OT: What is the worst stretch of highway you've travelled?

[Frabjous]

My nominations are the Cross Bronx Expressway, a lethal stretch of busted cement from the GW Bridge* to the Connecticut line, and I80 in Pennsylvania, a rumble strip in the summer and a white-knuckler in the winter, with the occasional suicidal deer any time of year.

*If you must cross the George Washington Bridge, take George (top) not Martha (bottom).

 

[NorthNJCatsfan]

Agree that CBE is hands down winner in this area anyway. BQE ( Brooklyn Queens Expressway ) also a hassle. However, for sheer long term misery, Route 95 in Ct. is my bete noir as I travel from NJ --> Ma.

 

[NJCat]

Agree that CBE is hands down winner in this area anyway. BQE ( Brooklyn Queens Expressway ) also a hassle. However, for sheer long term misery, Route 95 in Ct. is my bete noir as I travel from NJ --> Ma.

Rte 22 east of Plainfield NJ to Newark is the pits. Like playing bumper cars blindfolded.

 

[ColumbusCatFan1]

My nominations are the Cross Bronx Expressway, a lethal stretch of busted cement from the GW Bridge* to the Connecticut line

This may, in fact, be the worst road to drive in the country, especially when you factor in how local drivers approach it.

I'd like to give a shout out to I-95 north of the Ladysmith,VA exit to the 395-495 interchange at Springfield. The Capital Beltway has the reputation in the DMV, but that 50-60 mile stretch of road is god awful. It's always a parking lot and the area isn't close population-wise to that of the Conn-RI-Mass stretch up north.

 

[Hungry Jack]

I 43 northbound north of Milwaukee looks OK, but the segments of pavement have uneven seams that, when crossed at 70 mph, will drum your brain into madness with its repetitive thumping.

 

[mikewebb68]

BQE hands down for me. Should have been torn down the same time as West Side Highway, but somehow has survived to this day.

 

[Deeringfish]

94E heading into Gary, IN.

 

[SciCat]

My nominations are the Cross Bronx Expressway, a lethal stretch of busted cement from the GW Bridge* to the Connecticut line, and I80 in Pennsylvania, a rumble strip in the summer and a white-knuckler in the winter, with the occasional suicidal deer any time of year.

*If you must cross the George Washington Bridge, take George (top) not Martha (bottom).

Navigating Turk's posts over the past couple of years.

 

[mikewebb68]

Navigating Turk's posts over the past couple of years.

And we have a winner!

 

[Dugan15]

94E heading into Gary, IN.

Deering: I'll go with I-94 west from I-65 to the State Line. That means I am tired, have driven a long way...and inevitably, it is dark, stormy and snowy. Good times!!

 

[Well cataloged]

Agree that CBE is hands down winner in this area anyway. BQE ( Brooklyn Queens Expressway ) also a hassle. However, for sheer long term misery, Route 95 in Ct. is my bete noir as I travel from NJ --> Ma.

I've avoided the Cross Bronx Expressway ever since I read "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York." That said, I vote for the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, where three lanes shrink to two every couple of miles (for maintenance) and drivers routinely make double-lane change through openings smaller than what Justin Jackson the Ball Carrier could slip through.

 

[NCRNU71]

My nominations are the Cross Bronx Expressway, a lethal stretch of busted cement from the GW Bridge* to the Connecticut line, and I80 in Pennsylvania, a rumble strip in the summer and a white-knuckler in the winter, with the occasional suicidal deer any time of year.

*If you must cross the George Washington Bridge, take George (top) not Martha (bottom).

Camino de Muerte (road of death) in Bolivia for eight hours at night--a narrow one and a half lane road barely wide enough for two regular size cars to pass each other going in opposite directions. One side of the road was the side of a mountain, the other the side of a cliff with no guard rails. Truck and bus traffic made it even more interesting.

 

[NorthNJCatsfan]

Camino de Muerte (road of death) in Bolivia for eight hours at night--a narrow one and a half lane road barely wide enough for two regular size cars to pass each other going in opposite directions. One side of the road was the side of a mountain, the other the side of a cliff with no guard rails. Truck and bus traffic made it even more interesting.

