Which Highways in Your State are Most/Likely to be Clinched by Travelers

[JayhawkCO]

My examples from Kansas:

Most Likely to Clinch
Interstate: I-335 (50.1 miles) - Easy call here. Once you're on it, there's only one other exit.

US Highway: US73 (91.12 miles) - Not a lot of great options in KS to choose from over the 20 mile limit, but this is a fairly direct route if you're going from the western side of the KC metro to Lincoln.

State Highway: K-10 (36.611 miles) - Depending on traffic, the quickest way from Topeka to the southern portion of the KC metro.

Least Likely to Clinch
Interstate: I-470 (13.72 miles) - It's longer to use this around Topeka than it is to just stay on I-70 and most people probably only ever have taken it for the portion that's on the Turnpike.

US Highway: US159 (52.3 miles) - It's easier to have traveled this via the concurrency with US73 than it is to have taken its small independent section.

State Highway: K-214 (1.967 miles) - A loop through the metropolis of Hoyt, KS. If you're visiting there, you're likely going the same way in and same way out, so you'd never actually finish the loop.

[MikeTheActuary]

I wrote my CT post before the others were posted...and but there was a delay in posting due to work.

For least likely, there are lots of possibilities.  There's the ferry routes, as you mentioned.  I can't imagine too many people have the patience to clinch the 115.76 miles of US1 in CT in one shot.  CT20 is another option (30.42 mi.), since very few vehicles go around the north side of Barkhamsted Reservoir through Hartland, but plenty use the Bradley Connector to I-91.  It would also be pretty strange to drive CT154 (27.77 mi.) or CT156 (22.21 mi.) from end to end.

In putting together my suggestions of 15 and 20, I was mentally making the (perhaps arbitrary) distinction of "travelers" vs "local traffic", and excluding "local traffic" from consideration in terms of likelihood of clinching.

Both 15 and 20 have a relatively high volume of "travelers", but I hadn't really considered most of the other candidates to be roads likely to be used by "travelers".

However, US 1...I hadn't considered that I-95 and US1 are multiplexed for several river crossings.  While I'd view US 1 as primarily a "local traffic" route in state..."travelers" on I-95 would technically be using US 1 in the multiplexes, although I doubt most of them would be aware of doing so.

Of course, by that reasoning, US 5 is only 54.6 miles long in CT, and "travelers" taking the inland route between NY and Boston will make use of it (probably without much awareness) at the Charter Oak bridge.

[MikeTheActuary]

With the 20-mile criterion, I-395.  The natural flow of people using the I-95/I-91/I-84 corridor to travel between the Boston area and the NYC area excludes those highways.

I'm going to somewhat change my mind here.  Again, keeping the "traveler" vs "local traffic" distinction I'm making (perhaps despite the suggested rules)... I-395's clinch rate is going to be significantly diluted by people using I-395 between CT2 and CT2A to travel between the Hartford area and Mohegan Sun, and by people who skip the southernmost portion of I-395 due to a need to access northbound I-95.

I-395 probably has a clinch rate that is similarly low to 84/91/95.  It's definitely got a higher clinch rate than I-95, and it's longer in CT than I-91, but I don't have a good feel for whether long-haul truck traffic using I-84 as a bypass of NYC congestion to access MA and points northeast might cause 84's clinch rate to eke ahead of 395's.

[vdeane]

I think 'great' is a stretch for I-88 because (a) it's long enough that there are quite a few intersecting corridors where short and medium distance traffic could feasibly enter and leave the route (think Binghamton-Utica and Cortland-Albany), and (b) it's just not that well suited to use by long-distance traffic from the rest of NY state, or really anywhere besides Binghamton to the Albany area. Anything outside of that would typically use I-90 (e.g. Cleveland-Albany) or I-87/I-84 (e.g. Scranton-Albany). I-88 is awkward for the rest of upstate in particular: I've had to go out of the way to use I-88 at all and even then it's fragmented bits and pieces that I've managed to fit into larger (usually northwest/southeast oriented) trips.

