flight50 wrote: ↑05 Aug 2022 03:09
Interesting map but poor Louisiana........this is only based on your opinion with the map you came up with. What if Louisiana was added to your phase 2 (Road to Chicago). Louisiana starts I-55 and I-49 which are part of that equation in the Midwest. I'd actually include Da Boot as phase 2. Its too unique not to, then let the rest stay as in on your map.
The problem with I-55 (which I accidentally called US 55, which hopefully wasn't confusing since there is presently no US 55) is, again, that it requires Mississippi and Tennessee to actually connect to the midwest, and Tennessee's shape is all kinds of problematic without either Georgia (Alabama if SCS is generous enough to let it have a tiny stretch of Georgia's I-59) or Kentucky accompanying it. And Kentucky is a more ideal approach, because approaching it from the south leaves an atrocious Memphis-shaped gap between Arkansas and Mississippi.
Otherwise, it's just an orphaned stretch, and you know how people are with those after Idaho (which connected two separate chunks of I-84) and Montana (which did the same with I-90.)
I-49, meanwhile, only actually benefits Louisana; its northwest-to-southeast direction ensures that it does not benefit any state west of it in any meaningful capacity. Not to mention that I-49 isn't continuous regardless because Arkansas hasn't gotten around to doing a huge chunk of it.
I want to see Louisiana, and I agree that it's a pretty unique place... but if we're pushing for the Great Lakes now, there's simply no place for it unless it somehow sneaks in with Arkansas.
krmarci wrote: ↑04 Aug 2022 21:54
I would guess "Phase 4" is more likely to come before "Phase 3".
If anything, at this point I'm wondering if we see "
Phase 5" before "Phase 4", actually. Let's say they beeline the Great Lakes and do that whole area. At that point, the northeast is stupidly close to two very important things: the Atlantic Ocean, and New York City. It's actually really easy for me to see that getting prioritized over the southeast, since Florida is a bit less spicy and way harder to get to.
But this is all just spitballing, of course. The important thing is that today's announcement is a huge game changer in terms of speculation... besides the next 3-4 maps (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and presumably Nebraska), obviously, which are pretty much set in stone now.