Most unique region of the USA

[mtantillo]

What part of the USA is most unique when compared to the rest of the country?  I was thinking culturally, but we could also have a transportation twist on this too...which part of the USA is most unique in its roadbuilding ways? 

I've always heard that the South was the most unique culturally.  I'm not sure if I agree with that though.  I have my own theory, but I'd like to hear what others say first!

[agentsteel53]

US Virgin Islands drive on the left!

[1995hoo]

In terms of road design and construction, my thought would be New Jersey for three reasons:

(1) The prevalence of roads where all turns must be made from the right lane, whether via jughandles or via other special lanes.

(2) More express/local configurations than I've seen elsewhere. That is, elsewhere I see this arrangement on an occasional basis, such as 401 through Toronto, I-270 in Maryland, or the Wilson Bridge, whereas in New Jersey it's more common, especially if you count the New Jersey Turnpike even though it's not a true express/local setup. I'm sure I'll miss one, but off the top of my head I can think of the Garden State Parkway, I-76, I-78, and I-80; also an honorable mention to the New Jersey Turnpike, and I believe I-287 has a segment of this sort of thing but I've never driven through that area except on I-78 so I have no basis for comment.

(3) Interchange design. I've always found it interesting to look at some of New Jersey's interchanges on a detailed map or, nowadays, on a satellite view. I feel like most states use a couple of basic interchange designs and then make minor adaptations to them to fit particular locations, while still retaining the recognizable overall design. (For example, the King Street interchange on I-395 in Virginia is adapted from a cloverleaf to eliminate the weave areas, but it's still recognizable as an adapted cloverleaf.) New Jersey starts with a basic design and then just throws in as many ramps as they need, going in whatever directions they need, to complete the necessary movements. I'm not criticizing this, mind you–some of those interchanges are highly functional. Rather, I'm just commenting on how you get these utterly bizarre-looking things that don't correlate to anything you see anywhere else. Probably my favorite example of two such designs in close proximity is Turnpike Exit 10 and the interchange just east of there where NJ-440 crosses the Garden State Parkway and US-9. I suppose the Newark Airport interchange on I-78 is another good example, but the one I just linked is my favorite example simply because I've travelled through there a lot more frequently than I have through the Newark Airport one. When I was a kid my father liked to use the Outerbridge rather than the Goethals en route to or from Brooklyn when we visited relatives.



In terms of culturally, there are enough places I haven't visited to comment (the most notable being that I have never been to California), but my first inclination is to say Hawaii.

[J N Winkler]

Surely "most unusual"?

Rather than getting into the cultural dimensions of the question, I'll just concentrate on a narrow sliver--construction plans for highway projects.  By this standard, Oregon DOT is probably the most unusual state DOT I have had to deal with.  It is very common for state DOTs to break up construction plans sets into roadway and bridge parts, and Oregon DOT does this, but I know of no other state DOT which also breaks out signing, signals, and illumination sheets and stores them separately under their own numbering schemes which are consecutive and statewide, applying to all projects.  As an example, signing sheets are called "S-drawings" in internal parlance (because the sheet number always begins with "S" followed by a hyphen) and you might find S-drawing number S-01234 in a project done around 1970, S-drawing S-11325 in a project done two years ago, S-drawing S-12850 in a project currently under construction, etc.  Oregon DOT plans sets as a whole have three numbers:  a key number (assigned during project development), a contract number (assigned when the contract is advertised), and a V-file number (assigned late in the project development process and pertaining to the roadway plans exclusively).  None of the three numbers matches any of the others and the three are challenging to cross-reference.

PennDOT's division of construction plans sets into "plans" (i.e., roadway only--plan and profile sheets, special details, and so on) and "supplemental plans" (all other functional disciplines:  traffic control, signing and marking, erosion and sediment control, bridges, soil profiles, illumination, ITS, etc., etc.) is fairly unusual, but not unique; it is also followed by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, Florida DOT, Nebraska DOR (the "special plans"), and others.  However, none of these agencies engages in sheet numbering practices anything like Oregon DOT's.

