Most States in One Day by Road

[roadman65]

I think that the better question would be how many miles in a day (which was already covered) we have gone as states like California, Texas, and Montana do not stand a chance.  Crossing them states equals the same amount of mileage covered among many states along I-95 on the east coast.

Look at Texas with I-10.  Over one third of it is in Texas, so you have the TX-LA State Line closer to Jacksonville, FL than the NM-TX State Line on the other side of where I-10 runs in the Lone Star State.  So to travel I-10 in LA, MS, AL, and FL may be through 4 different states and could be done in a day, traveling the whole I-10 freeway in Texas is only one state which takes about 12 hours, but you traveled farther in mileage even though you remained intrastate.

[corco]

I live in a bad part of the country for this.

If Canadian provinces count, I've done WI-IL-IN-MI-ON-QC-VT-NH in a day.

Beyond that, I've done 6 a few times:
OH-IN-IL-MO-KS-CO
AL-MS-KY-TN-IL-MO
TN-KY-IL-MO-IA-NE

[slorydn1]

As a passenger/teenager back up driver for dad: 6 (IL-IN-OH-PA-NJ-NY) Several times in the '80's...

As THE driver: 5 (NC-VA-WV-KY-TN) A "Just Because" road trip my wife and I did in late January this year.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Did WI-IL-IN-OH-PA-NY in a single drive session once, but I wasn't behind the wheel.

Traffic not withstanding I think I-95 would be the champ easily. You can start in Kittery, ME and be in North Carolina in 11-12 hours through ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, and NC.

[slorydn1]

Did WI-IL-IN-OH-PA-NY in a single drive session once, but I wasn't behind the wheel.

Traffic not withstanding I think I-95 would be the champ easily. You can start in Kittery, ME and be in North Carolina in 11-12 hours through ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, and NC.

I have thought about doing that (although in reverse, LOL). Even my wife is on board. The issue I see about doing it in just one day, though, is not distance, its the horrendous traffic between DC and points north. The last time I went north to visit family I was lucky to have averaged 45 mph for the whole trip. I am not sure I could be in ME in 12 hours from here.

[hotdogPi]

Did WI-IL-IN-OH-PA-NY in a single drive session once, but I wasn't behind the wheel.

Traffic not withstanding I think I-95 would be the champ easily. You can start in Kittery, ME and be in North Carolina in 11-12 hours through ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, and NC.

I have thought about doing that (although in reverse, LOL). Even my wife is on board. The issue I see about doing it in just one day, though, is not distance, its the horrendous traffic between DC and points north. The last time I went north to visit family I was lucky to have averaged 45 mph for the whole trip. I am not sure I could be in ME in 12 hours from here.

Do it in the middle of the night?

[davewiecking]

Traffic not withstanding I think I-95 would be the champ easily. You can start in Kittery, ME and be in North Carolina in 11-12 hours through ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, and NC.

If you're staying on 95, you'd have a tough time not including DE and DC.

[jeffandnicole]

Did WI-IL-IN-OH-PA-NY in a single drive session once, but I wasn't behind the wheel.

Traffic not withstanding I think I-95 would be the champ easily. You can start in Kittery, ME and be in North Carolina in 11-12 hours through ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, and NC.

I have thought about doing that (although in reverse, LOL). Even my wife is on board. The issue I see about doing it in just one day, though, is not distance, its the horrendous traffic between DC and points north. The last time I went north to visit family I was lucky to have averaged 45 mph for the whole trip. I am not sure I could be in ME in 12 hours from here.

Do it in the middle of the night?

The trick is getting around NYC. Assuming no construction, anywhere from about midnight to noon going south and noon to 4am going north will get you thru without much of an issue. Relatively speaking, of course.

[froggie]

Although it doesn't always happen, I have had success in the past at traversing the Cross-Bronx at/near the posted speed mid-day on Sunday.

[Pete from Boston]

Did WI-IL-IN-OH-PA-NY in a single drive session once, but I wasn't behind the wheel.

Traffic not withstanding I think I-95 would be the champ easily. You can start in Kittery, ME and be in North Carolina in 11-12 hours through ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, and NC.

This was my longest, minus the extra hour and a half needed to include Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.  I left Friday night after rush hour, stopped for a couple of hours in New Jersey, and drove through the night.  No real congestion until I hit horrendous vacationer traffic south of DC the next day.

[ekt8750]

Did 9 in one day and drove about 65% of it. PA, DE, MD, VA, WV, TN, AL, MS, LA. By far my fav road trip.

[The Nature Boy]

As bad as traffic is north of DC, people really underestimate the amount of traffic south of DC. You have all of the vacationer traffic stuffed into two lanes in Virginia and the Carolinas. It can be a nightmare.

And you are not making it to Kittery in 11-12 hours from the NC border unless you have amazing luck and miss all the traffic. Passing through DC, Baltimore, Philly, New York and Boston's metro areas, you're going to hit some traffic at some point.

[froggie]

As bad as traffic is north of DC, people really underestimate the amount of traffic south of DC. You have all of the vacationer traffic stuffed into two lanes in Virginia and the Carolinas. It can be a nightmare.

If your definition of "nightmare" is that you're stuck going 65 because of a slow truck or bus passing a slower truck or bus, then yes...

A lot of people on this forum slam 95 through southern Virginia and the Carolinas, but from an operational and traffic flow standpoint, 95 really is not that bad.  There are certainly far worse roadways out there...

[The Nature Boy]

As bad as traffic is north of DC, people really underestimate the amount of traffic south of DC. You have all of the vacationer traffic stuffed into two lanes in Virginia and the Carolinas. It can be a nightmare.

If your definition of "nightmare" is that you're stuck going 65 because of a slow truck or bus passing a slower truck or bus, then yes...

