Something I've been thinking about: what are some state highways that have large amounts of variance? It can be anything, from changes in geography, to going from two-lanes to massive freeway. Basically any scenario where it seems like you're on totally different state highways, yet it's all one number.
In California, I always think of CA-299. Starts off in redwood forest (or at least very near to them), and then ends up on a dry alkali lake bed before turning into a dirt road in the vast Nevada desert. In between it climbs a mountain range on either side of the Sacramento Valley. Quite a lot of variance within 300 miles.
Another one is CA-2. But more due to an urban-rural shift. Starts off as just another series of Los Angeles streets, then climbs into the San Gabriels and suddenly it's very thinly populated. Maybe not as impressive as CA-299, but the shift is drastic enough it almost feels like they two halves could be separate state highways.
I mentioned MA 2 in this similar thread (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=11175.msg266498#msg266498) (not a duplicate though) that I created.
MA 2 is a 2-lane road through the mountains in the western part of the state, then it becomes a super-2, then a full freeway, then a busy surface arterial, then a full freeway again, and ends in Boston as a busy urban street.
How about MO 9 in the Kansas City area, where I live: first a short freeway leading to a bridge, beginning at I-70 in River Market, then a four-lane suburban arterial (Burlington Street in North KC), then a freeway again through Briarcliff and Riverside, then a two-lane suburban road parallel to the river and the BNSF tracks until downtown Parkville, then through a sharp right turn and up a hill and past the Park University campus, then through a residential area before a commercial strip near the junction with MO 45, then a tree-lined road through largely residential areas of the KC Northland before merging onto Prairie View Road (the west frontage road parallel to I-29), then along that road through more commercial areas until meeting its northern terminus at Barry Road. All that in just under 15 miles!
CA 4 always did it for me:
- Starts as an urban expressway in the northern Bay Area and becomes a freeway.
- Becomes levee road in the San Joaquin River Delta.
- Becomes a major urban freeway in Stockton.
- Becomes a rural two lane highway in eastern San Joaquin Valley towards the Sierra Foothills.
- Becomes an obvious road meant to shuttle skiers in the winter east of Angels Camp to Bear Valley and passes a Redwood Sequoia Grove.
- Becomes a single lane highway largely overlapping a stage route over Ebbetts Pass towards the ghost town of Silver Mountain City.
- Ends at CA 89 neat Markleeville with the terrain starting to transition to Great Basin Desert biome.
I got a couple.
CO 82, as you come into Glenwood from Aspen and beyond.
Mostly 4 lanes, 55-65 mph, until you come into Glenwood. Reduce (in stages, but quickly) to 25. After plodding through Glenwood, over the bridge, through the fusterclucked roundabout, to come to ......
.... a dead end after crossing under I-70.
The other one I'm less familiar with, CO 78, to the SW of Pueblo. I know it's dirt at one point, and I think it's a 4 or 5-lane street for a while in Pueblo.
OH-315 goes from six-lane freeway in downtown Columbus to rural two-lane road.
Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on April 19, 2023, 08:34:15 AM
I got a couple.
CO 82, as you come into Glenwood from Aspen and beyond.
Mostly 4 lanes, 55-65 mph, until you come into Glenwood. Reduce (in stages, but quickly) to 25. After plodding through Glenwood, over the bridge, through the fusterclucked roundabout, to come to ......
.... a dead end after crossing under I-70.
The other one I'm less familiar with, CO 78, to the SW of Pueblo. I know it's dirt at one point, and I think it's a 4 or 5-lane street for a while in Pueblo.
From a geography standpoint, I'd probably add your favorite state highway, CO14, going from North Park through Poudre Canyon, as a fairly busy urban thoroughfare through FoCo, then out to the fairly desolate plains.
For most variation in a fairly short span, probably CO119 which starts as a very switchbacky road near Blackhawk and Central City, eventually ends up in the heart of Boulder, through some farmland, and then through the heart of Longmont before ending at I-25. Not a lot of state highways start in the mountains and make it to major population centers here.
In Michigan, I nominate M-53. From city street in Detroit to major arterial and freeway in Macomb County to farmland through the Thumb.
