If you keep going straight . . .

[thspfc]

Anderson St, DeForest WI
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1718578,-89.318359,3a,60y,270.25h,86.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1slpmp0CRPN2aTOAqdRaPP6Q!2e0!7i3328!8i1664?entry=ttu

Orange St, Richland Center WI
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3437292,-90.3890078,3a,75y,5.4h,78.78t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4MIaoD2YqLG2tZJc0Wgi_Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

You can drive between these two nondescript side streets, 70 miles apart, without making a single turn. Anderson St turns into CTH-CV, which turns into WI-113/Packers Ave, which turns into Gorham St (Johnson St eastbound), which turns into University Ave, which turns into US-14. The stretch ends at the Orange St dead-end after US-14 turns left. If you made that one left turn you could make it to La Crosse without turning again, 130 miles from the start point.

Another example is if you started at the quiet western terminus of Main St in Sun Prairie: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1767594,-89.2874167,3a,75y,95.61h,81.25t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOWUyLQNo9cW53dbnYZXMIA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

Keep going straight along this road and you'll end up 64 miles away in Eagle, via WI-19, WI-16, and WI-67. The run would end here: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8784123,-88.4713645,3a,75y,179.98h,80.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgRLy2sVxpiOZUbGOHCDVkg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu


Obviously you can travel long distances on Interstates without turning, but I'm looking for more surprising examples. Residents of Orange St in Richland Center or Partridge St in Eagle have no idea that they could drive "down the street" for an hour and a half without turning.

[NWI_Irish96]

You can go from Glenwood-Dyer Rd in Glenwood, IL, to Wayne Trace in Fort Wayne, IN, without turning.

[Evan_Th]

There was a thread on this two years ago, with some epic examples.

[thspfc]

Another one I found: Janesville St in Whitewater WI to Dempster St on the shore of Lake Michigan in Evanston IL.

[CovalenceSTU]

Two from the Longview area:

Long Beach to Kelso, 80.8 miles: US-101 > WA-4 > Catlin St > Main St > Allen St (although WA-4 is over 60 miles of it)


Castle Rock through Longview to Winlock, 47.6 miles: Delameter Rd > Woodside Dr > Coal Creek Rd > WA-432 (Willow Grove Connection Rd, Induatrial Way, 3rd Ave) > WA-411 (3rd Ave, 1st Ave, Westside Hwy, where it passes the starting point) > Westside Hwy > Military Rd


There was also a few years where you could start and end on the same roundabout in Astoria, OR without any turns (using US-101 Bus and merging onto the mainline) but the construction of Ensign Ln added a right turn to it.

[epzik8]

Maryland/Pennsylvania

[Fredddie]

Baseline Road in Phoenix is 43 miles long and it's dead straight because it's a survey baseline. https://goo.gl/maps/tzKvcgZKHBnN41GYA

[Max Rockatansky]

The unbroken straight line on Manning Avenue from Reedley west to the foot of the Diablo Range is the longest straight line I can think of around me.

[dgolub]

Start at the corner of Hillside Avenue (NY 25) and Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens.  Follow Merrick Boulevard into Merrick Road (Nassau CR 27) into Montauk Highway (NY 27A/Suffolk CR 85/Suffolk CR 80).  After 83 miles, you'll find yourself in Southampton without having made any turns.

Start along East New York Avenue in Brooklyn.  East New York Avenue becomes Jamaica Avenue, which becomes Jericho Turnpike (NY 25).  Continue straight to follow NY 25.  After 72 miles, you'll find yourself at the eastern terminus of Old Country Road (Suffolk CR 58) in Riverhead, where you'd have to make a right turn to keep going east.

[JREwing78]

The original one specified no limited-access highways. If you don't get too bent out of shape about US-2/41 between Escanaba and Rapid River technically being "limited access", then I can start at US-41 & M-35 in Menominee, MI, and "keep going straight" 197 miles to Castle Rock just north of St. Ignace. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/45.1343322,-87.612474/45.8623512,-84.7163076/45.9114129,-84.7401493/@46.2423016,-87.3305634,771551m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m15!4m14!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-87.0787527!2d45.7513318!3s0x4d4dbc8a394a9fc3:0x394dd8cdfec83046!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-84.7254337!2d45.8838583!3s0x4d35f65a9578c875:0x1d53ffcdbb259f88!1m0!3e0?entry=ttu