Mississippi DOT is also unusual in going to considerable lengths to avoid designable sheets (as opposed to standard plan sheets) numbered 101 and above.  This is because Mississippi DOT has a standard sheet numbering scheme which in practice is a Procrustean bed for large projects.  Each standard plan sheet must always have the same sheet number (between 101 and 499, inclusive, I think) regardless of the project it is in, with sheet numbers between 1 and 100 being reserved for designable sheets other than for bridges.  (I think bridges get sheet numbers of 500 and up; cross-sections get sheet numbers of 900 and up.)  As a result, if a project has (say) 300 roadway sheets, you can expect to find 100 sheets numbered as usual (1, 2, 3, . . .) and then up to 200 sheets with numbers of the form 100.001, 100.002, . . ., 100.199, 100.200.

Other state DOTs elevate consecutive sheet numbering to a fetish:  suffixed sheets are utterly verboten except as needed to accommodate construction revisions in as-builts.  Enough state DOTs do it that it is not particularly unusual and personally I think it is sensible since it guarantees that the sheet number matches the PDF page number when the plans set is made available as a single PDF file.  Caltrans, Kansas DOT, Michigan DOT, and Florida DOT all have this policy.

[nexus73]

Humboldt and Del Norte counties have the redwoods along US 101.  That's pretty unique!  The culture is different too.  People there call it "Living behind the Redwood Curtain".  Competing reggae festivals suing each other combined with the massive amount of weed being grown add plenty of regional color...LOL!  This part of the USA even has a closed Indian casino in Klamath and when was the last time anyone saw a casino go broke?  Or if you want to see something to do with this area's past, head to the Samoa Cookhouse.  There's no Samoans there, it's the kitchen for a former logging camp serving regular family food in an all-you-can-eat format and it's very well prepared.

Add in plenty of 4-lane undivided freeway, which is rare in and of itself.  Spice with wild rivers like the Smith, Klamath and the Eel, which can go on real rampages and wash away entire sections of highway and bridges too.  Toss in the derelicts who congest Clam Beach County Park, Arcata's town square and downtown Garberville to see what the seamier side of the Sixties was like.  Crescent City has the hardest core prison in the state of California at Pelican Bay.  You can pay the highest prices for gas along US 101 in these counties too...LOL!

I do recommend the hamburgers at She-She's, which is in Gasquet, a small unincorporated hamlet on US 199, the last US-signed remnant of the former 99-x99 system.  Get there quick since the old couple that owns it are dealing with health issues.  Get the one on the French roll and order up a milkshake since this place uses real ice cream. 

Unique, thy place is found in northernmost coastal California!

Rick 

[corco]

Culturally, it probably depends on what parts of the country you're most familiar with. Certainly there is some uniqueness in Idaho, but even if I notice it I'm so familiar with it I don't really find it unique anymore.

In my mind, New Mexico and coastal New England are the two most unique cultural regions of the USA.

The Palouse region of eastern Washington/northern Idaho is pretty unique too- it's culturally and physically a microcosm of western Nebraska/South Dakota with a dash of the hilly parts of Iowa thrown in.

Physically, I'd say Washington State/Arizona/California/Idaho/Oregon- all of those states have ridiculously diverse ecosystem types.

In terms of roadbuilding, I'll echo Oregon. Driving in Oregon is more like driving in a foreign country for me than anywhere else. New Mexico, again, is kind of weird too.


Actually, if I had to argue what the most unique region would be- it's anywhere that's preserved a strong cultural identity over a widespread area. There aren't many non-homogenized parts of the US left, so those places would be by default unique. In my mind, that's NM, coastal New England, the Acadian part of Louisiana (in visiting in May I was admittedly disappointed how homogenized it seemed, outside of a few really cool spots), Amish country in Pennsylvania, the south part of the Wasatch Front, possibly northern Minnesota/WI/the UP, probably some inner city areas I'm unfamiliar with, and I'm sure I'm missing a few others.

[realjd]

Culturally, I'd have to say Puerto Rico.

