The one highway, interstate, or city street you HATE to drive

[Billy F 1988]

It's inevitable. It's unavoidable. It can be very annoying to go up and down this one stretch of road due to a multitude of problems, and yet, many of us are left with no other option but to drive the very highways, interstates or city streets we hate so much.

One example for me being the kid from Montana:

One word: B R O A D W A Y! Damn, y'all, I have to traverse this cess pool of a city street in Missoula almost every day. It's the main drag between the grocery store I work for and my apartment, and every time I drive this road, I have to punch my way through the core of downtown which has gotten so overbloated in vehicle traffic even before COVID hit. Now in the Post-COVID era, traffic loads on Broadway are just too much to count. I dread driving Broadway. I hate that road more than I do Russell St., Brooks St., Higgins Ave., and Reserve St., because once I'm on one of those streets, at least I know what I'm dealing with. However, there's just as much shade I throw at Maddison St. because of its proximity to the University of Montana. Arthur St. is a bitch in the weekday afternoons, even on weekends when football games are happening. Or the Kyiyo Powwow. Or even a concert at the Adams Center. There're too many people going down most of Missoula's major avenues that sometimes make it not worth going to where YOU want to go because you're forced to go THEIR way. The geography and topography of our city doesn't help, either.

[Max Rockatansky]

Presently I try to do whatever I can to avoid CA 156 or cutoff much of the highway on work trips to Monterey.  Much of CA 156 is two lanes and grossly under capacity due to the heavy amounts of traffic on it (especially freight).  Between Castroville-Prunedale and between San Juan Bautista-Hollister are both infamous choke points on CA 156 as they feature four lane segments dropping  to two lanes. 

Fortunately there are several options to avoid CA 156 or bypass the worst parts going to/from the Central Valley towards the Monterey area.  CA 198, US 101 and County Route G16 is my preferred alternative route.

[MATraveler128]

US 1 between Boston and Lynnfield. Way too much traffic and has frequent parking lot entrances and people going 75 at least.

[sprjus4]

I-64 between I-464 and I-664, it has been under construction since 2018 and never seems to end. Construction is supposed to be done this summer, but they also said last year it was going to be done by Fall 2022, so who knows.

Lane shifts, new traffic patterns, keep changing like every week it seems.

Once construction is finally complete, it should be far more enjoyable to drive - and hopefully they'll bump that old general purpose limit of 60 mph up to 65 mph (the design speed for project is 70 mph), but that's asking a lot from VDOT.

[Bruce]

I-5 from Shoreline to Marysville. Lots of impatient drivers, collisions that cause miles-long backups are frequent, and there's been a lot of construction with poorly drawn lane lines that make it a nightmare at normal speeds.

Second place goes to the Aurora Bridge. It needs to be slimmed down to four lanes.

[RoadWarrior56]

Interstate 285, any part of it!  I would rather have a root canal.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I-494 from TH 100 to TH 77 near the Mall of America. It sucks from noon to night any day of the week usually in both directions.

[Ned Weasel]

39th Street in Kansas City, Missouri. The lanes are very narrow, and at one point, the outside lanes disappear but with only a barely noticeble narrowing of the roadway, only for them to reappear very shortly afterwards. The speed limit is 30 MPH, which is appropriate, given the width of the lanes, but people always try to speed and are frequently too lazy to bother staying in a single lane. To make things worse, parking is allowed in the outer lanes, so sometimes you just have to merge at the last minute to avoid one or two parked cars.

I sort of frequent the stretch between US 71 and State Line Road. I can't speak to the quality of the road east of US 71.

[gonealookin]

I-80 between West Sacramento and I-505 in Vacaville is always frustrating.  It's three lanes each way, which is one lane short, but with some extended merge lanes which are long enough to encourage drivers to switch into them and then have to merge back into the #3 when they are dropped.  This results in speeds going from 75 to zero pretty quickly, and I'm always looking in the rearview mirror thinking "Oh, please don't be texting back there and forget to see my brake lights."

If it makes sense for where I'm going in the Bay Area, I take SR 99 or I-5 south and then use I-205 and I-580 to head west.  I-205 has some similarity to that stretch of I-80 but it's relatively short.

[Konza]

The Borman Expressway (I-80/94) in northwest Indiana between the Illinois state line and I-65.

[Hobart]

The Borman Expressway (I-80/94) in northwest Indiana between the Illinois state line and I-65.

I was just about to mention this! I drove from Tinley Park to Gary every day last summer for an internship, and it was hell on earth!

Constant construction, extremely high truck traffic, and people who can't drive all stack to make the road a nightmare, because there's no viable alternative unless you drive through Indianapolis or pay the extremely high Chicago Skyway rates.

[Rothman]

I-95, DC to Richmond.  Miserable and mismanaged.

And Kozel will defend it for eternity.

[fillup420]

Glenwood Ave (US 70/NC 50) from I-440 to downtown Raleigh.

Narrow lanes, lots of stoplights and intersections, and heavy traffic at all hours. The worst part is that the right lane can used for parking in random places during "non-peak" hours. There is only one sign each way that warns of this, so you'll suddenly be coming up on parked cars in your lane if you aren't aware of it.

[ilpt4u]

I-57 between Marion/I-24 and Mt Vernon/I-64

Until the 6-landing project is done, I use alternate routes to get up to I-64 or north of Mt Vernon along I-57

It is a little better on the weekends, but it feels like a death trap during the week with all the trucks doing 60-65 and cars weaving around at 75-80+

[SectorZ]

US 1 between Boston and Lynnfield. Way too much traffic and has frequent parking lot entrances and people going 75 at least.