M-28 has an impressive run across the eastern U.P. Starting from downtown Munising, I can "keep going straight" 120 miles until I literally run out of Upper Peninsula, staring at the St. Mary's River. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/46.4095272,-86.6499748/46.3765286,-84.2438657/@46.3693651,-84.2449806,15.75z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0?entry=ttu

Going north from River Rd in Crystal Falls, I can "keep going straight" onto US-2 west through Ironwood (straight through the roundabout in Hurley, in fact), Ashland, and onto US-53 into Superior and I-35 north into Duluth. 209 miles later, I'm at E 8th St and N 26th Ave E in Duluth. Thanks to the roundabout in Hurley, can't do this eastbound.  https://www.google.com/maps/dir/46.0947202,-88.326951/46.09781,-88.3281679/46.7359295,-92.0977428/46.8092605,-92.0617969/46.8170966,-92.074587/@47.1534205,-91.1016109,284169m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e0?entry=ttu

I don't know if taking the slip ramp at the end of I-35 counts as a "turn". If it doesn't, you can continue right up Hwy 61 all the way to Canada. Given proper credentials, they'll let you continue on to Thunder Bay and onto Hwy 11/17 past Nipigon. Continuing to "keep going straight" on Hwy 17, I end up in downtown Sault Ste. Marie within a block of the on-ramp for the International Bridge! Incredibly, after 830 miles, one block separates me from continuing back into the USA and doing another 300+ miles of "keep going straight" down I-75. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/46.0947202,-88.326951/46.09781,-88.3281679/46.7359295,-92.0977428/47.0374126,-91.6449989/US+Immigration+%26+Customs+Enfc,+9403+MN-61,+Grand+Portage,+MN+55605/49.0202827,-88.2458145/46.5063847,-84.3237478/46.5184214,-84.3475705/46.5201193,-84.3616773/@47.0363621,-89.1237409,1477332m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m16!4m15!1m0!1m0!1m0!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x4d586621f4329bed:0x4389d3f6fd547cac!2m2!1d-89.589199!2d47.9999025!1m0!1m0!1m0!1m0!3e0?entry=ttu

[sprjus4]

This thread should be merged with the original: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=29482.0

[SSR_317]

Baseline Road in Phoenix is 43 miles long and it's dead straight because it's a survey baseline. https://goo.gl/maps/tzKvcgZKHBnN41GYA

But do you know the story of WHY it is the baseline? I used to travel to the old Phoenix International Raceway quite often, and a popular viewing point was the hill off what used to be Turn 4 at the racing facility. That edifice is known as "Monument Hill" because it has a USGS survey monument at it's summit. The story goes, when Caucasian settlers first came to the valley of the sun, they went to the confluence of the Salt & Gila Rivers, looked for the nearest high point, and established that as the starting point for their survey of what eventually became the state of Arizona. Baseline Road was the east-west route that resulted, and 115th Avenue (today's Avondale Boulevard) became the north-south roadway along the meridian.

If you ever go to an event at that racetrack and decide to climb that hill to see the marker, be sure to be aware of the rattlesnakes who like to sun themselves in the morning along the path to the top!

[1995hoo]

If you were to start on Jefferson Park Avenue at the corner of Main Street in Charlottesville, Virginia, and keep going straight: JPA becomes Emmet Street (US-29 Business) just down the road. Mainline US-29 joins a little while later via a loop ramp off the bypass. Continuing straight ahead on US-29 eventually takes you into Fairfax City. When you hit Fairfax Circle, continuing on the two straight-thru lanes that run through the middle of the circle puts you onto US-50 towards DC. As you approach the Potomac, the thru movement on US-50 is somewhat of a left exit where the road splits, so if you stay to the right towards Memorial Bridge, the straighter movement merges onto the southbound GW Parkway. That takes you south through Alexandria to Mount Vernon. While there's a traffic circle there, the southbound lanes are more tangent to the circle, so staying straight puts you onto VA-235. That becomes Jeff Todd Way at US-1 and you finally come to a T-intersection at Telegraph Road.

The Google Maps app won't let me edit the route to get the distance, but I'm sure it's over 120 miles.

[Joseph R P]

Has anyone done this one yet? You can have an almost day-long journey between Barstow, California and the Platte River in Nebraska without making a single turn: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/34.8860742,-117.008774/37th+Road+%26+141+Road,+North+Osceola,+NE/@38.2288548,-115.5003971,5.17z/am=t/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-97.4651945!2d35.4887527!3s0x87b217967560922f:0x42ef4641f7bbbdf2!1m5!1m1!1s0x8790bd4784a2643f:0xc4d1a4c5aec4671f!2m2!1d-97.598237!2d41.3310456!3e0?entry=ttu

[tradephoric]

What is the farthest you can go without making a lane change/turn? 