Honorable mentions are those highways that are arterials, sometimes with a freeway concurrency, in cities but also traverse farmland and small towns, including:
- M-66 (Battle Creek, including I-194)
- M-37 (Battle Creek and Grand Rapids, including I-96)
- M-46 (Saginaw and Muskegon)
- M-21 (Flint and suburban Grand Rapids)
IL 1 starts on Chicago's South Side at 95th St as Halsted St, traverses basically the eastern border of the state, and ends at a rural Ohio River Ferry to Kentucky at Cave-In-Rock
Got big city, suburbs, small towns, a few bigger Downstate towns, lots of corn fields, starts getting hilly and into Southern IL to reach the ferry
Most of the route is 2 lane rural. Segments are urban arterial. Other segments are 4 lane divided expressway. No Freeway segments, tho
MN TH 65: Its south end is at Washington Avenue in Minneapolis, one of the city's main streets, while the northernmost section beyond Nashwauk is one of the most sparsely populated stretches of state highway we have.
Back when TH 7 rode up Hennepin Avenue (the city's most well-known street) into downtown Minneapolis, you had a route that connected through the Lake Minnetonka area, the vast farm fields, and the Minnesota River source area along Big Stone Lake.
US 101 in CA. It's mostly freeway but in SF it's a city street and north of Santa Rosa it drops down to two lanes in some parts with rural character. In all the road sees urban, suburban, rural, farms, and mountains.
US 60 is the hands-down winner in Kentucky.
Do Interstate 90, US Route 12, Washington State Route 14, and Washington State Route 410 in Washington count between the Westside and Eastside?
NC 16 spends time as a 2-lane downtown street, 2-lane highway, 4-lane arterial/boulevard, 4-lane highway, and a full freeway through its journey across NC
Quote from: hbelkins on April 19, 2023, 05:14:12 PM
US 60 is the hands-down winner in Kentucky.
If US routes also count, US 45 trumps IL 1. Everything about IL 1 also applies to US 45, except the ferry bit, as US 45 uses the old Brookport bridge into KY. US 45 also directly serves O'Hare Airport, has some urban freeway-like segments, and extends from Wisc to KY
US 51 and US 67 would also be up there. If all of US 54 were still active up to Chicago, it would also be in the running
OR 126, going from coastal forest, to city artery in Eugene, to freeway, back to artery, to Cascade forests and pass, to high desert brush.
SR 14 in Washington starts off as an urban freeway and becomes a meandering rural highway with views of the Columbia River that change from the evergreen forests of the west side to the semi-arid hills east of the Cascades.
SR 410 similarly has a good bit of terrain variance but doesn't go far enough into Eastern Washington for the more noticeable changes. It ends in the foothills well outside Yakima.
US 58 and 60 both traverse the entirety of kinds of terrain in Virginia, as well as both major urban areas and very isolated rural communities. (60 between Powhatan and Bent Creek is a whole lot of nothing.)
Some others:
-VA 33: starts off as city streets in downtown Richmond, becomes a suburban arterial, then a rural highway for a bit with US 60, before going onto I-64 for a little while, then branching off to become a mainline rural highway.
-VA 6: also starts off as city streets in Richmond and becomes a suburban arterial, but eventually becomes a very long country road. Its westernmost segment is something out of Initial D, and it ends halfway up a mountain.
I know we've had threads like this one before. in MN US 169 is probably overall the best cross-section of the state, with rural southern MN farmland, the Minnesota River Valley from Mankato to Shakopee, the Twin Cities metro, cabin country with Lake Mille Lacs, and the Iron Range. US 61 likely worked better before its truncation.
Quote from: Takumi on April 19, 2023, 11:43:44 PM
US 58 and 60 both traverse the entirety of kinds of terrain in Virginia, as well as both major urban areas and very isolated rural communities. (60 between Powhatan and Bent Creek is a whole lot of nothing.)
Some others:
-VA 33: starts off as city streets in downtown Richmond, becomes a suburban arterial, then a rural highway for a bit with US 60, before going onto I-64 for a little while, then branching off to become a mainline rural highway.
-VA 6: also starts off as city streets in Richmond and becomes a suburban arterial, but eventually becomes a very long country road. Its westernmost segment is something out of Initial D, and it ends halfway up a mountain.
VA 10 probably fits the bill as well. It's everything from a 2-lane city street to a 6-lane suburban arterial and even a super-2 freeway.
Before Chesterfield County twinned Old Hundred Road you could've also lumped VA 76 in here too by virtue of its weird endpoint - from a 4-lane freeway to a 2-lane road.