On this frequently, and last week my wife asked the question of "what roads are you afraid to drive on". It's funny this stretch of road started that conversation 

[epzik8]

I-95 between White Marsh and Belcamp, and US 40 between Aberdeen and Havre de Grace, as long as they're under construction.

[dlsterner]

I-95, DC to Richmond.  Miserable and mismanaged.

And Kozel will defend it for eternity.

I actually agree with Rothman here   o.O

Although I would say DC to Fredericksburg, with the Fredericksburg to Richmond segment being a lesser hell.  It's why I'm a fan of the alternative US 301 corridor, especially with the new Nice-Middleton bridge.

[CrystalWalrein]

The Buddhist centre I volunteer at is on NJ 70. However, construction means that I can't see traffic coming eastbound as I'm turning across the median.

Until the median was sealed, the intersection of Ingersoll Terrace and NJ 82 qualified. Limited sight distance means crossing NJ 82 from a side street isn't fun.

[I-55]

Interstate - I-69 between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. This is only because it is my most driven segment of interstate, compared to other routes I don't get to drive as much that I always look forward to driving. The segment itself is mostly mundane north of Muncie, making me lose interest quickly. I actually like congested interstates that flow (I-65 Indy-Louisville for example) as I take them as a challenge and feel like a high performance driver on those stretches.

Highway - US-24 between Wabash and Peru. What on this earth was the recent repaving??? INDOT literally made the road worse and there's not enough going on visually to make me want to stay within 10 mph of the limit (really need that speed limit bump).

City - Lima Rd in Fort Wayne, but only in the northbound direction. Going southbound the lights are timed well enough that I can hit all but maybe 2 lights green between Dupont Rd and downtown. This timing doesn't really seem to flip over for afternoon rush hour going north, so I used to take county roads back.

[Flint1979]

I-94

[sprjus4]

I-95, DC to Richmond.  Miserable and mismanaged.

And Kozel will defend it for eternity.

I actually agree with Rothman here   o.O

Although I would say DC to Fredericksburg, with the Fredericksburg to Richmond segment being a lesser hell.  It's why I'm a fan of the alternative US 301 corridor, especially with the new Nice-Middleton bridge.

Ashland to Fredericksburg is hit or miss. It can be manageable and cruisable at 75-80 mph sometimes, other times it's stop and go. It's terrible during peak weekends and during the summer.

Fredericksburg to I-495 is hell. Ashland to I-295 is hell.

Fredericksburg itself is alright, it's usually bad but the new local-thru system should help things out a bunch, and already have southbound. But north of there, they need to construct bi-directional HO/T lanes (two barrier separated 65-70 mph lanes each way, none of this stupid shoulder running lane we're getting down in Norfolk on I-64), along with 8 general purpose lanes. This would fix a lot of the issues, particularly the Occoquan backup.

Traffic seems to flow pretty well north of there (Occoquan) where it's 8 general purpose lanes, with the only congestion caused by the I-495 interchange and of course the notorious southbound bottleneck due to the Occoquan River. That makes it perform overall less ideal with those two factors, then VDOT uses that worse performing (due to adjacent sections, not the actual 8 lane section itself) data to claim that 8 lane widening doesn't work and should be dismissed).

It will always be hell. VDOT will never fix it.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I will speak for all of Central Ohio and say US 23 between US 42 (Delaware) and I-270 (Worthington).
And I hate driving it too.

[TBKS1]

Interstate 30 through downtown Little Rock or US 67/167 through Jacksonville immediately come to mind. There's also that one section of I-40 between I-30 and US 67/167 where cars are constantly fighting over merging lanes.

A large part of Markham Street in Little Rock does not have a middle turn lane, combined with pretty excessive rush hour traffic and people wanting to avoid interstate highways which leads to significant backup.

[Great Lakes Roads]

The Borman Expressway (I-80/94) in northwest Indiana between the Illinois state line and I-65.

I was just about to mention this! I drove from Tinley Park to Gary every day last summer for an internship, and it was hell on earth!

Constant construction, extremely high truck traffic, and people who can't drive all stack to make the road a nightmare, because there's no viable alternative unless you drive through Indianapolis or pay the extremely high Chicago Skyway rates.

I also hate driving on the Borman as NO ONE (literally) drive the speed limit at 55 mph (people drive as fast as they can)! Also, INDOT loves to do road work EVERY YEAR on that 10-mile stretch, and it causes endless accidents and reckless drivers trying to pass semi trucks!

[TheStranger]

A short but annoying one near where I live: Harney Way in San Francisco, which access the Candlestick Park area.  Seems like the city has completely given up on repairing potholes and road problems in that neighborhood since the stadium closed almost a decade ago, and this has become more pronounced after the recent storms.

For longer stretches of road:
The portion of 880/Nimitz Freeway just south of dowtnown Oakland has had construction for years and seems a tad narrow - a feeling probably exacerbated by it being the designated south-to-east truck route (due to the 580/MacArthur truck ban)

37 between Sears Point and Mare Island when at rush hour or when dealing with traffic going to the racetrack - one lane in each direction with no passing opportunities is a bear, and while discussions continue on how to improve this, the status quo has now been in place for quite some years.

Back when I lived in Sacramento, I started to intentionally go southwestward towards 160 when I went to the Bay on Fridays, just because of how crappy the Yolo Causeway can be at rush hour.  Those 6 total lanes between Davis and West Sacramento never seem like quite enough at peak periods (especially when it's bookended by the 80/50 and 80/113 interchanges on each side)