The worst Point of a non-interstate highway along its stretch

Started by Hurricane Rex, April 02, 2019, 11:57:31 PM

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Hurricane Rex

OP notes (doing my post 2 hrs later, as my phone is gonna die)

You must have clinched a reasonable amount of the highway

You may not post any interstate (there is a thread for that)

100 mile minimum highway limit.

You may do by state if necessary on a US highway.

US 101 is gonna be interesting as I haven't been south of Coos Bay so please help on that.

LG-TP260

ODOT, raise the speed limit and fix our traffic problems.

Road and weather geek for life.

Running till I die.


Hurricane Rex

#1
Oregon highways:

US 97: Madras to 10 miles south of Biggs. Pure Farmland

OR 126: impossible, all the route is good.

OR 99: all the E route

US 26: not been on enough to tell

US 20: Bend to Burns (have not been east of OR 27)

US 30: see other thread

OR 22: OR 99W to Salem

Oregon/Washington:

US 101: ONP to Aberdeen.

Otherwise any highway in the Columbia basin not I. the Grande Coulle. Exception:

US 97:

All of its good.
ODOT, raise the speed limit and fix our traffic problems.

Road and weather geek for life.

Running till I die.

doorknob60

Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
Oregon highways:

US 97: Madras to 10 miles south of Biggs. Pure Farmland
I don't mind that part (though the fact that from US-197 to Biggs is 55 and not 65 is a point against it, but I haven't driven it since before the speed limit changes). I find the section between Madras and Redmond to be the worst. It's mostly 2 lanes and it needs to be widened. Traffic is always pretty thick. Lots of turns and driveways, some without turn lanes. And also is 55 and not 65 (rightfully so in its current state). And scenery wise, yeah it's also only farmland, but the terrain is pretty bland other than that one hill and the Crooked River Bridge.

Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
OR 126: impossible, all the route is good.
Redmond to Prineville can be boring, at least compared to the rest of the route. Not really sure about Redmond to Sisters segment, never had a reason to use that since I lived in Bend.

Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
US 26: not been on enough to tell
Pretty great route for almost all of it. The worst part is probably just NW of Madras, just flat farmland. The canyon through Warm Springs is pretty cool. After Warm Springs, it gets boring again for a while. I don't hate that part, except for the 55 MPH speed limit is way too low. Also, the freeway segment near North Plains loses points for the 55 MPH limit...

Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
US 20: Bend to Burns (have not been east of OR 27)
Absolutely, yeah. Drove that way too many times, very boring. The only saving grace is you could drive fairly fast (70 was tolerated even in the 55 days). Though I more hate the short stretch between Vale and Ontario (but it's so short in comparison to the 130 mi from Burns to Bend).

Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
OR 22: OR 99W to Salem
I grew to hate Salem to Stayton the most, 100% only because of the ridiculous 55 MPH speed limit which was impossible to follow, and there seems to be an abnormally high number of cops on that stretch. Though you could probably say all that about your segment too (I just drove that part less often).

I'll throw in some Idaho ones:

ID-55: Between Nampa and Marsing is awful. Too much traffic, poor pavement, minimal turn lanes, and stop signs at some major intersections. Note, I believe all these things have improved some over the past few years and are still improving. Been a couple years since I've driven it. I-84 to ID-44 (Eagle Rd) is bad simply due to heavy traffic.

US-95: Honestly it's all pretty good. Worst part is probably through Coeur d'Alene and Hayden, due to heavy traffic (same problem as Eagle Rd section of ID-55). Weiser to Marsing is a bit boring too compared to the rest.

US-20 and US-26: Boise (Eagle Rd specifically) to Caldwell. You're either on an under-engineered suburban arterial (probably going 10 below the speed limit), or going through flat farmland. And either way there's too much traffic. Also, most of the 6 lane section in Caldwell has a 35 MPH limit, give me a break. I don't find any of Mountain Home to Idaho Falls to be too bad, surprisingly.

Other Idaho highways I've been on, I either haven't been on enough of it to judge, or they are too short and/or homogeneous.


hbelkins

It would be hard to select specific sections of routes that pass through Kentucky or West Virginia, because there are so many.

Of the US routes I've clinched in their entirety...

None of US 119 north of Charleston is anything to write home about, and the Pine Mountain crossing in Kentucky remains the only unimproved section in the Bluegrass State.