Wait a minute, if we're expanding globally, try the road from Izmir to Bodrum.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Wait a minute, if we're expanding globally, try the road from Izmir to Bodrum.

Or pretty much any road in Costa Rica.

 

[TheC]

Agree that CBE is hands down winner in this area anyway. BQE ( Brooklyn Queens Expressway ) also a hassle. However, for sheer long term misery, Route 95 in Ct. is my bete noir as I travel from NJ --> Ma.

I almost never take I-95 from NYC. I usually take 684 up to I-84 or sometimes the Merrit Parkway. But never I-95.

 

[TheC]

For me, its the Van Wyck Express (chuckle) way leading to JFK Airport. Its about a 14 mile stretch of highway that usually takes nearly an hour to cross. With constant construction and bumper to bumper traffic always and forever, it is a nightmare that one must always plan for when trying to catch a flight.

 

[Deeringfish]

Deering: I'll go with I-94 west from I-65 to the State Line. That means I am tired, have driven a long way...and inevitably, it is dark, stormy and snowy. Good times!!

It is a bad stretch both ways. High traffic volume and it seems to me that it has been under construction since I first drove it in 1971.

 

[pawildcat]

I-81 is becoming an impressively bad road to travel, largely due to the truck terminals that are being thrown up along it every few miles. My relatively rural area of Pennsylvania is suddenly swamped with truck traffic (I-70 intersects with 81 a few miles south of us), and there usually are a couple of serious accidents a week on our stretch in Franklin County. The short 12-mile stretch through Maryland is a nightmare of traffic and poorly designed entrance-exit ramps.

 

[iskaboo]

Wait a minute, if we're expanding globally, try the road from Izmir to Bodrum.

The M1 from London to Bedford. Yeccch.

 

[KramerCat91]

I-80 through western Pennsylvania. Always end up getting food there even though McDonalds is the best place. Got food poisoning at a truck stop. Eaten at substandard diners. Driven through repeated dense fogbanks at 70 mph because worried I would get creamed from behind if I slowed down. Trump country. Makes me look forward to driving through Ohio and Indiana.

 

[BosCat]

I almost never take I-95 from NYC. I usually take 684 up to I-84 or sometimes the Merrit Parkway. But never I-95.

Ah, the halcyon days of toll booths seemingly every 100yds on I-95 in CT.......

 

[seavue617]

Come on out to the Left Coast and try the 405 on for size - virtually always a 10 lane parking lot.

 

[NU Houston]

I-15 from Vegas back to SoCal is a traffic nightmare on Sundays and the end of holidays. We drove back on the Sunday after Thanksgiving a few years ago, and what we thought would be a 3-4 hour drive ended up taking over 8 hours. It was surreal sitting in bumper to bumper traffic out in the desert in the middle of nowhere.

 

[NU Houston]

Come on out to the Left Coast and try the 405 on for size - virtually always a 10 lane parking lot.

The 405 between the Valley and Sunset is one of the worst stretches of freeway I've ever driven. When we were there, the traffic was always bad, meaning you had to budget an hour to move less than 10 miles. Maybe it's better now that they've finished the widening construction project.

Houston traffic is bad, but at least It's not as bad as L.A.

 

[PZAZ]

A tiny road in the Peloponnese - thought for sure we were going to fall off the mountain. Oh...you mean the USA? The freeways in downtown Chicago.

 

[phatcat]

95 north headed into Boston Logan. There is a merge like every 50 feet so you are constantly interweaving and it takes an hour to go about 4 miles. I no longer fly there, fly to PVD instead

 

[seavue617]

The 405 between the Valley and Sunset is one of the worst stretches of freeway I've ever driven. When we were there, the traffic was always bad, meaning you had to budget an hour to move less than 10 miles. Maybe it's better now that they've finished the widening construction project.

Houston traffic is bad, but at least It's not as bad as L.A.

My exit is Mulholland so I'm right in the middle of that. Trust me, it's no better now with the carpool lane added. It takes you a few miles to get over to it even when you have a passenger.

