Longest distance between 3-color traffic lights on an undivided 2-lane?

[JayhawkCO]

Well, if we're counting the Dalton, then the Dempster gets second place at 458 miles. If you include the Inuvik-Tutktoyaktuk Highway which begins where the Dempster ends, then it goes longer than the Dalton at 544 miles. The James Bay road is probably 3rd at 385 miles.

Honestly, we need to define what "2-lane" means, especially when it comes to gravel roads.  I don't think of them as having two lanes.

I think if two cars can pass, then it's 2 lane, personally.

[Rothman]

Blue Ridge Pkwy/Skyline Drive = 574 miles

Hmmmm...really?

So what aspect of this are you smarmally questioning?

Wondering if it really is totally signal-less.

[JayhawkCO]

Blue Ridge Pkwy/Skyline Drive = 574 miles

Hmmmm...really?

So what aspect of this are you smarmally questioning?

Wondering if it really is totally signal-less.

[Rothman]

Blue Ridge Pkwy/Skyline Drive = 574 miles

Hmmmm...really?

So what aspect of this are you smarmally questioning?

Wondering if it really is totally signal-less.

Hit the Road Rentals?

[JayhawkCO]

The most trusted source in roadgeekdom.

[webny99]

I would've said begins in NC and ends in VA.. but otherwise no qualms. 

[JayhawkCO]

Another one if we're allowing trans-border number changes. From High Level, AB, AB35/NT1 goes to Wrigley, NT for 547 miles without a stoplight.

[kphoger]

Another one if we're allowing trans-border number changes. From High Level, AB, AB35/NT1 goes to Wrigley for 547 miles without a stoplight.

Hmmm...  I wonder if the Alaska Highway can beat that...

[JayhawkCO]

Another one if we're allowing trans-border number changes. From High Level, AB, AB35/NT1 goes to Wrigley for 547 miles without a stoplight.

Hmmm...  I wonder if the Alaska Highway can beat that...

Yeah, looks like Fort Nelson, BC to just before Whitehorse, YT is 587 miles.

[JayhawkCO]

And an entry for longest within a state/province. BC37 is 541.44 miles long and doesn't have a single stoplight. YT37 is two miles long at the end that connects past the border.

[LilianaUwU]

QC 389 has one stoplight, at QC 138. The next stoplight on the Trans-Labrador Highway is in Labrador City on NL 500, 360 miles away.

[vdeane]

I can't think of anything else anywhere near as long as Skyline/Blue Ridge, but that's a special road built to be separate from everything else.

If "special" is a disqualifier, then the OP's Dalton Highway should be out too.  Hard to think of a more "special" highway than that.

Part of what makes Skyline Drive/Blue Ridge Parkway "special", though, is that it was built as a scenic route that winds through the mountains and along the ridges. It's very intentionally not taking the straightest and most direct route, while also very intentionally not passing through cities and towns.. both items which make it feel a little bit like cheating in this exercise.

Case in point: Google's recommended route from Cherokee, NC to Front Royal, VA is 453 miles. Blue Ridge Pkwy/Skyline Drive adds about 120 miles between the same two endpoints. Meanwhile, the Dalton Highway is actually meant for through traffic and is generally the fastest/most direct route along the corridor it serves, so it feels like a better fit for the spirit of the thread.

I feel like you need to have lights for there to be a longest distance between two traffic lights.  That would mean no Dalton, since there are only stop signs at most north of Fairbanks.

[JayhawkCO]

I feel like you need to have lights for there to be a longest distance between two traffic lights.  That would mean no Dalton, since there are only stop signs at most north of Fairbanks.

Good point, but then also if one end goes to divided/four lane before it hits a stoplight, is that also eliminated? The Alaska Highway approaching Whitehorse (from the east) is this way.

[pderocco]

Part of what makes Skyline Drive/Blue Ridge Parkway "special", though, is that it was built as a scenic route that winds through the mountains and along the ridges. It's very intentionally not taking the straightest and most direct route, while also very intentionally not passing through cities and towns.. both items which make it feel a little bit like cheating in this exercise.

Case in point: Google's recommended route from Cherokee, NC to Front Royal, VA is 453 miles. Blue Ridge Pkwy/Skyline Drive adds about 120 miles between the same two endpoints. Meanwhile, the Dalton Highway is actually meant for through traffic and is generally the fastest/most direct route along the corridor it serves, so it feels like a better fit for the spirit of the thread.

Yeah, there aren't very many alternate routes available.

[doorknob60]

First thing that came to my mind in my neck of the woods is US-95. From Fruitland, ID to Winnemucca, NV is 257 miles with no signals. Cut it a few miles shorter if you don't want to count the 5 lane at grade section in Fruitland (not sure how strict we're being with "2 lanes", I assume you mean to exclude stuff like freeways and divided expressways, which this is definitely not).