Most of US 421 in Kentucky is awful, as is the stretch between Bristol and Mountain City, Tenn.

US 68 is terrible between Perryville and Wilmore, Ky.

US 33 from Spencer to Weston, WV, is no fun. And then there are the mountain crossings between Elkins and Harrisonburg.

US 219 is torturous between Lewisburg and Elkins.

US 220 north of I-180 in Pennsylvania was another stretch I did not like at all.

Other routes I've clinched: US 58 between Duffield and Bristol, and Damascus to Independence, US 460 between Frankfort and Salyersville, US 411 along most of the route between Maryville and Newport, Tenn.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Jmiles32

I'll tackle some of the U.S Highways here around Northern Virginia.

US 29: Easily the section through Charlottesville.

US 15: Easily the section North of Leesburg.

US 17: Immediately west of the interchange with I-95 (Falmouth).

US 50: Probably the vicinity of the interchange with VA-28.

US 1: Either through Fredericksburg or the vicinity of the Occoquan interchange with I-95.

US 211: Either through Warrenton or the Thornton's Gap crossing.
Aspiring Transportation Planner at Virginia Tech. Go Hokies!

TheHighwayMan3561

US 61 north of I-20 to US 82 in Mississippi. The ruts in the road are prone to becoming filled with rainwater and causing frequent hydroplaning.
self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

ftballfan

Michigan
US-12: Saline to I-94
US-23: I-94 to I-96
US-31: Grand Haven or Traverse City
US-127: Ithaca to St. Johns
US-131: The stretch through Schoolcraft
US-223: The stretch through Blissfield
M-14: I-94 to the east junction with US-23

Ohio
US-250: the north end of Norwalk to Ashland
OH-2: The stretch through Toledo (some unsigned turns in there and I remember parts having no pavement markings)

Takumi

Quote from: Jmiles32 on April 05, 2019, 05:46:04 PM
US 17: Immediately west of the interchange with I-95 (Falmouth).
Ugh, yes.

Quote
US 1: Either through Fredericksburg or the vicinity of the Occoquan interchange with I-95.
As someone from the southern half of the state, my answer is "everything from Fredericksburg north" .

My in-state choices:
US 460: Petersburg to Suffolk, with an honorable mention to the cop-infested section between I-85 and Blackstone. (My lone ticket came on this stretch, and while I thoroughly deserved it, and probably even got off easy, it still feels excessive.)

US 250: From Richmond to VA 288. One. Red. Light. After. Another.

US/VA 33: Through Richmond, basically all of it from the US 250 split to where it joins US 60 and VA 156.

US 60: west of Powhatan (though I have not driven it in the mountains).

VA 10: either through Chester or eastbound through Hopewell. Chester is kind of a slog, and Hopewell you have to do a couple of annoying lane shifts to stay on the through route.

US 301: the emptiness between Hanover and Bowling Green. At least the sections south of Petersburg have some novelties to them.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

TheHighwayMan3561

I-94: between I-394 and I-35W
I-35E: between MN 110 and MN 5
I-35W: between MN 55 and 28th St
I-394: between Penn Ave and the I-94 interchange
I-494: between France Ave and I-35W
I-694: between MN 100 and I-35W
MN 62: between Valley View Road and Penn Ave
MN 100: I-394 to Minnetonka Blvd
US 169: I-394 to MN 55 with horrendous interchange spacing
self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

Hurricane Rex



Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on April 06, 2019, 12:59:19 PM
I-94: between I-394 and I-35W
I-35E: between MN 110 and MN 5
I-35W: between MN 55 and 28th St
I-394: between Penn Ave and the I-94 interchange
I-494: between France Ave and I-35W
I-694: between MN 100 and I-35W

Non interstate highways only. There is a thread for interstates.

SM-J737T

ODOT, raise the speed limit and fix our traffic problems.

Road and weather geek for life.

Running till I die.

milbfan

Alabama - US 280, south of I-459 for roughly two miles.  Traffic light hell.
Tennessee - US 11E, Morristown.  Lots of traffic lights that have cameras for running red lights and speed cameras nowadays.  I rarely travel on that route anymore because I don't need that kind of negativity in my life.
Tennessee/North Carolina - US 441.  Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  There are a couple of areas that really suck.  Gotta watch for peds who aren't watching the road for cars.