VA 3 also shows a lot of variance, starting as a city street, then becoming a long country road, then a suburban arterial for a long ways, even briefly becoming a freeway in Fredericksburg.
I'd say WI-32. For a shorter example, WI-113. But US-45 is the best example in Wisconsin if you pretend it's a state route.
My best guess for Iowa is IA 5. It's a suburban freeway, a divided highway to Knoxville and a 2-lane rural road south to Missouri from there.
Montana 200 has to be up there. From forests and rugged mountains to cities to the high rolling plains. From 5620 feet crossing the Continental Divide to 1900 feet leaving the state by the Yellowstone River. Many miles of 2 lane, some 4 lane, and even a bit of Interstate thrown in.
Quote from: DandyDan on April 20, 2023, 05:03:02 PM
My best guess for Iowa is IA 5. It's a suburban freeway, a divided highway to Knoxville and a 2-lane rural road south to Missouri from there.
I was thinking that too. Another Iowa example could be IA 141; it also has significant 2-lane rural and 4-lane divided stretches, but its stretch in the Des Moines metro is more indicative of a suburban road than IA 5 IMO (albeit not a freeway).
I'm also going to submit IL 92. Goes from 2-lane rural road that doesn't serve much traffic to suburban freeway to urban arterial connecting several downtowns, and then back in reverse order.
Quote from: WillWeaverRVA on April 20, 2023, 12:17:50 PM
Quote from: Takumi on April 19, 2023, 11:43:44 PM
US 58 and 60 both traverse the entirety of kinds of terrain in Virginia, as well as both major urban areas and very isolated rural communities. (60 between Powhatan and Bent Creek is a whole lot of nothing.)
Some others:
-VA 33: starts off as city streets in downtown Richmond, becomes a suburban arterial, then a rural highway for a bit with US 60, before going onto I-64 for a little while, then branching off to become a mainline rural highway.
-VA 6: also starts off as city streets in Richmond and becomes a suburban arterial, but eventually becomes a very long country road. Its westernmost segment is something out of Initial D, and it ends halfway up a mountain.
VA 10 probably fits the bill as well. It's everything from a 2-lane city street to a 6-lane suburban arterial and even a super-2 freeway.
Before Chesterfield County twinned Old Hundred Road you could've also lumped VA 76 in here too by virtue of its weird endpoint - from a 4-lane freeway to a 2-lane road.
VA 3 also shows a lot of variance, starting as a city street, then becoming a long country road, then a suburban arterial for a long ways, even briefly becoming a freeway in Fredericksburg.
I was thinking VA-7 is a good example. An urban street in the City of Alexandria, then a suburban arterial (including a segment with a 25-mph speed limit through Falls Church), a commercial artery in Tyson Corner (with an elevated subway line), a full freeway from Route 28 out to, and including, the Leesburg bypass, and then a rural four-lane highway (part freeway, part what some people call "expressway") from Leesburg west to its end. Route 7 also crosses a mountain pass, Snickers Gap near Bluemont.
The infamous VA-28 could qualify in that it's a fairly wide (I-366) freeway north of I-66, a fairly wide suburban arterial from I-66 south to Prince William County, a less-wide suburban arterial through Manassas Park, a city street through Manassas (twinned one-way through Old Town Manssas), and a rural two-lane road (carrying ample traffic, to be sure) south of Nokesville.
CA-23 goes from this
(https://i.imgur.com/fhEfT0R.png)
to this
(https://i.imgur.com/1PgiiuD.png)
in just a few miles.
CT 25 looks like this in Brookfield: (2 lanes, no shoulders, eponymous speed limit): https://goo.gl/maps/pRUQBFZJiHwzgJun8
... and this in Bridgeport: (10 lane freeway, for a short stretch): https://goo.gl/maps/rMsZBvR9S6zJd5a18
A few shorter California examples:
Route 92: winding rural road between Half Moon Bay and I-280, then a freeway from I-280 all the way to I-880 in Hayward, including the San Mateo Bridge.
After the freeway segment ends, it becomes Jackson Street, a suburban arterial, all the way to the east terminus at Route 185/Route 238.