[J N Winkler]

In terms of roadbuilding, I'll echo Oregon. Driving in Oregon is more like driving in a foreign country for me than anywhere else. New Mexico, again, is kind of weird too.

You could do a cultural geography taking into account things like sign messages and typical cross-sections encountered on the state highway system.  From this vantage CA, OR, and NM are all singular.  CA is "KINGPIN" country; nowhere else are there signs that reference kingpins.  NM is "NOTICE" country.  CA and NM both have one-lane primary state highways.  OR and NM both have unpaved primary state highways.  OR has passing-lane striping and signing which is so retro (basic parameters of the system were fixed by 1947) that it is desperately weird.

With the bat signs, NM couldn't be any more weird unless moradas were explicitly signed.

[agentsteel53]

With the bat signs, NM couldn't be any more weird unless moradas were explicitly signed.

what is a morada?  the northern equivalent of the mordita?

CA has a single unpaved one-lane state highway: the harrowing 173. 

[agentsteel53]

for me, the most unique section of the lower 48 has to be San Francisco.  it's the closest we have to a European city both culturally and from a driving perspective.  hardly any freeways, narrow arterial roads, no parking, pedestrian central... I absolutely love going there, but I always park the car and walk as much as possible!  even New York City is significantly more car-oriented.

signage-wise, California in general takes the cake.  there are quite likely more 1960s signs in Los Angeles alone than in the other 49 states combined.

[J N Winkler]

Jake, moradas are informal meeting houses for members of Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, called penitentes for short because they self-flagellate.  Archbishop Lamy (the model for the title character in Willa Cather's novel Death comes to the Archbishop) tried unsuccessfully to stamp them out, but there are plenty of moradas in Hispanic New Mexico if you know where to look.

[agentsteel53]

Jake, moradas are informal meeting houses for members of Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, called penitentes for short because they self-flagellate.  Archbishop Lamy (the model for the title character in Willa Cather's novel Death comes to the Archbishop) tried unsuccessfully to stamp them out, but there are plenty of moradas in Hispanic New Mexico if you know where to look.

ahh yes, them.  thanks for the response!

New Mexico has a lot of native american culture as well which is rarely found elsewhere.  South Dakota comes to mind, though.  those places can be very, very different from "mainstream" US culture.  As late as 2003, I remember some villages off of I-40 that had no electricity.

[empirestate]

The most culturally unusual place I think I've been is Molokai, but that may seem fairly obvious.

For larger regions, you could make a significant argument for Appalachia, or the Pacific Northwest. But then you're getting into areas so big, you can't really consider them unique.

One place I've been that sticks out in my mind as distinctive is interior southern Florida. I've always maintained that the Deep South does not include Florida south of the Panhandle, but that's only true along the coasts. Go inland even a short way, and you have a region still extremely rural and tied to agriculture, without the slightest bit of glamor, and decidedly unpopulated by northern transplants!

But for my final answer, which area of the U.S. is most unique, both culturally and transportationally I'm going to say the Alaskan bush, where the only settlements are Native villages with barely any road infrastructure, where most travel of any distance is by air. Nome could be considered the metropolis of this region...

[SteveG1988]

I would say the Mid-Atlantic States, NY,NJ,DE,MD,PA,VA.

They are the oldest states,the first to really have a infastructure (Northeast coordor on amtrak) built around commuting between the states.

For roads, you have various turnpikes,parkways,expressways,thruways, Old 2 lane 1880s truss bridges downstream from a 1950s girder bridge (trenton NJ) You have the first superhighway in the nation, the PA Turnpike.

You have the amish country of PA with massive farmland just a hour from philadelphia,you have the farmland of southern New Jersey less than 30 minutes away from philadelphia, you have small new englandy type towns just a stones throw away from a major city.

[corco]

One place I've been that sticks out in my mind as distinctive is interior southern Florida. I've always maintained that the Deep South does not include Florida south of the Panhandle, but that's only true along the coasts. Go inland even a short way, and you have a region still extremely rural and tied to agriculture, without the slightest bit of glamor, and decidedly unpopulated by northern transplants!