MantyMadTown

Forget the I-41 haters

roadman65

https://goo.gl/maps/zsC9Y4b5Bg22 in Levy County, FL.

US 19 & 98 have a long boring 26 mile straight stretch without any services. Although many states out west beat this scenario, for Florida this is one of the longest straight paths without gas or food.  Though Otter Creek, 13 miles ahead of this caption, has a small store but I did not see any gas pumps from the road.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

Ned Weasel

#13
Any point where you can't follow it without prior knowledge, because of lack of signs.

Oh, also, probably my least favorite routing decision ever:  US 56 in Kansas City, MO.  There is no good reason to route it through the middle of the Country Club Plaza instead of directly along Ward Parkway/Volker Boulevard/Swope Parkway to US 71.  And to make matters worse, when following US 56 west toward Kansas, there is no directional sign for the route's right-hand turnoff from Ward Parkway to Shawnee Mission Parkway (although there is a directional sign for Shawnee Mission Parkway itself).
"I was raised by a cup of coffee." - Strong Bad imitating Homsar

Disclaimer: Views I express are my own and don't reflect any employer or associated entity.

kphoger

Quote from: stridentweasel on April 13, 2019, 12:05:36 PM
Any point where you can't follow it without prior knowledge, because of lack of signs.

Oohh..  *shudder*  grrrrrrr............
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

SectorZ

Massachusetts:

US 6: The eastern half of the Mid-Cape Freeway, a super 2 that has some serious head on collisions.

US 20: MA 19 (Brimfield) to MA 12 (Oxford). 4-lane wide most places, no shoulder, either a double yellow line or useless BDSM paddles preventing a head on collision, to which there are many and catastrophic. Style points to the stretch east of Brimfield center that got hit by an EF-3 tornado in 2011.

MA 2: All of Concord, from the damn rotary in the east part of town to Crosby's Corner on the east side of town. Though Crosby's Corner is now an exit and the light is gone, bypassing it at high speed just accelerates the inevitable backup leading away from it. Honorable mentions to the Athol/Orange Bypass and the DCR stretches in Cambridge and Boston.

MA 9: Between I-290 and Lake Quinsigamond into Shrewsbury. A bullet straight routing straight up ridiculous grades, with too much built on all of those steep grades, causing too many stops and starts on a difficult roadway. Many substandard parts in Newton and Brookline are also problematic.

MA 28: Not anything that stands out as "worst" in general. I'd argue the worst is Roxbury area, because of where it is, not what it is.

MA 140: Not a lot that is a mess here. Maybe the stretch thru Milford which is designed way below its capacity.

New Hampshire:

US 3: The slog that is downtown Manchester. Probably could be routed onto something more efficient. It's direct routing into Whitefield, each with sides exceeding 12% grades, is sometimes a problem for large trucks.

US 4: The rural parts west of Andover. Very narrow with limited sight lines in many places. Follows a rail line (now an ATV trail) for much of the routing, and it takes the brunt of being that "second route" thru some very hard to get thru areas.

NH 9: Northeast of Keene the road passes into a very narrow canyon (preceded and followed by a very wide 55 MPH stretch) that is a big problem for trucks and general flow of traffic.

NH 10: Between Keene and Newport, many stretches that have horrible issues with frost heaves in the winter. You are warned as such with many signs, but it's BAD in places in the winter, especially for a 45-55 MPH road.

NH 11: While scenic, nice, and likely never to be addressed for improvement, parts between Laconia and Alton are very narrow and curvy.

NH 16: Conway. Needs a bypass as traffic is horrible at times, many times of the year. It's really one stoplight that is responsible for much of the mess. The last 10 miles north of Errol were a horrible mess pavement quality-wise, but was being repaved in its entirety summer 2018 when I was up there.

Between those 2 states, that should be it for anything with 100+ mile stretches. Thankfully I've clinched all of that stuff, either by car or bicycle.


RobbieL2415

Quote from: SectorZ on April 15, 2019, 07:10:25 PM
Massachusetts:

US 6: The eastern half of the Mid-Cape Freeway, a super 2 that has some serious head on collisions.

MA 28: Not anything that stands out as "worst" in general. I'd argue the worst is Roxbury area, because of where it is, not what it is. 

Pick any portion of MA 28 on-Cape during the summer.  You can't get anywhere.  It's like driving in India.  No one follows the rules.  No one drives faster than 25.

