Most abrupt change from rural to urban/suburban?

[jakeroot]

North of Vancouver, BC, the Highway 99 transition from running along Howe Sound (left) to being a main artery through the northern and eastern suburbs is fairly abrupt, as you can see in this image:

[GaryV]

Grand Rapids from I-196- my memory is fuzzy, but it was pretty quiet heading into GRR from the west until you hit that hill going down into the downtown area.

More or less.  You've already passed through the Grandville area which is getting pretty built up.  Then you go along the floodplain of the Grand, so there's not much development for a while, until you come up the hill and around the turn (and see the city lights at night).

[bassoon1986]

I-45 in southeast Dallas is pretty desolate. Even after crossing I-20 and Loop 12, it's very marshy and undeveloped and then you appear in Downtown and the transition to US 75 north is way busier.

[capt.ron]

Almost any of the Florida Panhandle beach cities feature that. One minute you're in a pine tree thicket and the next minute you're in town right next to the beach.

[Zeffy]

It always amazed me how Northern Virginia is vastly different from the rest of the state. I would say south of Fredericksburg is the cutoff of where the density drops (maybe even Stafford).

[jp the roadgeek]

I-84 west and CT 8 north of Waterbury, CT are pretty abrupt.  Within 3 miles of downtown Waterbury where they cross in the mixmaster, you're in the Litchfield Hills heading north and in the sticks of Middlebury heading west and both roads narrow to 2 lanes in each direction except for climbing lanes.

[noelbotevera]

I-95 on the NJ Turnpike. Once you go past I-287, you go from seeing the Manhattan skyline instant forest. It's pretty abrupt - once 287 SB traffic merges in, the skyline disappears.

[KG909]

6 lanes down to just 2 seems abrupt to me.
Though this area is now slowly getting developed. Fuck it

https://goo.gl/maps/b742oUW4m322

HTC Desire 510

[thenetwork]

I-70 around Denver is a good example. 

Heading east on I-70, once you pass the Pena & E-470 exits, you go from urban sprawl and development to farmland within a few minutes.  Traffic counts drop dramatically as well.

Heading west, once you start climbing the hill west of the C-470 and US-40/Morrison exits, houses become sparser and what few brick & mortar businesses there are are well off the interstate  -- despite the numerous exits between Golden and Idaho Springs.

[vegas1962]

Folks in SE Michigan who like to spend weekends "up north" would agree that I-75 transitions very noticeably north of the US-10/M-25 interchange near Bay City.  The freeway between Flint and Bay City is generally four lanes wide in each direction with plenty of business and residential development.  But past US-10 it quickly transitions to two lanes each way, wider median, large expanses of trees and farmland.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I experienced this last week. I was leaving Logroño South on N-111, the first few miles are somewhat suburban but then suddenly you are inside the mountains.

[Marc]

Here are mine (a few have already been mentioned):

1. I-10 east into New Orleans
2. I-10 east into Houston (mostly empty rice fields west of Katy–though this area is starting to grow)
3. I-40 east and I-55 south into Memphis
4. I-10 east into San Antonio (freeway goes from 2 to 5 lanes within roughly a mile–they just finished construction, so it could be closer to 6 lanes now)
5. I-40 west into Nashville (it's been awhile since I've been there, so this may have changed)

[wphiii]

Driving around the PA Coal Region can be pretty jarring. A lot of the towns in there were built up like they could have been neighborhoods in, say, Philadelphia, but with little to no suburban sprawl-type development. These tightly-packed little towns just end, and suddenly you're in the glades and hollows again. If you're bored, "drive" PA 54 from one end of Mahanoy City to the other in StreetView to see what I mean.

[GaryV]

Folks in SE Michigan who like to spend weekends "up north" would agree that I-75 transitions very noticeably north of the US-10/M-25 interchange near Bay City.  The freeway between Flint and Bay City is generally four lanes wide in each direction with plenty of business and residential development.  But past US-10 it quickly transitions to two lanes each way, wider median, large expanses of trees and farmland.

And not enough lanes for the traffic on summer weekends.

[ftballfan]

Grand Rapids from I-196- my memory is fuzzy, but it was pretty quiet heading into GRR from the west until you hit that hill going down into the downtown area.

More or less.  You've already passed through the Grandville area which is getting pretty built up.  Then you go along the floodplain of the Grand, so there's not much development for a while, until you come up the hill and around the turn (and see the city lights at night).