Route 35 (mostly named Skyline Boulevard): One-lane section is the start of the road near Santa Cruz, then winding two-lane road for much of southern San Mateo County. At the Route 92/I-280 junction, 35 hops on to 280 (on a corridor that was originally pre-1964 Route 5), then departs 280 as an undivided boulevard for a bit, with a four-lane section from Sneath Lane to Westborough Boulevard. Then a two-lane but winding suburban road to Hickey Boulevard, then a one-exit freeway between there and Westmoor Avenue, followed by a divided four-lane expressway from there into San Francisco. The final segment (Sloat Boulevard) is a landscaped suburban boulevard with 35 terminating at Route 1 near Stern Grove.
Quote from: wanderer2575 on April 19, 2023, 09:02:13 AM
OH-315 goes from six-lane freeway in downtown Columbus to rural two-lane road.
I'd say Ohio 7 would fit this idea better than Ohio 315.
PA 28 is a controlled-access urban highway (https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4562201,-79.9909954,3a,75y,59.79h,90.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjanvI_ZG3DzpyQFxsfEhAw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192) from the city of Pittsburgh to Blawnox, a controlled-access suburban highway (https://www.google.com/maps/@40.5345474,-79.8458794,3a,75y,36.54h,89.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sN94MB1mB90uwq8ZJIY5vew!2e0!7i16384!8i8192) from Blawnox to Freeport, a controlled-access rural highway (https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7360443,-79.6618263,3a,75y,27.01h,87.3t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1snB-I99RI98BpAgw77GvS1g!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DnB-I99RI98BpAgw77GvS1g%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D318.56616%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192) from Freeport to Kittanning, and a two-lane rural highway (https://www.google.com/maps/@41.0555059,-79.2499779,3a,75y,32.35h,84.84t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1svwY8Qng3kIyq8XFmwpV30A!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DvwY8Qng3kIyq8XFmwpV30A%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D301.36072%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656) from Kittanning to Brockway.
IN 37 and IN 67 are still considered to be continuous routes that are concurrent with I-465 around Indy, so those two would win for Indiana. Both have very rural, lightly traversed segments at each end of the state.
Once I-69 is finished, I believe that IN 37 is going away between Bloomington and Fishers.
In Florida, US 19 has variance. It's starts off semi rural in Manatee County, crosses Tamp Bay, becomes an urban arterial, suburban arterial, suburban freeway, back to suburban arterial, semi rural road north of Weeki Wachee, some more suburban in Citrus County before extremely rural in Levy County cutting through forests with a 23 mile long straightaway from north of Lebanon to Chiefland and then rural with mix of forests and farms all the way into Georgia.
Pennsylvania Route 309 varies from a two-lane undivided rural road in Wyoming County to a four-lane suburban freeway in Montgomery County.
My votes:
NY: NY 22. Industrial truck route in the Bronx, two-lane city street in Mount Vernon, four-lane undivided through residential areas in Scarsdale, and a couplet of three-lane one-way streets in downtown White Plains. Then more undivided four-lane, a short four-lane divided highway with stoplights around NY 120 and I-684, a two-lane road through quiet suburbs through the rest of Westchester County, and a very brief freeway overlap north of I-84. Eventually turns into a windy, hilly two-lane highway in Columbia County... and that's barely halfway through the route. Throw in a small-town main street in Hoosick Falls and Whitehall and a sixties(?)-era two-lane bypass of Ticonderoga. For a while, it topped it all off by ending at an international border crossing.
MA: It's hard to beat MA 2. Windy mountain road on both sides of North Adams, quick two-lane segments on either side of Greenfield, some super-2, four-lane freeways of various quality (from old & windy around Fitchburg/Leominster to interstate-standard on the I-91 overlap), four-lane expressway with stoplights between 495 and 95, eight-lane expressway coming into Cambridge, Memorial Drive, a random bunch of poorly-marked city streets south of the BU Bridge, and the grand finish down Commonwealth Ave in Boston.
CA-1 for obvious reasons
Also CA-39 (Urban boulevard to 2-lane mountain highway)
NJ 17 starts as a 2 lane downtown street
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4KriTKpXnrKJZ2m69
Turns into a stroad highway thing
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gH8wDDB7m1rt156r7
And then a real highway when it's with 287 https://maps.app.goo.gl/tB2dTRtJoB9tZvHQ7
Quote from: Dough4872 on May 31, 2023, 09:26:48 PM
Pennsylvania Route 309 varies from a two-lane undivided rural road in Wyoming County to a four-lane suburban freeway in Montgomery County.
