Worst Interstate drive you have experienced

[iwishiwascanadian]

I would have to say I-95 in North Carolina, that state seems quite easy to drive through especially north-south but it's as deceptive as New Jersey. 

[PAHighways]

Also, if you plan on going faster than 70 in PA, beware of the bears.

You can get away with 75, in fact I've heard Troop T won't pull anyone over for 66-75, but at 76 you're likely to get pulled over.

[Revive 755]

Mine is I-70 west of Topeka, Kansas which is flat (rises so slowly you don't notice) and really barren of any tree's. Total sheer boredom and maybe it was me but that Colorado state line sure seemed to move further west. Second place is I-75 south of Macon, Georgia which has trees but very straight and after the busy roads of Atlanta it dies in the middle of the night.

I don't quite agree with your starting point; I-70 stays somewhat interesting and rolling for a little ways west of Topeka:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=39.059017,-96.126294&spn=0.02326,0.054932&t=p&z=15&layer=c&cbll=39.058103,-96.137791&panoid=bt3MjWMmCAGo-gKXTxrIsw&cbp=12,84.35,,0,10.06

Or maybe it's just that I have to suffer through Illinois at 65 mph too frequently.

[Bickendan]

I-5 between Wilsonville and Grants Pass is boring as hell, and there's hills south of Eugene.

o.0 Some of the most interesting sections of I-5 are between Cottage Grove and Grants Pass! If I had to nominate the most 'boring' section of I-5, it'd be between Coburg and Albany, though. And this is taking into account the Woodland-Redding and Wheeler Ridge-Tracy segments.

Also, apparently, the entire stretch of I-5 in Oregon is a construction zone since ODOT never puts end road work signs, and there's plenty of 'TRAFFIC FINES ARE DOUBLED' signs...  :\

That's a 'feature', not a 'bug'.

Also, ODOT doesn't have a speed limit higher than 65...

Long-running complaint, that.

I'm nominating I-10 from Tucson to Indio, purely on the basis of doing a long-haul non-stop drive from NOLA to LACA. And that's going through Phoenix in the middle of the night, so traffic wasn't an issue (was in Tucson for the freeway reconstruction).

Oh, and I-10 through the bayous west of NOLA. Talk about a bumpy drive on the viaducts.

[TheStranger]

And this is taking into account the Woodland-Redding and Wheeler Ridge-Tracy segments.

I did Woodland-Red Bluff once in 2007.  Wow!  So much nothing!  

I probably rate Tracy-Wheeler Ridge a little worse because I've been on it so many times, compared to just once that I can remember for the segment past Woodland.  (I probably went on the north segment as a very young kid)

It's fascinating that I-5 basically was constructed to avoid all but two of the big population centers between Los Angeles and Redding, bypassing sizable communities such as Chico, Yuba City/Redding, Modesto, Fresno, and Bakersfield.

[Bickendan]

I don't rate Woodland-Red Bluff that badly because I've done I-10 San Antonio-El Paso

[KEK Inc.]

I-5 between Wilsonville and Grants Pass is boring as hell, and there's hills south of Eugene.

o.0 Some of the most interesting sections of I-5 are between Cottage Grove and Grants Pass! If I had to nominate the most 'boring' section of I-5, it'd be between Coburg and Albany, though. And this is taking into account the Woodland-Redding and Wheeler Ridge-Tracy segments.

Also, apparently, the entire stretch of I-5 in Oregon is a construction zone since ODOT never puts end road work signs, and there's plenty of 'TRAFFIC FINES ARE DOUBLED' signs...  :\

That's a 'feature', not a 'bug'.

Also, ODOT doesn't have a speed limit higher than 65...

Long-running complaint, that.

I'm nominating I-10 from Tucson to Indio, purely on the basis of doing a long-haul non-stop drive from NOLA to LACA. And that's going through Phoenix in the middle of the night, so traffic wasn't an issue (was in Tucson for the freeway reconstruction).

Oh, and I-10 through the bayous west of NOLA. Talk about a bumpy drive on the viaducts.

Oregon roads are terrible at night, and I usually drive through Southern Oregon at 11 PM-3AMish.  Maybe I'll appreciate it more in the daytime... 

Also, why the hell is there an obnoxious 50 zone in Myrtle Creek?  There's a subtle chicane, but they had to light up that entire set of curves like it's Christmas, and they recommend like 40 for the turn, when you can easily turn at 60. 

[froggie]

Not the worst, but ranking up there was getting stuck in this yesterday...took the better part of an hour for me to clear it.  Had I not been caught in Reading traffic, or not stopped in Kutztown for a late lunch, I'd have been *A LOT CLOSER*.

[J N Winkler]

I absolutely loathe I-70 across Missouri.