A lot of people on this forum slam 95 through southern Virginia and the Carolinas, but from an operational and traffic flow standpoint, 95 really is not that bad.  There are certainly far worse roadways out there...

I've seen standstill traffic on I-95 in some rural areas of North Carolina. All it really takes is a small accident to create a bottleneck. Is it the worst in the country? Of course not, but at times, it does reach over capacity.

[froggie]

If it takes a crash to create the bottleneck, then it's not over capacity.

North of Richmond (and especially Fredericksburg north) reaches over capacity...where additional flow is enough to create unstable  and breakdown conditions.  But in the Carolinas, that doesn't happen.

[The Nature Boy]

If it takes a crash to create the bottleneck, then it's not over capacity.

North of Richmond (and especially Fredericksburg north) reaches over capacity...where additional flow is enough to create unstable  and breakdown conditions.  But in the Carolinas, that doesn't happen.

I don't think anyone argues that you're going to have standstill traffic on a regular basis in rural NC/SC/VA. It's just that the current arrangement is prone to overcrowding and anything going wrong causes a bottleneck. It works fine but it's not clear sailing and open road like one might expect in rural areas. You might possibly run into some delays.

And the immediate DC area is a nightmare traffic wise.

[ekt8750]

As bad as traffic is north of DC, people really underestimate the amount of traffic south of DC. You have all of the vacationer traffic stuffed into two lanes in Virginia and the Carolinas. It can be a nightmare.

And you are not making it to Kittery in 11-12 hours from the NC border unless you have amazing luck and miss all the traffic. Passing through DC, Baltimore, Philly, New York and Boston's metro areas, you're going to hit some traffic at some point.

I sat in three different backups on 95 between the Richmond and DC beltways two Saturdays ago and they were all volume related. I was pretty surprised to say the least.

[Mapmikey]

If it takes a crash to create the bottleneck, then it's not over capacity.

North of Richmond (and especially Fredericksburg north) reaches over capacity...where additional flow is enough to create unstable  and breakdown conditions.  But in the Carolinas, that doesn't happen.

My 35+ years of experience with I-95 in the Carolinas/Virginia is pretty much this...

Holiday weekends/periods can get crowded enough that there can be pockets of relative slow traffic (e.g. can't run wide open if that is your style) around clusters of trucks or RVs but true jams had a wreck or other mitigating factor such as bad weather.

95 in SC causes backups in Georgia where it drops from 3 lanes to 2 and that could indicate 6-laning I-95 in SC at least to Exit 33 (US 17 split towards Charleston) can be justified.

North of Richmond 95 can get slow sometimes from volume and frequently does this above Exit 126 Massaponax.

Mike

[jeffandnicole]

In my trips down 95 South, I noticed that you really don't hit "rural" 95 until you're past Richmond.  There's a LOT of traffic between Richmond and points north.

I try to limit my driving on holiday weekends because of the increase in traffic...and especially because these people don't know where they're going.  Doesn't matter if they're in Virginia and their destination is in Georgia. They're going to drive in such a manner that they hope not to miss their exit.  Same thing on my work commute home - if it's near a holiday or significant event (graduations, like around this time of year), I know I'm going to have to deal with more out-of-staters.

On my NJ Turnpike toll booth days, I remember one person coming thru my booth and complaining why there was so much traffic.  I asked what he was doing...He said he's on vacation.  My response: That's what everyone else is doing also.

It just goes to show that people think that everyone else is the problem.

[NWI_Irish96]

Six, several times in several different configurations.

[noelbotevera]

If you are clever, what you can do is drive to Scranton, take I-84 for a free bridge (Newburgh-Beacon), enter CT, then take CT 8 south or US 7 south to I-95 in Danbury and Waterbury to Bridgeport or Norwalk. If you favor skipping Providence and points south up to Philadelphia, take I-84 all the way to I-90 in MA, and take I-90 east to I-95.

[DeaconG]

Including DC, 9: PA-DE-MD-DC-VA-NC-SC-GA-FL.

[cl94]

If you are clever, what you can do is drive to Scranton, take I-84 for a free bridge (Newburgh-Beacon), enter CT, then take CT 8 south or US 7 south to I-95 in Danbury and Waterbury to Bridgeport or Norwalk. If you favor skipping Providence and points south up to Philadelphia, take I-84 all the way to I-90 in MA, and take I-90 east to I-95.

Bridge is tolled EB. All Hudson River bridges south of Albany have an EB toll ranging from $1.25 to whatever crazy rate the Port Authority now charges. Have to go up to US 9/20 or I-90 for a free crossing.

[iBallasticwolf2]

Whenever I go to Florida from Kentucky for the summer I always manage to go through KY, TN, GA, and FL (A total of 5 states). The drive is actually almost 950 miles as the drive starts in northern Kentucky.

[Sykotyk]

Well, nobody brought up this guy:

https://www.barrystiefel.com/21_states_in_one_day/21_states_in_one_day.htm

21. Though there's two caveats. He went from ET to CT, which added an hour. And he did it during the switch for DST, which added another hour. In a 24-hour span, he hit 19 states.

ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, WV, VA, TN, NC, GA, AL, IL, MO... and then AR and MS in the 2 additional hours during that calendar day.




Most I've ever driven in one day was a little over 1,000 (1,023 to be exact). Though that was out west (AR, MO, KS, OK, TX, NM). I have run through the Northeast from Maine into WV (ME, NH, MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, WV). I'm sure sometime in my life I did a longer trip that might have hit more northeast states at once. It was never a goal of mine. Just as a lot of my trips when I was younger were never about hitting counties, which irritates me because I know I came close to many that are still blank on my atlas and have to go out of my way to hit today...