Trips made much longer by geographical constraints

Started by ipeters61, February 13, 2019, 10:30:37 PM

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Bruce

Any trip crossing Puget Sound, since you have to either drive around or take a ferry.

For example: Everett and Port Townsend are 28 miles apart as the crow flies, but 62 miles (with one ferry crossing) or 140 miles (with no ferry).


tchafe1978

Another example of a geographic barrier in Wisconsin is Lake Winnebago. Back in our college days, my friend still stayed with his parents just outside of Stockbridge, on the east side of the lake, while his girlfriend lived with her parents in Oshkosh, on the west side of the lake. The trip around the North end of the lake is about 35 miles and takes about 45 minutes. A drive straight across the lake would be about 10 miles. It might be possible to drive across the lake in the winter, but I'm not changing falling through the ice. You could also go around the south end of the lake and through Fond du Lac, but that trip is almost an hour.

GenExpwy

New York's Finger Lakes, especially the big ones of Seneca and Cayuga, form a significant east-west barrier. The middle of Seneca Lake is a little over 2 miles across, but to get from one side to the other takes a ~40 mile drive via Geneva or Watkins Glen.

froggie

Quote from: oscar on February 17, 2019, 04:34:37 PM
On Oahu, there used to be a driveable road between what is now HI 93 on the west coast, and HI 930 on the north shore. Hawaii DOT even unsuccessfully proposed a new Interstate along that route, when it became a state and became eligible for Interstate mileage. Now the old roadbed is blocked by landslides, and barricades to guard a new nature preserve on Kaena Point. I've hiked to the point from both HI 93 and HI 930.

I've only hiked it from HI 930.  But as I recall, there's a very old abandoned railroad grade that also traversed Kaena Point.

QuoteThere is an alternate shortcut over Kolekole Pass, through an ammunition depot, that might be open to froggie and others with military IDs but otherwise is rarely open to civilians. Otherwise, to get to HI 93 from HI 930, you have to detour over HI 99, and Interstates H-1 and H-2.

I've driven it (amusingly, there are signs specifically prohibiting photography on the Wai'Anae-bound downhill grade), but I recall it required a second ID-check approaching the top from Schofield Barracks.  I've also heard that they've cracked down even further on access even amongst those with DoD IDs, but I haven't been there since 2008 to verify.

ipeters61

I found another incredibly long route in Delaware, thanks to the Indian River Bay:

37145 Sandpiper Rd, Millsboro, DE 19966 (Long Neck) to 38729 River Rd, Ocean View, DE 19970 (Bethany Beach): 2.6 miles by air, 30.6 miles by car

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.6178273,-75.1022908/38.5851689,-75.0768562/@38.576256,-75.2184745,10.75z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0
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webny99

Quote from: Takumi on February 14, 2019, 08:10:50 PM
Anywhere where a bridge has been closed or demolished.

Or seasonal bridges, like the Lake Road bridge connecting Irondequoit and Webster, NY.

It is literally a stones throw across the channel - you can have a conversation with someone on the other side - but from April to November (boat season) it's a 20 minute drive to get from one side to the other.

bugo

Quote from: debragga on February 19, 2019, 06:19:39 PM
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/32.2711973,-92.1649994/32.271919,-92.1623372/@32.2699279,-92.1696371,15.5z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

Relatively few crossings of the Ouachita River in northeast Louisiana caused this one
I've walked across the Ouachita River on rocks near the source in Polk County, Arkansas. It is a mere mountain stream.

Bickendan

Quote from: nexus73 on February 14, 2019, 09:45:11 PM
Coos Bay to Roseburg is 100 miles by road and about 45 in a straight line.  There is a close to straight line road between the two areas but it is a stagecoach routing built around 1880.  It has gravel sections, lots of curves and the Coast Range to deal with but since this is the 21st century. overcoming these obstacles is not a big deal in terms of engineering.

Why was the route not developed when the automobile became prominent in the early 20th century?  Because the towns that came along after the stagecoach route was pushed through set themselves up along the Coquille River.  That led to the highway connecting them since no population centers ever came into being along the stagecoach route. 

After WWII, the Port Of Coos Bay was this planet's largest wood products shipping port.  Logs, lumber and wood chips flowed out of here like oil.  Roseburg and the surrounding environs was home to a large complex of mills that needed access to the port.  With so much truck traffic being forced onto a very crooked narrow SR 42, that was the time to build a new highway along the stagecoach route.  This was discussed but never done.