[Bickendan]

Oregon roads are terrible at night, and I usually drive through Southern Oregon at 11 PM-3AMish.  Maybe I'll appreciate it more in the daytime... 

Also, why the hell is there an obnoxious 50 zone in Myrtle Creek?  There's a subtle chicane, but they had to light up that entire set of curves like it's Christmas, and they recommend like 40 for the turn, when you can easily turn at 60. 

Those are some really tight curves, possibly some of the tightest on the entire Interstate system (disprove me, peoples!) and my dad's seen semis tip over in his rearview mirror there.

[KEK Inc.]

Oregon roads are terrible at night, and I usually drive through Southern Oregon at 11 PM-3AMish.  Maybe I'll appreciate it more in the daytime... 

Also, why the hell is there an obnoxious 50 zone in Myrtle Creek?  There's a subtle chicane, but they had to light up that entire set of curves like it's Christmas, and they recommend like 40 for the turn, when you can easily turn at 60. 

Those are some really tight curves, possibly some of the tightest on the entire Interstate system (disprove me, peoples!) and my dad's seen semis tip over in his rearview mirror there.

I think there's some curves between Redding and Dunsmuir that are worse.  And I went 75-80 there without much of an issue.

[Scott5114]

I absolutely loathe I-70 across Missouri.

Yeah, it's pretty bad. Busy and much of it is not very inspiring. Not the most fun combination.

[Duke87]

Florida always continues to earn my award for "deceptively long-ass drive".  Did you know it is 879 miles!! from Mobile to Key West?  And an unfortunate segment of that done at 25mph? 

had I made a guess, I'd have said 350 miles, done in five hours easy.

Florida is deceptively large thanks to its irregular shape. The same sort of unexpectedly long distances exist for New York (it's 557 miles from Erie to Montauk), Michigan (609 miles from Calumet to Toledo), and Idaho (706 miles from Bonners Ferry to Bear Lake).

[Bickendan]

Oregon roads are terrible at night, and I usually drive through Southern Oregon at 11 PM-3AMish.  Maybe I'll appreciate it more in the daytime... 

Also, why the hell is there an obnoxious 50 zone in Myrtle Creek?  There's a subtle chicane, but they had to light up that entire set of curves like it's Christmas, and they recommend like 40 for the turn, when you can easily turn at 60. 

Those are some really tight curves, possibly some of the tightest on the entire Interstate system (disprove me, peoples!) and my dad's seen semis tip over in his rearview mirror there.

I think there's some curves between Redding and Dunsmuir that are worse.  And I went 75-80 there without much of an issue.

Only along Lake Shasta, if memory serves. Bear in mind, though, that I-5 in Oregon has 5 of the nation's 25 steep-grade summits and passes on the Interstate system, according to AASHTO (the picture in the article is the Myrtle Creek segment, which features tight corners and a 6% grade -- the 50 mph curves are very warranted). Syskiyou (I-5's highest point), Stage Road, Sexton, Smith Hill and Canyon Creek are all nastier than Anderson Hill in northern California.

[KEK Inc.]

Oregon roads are terrible at night, and I usually drive through Southern Oregon at 11 PM-3AMish.  Maybe I'll appreciate it more in the daytime... 

Also, why the hell is there an obnoxious 50 zone in Myrtle Creek?  There's a subtle chicane, but they had to light up that entire set of curves like it's Christmas, and they recommend like 40 for the turn, when you can easily turn at 60. 

Those are some really tight curves, possibly some of the tightest on the entire Interstate system (disprove me, peoples!) and my dad's seen semis tip over in his rearview mirror there.

I think there's some curves between Redding and Dunsmuir that are worse.  And I went 75-80 there without much of an issue.

Only along Lake Shasta, if memory serves. Bear in mind, though, that I-5 in Oregon has 5 of the nation's 25 steep-grade summits and passes on the Interstate system, according to AASHTO (the picture in the article is the Myrtle Creek segment, which features tight corners and a 6% grade -- the 50 mph curves are very warranted). Syskiyou (I-5's highest point), Stage Road, Sexton, Smith Hill and Canyon Creek are all nastier than Anderson Hill in northern California.

Eh, I suppose, but most sections of that road should be more than 65, particularly through Bear Creek Valley.

Also, that graphic is on the Northern side of the siskyou slope.

[Bickendan]

Ah, you're right on the pic.

And yes -- 65 is too low for I-5 in general.

[J N Winkler]

I absolutely loathe I-70 across Missouri.

Yeah, it's pretty bad. Busy and much of it is not very inspiring. Not the most fun combination.