So even looking at percentage of long-distance travelers on the route, I'd think the Thruway and I-81 have a significantly higher percentage than I-88 because those routes are appealing to a much broader range of trip endpoints while having similar (or in the case of the Thruway, even less) appeal for local and regional traffic.

Interesting... I would have assumed that Binghamton-Utica would use NY 12 or I-81/I-90, but Google does indeed suggest I-88/NY 8 as the default.

Also keep in mind that many people from Albany or points east use I-88 and NY 17 to shunpike the Thruway, not just due to tolls, but due to traffic and scenery.

I doubt most people are driving I-90 from PA to MA or even I-81 from PA to Canada.  Most traffic on both strikes me as using shorter sections.

[JayhawkCO]

I'm going to somewhat change my mind here.  Again, keeping the "traveler" vs "local traffic" distinction I'm making (perhaps despite the suggested rules)...

I think with local traffic, you have to figure out what percentage of the traffic on a route is local or not, i.e. if you have a road with an AADT of 5,000 and it passes through a little town of 100 people, obviously a good chunk of those 100 people might take that road daily, but it doesn't contribute that much to the overall quantity of drivers.

In my case of saying I-25 in Colorado is the least likely to be clinched, it's because so many people take it as their daily commute and certainly very few people overall on the highway are going from Raton to Cheyenne.

[webny99]

I doubt most people are driving I-90 from PA to MA or even I-81 from PA to Canada.  Most traffic on both strikes me as using shorter sections.

Right.. I wasn't referring to the "clinch rate" of those routes since their length in NY is considerably longer than I-88, but rather that their percentage of long-distance traffic is higher due to similar amounts of local traffic as I-88 but much higher overall volumes.

[JayhawkCO]

I doubt most people are driving I-90 from PA to MA or even I-81 from PA to Canada.  Most traffic on both strikes me as using shorter sections.

Right.. I wasn't referring to the "clinch rate" of those routes since their length in NY is considerably longer than I-88, but rather that their percentage of long-distance traffic is higher due to similar amounts of local traffic as I-88 but much higher overall volumes.

For the record, despite me not knowing NY highways that well, I'd probably pick I-88 for most likely and I-295 for least likely.

[jeffandnicole]

For New Jersey, the highway most likely to be clinched would probably be the NJ Turnpike from Exits 1 - 18...with a caveat that taking either the Eastern or Western Spur counts.  Travelers regularly using the Turnpike have a better chance of clinching it including both spurs. 

After that, I-95 from the NJ/PA Turnpike Bridge to the GWB is probably 2nd place.  Yes, the two overlap via the Turnpike considerably, but they are 2 different routes for this exercise (says me).

For least likely:

I-295, as few travelers would need to travel between Delaware and Bucks County, PA and take I-295 all the way. Even if they are avoiding 95 in PA, considerably shorter routes are available, including via NJ 29.

Also, the Garden State Parkway, as there's few travelers on the NY State Thruway that would take it all the way to Cape May or the Cape May Lewis Ferry.  And vice-versa.

[dlsterner]

Not so sure about I-88 in New York as being "most likely".

I've taken several trips from the Mid-Atlantic area to visit Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame, which pretty much meant taking I-88 from Binghamton to Oneonta, but no further.

That strikes me as a "use case" that might be common enough to prevent I-88 from being a "likely candidate" for this.

[bing101]

Most likely here in California would be I-205.  It is a short Interstate that is often the intuitive route towards the Bay Area from several directions.  The least likely would be some of the hyper rural one lane highways like CA 172, CA 229 or even CA 169. 

CA 173 and CA 39 would probably even top those given you literally have to hike the closed segments if you want a clinch.  Normal people don't go for clinching much less exploring strange remote areas.

