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:
“The route through childhood is shaped by many forces, and it differs for each of us. Our biological inheritance, the temperament with which we are born, the care we receive, our family relationships, the place where we grow up, the schools we attend, the culture in which we participate, and the historical period in which we live—all these affect the paths we take through childhood and condition the remainder of our lives.”
—Robert H. Wozniak (20th century)