Now see, that's cool. Being raised in the west, I would have never even thought to think there was a distinct cultural enclave in interior Florida (and as such my desire to visit Florida just went from none- all I thought of before was Disneyworld, Miami, heat, humidity, traffic, and old people- to some).

It does make me think of much of Texas as being unique, though. Especially the western (west of I-35) parts of the state- the small towns have a few more years of history behind them than most other places in that longitude, and that's very much reflected in the architecture- I can't think of a non-coastal area west of, say, US-83 that has as many uniquely built small towns in as small an area. In fact, I'm hard pressed to think of an interestingly-built small town (< 5,000 being small) west of US-83 but east of US-101 that isn't overrun with tourists outside of Texas. Ajo, Arizona maybe? Maybe Orofino Idaho? Dayton Washington? Craig Colorado? Possibly Julesburg Colorado (now I feel like I'm just grasping)?  Nothing like Marfa or Mertzon or Ft Stockton or Alpine or Paducah though.

Driving across Texas off-freeway is something I've done 2.5 times now, and I've really enjoyed it every time- it's very different from driving across OK/NE/KS  off-freeway (never driven across SD/ND off-freeway)- not to say that those three states don't have very interesting parts, but the interestingness is more in topography/scenery than culture.

[Alps]

Hawaii, for culturally. You have a melting pot of several different ethnic groups - Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian native, other Pacific Islander, American, Polish... and it's a very different mix than the rest of the country, not to mention much better integrated into a new identity.

Roadwise, I'd nominate Pennsylvania. Rather than build its primary highways to be reasonably straight like every other state, it just plopped them on top of the terrain. You have a lot of sharp curves on every single rural state highway (I am not exaggerating), most without shoulders, most with center rumble strips, and always with extra Nag Sines (TM). I hold up NJ as one of the best examples of what to do (if only we had more money to do it), and PA is, in my mind, the worst.

[CL]

Utah is the state that most hinges on being a theocracy. I'll put my vote in for that.

[Ian]

California is unique for having both old freeway signs and having freeways that are as wide as a football field is long. I also think Maine is unique because of how many older signs with their old LeHay font remain out in the field.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Louisiana.
Cajuns (http://www.acadian-cajun.com/) and New Orleans (though the two don't go hand-in-hand)

[empirestate]

Roadwise, I'd nominate Pennsylvania. Rather than build its primary highways to be reasonably straight like every other state, it just plopped them on top of the terrain. You have a lot of sharp curves on every single rural state highway (I am not exaggerating), most without shoulders, most with center rumble strips, and always with extra Nag Sines (TM). I hold up NJ as one of the best examples of what to do (if only we had more money to do it), and PA is, in my mind, the worst.

Totally agree, except for totally disagreeing. :-) What you describe about PA is exactly what I find ideal about it, though that extends not just to the roads, but to the towns; the socio-cultural fabric, if you will. Something about Pennsylvania seems to me to work with, rather than against, its environment, and it is thus a little more human.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

New England, hands-down, especially northern New England.  They do everything differently up there.  State route numbers continue across state lines, basically no divided highways other than freeways, the architecture is different, many national chains are absent (not necessarily a bad thing) the food is different, New England even has its own type of statistical area. (NECTA vs. Metropolitan Statistical Area)

[golden eagle]

Louisiana.
Cajuns (http://www.acadian-cajun.com/) and New Orleans (though the two don't go hand-in-hand)

Absolutely! The food, the party atmosphere, swamplands...you name it!

Also, don't forget about Texas. Remember the old phrase used to promote the state: it's a whole other country.

[Stephane Dumas]

Lots of choices here. We could add to the list Wausau, Wisconsin

[relaxok]

Culturally, I'd have to say Amish areas.  Though northern New England is definitely 'different'.  As far as roads go, I agree Oregon feels like a different world in many ways.

[Brandon]

Da UP, eh.  It's effectively "South Canada", especially along the Lake Superior shoreline.