Longest Commercial Corridors

[webny99]

What are some of the longest stretches of road where the strip malls, restaurants, and just general store fronts and businesses, seem to be never-ending? I am mainly looking for examples that (a) are clearly not rural, and (b) are clearly not residential. As long as it meets those criteria, then tell us about it!

I'll start off with this stretch of NY 404 - 5 miles in length, and 15 stoplights, but an absolute eternity to drive in one sitting. Find me the freeway!!
Across town, NY 104 has about 7 miles of this - also painful, but at least it's mostly six lanes now!

[hotdogPi]

MA/NH 28 between MA 213 and NH 111, slightly over 6 miles. Tax free shopping in New Hampshire!

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Lyndale Avenue from I-94 in Minneapolis to 98th St in Bloomington
The adjacent Hiawatha and Minnehaha Avenues
France Avenue between 494 and Crosstown
County 3 (Lake/Excelsior) from Hopkins through Minneapolis

[ftballfan]

28th St in Grand Rapids, MI is almost completely commercial from I-196 in Grandville to Cascade Rd in Cascade Township, a distance of 13 and a half miles.

[plain]

Except for brief instances where it intercepts I-64, Broad St (US 250) in the Richmond metro fits the bill from near VA 288 all the way to Downtown Richmond, a distance of about 14 miles.

[KCRoadFan]

A couple years ago I followed the entire length of US 1, from Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida, in Street View - to me, it seemed like the stretch from New Haven, through western Connecticut and Westchester into NYC, was pretty much one long commercial strip. To those who live in that region - does that seem right?

(From the same Street View trip, I also got the same impression with the stretch in South Florida, from Jupiter all the way down to Homestead - about 120 miles in all!)

[westerninterloper]

US 20 from Perrysburg to Sylvania along the southwest side of Toledo is almost all commercial, save for a few blocks of residential in historic P'burg. Distance, about 15 miles.

[STLmapboy]

Manchester Rd (MO-100) in West County, St. Louis. It's kind of in a valley amidst suburbs, and was labelled jokingly "the world's longest collection of strip malls" on judgmentalmaps.com. I would say 17 miles from the city line to Wildwood (when it becomes a divided highway with a grassy median).

[amroad17]

Virginia Beach Blvd. from Ballantine Blvd. in Norfolk, VA to, at least, First Colonial Road in Virginia Beach--about 15 miles.

[KCRoadFan]

Manchester Rd (MO-100) in West County, St. Louis. It's kind of in a valley amidst suburbs, and was labelled jokingly "the world's longest collection of strip malls" on judgmentalmaps.com. I would say 17 miles from the city line to Wildwood (when it becomes a divided highway with a grassy median).

Further south, Watson Road/Chippewa Street (MO-366) is pretty much the same story.

[STLmapboy]

Manchester Rd (MO-100) in West County, St. Louis. It's kind of in a valley amidst suburbs, and was labelled jokingly "the world's longest collection of strip malls" on judgmentalmaps.com. I would say 17 miles from the city line to Wildwood (when it becomes a divided highway with a grassy median).

Further south, Watson Road/Chippewa Street (MO-366) is pretty much the same story.

Slightly less affluent (and a bit more burnt out in parts, like the old Crestwood Mall) but yeah.

[Roadrunner75]

This would apply to numerous major roads in northern NJ - 1/9, 17, 22, 46...  A few in South Jersey too - 130, 70, 73, 38...

[STLmapboy]

What are some of the longest stretches of road where the strip malls, restaurants, and just general store fronts and businesses, seem to be never-ending? I am mainly looking for examples that (a) are clearly not rural, and (b) are clearly not residential. As long as it meets those criteria, then tell us about it!

I'll start off with this stretch of NY 404 - 5 miles in length, and 15 stoplights, but an absolute eternity to drive in one sitting. Find me the freeway!!
Across town, NY 104 has about 7 miles of this - also painful, but at least it's mostly six lanes now!

Isn't NY 404 the one with all the faulty US 404 shields?

[Roadrunner75]

What are some of the longest stretches of road where the strip malls, restaurants, and just general store fronts and businesses, seem to be never-ending? I am mainly looking for examples that (a) are clearly not rural, and (b) are clearly not residential. As long as it meets those criteria, then tell us about it!

I'll start off with this stretch of NY 404 - 5 miles in length, and 15 stoplights, but an absolute eternity to drive in one sitting. Find me the freeway!!
Across town, NY 104 has about 7 miles of this - also painful, but at least it's mostly six lanes now!

Isn't NY 404 the one with all the faulty US 404 shields?

Definitely sounds like a 404 error, because the correct shields were not found.

[webny99]

I'll start off with this stretch of NY 404 - 5 miles in length, and 15 stoplights, but an absolute eternity to drive in one sitting. Find me the freeway!!

Isn't NY 404 the one with all the faulty US 404 shields?

Definitely sounds like a 404 error, because the correct shields were not found.

LOL, yep, although they're finally getting it right with some of the newer installs.

[Scott5114]

Are you wanting to limit this to numbered routes? Otherwise, you could pick any street in the grid of any city west of the Mississippi and get 20 miles of commercial corridor easy.

[jmacswimmer]

MD 235 from MD 246 to MD 4 in St. Mary's County has 5 miles of commercial development (most of which is there as a direct result of the Patuxent River Naval Air Station).

MD 140 from Pikesville all the way to Reisterstown is a nonstop 10-mile stretch of development.  Luckily, I-795 exists to bypass most of this!

[webny99]

Are you wanting to limit this to numbered routes? Otherwise, you could pick any street in the grid of any city west of the Mississippi and get 20 miles of commercial corridor easy.

It never occurred to me that we might need to limit it to numbered routes. In my area, I can't think of any non-numbered examples. Commercial development tends to cluster around the numbered routes, while the non-numbered routes (and unsigned county routes)  serve residential areas.

But now I'm interested to see some non-numbered examples, so I won't limit it! 

[CoreySamson]

This stretch of FM 518 in Pearland and Friendswood is traffic light hell. Not to mention, there are tons of businesses and there is always horrific traffic:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/29.5550368,-95.4217008/29.5064443,-95.1857703/@29.5491546,-95.4099495,14994m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e0

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Are you wanting to limit this to numbered routes? Otherwise, you could pick any street in the grid of any city west of the Mississippi and get 20 miles of commercial corridor easy.

It never occurred to me that we might need to limit it to numbered routes. In my area, I can't think of any non-numbered examples. Commercial development tends to cluster around the numbered routes, while the non-numbered routes (and unsigned county routes)  serve residential areas.

But now I'm interested to see some non-numbered examples, so I won't limit it! 

It's the opposite here, where most surface mileage has been turned back to counties and cities. Hiawatha is MN 55, and maybe you could argue US 61 (which is on the kill list) in the east metro, but that's about it.

[frankenroad]

On a recent visit to the area, I was surprised to see US-50 from Lawrenceburg, IN to Aurora, IN was one long strip like that.  It's only 4 miles, but it's in what I consider to be an outer suburb, semi-rural area.  The whole county has a population of about 50,000.

[Ned Weasel]

Does I-10 through El Paso count?

[webny99]

Does I-10 through El Paso count?

In spirit yes; but in practice no. 

[STLmapboy]

Does I-10 through El Paso count?

In spirit yes; but in practice no. 

What about the I-10 Frontage roads through there? 

[sprjus4]

Does I-10 through El Paso count?

In spirit yes; but in practice no. 

What about the I-10 Frontage roads through there? 

Perhaps