Editing Akron, Ohio (section)

===Freeways===
Akron is served by two major interstate highways that bisect the city. Unlike other cities, the bisection does not occur in the Central Business District, nor do the interstates serve downtown; rather, the [[Ohio State Route 59|Akron Innerbelt]] and to a lesser extent [[Ohio State Route 8]] serve these functions.
* [[Interstate 77]] connects [[Marietta, Ohio|Marietta]] and [[Cleveland]], Ohio. In Akron, it has 15 interchanges, four of which permit freeway-to-freeway movements. It runs north–south in the southern part of the city to its intersection with [[Interstate 76 (east)|I-76]], where it takes a westerly turn as a concurrency with Interstate 76.
* [[Interstate 76 (east)|Interstate 76]] connects [[Interstate 71 (Ohio)|Interstate 71]] to [[Youngstown, Ohio]], and farther. It runs east–west and has 18 interchanges in Akron, four of which are freeway-to-freeway. The East Leg was rebuilt in the 1990s to feature six lanes and longer merge lanes. The concurrency with Interstate 77 is eight lanes. The Kenmore Leg is a four-lane leg that is slightly less than two miles (3&nbsp;km) long and connects to Interstate 277.
* [[Interstate 277 (Ohio)|Interstate 277]] is an east–west spur that it forms with [[U.S. Highway 224|US 224]] after I-76 splits to the north to form the Kenmore Leg. It is six lanes and cosigned with U.S. 224.
* The [[Ohio State Route 59|Akron Innerbelt]] is a six-lane, {{convert|1.78|mi|km|adj=on}} spur from the I-76/I-77 concurrency and serves the urban core of the city. Its ramps are directional from the interstates, so it only serves west side drivers. ODOT is considering changing this design to attract more traffic to the route. The freeway comes to an abrupt end near the northern boundary of downtown where it becomes Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The freeway itself is officially known as "The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Freeway". The freeway was originally designed to connect directly to State Route 8, but plans were laid to rest in the mid-1970s because of financial troubles.
* [[Ohio State Route 8]] is an original state highway that is a limited access route that connects Akron's northern suburbs with Interstates 76 and 77. State Route 8's southern terminus is at the central interchange, where it meets I-76 and I-77. The second freeway in Akron to be completed, it went through a major overhaul in 2003 with new ramps and access roads. In 2007 ODOT began a project to upgrade the road to interstate highway standards north of Akron from [[Ohio State Route 303|State Route 303]] to I-271, providing a high speed alternative to Cleveland.<ref name="Akron Innerbelt Integration Initiative - History"/>