The super 2 section of US 6 from Exit 9 to the Orleans rotary is bad, yes.  But i think the two lane portion from Welfleet to the edge of Truro is far worse, given that its at-grade and left turns are allowed.

bing101

US-101 San Francisco section and US-101 Los Angeles section due to being one of the most jammed non interstate freeways in their cities.

CA-24, CA-91, CA-170, CA-14, CA-134, CA-60 and CA-85 could be in the running for non interstate freeways that have their worst points.

Bickendan

I'll throw in my comments for Oregon.
Quote from: doorknob60 on April 05, 2019, 02:43:41 PM
Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
Oregon highways:

US 97: Madras to 10 miles south of Biggs. Pure Farmland
I don't mind that part (though the fact that from US-197 to Biggs is 55 and not 65 is a point against it, but I haven't driven it since before the speed limit changes). I find the section between Madras and Redmond to be the worst. It's mostly 2 lanes and it needs to be widened. Traffic is always pretty thick. Lots of turns and driveways, some without turn lanes. And also is 55 and not 65 (rightfully so in its current state). And scenery wise, yeah it's also only farmland, but the terrain is pretty bland other than that one hill and the Crooked River Bridge.
Agreed on the Madras to Redmond stretch.

Quote
Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
OR 126: impossible, all the route is good.
Redmond to Prineville can be boring, at least compared to the rest of the route. Not really sure about Redmond to Sisters segment, never had a reason to use that since I lived in Bend.
Quote
Worst stretch is from Veneta to I-105 (and OR 99 shares some of the slog). Bus 126 gets thrown in as a slog through Springfield.

Quote
Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
US 26: not been on enough to tell
Pretty great route for almost all of it. The worst part is probably just NW of Madras, just flat farmland. The canyon through Warm Springs is pretty cool. After Warm Springs, it gets boring again for a while. I don't hate that part, except for the 55 MPH speed limit is way too low. Also, the freeway segment near North Plains loses points for the 55 MPH limit...
Two segments for US 26: Sylvan to SE 50th Ave/Foster Rd, and from OR 213 out to SE Birdsdale Ave (202nd Ave). With that said, the Sylvan-I-405 segment is also the most fun to drive when traffic is good.

Quote
Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
US 20: Bend to Burns (have not been east of OR 27)
Absolutely, yeah. Drove that way too many times, very boring. The only saving grace is you could drive fairly fast (70 was tolerated even in the 55 days). Though I more hate the short stretch between Vale and Ontario (but it's so short in comparison to the 130 mi from Burns to Bend).
Corvallis-Albany.

Quote
Quote from: Hurricane Rex on April 03, 2019, 02:17:33 AM
OR 22: OR 99W to Salem
I grew to hate Salem to Stayton the most, 100% only because of the ridiculous 55 MPH speed limit which was impossible to follow, and there seems to be an abnormally high number of cops on that stretch. Though you could probably say all that about your segment too (I just drove that part less often).
No comment on 22.


OR 99: No particular issues. If any segment, it'll be the Winston-Oakland segment through Roseburg, but I can't comment on it.
99E: OR 224 to River Rd, for the drop to 30 in downtown Milwaukie and it being a known speed trap.
99W: Metro Portland area as it can be quite sloggy.

US 30 (Bypass): St Johns Bridge to OR 99E. Narrow lanes (St Johns portion actually reduced from 4 to 2 because of this... and it actually helped), high amount of traffic.

OR 140: US 97 to OR 39, on the bland side.

QuoteUS-20 and US-26: Boise (Eagle Rd specifically) to Caldwell. You're either on an under-engineered suburban arterial (probably going 10 below the speed limit), or going through flat farmland. And either way there's too much traffic. Also, most of the 6 lane section in Caldwell has a 35 MPH limit, give me a break. I don't find any of Mountain Home to Idaho Falls to be too bad, surprisingly.
Agreed.

MantyMadTown

Quote from: bing101 on April 28, 2019, 07:26:28 PM
US-101 San Francisco section and US-101 Los Angeles section due to being one of the most jammed non interstate freeways in their cities.

CA-24, CA-91, CA-170, CA-14, CA-134, CA-60 and CA-85 could be in the running for non interstate freeways that have their worst points.

What about CA-99? That one carries traffic through Bakersfield, Fresno, Merced, Modesto, Stockton, and Sacramento.
Forget the I-41 haters



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