I-305 in Sacramento would have to be up there for most clenched by travelers as part of the journey to go on US-50 to Lake Tahoe and to the Bay Area via US-50 and I-80.

[Sctvhound]

South Carolina:

Most likely to clinch:

Interstate: I-95 (198.76 miles) - 80% of the people on 95 in SC do not get off at all. They're going from a northern state to Florida and the only places they stop are the major towns (Florence, Manning, Santee, Walterboro, Point South, Hardeeville). And 20 doesn't serve a major purpose for most in NC. 17 and 26 are probably the most frequent get-off points.

US Highway: US 501 (73.770 miles) - 501 is the exit at South of the Border, and many people get on there and drive out to Myrtle Beach that way.

State highway: SC 22 (29.390 miles) - directly bypasses Conway and goes directly into the northern part of Myrtle Beach. The exits are all local.

Least likely to clinch:

Interstate: I-26 (220.95 miles) - passes through so many major cities and traffic is completely different for the past I-95 portion, between I-20 and 95, 20 and 385, and west through Spartanburg.

US Highway: US 76 (297.79 miles) - longest highway in the state, goes from the Georgia line in the mountains all the way through to the Pee Dee of NC. Almost no through traffic.

State highway: SC 34 (185.930 miles) - Greenwood to Dillon is not a very popular connector route, and it doesn't pass through any major towns.

SC 9 is right up there, but you could theoretically clinch that going to Cherry Grove and North Myrtle from the Spartanburg area.

[gonealookin]

Thinking about Nevada a little more:

None of our state routes is duplexed with any other numbered highway; they are all standalone.  The major ones connect one highway to another, or terminate at a state line.  There are many minor ones that dead end in the middle of nowhere, often continuing as a BLM-maintained gravel road.

Further, there are very few towns served only by a Nevada state route.  Often there's nothing of consequence along the entire length of the state route greater than some tiny ranch settlement, unless there's some attraction like a state park.  A few such as SR 305 do carry quite a bit of traffic from a town at one end (Battle Mountain) to a mining operation (about 10 miles south of BM) and barely any traffic beyond that.

For those reasons I'm thinking the percentage of travelers who clinch a Nevada state route the first time they drive it will be right at the top of all states.  SR 318 as I discussed above is a great example but others work well too.

The state route not lying entirely within an urban area that doesn't fit the description is SR 160, which starts from I-15 as a suburban boulevard, carries a lot of traffic as a four-lane divided highway over mountains and across desert to well-populated Pahrump, then continues as a pretty lonely two-lane road on up to US 95.

As to US highways and Interstates, while there's a ton of traffic that enters Nevada on I-15, goes to Vegas and turns around there, the real answer to "least-clinched" has to be US 95.  Nobody enters the state from Oregon and drives all 650+ miles of US 95 in Nevada to connect with I-40 west of Needles, except some crazy roadgeek who's making a drive like that as part of some Season of Clinching.

[citrus]

For California, I like the I-205 suggestion and I think I-505 would fall under the same bucket. I think for an even longer route, I-40 should be under consideration. It's the only other interstate in CA that doesn't involve a major metro area where there will be a lot of local traffic. The only other traffic generator I can really think of is Needles and US-95, but I think that would be quite sparse compared with the long-haul traffic on I-40.

For state routes, similar to the Nevada answers, something like 177 or 371 that connects two larger routes with not much in between stands out. 154 as well - with GPS often sending through traffic that way, I could see more end-to-end 154 traffic than local traffic on that route. 167 and 182 just connect to Nevada, and I doubt there would be much, if any traffic traversing just part of it. Same for 270 to Bodie, and US-199 to Oregon (although 197 will take some away from that). There are also some shorter dead-end routes (207, 217, 282) and shorter connector routes (149, 183) that probably get a lot of full clinches are but are well under 20 miles.