Today a drive to Roseburg and I-5 takes 2 hours.  Had a freeway been built between the two cities on the straightest possible path, one could zoom along at 65 MPH and thus reduce the time to 40 minutes max.  Imagine how much more productive trucking would be.  Imagine how many more tourists would come with a fine road to bring them to the coast.  Imagine what the elevated prosperity from a properly placed and built freeway would have brought to our area.

Add in being able to go to Eugene in 100 minutes instead of 130.  Grants Pass would have turned from a 3 hour drive minimum to one of 100 minutes, with Medford just 30 more minutes away. 

What could have been.  Sigh.

Rick
I just checked OSM, and I found a route or two that seemed to match your description, but it's fairly circuitous and not obvious (and would be doubly so if on the ground!). With that said, with your descriptions of Coos Bay and Roseburg being as important as they were for the lumber industry, I am mildly suprised that there wasn't a direct route built or that OR 42 itself wasn't upgraded.

bugo


Max Rockatansky


1995hoo

Thought of this one on Sunday when it was a nice afternoon and we went for a walk. It's not "long" by vehicular standards, but the difference is significant when you're walking.

Huntley Meadows Park in Fairfax County has two entrances, one on South Kings Highway near the intersection with Telegraph Road and one off Lockheed Boulevard at its intersection with Harrison Lane. Each entrance has walking and biking trails that lead into the park's center, where there's a man-made lake surrounded by wetlands, and from the Lockheed Boulevard entrance you eventually walk on boardwalks above the marsh. However, the trails from each entrance do not connect to each other. They get very close, probably within 0.1 to 0.2 of a mile away, but they do not connect and there is no "acceptable" way to bushwhack between the two (a bunch of signs ask people to stay off the berm to protect various plantings, plus you'd have to wade through some marshy terrain).

So if you want to walk via a "permissible" route between the points where the trails come closest to each other, you're looking at a 4.2-mile walk! (Google Maps shows a slightly more direct option using Deer Run Court, but to get to that street from the park you have to walk through a maintenance area closed to public access, so I dragged the route to the "legal" way.)

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.7514854,-77.1082917/38.7513303,-77.1067372/@38.7555297,-77.1199365,15.04z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-77.1170405!2d38.7684371!3s0x89b7adf6fdc826fd:0x11c8e87c7dcda64c!1m0!3e2

I note that once upon a time, there was a proposal to build a road, then usually called the Lockheed Boulevard Connector, that would have extended Lockheed Boulevard westbound to somewhere around where Van Dorn Street now meets Telegraph Road. (Van Dorn itself was long-delayed from King Centre Drive to Telegraph Road due to wetlands issues; it finally opened around 2003 or 2004.) froggie probably knows more about it than I do, but I know the county formally abandoned the Lockheed Connector plan in late 1990 because of the environmental damage it would have done to Huntley Meadows (which is a major wildlife habitat, including for a bunch of threatened species). That road would have shortened the distance a great deal and simplified a lot of traffic patterns, but the wetlands environment in the park is pretty unique for Fairfax County and it's for the best they scrapped the road. Doesn't stop some people from complaining, though: Two or three years ago at our HOA's annual meeting, an elderly resident tried to engage our district's representative on the county board of supervisors about building that road, this some 25+ years after the proposal was dropped. He wouldn't shut up about it until the supervisor said he'd speak privately to the guy afterwards.




Quote from: Max Rockatansky on March 20, 2019, 01:04:58 AM
Quote from: bugo on March 20, 2019, 12:44:54 AM
Naples to Key West.

Kinda, there is ferry service routes:

https://www.keywestexpress.net

I didn't click the link, but if that's affiliated with the one that runs from Fort Myers Beach, it's passenger-only. Obviously my comment above relates to walking, but I doubt any rational person would attempt to walk from Naples to Key West, so I'm not sure whether the ferry necessarily shortens the trip.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

debragga

Quote from: bugo on March 17, 2019, 05:40:31 PM
Quote from: debragga on February 19, 2019, 06:19:39 PM
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/32.2711973,-92.1649994/32.271919,-92.1623372/@32.2699279,-92.1696371,15.5z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

Relatively few crossings of the Ouachita River in northeast Louisiana caused this one
I've walked across the Ouachita River on rocks near the source in Polk County, Arkansas. It is a mere mountain stream.

It's much wider when you go farther south

webny99


skluth

Quote from: webny99 on March 27, 2019, 08:53:08 AM
Over 3 hours to get from one side of the Missouri River to the other thanks to every crossing between Omaha and St. Joseph being closed due to flooding.