 

[NUCat320]

From off the radar:
I-35 into downtown Austin has this strange double-decker express lane concept. If you're in (lower) local lanes, you'll have fast-moving cars dive-bombing into your rearview constantly. It's very dangerous. My last significant driving in Austin was 15 years ago, so I assume it's gotten worse as the city has grown. Even in 2000, Austin was the smallest city to regularly appear on those "most time lost to traffic" lists. Probably a lot of Teslas there, so perhaps it's quieter now.

I-285 in North Atlanta - "the top of the perimeter" - is a parking lot daily from 330-730. This applies to all cars except for the Mercedes, who weave lane to lane, lay on their horns, then park in Cobb Country handicapped spaces (or, failing that, in two spots). They're important, you see.

 

[MickeyCat]

Highways aren't bad. It's the design of the cars that we drive on them that are terrible.

As discussed recently on the Rant board, we desperately need thin cars on our highways to offer commuters a lane splitting choice to more efficiently use road width.

This is one of thirteen hand built Tangos lane splitting in San Francisco recently. Unlike a motorcycle, bicycle, or the Civic and Leaf I drive now, a Tango would be the best way for me to commute from Buffalo Grove to downtown Chicago <if lane splitting were legal in Illinois>.



The Spokane-based inventor is Rick Woodbury. I think he's an applied genius. He's also a very friendly and communicative guy. He built the car with his son after he decided to solve traffic congestion we needed thin cars with ballast to keep them from tipping over. I've been assisting him in promoting his car for ten years now. They will get even better as AV start to make their way on to roads.

It's not the highways that suck, it's the width of the cars we drive.

 

[WaveJumper]

Highways aren't bad. It's the design of the cars that we drive on them that are terrible.

As discussed recently on the Rant board, we desperately need thin cars on our highways to offer commuters a lane splitting choice to more efficiently use road width.

This is one of thirteen hand built Tangos lane splitting in San Francisco recently. Unlike a motorcycle, bicycle, or the Civic and Leaf I drive now, a Tango would be the best way for me to commute from Buffalo Grove to downtown Chicago <if lane splitting were legal in Illinois>.

View embedded media

The Spokane-based inventor is Rick Woodbury. I think he's an applied genius. He's also a very friendly and communicative guy. He built the car with his son after he decided to solve traffic congestion we needed thin cars with ballast to keep them from tipping over. I've been assisting him in promoting his car for ten years now. They will get even better as AV start to make their way on to roads.

It's not the highways that suck, it's the width of the cars we drive.

Reminds me of when I had a bike - 650 cc BSA Super Rocket, bored and stroked in a 500 cc frame. At that time 650 cc was a pretty big dual cylinder engine - Norton made a 750 and I think the Harley Sportster was about 1100. Fun times splitting lanes on the Ryan/Kennedy.

 

[NU Houston]

My exit is Mulholland so I'm right in the middle of that. Trust me, it's no better now with the carpool lane added. It takes you a few miles to get over to it even when you have a passenger.

I bet the view from up there on Mulholland makes up for the bad traffic, though.

 

[NU Houston]

From off the radar:
I-35 into downtown Austin has this strange double-decker express lane concept. If you're in (lower) local lanes, you'll have fast-moving cars dive-bombing into your rearview constantly. It's very dangerous. My last significant driving in Austin was 15 years ago, so I assume it's gotten worse as the city has grown. Even in 2000, Austin was the smallest city to regularly appear on those "most time lost to traffic" lists. Probably a lot of Teslas there, so perhaps it's quieter now.

I've driven in Austin countless times over the past quarter century, and I still don't know whether to choose the upper (express) or lower (local) level. It's very confusing, and like you said, the lower level can be intimidating with the quick merging traffic.

Austin traffic has gotten much worse since 2000. I-35 doesn't travel well, even on weekends. It's the main artery through the state and into Mexico, so it gets lots of regional and international traffic in addition to the local commuters.

 

[Deeringfish]

Highways aren't bad. It's the design of the cars that we drive on them that are terrible.

As discussed recently on the Rant board, we desperately need thin cars on our highways to offer commuters a lane splitting choice to more efficiently use road width.