As long as you're in Grand Rapids, can't forget about US-131 coming in from the south. A rural freeway at 100th St that goes right into suburbia by 84th St (two miles north). The new Tanger Outlets center is at the 84th St exit. And for non-freeways, M-37/Broadmoor Ave from Caledonia changes from suburban to rural (two lanes with trees on both sides) to four lane divided through industrial parks followed into the Woodland Mall area.

[roadman65]

In Florida US 192 changes at I-95 from rural to urban or from urban to rural depending on which way you drive it.

US 19 changes at Weeki Wachi where south of there to St. Pete its a very developed arterial while north of there it is rural and gets its first higher than 55 speed limit if you are heading northward.  From Weeki Wachi to Crystal River is the US route's southernmost open section free of consistent signals.

[TXtoNJ]

I-95 on the NJ Turnpike. Once you go past I-287, you go from seeing the Manhattan skyline instant forest. It's pretty abrupt - once 287 SB traffic merges in, the skyline disappears.

It's still densely populated, though - it just has the standard Northeastern expressway tree barrier.

[noelbotevera]

I-95 on the NJ Turnpike. Once you go past I-287, you go from seeing the Manhattan skyline instant forest. It's pretty abrupt - once 287 SB traffic merges in, the skyline disappears.

It's still densely populated, though - it just has the standard Northeastern expressway tree barrier.

But you hardly notice the development - the trees are planted rather densely that it seems like you go from urban to rural in about 300 feet.

[CapeCodder]

I was going to say the approaches to St. Louis are noticeable. On I-70 WB, once you hit Foristell, you're in the sticks, likewise EB you hit the wall of suburbs and past Wentzville you're in the "Golden Triangle." 44 WB at the Franklin County/STL County line, you're in hilly country. From the east, the suburbs don't extend much up 70 or 55, but along 64 it seems it's pushing further east, hell Wunnenbergs added a Clinton County Street Guide to its repertoire of products.

[stchuckroadgeek]

I was going to say the approaches to St. Louis are noticeable. On I-70 WB, once you hit Foristell, you're in the sticks, likewise EB you hit the wall of suburbs and past Wentzville you're in the "Golden Triangle." 44 WB at the Franklin County/STL County line, you're in hilly country. From the east, the suburbs don't extend much up 70 or 55, but along 64 it seems it's pushing further east, hell Wunnenbergs added a Clinton County Street Guide to its repertoire of products.

True although I-64 is only about 27 miles until you hit farmland from the Mississippi, where on the Missouri side you have to drive 50 miles west of the Mississippi to hit farmland.  When I travel east to visit family, almost half of the trip is getting across the St. Louis metro. Along US-61 in the northwest part of the St. Louis area you have the Cuivre River just north of Troy, MO where there is a significant drop between any exurban and suburban development once you go north.   

Another fun example that never leaves the greater Saint Louis metro area is Highway 94(MO-94) in St. Charles County.  It quickly goes from  two lane rural west of highway fourty(US-40/61/I-64) to a four lane limited access highway, then multiplexed with with eight lane highway, and then quickly drops back to rural again north of highway 370(MO-370) all in a single thirty to thirty-five mile stretch. 

[roadman65]

The Florida Turnpike goes from suburban sprawl to rural at (or now just south of US 192), and at FL 70 and north of it goes from the Fort Pierce/ Port St. Lucie density to open areas with orange groves.  Hence that is why for 88 miles you have only one interchange the whole entire route.

[ET21]

I-88 just past Orchard Road. Goes from industrial/commercial to complete rural within 1 mile.

I-90 in Illinois is tricky because over the past 10 years there has been big developments between Elgin and Rockford. There is still farmland, but its slowly beginning to erode away from the interstate.

[roadman65]

Yes development and sprawl can move the line and drastically even make a metro area bigger. 

Look at I-4 near Disney.  The US 192 interchange was where it became rural until Lakeland, and now with Celebration and the sprawl at US 27, it now becomes rural until Tampa and Orlando become like NYC and Philadelphia that is one combined metro area.

[HurrMark]

I lived in south Florida about 2 miles from the Sawgrass/Everglades as a kid, and I was always impressed by how sharp a boundary between "civilization" and nothingness it was. I have a hard time believing there is as sharp a boundary as that in the US.

[roadman65]

One thing that is noticeable is in a plane flying over Orlando, you notice the boundary between civilization and the Wekiva Wetlands as the wetlands cover many square miles of green.  You notice that real easy after seeing developments for quite a while after take off from MCO.

Yes the Everglades is the same way.  It has a distinct line that prevents the developments from going further west. 

So much for wetlands preserve, as that is one thing that keeps bulldozers away!  Heck it took years for them to get FL 429 approved north of Apopka as that is right smack in the middle of the Wekiva preserve.