Otherwise - there are a ton of routes that are really long and have sections that are well-travelled but also sections that are not - it would be pretty rare for someone to drive something like 4 or 46 or 152 all the way end-to-end, even though they are quite major routes. To say nothing of 1, 99, or US-101.

[webny99]

For those reasons I'm thinking the percentage of travelers who clinch a Nevada state route the first time they drive it will be right at the top of all states.  SR 318 as I discussed above is a great example but others work well too.

If Nevada is at the top of that list, New York is probably dead last. We have a lot of lengthy state routes that require significant effort to clinch, and many short (<20 mile) state routes that are easily clinchable, but almost nothing in the prime range of 20-100 mile length is straight point-A to point-B, and in fact most routes in that range have multiple turns and/or concurrencies.

[dantheman]

For those reasons I'm thinking the percentage of travelers who clinch a Nevada state route the first time they drive it will be right at the top of all states.  SR 318 as I discussed above is a great example but others work well too.

If Nevada is at the top of that list, New York is probably dead last. We have a lot of lengthy state routes that require significant effort to clinch, and many short (<20 mile) state routes that are easily clinchable, but almost nothing in the prime range of 20-100 mile length is straight point-A to point-B, and in fact most routes in that range have multiple turns and/or concurrencies.

100% agree on New York. While I agree with some of the skepticism of I-88 upthread, I am hard-pressed to come up with something better. Many routes have sections (especially near the ends) that are far less-traveled than the majority of the route. For example - NY 74 (but for the eastern end out to the Ticonderoga ferry), NY 28N (but for the western end that overlaps NY 30 all the way back to NY 28), NY 145 (might be a candidate if its northwestern end was at I-88, not US 20)...

The best I can come up with is NY 73, as its main purpose is a connector from US 9/I-87 to Lake Placid, which are its two endpoints. But even then, a lot of hikers probably come from 87 and turn off near Keene Valley, so I'm sure the percentage is not very high.

Massachusetts is largely similar:
Best: if not for the 20-mile minimum, MA 25 and MA 88 would be good. With the 20-mile minimum... maybe MA 143? Even that's a stretch. MA 146? I would bet Worcester-RI traffic is significant, but probably spoiled by enough drivers going from I-90 to RI and skipping the northernmost piece.
Worst: I agree with the mention of MA 140 upthread, and I'd also suggest MA 2. Huge amounts of traffic in the Boston suburbs, but I doubt many of those folks make it all the way to Petersburg Pass at the MA/NY state line, or take the screwy routing for the easternmost few blocks in Boston.

[Molandfreak]

Completely?

I-40
I-30
I-20.
I-45.

Probably none of the US Highways particularly. I-10 is not that likely for " travellers" as opposed to truckers.

US 175 seems pretty likely.

[Great Lakes Roads]

With 20 miles being the benchmark, Indiana would definitely be I-94. For state routes, I would guess either the northern IN 11 or the western IN 4.

Least likely would have been IN 111 before the very remote section got truncated, so now it's probably IN 166.

Most likely: I-94, US 30, IN 4 (Western segment)
Least likely: I-465, US 31, IN 166

[DandyDan]

The highway in Iowa most likely to be clinched is IA 60. The quickest way between Sioux City and the Minnesota border.

There's a few barely over the 20 mile threshold that are easily clinchable, such as IA 24 between New Hampton and Calmar and IA 56 between West Union and Elkader. I myself went from zero to clinched on both of those.

As for least likely, any of the highways such as IA 3, IA 9 or IA 92 which cross the majority of Iowa are obvious candidates.

[1995hoo]

While at first blush for Virginia the impulse is to list I-95 as "most likely," I don't think that's probably right. There are too many places where people are quite likely to exit to head to other destinations off I-95; the most notable, of course, would likely be I-295 and I-64 in the Richmond area (substantial amounts of southbound traffic heading east to Williamsburg, Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach, and the Outer Banks, as well as northbound traffic heading west on I-64 towards Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, and other places along I-81), and then a fair amount of southbound I-95 traffic also exists to I-85. Northbound, you lose a reasonable amount of traffic at US-58 just after entering Virginia, and you also get a fair amount of long-distance traffic using Exit 133 for US-17 up towards Warrenton to head northwest of the DC area without having to use the Beltway.