This is one of thirteen hand built Tangos lane splitting in San Francisco recently. Unlike a motorcycle, bicycle, or the Civic and Leaf I drive now, a Tango would be the best way for me to commute from Buffalo Grove to downtown Chicago <if lane splitting were legal in Illinois>.

View embedded media

The Spokane-based inventor is Rick Woodbury. I think he's an applied genius. He's also a very friendly and communicative guy. He built the car with his son after he decided to solve traffic congestion we needed thin cars with ballast to keep them from tipping over. I've been assisting him in promoting his car for ten years now. They will get even better as AV start to make their way on to roads.

It's not the highways that suck, it's the width of the cars we drive.

Hate to be a Debbie downer, but that looks terrible to me, dangerous and a real invitation to road rage. I guess you get where you are going faster, but at what cost?

 

[PURPLE Book Cat]

I-70 traffic heading to or from Denver/skiing on the weekends. Insane.

At least the views are nice!

 

[MickeyCat]

Hate to be a Debbie downer, but that looks terrible to me, dangerous and a real invitation to road rage. I guess you get where you are going faster, but at what cost?

There are many costs in attempting to make better highways. I think most people would agree that making the vehicles go faster is the top priority as people don't say, "Hey Honey, let's take the kids on the highway this afternoon, turn around, and come back".

The dollar and environmental cost of offering a fleet of thin cars is far, far, far less than widening highways - the current way most government entities attempt to mitigate congestion. Plus, the law of induced demand demonstrates widening roads work only temporarily to lessen traffic. Yes, eventually, roads would have to be widened for thin cars, too, but it's best to start with efficient car design.

The next goal would be to make highways "safer" . Thin cars have an enormous advantage over side by side seated cars in that there's half less width for collision. Steering the Tango is easier than a motorcycle in that counter balancing isn't necessary. Tangos are equipped with a roll-cage and steel bars in their doors, too.

For road rage, public service announcements and highlighting swaths of lanes for thin cars are possible answers.

Also, Tangos are 100% electric. The batteries create the power and provide the ballast for them to stay upright. I drive a Leaf now, and the immediate torque is fantastic in Chicago. Plus, of course, renewable energy is better for the environment.

The cost of not building thin highway-capable 100% electric cars is far more detrimental than building and driving them.

 

[ColumbusCatFan1]

I no longer fly there, fly to PVD instead

PVD is a hidden gem.

You can get up to Boston via the local train in a little over an hour and departing from a place like BWI can cost as low as $49 one way on southwest. Much faster and cheaper than driving or taking the amtrak/acela.

 

[seavue617]

As discussed recently on the Rant board, we desperately need thin cars on our highways to offer commuters a lane splitting choice to more efficiently use road width

We have lane-splitting in California and literally every rush hour there is a "motorcycle down." Lane-splitting should be illegal because it is very dangerous. The lane-splitters go way too fast and car drivers just don't see them coming.

 

[D_C_B]

Nobody here takes the Eisenhower from, say, Pulaski through the Hillside Strangler?

 

[D_C_B]

And 285 north of Atlanta is a pretty good call. But at least you can get off and take side streets. Leave the Eisenhower and you get shot

 

[MickeyCat]

We have lane-splitting in California and literally every rush hour there is a "motorcycle down." Lane-splitting should be illegal because it is very dangerous. The lane-splitters go way too fast and car drivers just don't see them coming.

You're misusing the word "literally". There's simply no way every rush hour there is a motorcycle down from lane splitting. It's an enormous exaggeration to suggest lane splitting is that dangerous.

Further, weighing in at over 3200 lbs and including roll cage, standard doors, standard windows, and windshield, Tangos make lane splitting much safer. Encouraging lane splitting in cars like Tangos by painting swaths of lanes for thin vehicles and motorcycles and creating pro lane splitting public service announcements will do well to increase the safety.

To fix traffic congestion (fix highways), first right-size cars for single and duo occupant drivers. Like bicycle and motorcycle design, thin car design is far better for traffic throughput than side seated cars, motorcycles, and pedaled vehicles.