> Near the Pennsylvania border, drivers have long been forced off the interstate and onto other roadways, only to join back 8 miles away.
This is a misleading overstatement. This is only true if you want to drive the roads labeled as I-95. There are indeed two segments labeled as I-95 that are discontinuous: the NJ Turnpike south until exit 6, and from Trenton southwards through PA to Delaware. But those segments are linked by the remainder of the NJ Turnpike, which forms a continuous highway route from northern NJ through to Delaware, and the signage indicates that all through traffic should do that.
Ascii art diagram:
A
A
BXXXA
B C
B C
B C
BC
B
A and B are the discontinuous sections of I-95 (A is the NJ Turnpike; Trenton is at the north end of the B section); C is the remainder of the turnpike; X is the "new" section. X already existed, it's just being redesignated as I-95. The only thing actually missing was the interchange between X and B. But none of that really matters because C is the more direct route anyway.
There's a slight inaccuracy in that diagram. While NJT does (via a short stint on I-295) intersect I-95 in Delaware on the southern end, the northern end has a rather more roundabout connection. I-95 continues up as a beltway around Trenton. But the beltway continues as I-295, which turns south and parallels the NJ Turnpike. If you're trying to go north on I-95, you end up heading south instead for ~7mi and then needing a ~7mi stint on I-195 to continue north.
At least a lot of our roads, including city roads, got to be planned at all - still better than the mazes of very narrow, disorganized roads established hundreds of years ago you get in very old locations in Europe, particularly old cities. At least this is the impression I've gotten reading some accounts on the subject online - can't vouch for it 100%.
Just imagine what our planning will look like in one or two hundred years (or even 30-40 years). I would bet those more walk-able and bike-able cities will look a lot more attractive...
Current planning assumes a lot of parking is required. Streets allow parking on the sides, access routes are optimized for cars, every business wants to be as close as possible to street, etc.
I also think the shifts coming in transportation will be a lot more than an "automated uber". There will likely be a lot of automated carpooling and carpool discovery along the line of ad-hoc ride-sharing discovery. Bottom-line, I assume there will be a lot less parked hunks of metal in city centers, which will itself alter what an efficient layout entails.
The entire US is designed around personal automobile ownership to an incredible degree. Anything that affects that one way or another drastically changes optimal design layout for both residential and commercial planning.
As a simple example of this, if you've ever driven down a corridor of highway or an arterial route that is one strip mall after another behind parking lots, imagine how that changes is a large chunk of people are no longer driving their own cars leisurely, but instead hiring transport to a specific point. Road visibility is much less important. Parking lots in front are mostly superfluous. Basically, walk-able downtown areas and enclosed malls may see (and I think already are seeing) a resurgence.
I still can't follow the pictures on the linked article that somehow have 295 going both east/west and north/south.
I think the confusing part is merely why they word it that way; everwhere else does just fine with understanding that sometimes driving north on a freeway has you going east or west for a time.
This is a misleading overstatement. This is only true if you want to drive the roads labeled as I-95. There are indeed two segments labeled as I-95 that are discontinuous: the NJ Turnpike south until exit 6, and from Trenton southwards through PA to Delaware. But those segments are linked by the remainder of the NJ Turnpike, which forms a continuous highway route from northern NJ through to Delaware, and the signage indicates that all through traffic should do that.
Ascii art diagram:
A and B are the discontinuous sections of I-95 (A is the NJ Turnpike; Trenton is at the north end of the B section); C is the remainder of the turnpike; X is the "new" section. X already existed, it's just being redesignated as I-95. The only thing actually missing was the interchange between X and B. But none of that really matters because C is the more direct route anyway.