The foregoing comment makes me think that a highway "most likely to be clinched" is one that meets the OP's criterion of running more than 20 miles within the state, that doesn't serve any significant in-state destinations to which people are likely to divert, and that doesn't have any intermediate connections to any major routes leading to other significant destinations to which people are likely to divert. So, applying those considerations, I tend to think the highway in Virginia with the highest "clinch percentage" is likely to be I-85. It's a major route, but it doesn't serve anything particularly notable in Virginia—I highly suspect it's most likely to be used by longer-distance traffic heading from places further north either to destinations in North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, the Piedmont Triad, Charlotte, or connecting to I-40 to head further west) or places further south. Travel Mapping data may not always be representative of the average driver, but I note that 84.00% of Travel Mapping users who've been on I-85 in Virginia have clinched the segment, whereas for I-95 the percentage is 46.64.

The lack of diverting to other destinations and routes is also why I didn't select I-495 (the Capital Beltway). I suspect a lot of out-of-staters use only the portion between Springfield and the Wilson Bridge (following I-95), or the portion between Springfield and the American Legion Bridge (to connect to I-270), and a fair number of Maryland drivers may use only parts of the Virginia segment to go to places like Old Town Alexandria, Dulles Airport, or Tysons. I-66, similarly, sees a substantial amount of traffic exiting at Gainesville onto US-29.

As far as "least likely" goes, I have no idea. My impulse is to say something in far Southwest Virginia simply because so few people head down there compared to overall traffic patterns, but on the other hand I don't know the roads down there and there's also a good chance the people who do drive there might be more likely to clinch. As I think about it further, I tend to think "least likely" roads are probably going to be one of two things: Either something exceptionally long (just because the average person is not likely to use the whole thing) or something that largely parallels an Interstate (because the average driver is likely to opt for the Interstate). Thinking about it from that viewpoint, I'd guess there is a very good chance that US-58 is probably high on the "least likely to clinch" list, though it might not necessarily be at the top. It's the longest road in Virginia at 500.12 in-state miles, Travel Mapping shows that 6.34% of users who have been on it at all have clinched it (13 of 205), it serves a lot of very rural and isolated places, and I suspect a lot of longer-distance drivers who might have reason to go from, say, Hampton Roads to Knoxville, Tennessee, might be more likely to divert onto I-85 and I-40, or if they're going to Roanoke they might be more likely to use I-64 or US-460. I tend to think the "average driver" is highly likely to opt for an Interstate over a US route, even a very rural US route that's not likely to have many traffic lights.

[hotdogPi]

I never created a full list for Massachusetts because I only had access to my phone at the time, which wasn't suitable for a long post.

Most likely Interstate: I-195. I-190 misses the 20-mile threshold by less than a mile.
Most likely US route: US 44. It's a straight shot, and it's more than just a state route type road that happens to carry a US designation. My first thought was US 3, but being partially freeway and partially not means many people will drive the freeway portion but not the surface portion.
Most likely state route: MA 146. It's a freeway. This was chosen over MA 24 because I-195's overlap with MA 24 decreases the ratio.
Most likely non-freeway state route: MA 143? It has few overall travelers, but it's point-to-point. It does have an overlap with MA 112, but 143 seems like the "main" road on this overlap.

Least likely Interstate: I-495. It's a beltway that nobody needs the entire thing for.
Least likely US route: US 20, since it's a parallel for the Mass Pike the whole way, plus you have to get the downtown Boston segment. I know US 202 being indirect is somewhat of a meme, but its path is actually somewhat reasonable in Massachusetts.
Least likely state route: MA 140, as described in my post above.