I believe PA 147 does the same thing.
I suppose I'll put this here, and if mods deem necessary, we can split it off to a different thread. I was taking a look at the Colorado AADT data, and I wanted to figure out, strictly from a traffic volume perspective, which routes gained the most/least traffic in their travels. I'll put the top few by category:
InterstatesHighest Variance
| Highway | Lowest AADT | Highest AADT | Gain in % |
| I-25 | 11,000 | 285,000 | 2,491% |
| I-70 | 9,100 | 216,000 | 2,274% |
| I-76 | 8,200 | 84,000 | 924% |
Lowest Variance
| Highway | Lowest AADT | Highest AADT | Gain in % |
| I-225 | 145,000 | 180,000 | 24% |
| I-270 | 78,000 | 105,000 | 35% |
US RoutesHighest Variance
| Highway | Lowest AADT | Highest AADT | Gain in % |
| US36 | 420 | 164,000 | 38,948% |
| US24 | 140 | 45,000 | 32,043% |
| US160 | 140 | 39,000 | 27,757% |
Lowest Variance
| Highway | Lowest AADT | Highest AADT | Gain in % |
| US84 | 1,400 | 4,500 | 221% |
| US491 | 2,800 | 14,000 | 400% |
| US350 | 350 | 2,300 | 557% |
State HighwaysHighest Variance
| Highway | Lowest AADT | Highest AADT | Gain in % |
| CO78 | 110 | 17,000 | 15,355% |
| CO141 | 170 | 19,000 | 11,076% |
| CO96 | 360 | 29,000 | 7,956% |
Lowest Variance (Only Including Routes > 5 Miles)
| Highway | Lowest AADT | Highest AADT | Gain in % |
| CO56 | 7,000 | 7,700 | 10% |
| CO113 | 1,300 | 1,500 | 15% |
| CO389 | 100 | 120 | 20% |
If we want to do multi-state routes, SC/GA SR/NC 28 has a lot of variance. It is a backroad in all three major regions of the Southeastern Atlantic - the Coastal Plain (albeit barely, just a mile and a half after the fall line into SC), Piedmont, and Blue Ridge, a major suburban stroad, urban freeway, and viaduct in Augusta, as well as an urban city street there. It is a suburban arterial from Anderson to Clemson, a mountain expressway briefly in NC, and it is in two different states a multi-segmented route. On two occasions it parallels major reservoirs, and it has both very twisty and very straight segments.
Having just driven CA-245 yesterday, I was surprised at how much variance it has. I've driven it before but this time, I realized it's one of the few south-north California state highways to transition from the Central Valley into the Sierra. (Almost all the routes that do this are west-east). As a result of this, it's a rather strange route. Starts off as a series of pretty standard Central Valley roads. But almost immediately after the CA-201 junction, it enters the Sierra foothills and becomes very twisty and fairly steep. It never changes from two lanes, but it's another example of a single route that feels like two distinct ones.
I'm not sure which one I'd pick in TX, as several of the highways go through various transitions.
* TX 87, starts as a multi-lane street in Galveston that takes over after I-45's southern terminus at a traffic light. After going through the middle of town and a brief look at the shore of the Gulf, the pavement ends where traffic boards the Bolivar Ferry, which traverses the channel from Galveston Bay into the Gulf of Mexico. Back to land at Port Bolivar, TX 87 resumes on pavement near more Gulf shoreline. At High Island, TX 87 disappears due to erosion and past hurricane damage (TxDOT has not yet done anything about replacing the road east of High Island, or put up any signage as a detour or permanent rerouting.). Further down the shore, it reappears before Sabine Pass, then starts to orient itself northward through coastal towns and cities until after leaving Orange and passing I-10. TX 87 becomes a much more rural 2-lane road afterward between the Big Thicket and the Sabine River. After several towns, it ends in the piney woods of deep east Texas.
* TX 114, one of the longer ones, starts off in the rural south plains, then through urban streets in Lubbock, then overlapped with US 82 through several counties while transitioning from breaks in the caprock to the very rural Big Country. As it encounters the DFW area, it goes from 2-lane to 4-lane into the suburbs, becoming a freeway by the time it reaches Roanoke, adding tolled express lanes as it passes DFW Airport, ending as a freeway in Irving.
I haven't been on either one, but 2 of TX' longest state highways, TX 6 and TX 16, are bound to have much in the way of transitions, simply due to their length.
