A loop route is a highway or other major road that extends out from a typically longer, more important parents road to enter and (usually) circle a large city. A loop can function as a bypass for through traffic and also to service outlying suburbs.
Loops are prominent features in many large cities in the United States. A three-digit interstate that is a loop is usually designated by an even-digit before the number of its parent interstate. Many cities in the United States have a two-loop design where there is an outer loop, an inner loop, and interstates coming in to the city and going through the loops. Loop routes sometimes use inner/outer directions as opposed to cardinal directions since the latter cannot be signed uniformly around the entire loop. In a few rare instances, loop routes can be a type of special route that splits from the parent and loops around a populated area, offering two bypasses.
Loops are less common in the United Kingdom; there is only one loop motorway, the M621.
Famous quotes containing the word route:
“A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A route is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)