I had to drive I-70 end to end back in the late 1990's when I went to Washington, DC for summer jobs, so I discovered it had special tortures on late spring nights.  I-70 is so busy for so much of the day, and carries so much truck traffic, that lighting would be helpful even on rural lengths, but almost none is provided.  The median is narrow (late 1950's/early 1960's construction) and for considerable lengths I-70 has heavily used two-way frontage roads very close to the main lanes.  As a result, you get blinded on both sides.

Missouri gets summer thunderstorms, like most of the South, but no account of this was taken in crossfall design on I-70.  Unlike Interstates in states like North Carolina, which have historically had a 2.5% left-to-right crossfall which drains water very quickly and allows you to maintain 65 MPH or better in heavy thunderstorms without using your windshield wipers (as long as you have treated your windshield with Rain-X or similar), Missouri I-70 carriageways are crowned with a fairly low crossfall (maybe even as low as 1.5%)--when the rain starts falling, your steering wheel lets you feel the water wedges form under your front tires.

Rural lengths of I-70 in central Missouri pass through hilly terrain on an arrow-straight course, so there are long successions of rising and falling grades which lead to passing tag with eighteen-wheelers.  Back in the late 1990's, pavement condition was uniformly bad except on too-short lengths which had received full-depth reconstruction with Portland cement concrete.  Long lengths of asphalt had bad rutting which, of course, exacerbated problems in rainstorms.

A high proportion of interchanges, particularly around Columbia, have serious geometric shortcomings (too-short speed change lanes, etc.) which really play up when they attempt to carry far more traffic than provided for in the design.

The Missouri River crossing at Boonville is an atrocity exhibition that needs to be blown up ASAP and replaced with a valley viaduct.

[KEK Inc.]

Ah, you're right on the pic.

And yes -- 65 is too low for I-5 in general.

I remember doing 65 on that curve two weeks ago in the middle of the night. 

[thenetwork]

I-80 through PA used to be a helluva snoozer, but give the Keystone State credit for:

1) Increasing the speed limit to 65 MPH
2) Using Mileage-based exit numbers (it was pure hell trying to figure out/count down the mileage to "Exit 32" from "Exit 18").

Although I swear, it looked like we went up the same hill, passed the same row of pine trees, and went around the same curve 25 times in a row before we got through the Poconos back in my high school days.

[Scott5114]

Although I swear, it looked like we went up the same hill, passed the same row of pine trees, and went around the same curve 25 times in a row before we got through the Poconos back in my high school days.

I-35 through the Arbuckles can be like that at night. It doesn't help that there's Exit 49 for US 77: Turner Falls Area, followed by a scenic turnout, then Exit 51 for US 77: Turner Falls Area, followed by a scenic turnout.

[Duke87]

The thing about 80 in Pennsylvania is that it doesn't pass directly through any towns of notable size (except perhaps Stroudsburg).

In spite of this, you will hit traffic - there is always construction somewhere, of PennDOT's favorite "let's close the right lane for ten miles while we're doing work on 500 feet of the road at any given time" variety.

[LeftyJR]

The thing about 80 in Pennsylvania is that it doesn't pass directly through any towns of notable size (except perhaps Stroudsburg).

In spite of this, you will hit traffic - there is always construction somewhere, of PennDOT's favorite "let's close the right lane for ten miles while we're doing work on 500 feet of the road at any given time" variety.

This is particularly bad around DuBois and Clearfield right now - especially on Sunday nights when truck traffic is making its way to the east coast!

Wasn't 80 in PA supposed to start in Erie and cross through Williamsport and Wilkes-Barre on its way to Stroudsburg initially?

[PAHighways]

Wasn't 80 in PA supposed to start in Erie and cross through Williamsport and Wilkes-Barre on its way to Stroudsburg initially?

It was proposed to follow the US 6 corridor, as the Keystone Shortway was being planned by the PTC on what is now 80's path.

[Quillz]

Not sure if anyone yet has mentioned the stretch of I-15 known as the Mojave Freeway... Between Barstow and Las Vegas, there is the city of Baker and that's it. Desert, desert and more desert. The only road in rural, desolate desert. The only, long, boring road to Las Vegas is frequently backed up with traffic, too.

[bookem]

Bear in mind, though, that I-5 in Oregon has 5 of the nation's 25 steep-grade summits and passes on the Interstate system, according to AASHTO (the picture in the article is the Myrtle Creek segment, which features tight corners and a 6% grade -- the 50 mph curves are very warranted). Syskiyou (I-5's highest point), Stage Road, Sexton, Smith Hill and Canyon Creek are all nastier than Anderson Hill in northern California.

Small wonder that many truckers seem to prefer the OR 58 (Willamette Pass) to US 97 route through southern OR and northern CA.

I-5 between Portland and Seattle is pretty heinous mainly due to traffic and construction, although there are some stunning views of Mt. Rainier here and there.