The 1993 flood had similar problems. Every Mississippi River bridge between Keokuk IA and the I-270 bridge at St Louis was closed. Both bridges going south of St Louis between I-255 at St Louis and I-57 at Cairo were closed. There was also a large gap on the Missouri River within Missouri, I believe from I-70 near Rocheport to I-70 at St Charles. Even the US 40-61 (now I-64) bridge in Chesterfield was closed as the eastern approach was flooded. Every ferry crossing on those stretches was also closed.

vegas1962

Skagway, Alaska to Haines, Alaska -- 16.29 miles as the crow flies, 19 miles by ferry, but 352 miles (including a significant portion in the Yukon) by car.

https://www.distance-cities.com/searchbd?from=skagway%2C%20ak&to=haines%2C%20ak&fromId=0&toId=0&flat=0&flon=0&tlat=0&tlon=0

ftballfan

Quote from: skluth on March 28, 2019, 09:39:45 PM
Quote from: webny99 on March 27, 2019, 08:53:08 AM
Over 3 hours to get from one side of the Missouri River to the other thanks to every crossing between Omaha and St. Joseph being closed due to flooding.

The 1993 flood had similar problems. Every Mississippi River bridge between Keokuk IA and the I-270 bridge at St Louis was closed. Both bridges going south of St Louis between I-255 at St Louis and I-57 at Cairo were closed. There was also a large gap on the Missouri River within Missouri, I believe from I-70 near Rocheport to I-70 at St Charles. Even the US 40-61 (now I-64) bridge in Chesterfield was closed as the eastern approach was flooded. Every ferry crossing on those stretches was also closed.
Not as drastic, but after some flooding in June 2008, a trip from Manistee to Ludington, which normally takes about a half hour, could take about an hour and a half as every north-south road west of M-37 was closed at some point due to high water and/or washouts. US-31 was opened up a few days later, but several major roads didn't reopen until just before winter (Quarterline, Stiles, Custer, Fountain, Sugar Grove, Jebavy).

CNGL-Leudimin

Bumping this thread due to an extreme example I've just found in the Alps: 142 driving miles for just 4.5 straight line miles. I bet it would take less time to hike between those two points, especially going from Italy to France.
Supporter of the construction of several running gags, including I-366 with a speed limit of 85 mph (137 km/h) and the Hypotenuse.

Please note that I may mention "invalid" FM channels, i.e. ending in an even number or down to 87.5. These are valid in Europe.

RoadWarrior56

Driving to Alaska from the west coast of the continental United States.

ftballfan

Sheldrake Point and Elmwood Point are less than two miles apart as the crow flies, but due to Cayuga Lake, it's a 43 mile drive through Ithaca: https://www.google.es/maps/dir/42.665727,-76.6994124/42.6667668,-76.6663116/@42.5076573,-76.5743028,11.41z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

26 miles around Lake Keuka to drive a distance of less than a mile as the crow flies: https://www.google.es/maps/dir/42.5009999,-77.1393862/42.488329,-77.1339262/@42.5096419,-77.1406617,12.91z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

Another New York example: 39 miles to drive around Lake George (about a mile and a half as the crow flies): https://www.google.es/maps/dir/43.6625847,-73.5212664/43.6425368,-73.511495/@43.6562515,-73.5211954,13.99z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

Roadgeekteen

God-emperor of Alanland, king of all the goats and goat-like creatures

Current Interstate map I am making:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1PEDVyNb1skhnkPkgXi8JMaaudM2zI-Y&ll=29.05778059819179%2C-82.48856825&z=5

Flint1979

Last year when the Smallwood, Edenville and Sanford Dams all failed the Tittabawassee River flooded everything to the south including the Sanford and Midland. This flooding continued all the way south into Saginaw where every bridge was closed and to get from Saginaw to Thomas Township where Shields is located which is a suburb of Saginaw took over an hour.

Like with the M-46 bridge you'd have to travel south on M-13 and take some back roads to get to Fergus Road in southern Saginaw County, then you couldn't use M-52 through St. Charles to get back since the M-52 bridge at the Bad River in St. Charles was also closed. You had to travel all the way west to Hemlock Road and come back north, then you could take M-46 east back into the Shields area.

