roads famous for chronic congestion...especially during the summer!

[Mergingtraffic]

Are there any experessways that are chonically congested...especially during the summer.

Congested I mean:

Around 4 hours AM Drive

Around 4 hours PM Drive

Friday PM drive....even worse

Saturdays...almost all day.

Mileage? 

US 6 in Cape Cod comes to mind
I-95 in Connecticut comes to mind too.

[Snappyjack]

New York Thruway(I-87) between NYC and Albany, and I-87 from Albany to Lake George, NY. All summer every summer. Friday night going north, then Sunday night going south. Sometimes a parking lot, or at least a slow crawl.

[Roadgeek Adam]

Garden State Parkway

Especially today

There was a 28 mile backup towards the Shore

[Chris]

How's traffic on Long Island during the summer? I figured many people from NY use the Parkways to go to the beaches during the weekends...

[City]

Garden State Parkway

Especially today

There was a 28 mile backup towards the Shore

What leaves me in question that it is the busiest toll road in the US and parts of it are only four lanes.

That's probably why there is such a mass amount of congestion there.

[jdb1234]

US 280 through Birmingham, AL is known for chronic congestion.

[akotchi]

re:  Garden State Parkway (my quote does not work on Button Copy yet . . .)
Luckily I was going the other way earlier today . . .

Portions of the New Jersey Turnpike also get bad during the summer weekends, notably southbound at Exit 1.  Northbound between Exits 6 and 8A are bad most mornings year round and Sundays during the summer.  (That's why there is a widening program . . .)

[rawmustard]

re:  Garden State Parkway (my quote does not work on Button Copy yet . . .)

I think someone busted the script for the "Quote" link, since it seems to hang even on the default layout. (Obviously, you can still use BB code/copy and paste, but that's more steps.)

As for the topic at hand, I noticed on Independence Day weekend when driving from Chicago that I-90 got a bit congested at the Elgin toll plaza, but otherwise traffic moved fine. (I expected quite a lot of Chicagoland traffic heading to the Dells/other touristy areas of western Wisconsin.)

[Bryant5493]

U.S. 19/41/S.R. 3 (Tara Blvd./Herman Talmadge Hwy.) is crowded everyday, but becomes more crowded during NASCAR events at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, in Hampton (GA).

*EDIT* Four-laning S.R. 20 (Hampton-McDonough Rd./Burton Smith Pkwy.) has helped, but 19/41 gets really crowded during these events at AMS.


Be well,

Bryant

[froggie]

I-95 between the DC Beltway and Quantico (and in some cases even extending down to Fredericksburg) is known for chronic congestion regardless of the time-of-year or day-of-the-week...

Portions of the New Jersey Turnpike also get bad during the summer weekends, notably southbound at Exit 1.  Northbound between Exits 6 and 8A are bad most mornings year round and Sundays during the summer.  (That's why there is a widening program . . .)

I've been caught up between 6 and 8A in the afternoons/evenings as well.  One reason why I generally avoid the Baltimore-Philly-NYC corridor when I head north.

[74/171FAN]

I-64 between I-295 and I-264 or even its "eastern terminus" and regardless of day at the HRBT

[SSOWorld]

Any North/South route in WI.   Everyone going north on Friday, south on Sunday - doesn't become a parking lot, but excess traffic causes it to crawl - especially on holidays.  (I-90 between Madison and Beloit was jam-packed on July 3 going north. (Thank God I was going the other way - to Chicago.)

[WillWeaverRVA]

I-64 between I-295 and I-264 or even its "eastern terminus" and regardless of day at the HRBT

How about just all of I-264?

Okay, so the westernmost miles of I-264 aren't so bad, but from the Downtown Tunnel east to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront traffic can be horrendous.

[Alps]

Exit 1 of the Turnpike is a lot better off now than it used to be thanks to a brand-new tollbooth with Express E-ZPass lanes through the middle.  A big chokepoint is the I-295 merge into I-95 in Delaware, which backs traffic up well past Exit 1 in NJ.  A lot of the problem at that point is everyone getting over to sit and wait for the cloverleaf loop ramp onto DE 1 south to the beaches there.  That cloverloop is absolute hell and it is going away very soon.  The I-95 toll plaza at the MD line is also hell sometimes, but the DE 1 backup is definitely heavier in summer.

[yanksfan6129]

How's traffic on Long Island during the summer? I figured many people from NY use the Parkways to go to the beaches during the weekends...

Yeah, all the east-west routes get backed up from beach traffic at the AM and PM of each weekend day (also Friday). To me, it seems like the LIE and the Sunrise Highway can be particularly bad because of their length and where they go. Also the Montauk Highway gets congested out in my favorite summer colony, the Hamptons.

[froggie]

A big chokepoint is the I-295 merge into I-95 in Delaware, which backs traffic up well past Exit 1 in NJ.  A lot of the problem at that point is everyone getting over to sit and wait for the cloverleaf loop ramp onto DE 1 south to the beaches there.  That cloverloop is absolute hell and it is going away very soon.  The I-95 toll plaza at the MD line is also hell sometimes, but the DE 1 backup is definitely heavier in summer.

Agree on the I-295 merge onto I-95....which in my experience is a much more consistent/chronic problem than either the loop to DE 1 South or the toll booth at the MD line.

[roadfro]

Interstate 15 southbound, heading south from Las Vegas.  Chronic congestion on the Sunday afternoon of any three-day weekend as everybody heads back to California.

[njroadhorse]

I-80 going to and from New York gets reallllllly bad on weekends, moreso going out of New York, cause all the city people are headed up to the forests in PA and Sussex County.

[Mr_Northside]

Ended sitting in some crappy traffic 2 Saturday's ago to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (US 50/301).  Given that it was a Sat. afternoon, I was expecting it.  It wasn't so much the length of the backup, but how high the "stop" ratio of "stop & go") was.

However the traffic trying to get to Delmarva this last Saturday looked to be 5 times worse. (We were obviously headed back west).

While I'm ranting about it, the traffic lights @ US-50 / MD-213 & US-50 @ MD-404 really need converted to interchanges (I think I remember reading that they want to, but I'm sure don't have the money)

[Bickendan]

The OR 18/22 duplex used to be, but they recently made a freeway through here, so we'll see if the Spirit Mountain Casino traffic in the Grand Ronde Valley gets better...
But, along the same corridor: OR 99W from Dundee to Newberg and through Tualatin and Tigard.

[Hellfighter]

I-696 is horrible at peak hours, it's the most traveled road in the state of Michigan

[deathtopumpkins]

NC-168 heading south from Virginia to the Outer Banks can get pretty backed up during the summer (its 4-lanes with a continuous shared left turn lane), along with NC-12 heading south from Nags Head, but during the winter, the roads are just dead... so of course that's the most fun time to go.

[hm insulators]

In the Los Angeles area:

I-405 in both directions between LAX and the San Fernando Valley. The southbound stretch going up the hill to Sepulveda Pass is especially notorious.

I-605 between I-5 and California 60, especially southbound.

I-210 heading west into Pasadena.

I-110 through downtown Los Angeles.

US 101 across the San Fernando Valley, especially between I-405 and the interchange with California 170 and 134.

I-10 through Alhambra, especially westbound.

And that's just some of it. I'm glad I now live in Phoenix!

[Hellfighter]

I forgot to add our 2nd most congested freeway, I-275.

[Terry Shea]

I forgot to add our 2nd most congested freeway, I-275.

That's because the freeway was never completed and everyone is left hanging.  What are the traffic volumes on I-696 and I-275?  US-131 gets an awful lot of traffic through Grand Rapids.