[jeffandnicole]

While at first blush for Virginia the impulse is to list I-95 as "most likely," I don't think that's probably right. There are too many places where people are quite likely to exit to head to other destinations off I-95; the most notable, of course, would likely be I-295 and I-64 in the Richmond area (substantial amounts of southbound traffic heading east to Williamsburg, Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach, and the Outer Banks, as well as northbound traffic heading west on I-64 towards Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, and other places along I-81), and then a fair amount of southbound I-95 traffic also exists to I-85.

You left out the most common reason: commuting traffic. Not only in the DC area, but the Richmond area as well. That would be the vast majority of traffic on 95 most days, especially weekdays.

[1995hoo]

While at first blush for Virginia the impulse is to list I-95 as "most likely," I don't think that's probably right. There are too many places where people are quite likely to exit to head to other destinations off I-95; the most notable, of course, would likely be I-295 and I-64 in the Richmond area (substantial amounts of southbound traffic heading east to Williamsburg, Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach, and the Outer Banks, as well as northbound traffic heading west on I-64 towards Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, and other places along I-81), and then a fair amount of southbound I-95 traffic also exists to I-85.

You left out the most common reason: commuting traffic. Not only in the DC area, but the Richmond area as well. That would be the vast majority of traffic on 95 most days, especially weekdays.

That's a fair point. I think I probably figured that the average commuter might be more likely than the average long-distance traveler to have "clinched" his home state's segment at some point, but I didn't read the OP carefully enough to take note of the reference to doing it in one shot. The average commuter, or really any in-state resident, is probably less likely to do that than an out-of-stater passing through (using the "highway of 20 miles or more in length" criterion to exclude I-395, I don't think I've ever done any of Virginia's Interstates in a single shot except for I-85 and I-295). There are a few exceptions, of course; at one point, my late father had a work colleague in downtown DC who lived in Woodstock, Virginia, and drove in every day via I-81 and the entirety of Virginia's I-66 (don't know whether she met the HOV requirement or just drove a hybrid).

Doesn't change my answer about I-85, though.

[JayhawkCO]

Doesn't change my answer about I-85, though.

I-85 definitely seems like the correct answer to me for VA interstates.

[JayhawkCO]

My examples from Wyoming:

Most Likely to Clinch
Interstate: I-90 (208.80 miles) - A) the shortest, B) of the three 2dis in Wyoming, the one that doesn't pass through either of the largest two cities, and C) moderately on the way to Yellowstone, the most visited place in the state.

US Highway: US18 (99.68 miles) - Kind of the default answer here as most of the other US routes are very long and/or have broken up segments. US89 was a consideration but local traffic in Jackson ruins it.

State Highway: WYO430 (53.52 miles) - The quickest way from Northern Colorado to Rock Springs. It also doesn't get a lot of local traffic in Rock Springs since it ends before it really gets into town.

Least Likely to Clinch
Interstate: I-25 (300.53 miles) - As I put in my Colorado entry, I-25 just isn't really a freight corridor that connects large metro areas. If you're coming from the east and want to go to the Pacific northwest, you're not going I-70->I-25->I-90, you'd much more likely go I-80->I-84.

US Highway: US189 (216.48 miles) - People often travel the concurrency with I-80 or the stretch to Jackson, but very little of the rest.

State Highway: WYO222 (1.81 miles) - Extends on both ends of I-80 just west of Cheyenne and doesn't connect to much. I can see exiting and choosing to go north or south, but I can't see much thru traffic ever needing to us the whole thing.

[vdeane]

I occurred to me that NY 9R is probably a good example of "least clinched".  It's 3.2 miles long, and there's basically no reason to drive it all the way from one end to another (in fact, you're more likely to drive by both ends without using it at all) unless you're a roadgeek looking for a clinch (or a contractor gathering data for the DOT photolog/pavement condition inventory).