This right here would have been the route you'd have to use.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/43.415673,-84.0422612/Jack's+Fruit+%26+Meat+Markets/@43.2968025,-84.2086385,11z/data=!4m19!4m18!1m10!3m4!1m2!1d-84.2292116!2d43.2617536!3s0x8823b4803d572c4d:0x88b55230542b4268!3m4!1m2!1d-84.0527251!2d43.2555628!3s0x8823b97c3b834061:0x9d255b443fbe9924!1m5!1m1!1s0x8823c42e20c57ba1:0x78f5d8c87f0f8363!2m2!1d-84.0528965!2d43.4163019!3e0!5m1!1e1

thspfc


CNGL-Leudimin

Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 29, 2021, 01:16:41 AM901 feet as the crow flies, 287 miles as the road drives

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/40.0445245,43.845908/40.0429017,43.8455823/@40.8001464,43.1605045,8.75z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

2 miles as the crow flies, 84 miles as the road drives

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/41.1757828,45.1163304/41.2063757,45.0737854/@41.3622902,44.9526301,9z/data=!4m3!4m2!3e0!4e1

These are due to closed borders between Armenia and both Azerbaijan and Turkey. If they were open, it wouldn't require those detours through Georgia (the country, not the state).
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 29, 2021, 01:16:41 AM
And the ultimate one... 22.74 miles as the crow flies, 3,636 miles as the road drives!

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/12.5886144,43.1960283/12.6909033,43.5164555/@11.9781143,42.4516586,5.75z/data=!4m3!4m2!3e0!4e1

You have to thank God Allah for that Egypt-Saudi Arabia ferry. The all-land route gets blocked by some greedy guy called Israel...
Supporter of the construction of several running gags, including I-366 with a speed limit of 85 mph (137 km/h) and the Hypotenuse.

Please note that I may mention "invalid" FM channels, i.e. ending in an even number or down to 87.5. These are valid in Europe.

Roadgeekteen

Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on May 29, 2021, 06:15:52 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 29, 2021, 01:16:41 AM901 feet as the crow flies, 287 miles as the road drives

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/40.0445245,43.845908/40.0429017,43.8455823/@40.8001464,43.1605045,8.75z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

2 miles as the crow flies, 84 miles as the road drives

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/41.1757828,45.1163304/41.2063757,45.0737854/@41.3622902,44.9526301,9z/data=!4m3!4m2!3e0!4e1

These are due to closed borders between Armenia and both Azerbaijan and Turkey. If they were open, it wouldn't require those detours through Georgia (the country, not the state).
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 29, 2021, 01:16:41 AM
And the ultimate one... 22.74 miles as the crow flies, 3,636 miles as the road drives!

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/12.5886144,43.1960283/12.6909033,43.5164555/@11.9781143,42.4516586,5.75z/data=!4m3!4m2!3e0!4e1

You have to thank God Allah for that Egypt-Saudi Arabia ferry. The all-land route gets blocked by some greedy guy called Israel...
Couldn't you go Egypt-Israel-Jordan-Saudi Arabia?
God-emperor of Alanland, king of all the goats and goat-like creatures

Current Interstate map I am making:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1PEDVyNb1skhnkPkgXi8JMaaudM2zI-Y&ll=29.05778059819179%2C-82.48856825&z=5

SSOWorld

Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 29, 2021, 06:19:38 PM
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on May 29, 2021, 06:15:52 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 29, 2021, 01:16:41 AM901 feet as the crow flies, 287 miles as the road drives

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/40.0445245,43.845908/40.0429017,43.8455823/@40.8001464,43.1605045,8.75z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

2 miles as the crow flies, 84 miles as the road drives

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/41.1757828,45.1163304/41.2063757,45.0737854/@41.3622902,44.9526301,9z/data=!4m3!4m2!3e0!4e1

These are due to closed borders between Armenia and both Azerbaijan and Turkey. If they were open, it wouldn't require those detours through Georgia (the country, not the state).
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 29, 2021, 01:16:41 AM
And the ultimate one... 22.74 miles as the crow flies, 3,636 miles as the road drives!

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/12.5886144,43.1960283/12.6909033,43.5164555/@11.9781143,42.4516586,5.75z/data=!4m3!4m2!3e0!4e1

You have to thank God Allah for that Egypt-Saudi Arabia ferry. The all-land route gets blocked by some greedy guy called Israel...
Couldn't you go Egypt-Israel-Jordan-Saudi Arabia?
no, because Saudi Arabia bans entry from anyone with Israel passports/stamps in their passports
Scott O.

Not all who wander are lost...
Ah, the open skies, wind at my back, warm sun on my... wait, where the hell am I?!
As a matter of fact, I do own the road.
Raise your what?

Wisconsin - out-multiplexing your state since 1918.



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