[1995hoo]

What is the farthest you can go without making a lane change/turn? 

I feel certain we've done that thread before, perhaps with the twist that you were to start on the arterial road nearest to your home (this because otherwise most of us couldn't go far at all due to the need to make a turn to leave one's neighborhood). Someone else more motivated can search for it because I'm about to head to the movies to see Indiana Jones.

[Streetman]

In 1799 a turnpike was built from Hartford to New Haven. The cities were co-capitals of Connecticut at the time, and the road followed as straight a course as possible right from one state house to the other. In 1861 Eli Whitney Jr., son of the famous inventor, dammed a reservoir for the first New Haven water supply causing the turnpike to dead-end in Hamden. The remaining 32 miles exist as a mishmash of town roads and state non-limited-access highways, still practically straight. There are longer straight roads out west but this might be a record for New England.

Do a Google route from 7 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden CT, to 1000 Main Street, Hartford, with "avoid highways" to see it. Sorry I couldn't figure out how to post a link that worked or screenshot.

[Road Hog]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you have to make any turn off US65 between I-40 in Conway, Ark. and I-44 in Springfield, Mo. That's a distance of more than 180 miles.

[cbeach40]

I don't know if taking the slip ramp at the end of I-35 counts as a "turn". If it doesn't, you can continue right up Hwy 61 all the way to Canada. Given proper credentials, they'll let you continue on to Thunder Bay and onto Hwy 11/17 past Nipigon. Continuing to "keep going straight" on Hwy 17, I end up in downtown Sault Ste. Marie within a block of the on-ramp for the International Bridge! Incredibly, after 830 miles, one block separates me from continuing back into the USA and doing another 300+ miles of "keep going straight" down I-75.

If MTO ever gets going on the proposed bypasses of Sault Ste. Marie and Conniston then the through road would end in the middle of Toronto.

[Streetman]

In 1799 a turnpike was built from Hartford to New Haven. The cities were co-capitals of Connecticut at the time, and the road followed as straight a course as possible right from one state house to the other. In 1861 Eli Whitney Jr., son of the famous inventor, dammed a reservoir for the first New Haven water supply causing the turnpike to dead-end in Hamden. The remaining 32 miles exist as a mishmash of town roads and state non-limited-access highways, still practically straight. There are longer straight roads out west but this might be a record for New England.

Here it is:

[jp the roadgeek]

Which begs the question: Why are turnpikes generally straight?

[Big John]

Which begs the question: Why are turnpikes generally straight?

Be definition a toll road, where turned a pike when paying a toll.

[jeffandnicole]

Which begs the question: Why are turnpikes generally straight?

They are generally older, and little existed in the way. It could mainly plow up past straight through. In hindsight, they realized it would have been better to put a few gentle curves in the road as it was determined people tended to get drowsy and fall asleep when all they had to do was drive straight.

[JKRhodes]

Deja Vu, but...

I've interpreted "keep going straight" to include following the road when it curves and becomes another road as presently constructed.

In Phoenix if you head west on Blue Horizon Parkway from Jackrabbit Trail, you'll loop around, cross back over Jackrabbit, and end up on Van Buren which crosses Phoenix into Tempe turning into Mill Avenue, which curves into Apache/Main/Apache in the east valley suburbs before turning south into Goldfield Road for just under a mile, curving west at Baseline Road, traveling over 40 miles  ending in the dirt just west of 91st Ave for a total of about 105 road miles and 13.6 miles as the crow flies:

https://goo.gl/maps/3mLwV1HKXqqCdPg6A

[Streetman]

Which begs the question: Why are turnpikes generally straight?

They are generally older, and little existed in the way. It could mainly plow up past straight through. In hindsight, they realized it would have been better to put a few gentle curves in the road as it was determined people tended to get drowsy and fall asleep when all they had to do was drive straight.

Yes, turnpikes built in the early 1800s didn't have any massive development in their way, but in New England there were constant rolling hills that made it difficult to maintain a straight course over many miles. Here's part of a map of old Connecticut turnpikes and you can see that the Hartford turnpike, starting from New Haven at the time, was straighter than any other:


The map is from a book that is available online: https://archive.org/details/turnpikesofnewen00woodrich