page_title: Transportation in Louisville, Kentucky
section_title: Roads
hierarchical_section_title: Transportation in Louisville, Kentucky / Roads
caption_attribution_description: A photo diagram of the Kennedy Interchange, depicting routes and the Kennedy Bridge
context_page_description: As with most American cities, transportation in Louisville, Kentucky is based primarily on automobiles. However, the city traces its foundation to the era where the river was the primary means of transportation, and railroads have been an important part of local industry for over a century. In more recent times Louisville has become a national hub for air cargo, creating over 20,000 local jobs. The city has also launched several initiatives to promote both utilitarian and recreational bicycling. In 2016 Walk Score ranked Louisville 43rd "most walkable" of 141 U.S. cities with a population greater than 200,000. In 2015, 11.7 percent of Louisville households were without a car, which decreased to 10.9 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Louisville averaged 1.61 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8 per household.
context_section_description: The city's road system is arranged in a fairly typical system common to many cities in the United States. Streets in the downtown business district are arranged as a grid, with several alternating one-way streets. Many major roads begin at or near the downtown area and travel outwards from the city like the spokes of a wheel. There are also several roads, such as Bardstown Road and Shelbyville Road, which lead outwards from Louisville to the outlying Kentucky towns of Bardstown and Shelbyville, respectively. (See External links for links to several online maps.)
  Interstates I-64, I-65 pass through and I-71 begins in Louisville. Since all three of these highways intersect at virtually the same location in the city just east of Downtown, this spot has become known as "Spaghetti Junction", as the large mass of highways and exits resembles a bowl of spaghetti when viewed from the air. Louisville Waterfront Park is built under and near this interchange.
  I-264 (Henry Watterson Expressway east of US 31W and Shawnee Expressway west of US 31W) and I-265 (Gene Snyder Freeway) form loops around the city on the Kentucky side. Louisville is the only city in the nation to contain two consecutively numbered, three-digit Interstate highways.
  The Ohio River Bridges Project, a plan under consideration for decades to construct two new interstate bridges over the Ohio River to connect Louisville to Indiana, including a reconfiguration of Spaghetti Junction, began construction in 2012.  One bridge, initially dubbed the Downtown Crossing and as of December 5, 2015, known as the Abraham Lincoln Bridge, is located downtown beside the existing Kennedy Bridge for relief of I-65 traffic. The other, currently dubbed the East End Crossing, will connect I-265 between the portions located in southeast Clark County, Indiana and northeast Jefferson County, Kentucky (Louisville Metro).  Both bridges and corresponding construction are slated to be finished sometime in 2016. As with any major project, there have been detractors and possible alternatives; one grassroots organization, 8664.org, has proposed options for downtown revitalization improvements, and a simpler and less expensive roadway design.
caption: Diagram of the Kennedy Interchange ("Spaghetti Junction")
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