Midland and Odessa are two nearby cities in the United States, located in the western part of the state of Texas. Midland has 131,000 inhabitants and Odessa has 112,000 inhabitants. The urban area has 334,000 inhabitants (2021).
Introduction
Midland and Odessa are located in West Texas, approximately 70 kilometers from the New Mexico border. Midland is 500 kilometers southwest of Dallas and Odessa is 380 kilometers east of El Paso. The centers of Midland and Odessa are 20 miles apart. The cities are located on the steppe of West Texas, a relatively flat area with hardly any trees.
According to lawschoolsinusa, Midland and Odessa are often synonymous with the Texas oil industry. The area is dotted with thousands of yes-men (pumpjacks) that extract oil from the Permian Basin. The economy has been booming since 2010 with the increase in the extraction of these raw materials. Both cities have a separate function. Most of the office functions in the oil industry are in Midland, while the actual work is done from Odessa.
The cities of Midland and Odessa have not grown together, there is still some countryside in between, but the corridor has increasingly industrial areas for the oil industry. The airport is also located between the two cities. There are hardly any suburbs around Midland and Odessa, but both cities are predominantly suburban in character.
Road network
Midland and Odessa are a major stop on Interstate 20 that connects El Paso to Dallas. This is a major transcontinental route in conjunction with I-10 further west. There is no north-south highway serving both cities, but US 385 runs through Odessa.
Both cities have a ring road with varying degrees of grade separation. The Loop 250 forms the Midland ring road and the Loop 338 forms the Odessa ring road. State Highway 191 forms a freeway between the centers of both cities, while I-20 runs more along the edge of Odessa and Midland, providing some separation between local and through traffic. I-20 and SH 191 are two to three miles apart.
In addition to I-20 and SH 191, there is also Business Route 20 in both Midland and Odessa. This is not a highway, but it is an important access point for the centers of these cities. Due to the intersection of I-20 and US 385, Odessa could be argued to be a more important interchange than Midland, although traffic to the south is very little, as there are no towns of any size to the south. About 180 kilometers to the north is the city of Lubbock, which is reached from Midland via SH 349 and US 87, and from Odessa via US 385 and US 62. The route from Odessa is completely a 2×2 divided highway, arriving from Midland is not as far as SH 349 is concerned. SH 349 is part of the Ports to Plains Corridor.
Traffic intensities
Midland and Odessa are not very big places, so traffic intensities are quite low. The busiest point in the region is Loop 250 around Midland, with up to 58,000 vehicles in 2012. I-20 is the second busiest, with 47,000 vehicles near Midland and 43,000 vehicles near Odessa. The SH 191 between Midland and Odessa has about 30,000 vehicles.