I wouldn't be surprised if there are other longer stretches in Idaho, Nevada, and SE Oregon, though towns like Ely, Hawthorne, and Burns do a good job of breaking up some would-be longer stretches.

[michravera]

There was a thread on this in 2011 but it was asking for personal experiences, not a definite answer. https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=4887.0

I assume the first place is Dalton Highway from where it splits into a divided freeway near Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay (497 miles).

How far is it between lights on US-95 in western Nevada north of Tonopah? On CASR-1 between Camel and Cambria or Morro Bay (is there a light in Harmony these days?)? On US-6 in Western Nevada and Eastern California? It's been a while since I've driven much of CASR-33 in central California, but, last I knew there was a stop sign at CASR-41, but few lights otherwise.

[dlsterner]

Blue Ridge Pkwy/Skyline Drive = 574 miles

Hmmmm...really?

So what aspect of this are you smarmally questioning?

Wondering if it really is totally signal-less.

Hit the Road Rentals?

It's the Wallethub of travel information.

[debragga]

Similarly to Skyline Drive/Blue Ridge Parkway, the Natchez Trace Parkway is 444 miles long with no traffic lights or stop signs.

[Rothman]

Similarly to Skyline Drive/Blue Ridge Parkway, the Natchez Trace Parkway is 444 miles long with no traffic lights or stop signs.

Hmmmmm...really?

[roadfro]

How far is it between lights on US-95 in western Nevada north of Tonopah? On CASR-1 between Camel and Cambria or Morro Bay (is there a light in Harmony these days?)? On US-6 in Western Nevada and Eastern California? It's been a while since I've driven much of CASR-33 in central California, but, last I knew there was a stop sign at CASR-41, but few lights otherwise.

In the ~350 miles of US 95 between the Mercury interchange northwest of Las Vegas and the Trinity interchange on I-80, where the route is only two lanes (excepting as it travels through towns or where passing lanes exist), there are only three traffic signals. But the distance between the signals isn't all that far. There is a signal in Hawthorne and two signals in Fallon where US 95 jogs a few blocks over along US 50. The distance between Hawthorne and the first signal in Fallon is only about 71 miles—but US 95 is four lanes for about 2 miles leading to the signal in Hawthorne and has a TWLTL for about a mile in Fallon leading up to that signal.

It's about 283 miles of no traffic signals on US 6 between the signal at its terminus with US 395 in Bishop to the signal at the junction of US 50/93 in Ely. But the road widens to four lanes through Tonopah for about 2 miles, and is briefly four lanes with TWLTL approaching the 50/93 junction in Ely. That was the longest gap between signals I could think of involving Nevada.

You've also got about 250 miles between traffic signals on US 50 between the US 95 junction in Fallon and the US 6/93 junction in Ely—this being "The Loneliest Road in America" segment of highway. Again, four lane sections leading up to the signals in both towns, but US 50 is only two lane through the towns it passes through in between.


But depending on the definition of "undivided 2-lane" being used in this thread, these may or may not qualify...

[pderocco]

Of course, you can take the Bypass around Hawthorne, as any thru-driver would be likely to do, and miss the light. It might have made sense to call that US-95, and the road through town BR-95.

[zachary_amaryllis]

SH 14, leaving Fort Collins, the last light is at US 85 in Ault. You won't encounter another light on 14 until you enter Sterling, at least 90-100 miles miles down the road.

Even longer, there is only one stop light on the entirety of CO71 (224.65 miles), which is in Rocky Ford @ Main Street. The length from that point to the Nebraska border is 216 miles. N-71 continues north from there and there isn't a stoplight until Scottsbluff for a total of 279 miles. Once in Nebraska, not all of it is only 2-lane, but either way, I think in the spirit of what the OP is asking for.

Hadn't thought of that one. I was going to toss out 125, but there's not a single light on it. I keep forgetting there's a LOT of Colorado that's out in the boonies.

[LilianaUwU]

QC 389 has one stoplight, at QC 138. The next stoplight on the Trans-Labrador Highway is in Labrador City on NL 500, 360 miles away.

Oh, and the road isn't undivided the whole way, with a brief divided two-lane section in what was Gagnon... but can we really count that?

[7/8]

A long one in Ontario: Highway 11 between Highway 17 in Nipigon and 15th St in Hearst = 399 km

Tricky thing here is the big highways up north often increase lanes entering the big cities where the traffic signals are (ex: Highway 17 north side of the Soo, and 11/17 on the west side of Thunder Bay)

[roadman65]

 I drove Nebraska Highway 8 from US 75 to US 81 and didn't see one stoplight in my 114 mile drive along it.

I'm wagering that the rest of N-8 from its western end in Superior to US 81 at Hubble, and from US 75 to its eastern terminus at Falls City do not have signals either. Thus having one 149 mile designation completely stop light free.