US 130 in NJ, from south to north:
2 lane roadway in several older downtown settings: https://goo.gl/maps/bvGgnrCPAzaLnsc87
Then a 2 & 4 lane rural roadway.
Then a concurrency with the 6 lane I-295.
After breaking off its concurrency and a short, quieter section, and after a few circles, becomes mainly a 6 lane, heavily used suburban/urban roadway. The 6 lanes are undersized in width, with many areas featuring lanes as narrow as 10 foot wide and no shoulder. https://goo.gl/maps/maJ3J36FS75KVdtA6
Further north, it settles down to a 4 lane roadway, relatively calm, until it gets close to its terminus with US 1.
Other NJ examples:
NJ Turnpike, the State Road Portion: Starts as 4 lane roadway at Interchange 1. Ends as 12 lane roadway at Interchange 6 where it becomes I-95.
Garden State Parkway: Starts as a 4 lane generally quiet, tree-lined roadway at Interchange 0. Widens to 12 or so lanes with Express/Local roadways. Becomes 15 lane roadway at around the Raritan Bridge area. Continues as a heavily travelled urban roadway in North Jersey around 10 lanes wide. Ends as a 4 lane roadway approaching NY and the NY Thruway.
No real great answers for North Dakota. I would say ND 200, which goes from the badlands in the western part of the state through the Missouri Plateau and drift prairie to the Red River Valley in the east. I-94 is slightly more varied because it also goes through Bismarck and Fargo.
I-580. Starts off as a connector to the Richmond bridge via San Quentin, then it turns into a major urban freeway through Berkeley and Oakland, then smoothly transitions into a suburban freeway in Pleasanton with exits spread out pretty far, then climbs up Altamont Pass before becoming a rural four-lane freeway for the final 15 miles.
Quote from: wanderer2575 on April 19, 2023, 09:02:13 AM
OH-315 goes from six-lane freeway in downtown Columbus to rural two-lane road.
and does so in less than 15 miles.
Seeing mention of US routes, I submit two in Arizona:
US 60 begins as a two lane rural highway, transitioning into a divided highway, then 6 lane boulevard. It gets routed over two interstates before breaking off through the east suburbs of Phoenix as an urban freeway with up to 5 GP lanes + 1 HOV + merge lanes in each direction crossing two freeways at fully directional interchanges. In Apache Junction, it transitions back to a 4 lane divided highway. East of Superior it goes back to two lanes with occasional passing lanes and a steep, beautiful canyon drive between Globe and Show Low. After Show Low it goes back to a two lane highway, for the most part, until the NM state line. Elevation ranges from just under 1100' above sea level in Phoenix to about 8000' near Springerville.
US 191 begins near the US/Mexico border heading north as a two lane rural highway then joins I-10 east for several miles before branching off to the north toward Safford. It joins US 70 for 10 miles before branching off to the northeast for 23 miles and coming to a stop sign at "three way." From there to the hill south Clifton, it's a Virginia twinned 4 lane expressway. Speed limit drops to 25 in Clifton and enters a temporary easement primarily through mining property as it snakes up to and through Morenci, winding around the pits and rock piles of the mine. After the mine, it becomes a remote and rugged two lane mountain road with over 400 curves making its way toward Alpine and Springerville. From there it goes north to the Utah border passing through several small towns and joining several other routes briefly along the way. Elevation ranges from 2900 ft above sea level in Safford to 9400' at Hannagan's Meadow
CA-2: Four-lane undivided urban street to six-lane and eight-lane divided and undivided urban boulevard back to four-lane undivided urban boulevard to eight-lane mostly depressed urban freeway to six-lane urban boulevard again back to eight-lane freeway again, this time mostly elevated and going from suburban to exurban, back to four-lane undivided street, this time suburban, then to two-lane mountain road.
Hwy 26 in Wisconsin is highly variable, going from 2-lane city street to 4-lane un-divided city street to 5-8 lane city boulevard to 4-lane freeway to a narrow twisty 2-lane to a high-grade 2-lane with passing lanes. Terrain ranges from flat farmland to rolling hills to more marshy areas.
Hwy 29 has similar variations, spanning the gamut from a local 25 mph city street to 8-lane freeway, and pretty much whatever in-between. Ditto for Hwy 11 as it crosses the state.