Worst traffic jams you've been in

[Duke87]

^^ It's frowned upon in the U.S., but folks still do it.

It's not always as unsafe as it would seem, though.

Merritt Parkway southbound. Exit 29. Twice in my life I've exited through the entrance there due to severe traffic (neither while I was behind the wheel, though). It's a short little entrance ramp that leads in from a pretty minor side street. Not very heavily used in normal circumstances. But when the parkway backs up real bad there, it makes a great escape route and it's not at all dangerous considering that you get a stready stream of traffic doing it and so it becomes patently obvious to anyone who may come along that they shouldn't go there.
But obviously if you had a longer ramp where you couldn't just at a glance see that no one's coming and then make a U-turn onto it, it would be a bad idea. Most onramps aren't like this.

As for horrible traffic experiences, well... we have relatives who used to live in Delaware. Normally the drive from our house to theirs was little more than three hours. One time when we, by some stupidity, decided to drive down there on a beautiful sunny Friday in the summer, left at about noon and failed to get there before dark because of Jersey Shore traffic on the Turnpike and the GW Bridge, compounded with some construction-related traffic on the Hutch. My father almost decided to turn around and go home a few times. My mother, my sisters, and I had to dissuade him.

[Bryant5493]

^^ My luck, if I'd tried that, I'd get caught, so I'll just stick with the congested traffic.


Be well,

Bryant

[florida]

I-10 from Tallahassee, FL to I-75 and points eastward upon leaving the day before Thanksgiving. Never leave a college city the day before a holiday weekend  . I ended up getting off and taking US 19 and friends to Chiefland.

[jdb1234]

^^ I once went to Florida for Thanksgiving and got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on I-75 from Lake City to Ocala.

[florida]

^^ I once went to Florida for Thanksgiving and got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on I-75 from Lake City to Ocala.

You would have been better off taking side roads. General humans only know of Interstates. 

[deathtopumpkins]

I've never heard it called rubbernecking...  But people do that here, for every little thing. Onlooker Delays (as traffic reports--and thus locals) call it, are the cause of most traffic jams in the Hampton Roads area that are not the direct result of one of the tunnels.

[mightyace]

On the way to the Bristol NASCAR race in March, we were on I-81 North and planning to get off at I-26 (Exit 57) and take back roads into the track.  We encountered a race related jam somewhere between exits 44 and 50 and we bailed at exit 50.  The exit closest to the track for northbound travel is Exit 69.  Therefore, the backup on I-81 was between 19 and 25 miles!

[njroadhorse]

The worst traffic jam I've ever experienced was on I-95 in Hackensack, just after the I-80 merge.  We were going to a Yankees game, and the traffic was dead stopped or barely moving until past the Major Deegan in the Bronx.

I've also sat on the Major Deegan for upwards of 1 1/2 hours after a Yankees game.

[Mr. Matté]

Luckily for me, multi-hour traffic jams have never happened to me although that's not to say that every time I go into New York City or through the Jersey Turnpike's "Merge" it's smooth sailing for me.

The worst one I can think of is coming back from Hersheypark during my summer camp in 2002, as we were coming from the PA Turnpike extension onto the NJ Turnpike NB, we stopped for about an hour. Turns out that there was a truck that flipped over the median and caught fire around Exit 7.  It would've been relatively uneventful had it not been for:

• The fact that the head counselor was saying right before we were going to pass the scene "Don't look, someone probably got hurt." Of course we looked anyway.
• One kid held us up for about 30 minutes because while we were finishing up our day at Hershey's Chocolate World, this kid was nowhere to be found.  Turns out he was re-riding the Chocolate Tour ride multiple times to get the free chocolates at the end.  Had it not been for him, we would have gotten home on time.

And for the record, my family and I have been using "rubbernecking" for a while. I know we used it in 2003 on our way to King's Dominion because a U-Haul truck flipped on I-95 southbound and I remember a lot of tennis balls all over the place.

[froggie]

I've never heard it called rubbernecking...

Most places I've been, I've heard it called that.  Even in Hampton Roads (106.9 The Fox, for example...at least when I lived there).

Longest I've personally experienced was an hour and a half to clear Talladega after a race.  Even living in the DC area, only rarely will I hit a jam that takes more than 30 minutes (though to be fair, I'm usually not on the roads where the jams most frequently take place).

[deathtopumpkins]

I've never heard it called rubbernecking...

Most places I've been, I've heard it called that.  Even in Hampton Roads (106.9 The Fox, for example...at least when I lived there).

That explains it right there. Who listens to The Fox anymore? 

Yesterday I sat on US-17 for 45 minutes to an hour barely moving just trying to get up to Yorktown. Every day lately it seems that its bumper-to-bumper all the way from the VA 134 merge to the Coleman Bridge. I don't think a 4-lane undivided highway's really cutting it anymore. 

[Chris]

I sometimes hear of 10 mile backups because of the accident, and an even longer 15 mile backup because of rubbernecking 

[74/171FAN]

Coming back from Miami earlier this year in GA going from 6 to 4 lanes and congestion then back to 6 only to go back to 4 and more congestion.  Fortunately soon I-95 will be at least 6 lanes from I-4 to the GA-SC line

[WillWeaverRVA]

I've sat on Atlantic and Pacific Avenues in Virginia Beach for an hour once...both because my attempt to escape to I-264 failed miserably due to idiot pedestrians and blocked off streets.

[74/171FAN]

I've sat on Atlantic and Pacific Avenues in Virginia Beach for an hour once...both because my attempt to escape to I-264 failed miserably due to idiot pedestrians and blocked off streets.

Fortunately they fixed the signals(at least on Atlantic Ave) to where pedestrians have their own phase to cross without any traffic moving

[golden eagle]

I personally was not involved in it, but when I lived in San Diego, a crane overturned at the I-5/805 merge, causing power lines to topple as well and blocked lanes in all directions for hours. In fact, many businesses had to close or work with reduced staff and medical appointments were rescheduled because of it.

Here's the story to this accident:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20030515-9999_1n15crane.html

[leifvanderwall]

These are traffic jams I just remembered:
In 2000, on I-495 Washington DC area. Worst part: I had to go to the bathroom.
In 2007, on Florida 50 from Orlando to UCF area. So bad I had to take side roads to go around it.