is destroyed to make way for a bypass. A few minutes later, the entire
EarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the fifth largest of the eight planets in the solar system, and the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in terms of diameter, mass and density...
is destroyed by the
VogonsThe Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are bulkier than humans and have green skin. They are employed as the galactic government's bureaucrats...
to make way for a hyperspace bypass. In chapter 1, Adams explained what a bypass was:
Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from point A to point B very fast while other people dash from point B to point A very fast. People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what’s so great about point A that so many people from point B are so keen to get there, and what’s so great about point B that so many people from point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be.
See also
- Special route
- Alternate route
- Business route
A business route in the United States and Canada is a short special route connected to a parent numbered highway at its beginning, then routed through the central business district of a nearby city or town, and finally reconnecting with the same parent numbered highway again at its...
- Israeli bypass roads
- Link road
A link road is an important transport infrastructure road that links two conurbations or other major road transport facilities, often added because of increasing road traffic...
- List of bannered U.S. Highways
- List of Business Routes of the Interstate Highway System
- Ring road
Ring road is another term for beltway. It may also refer to:* Ring Road * Ring Road * Ring Road * Ring road of Iceland* Ring Road * "Ring Road", a song by the electronic band, Underworld....