Consistently Least Scenic Highway in your state

[Roadgeekteen]

M-57, especially the stretch between M-52 and US-127 but it's bad even west of US-127 as well. Just farm field after farm field after farm field, then you come to Carson City, a true hick town. Towards it's western end it's not as bad but I'd rank the stretch through Genesee County as non scenic. East of M-13 you pass through Montrose, another small town then in between Montrose and Clio you pass a landfill. Clio is nothing special and neither is anything else on M-57.

It's nice if you like farms.

No one is going to enjoy farms as a form of scenery. Looking at beans and corn for miles is not interesting.

Better than the trees or suburbia of metro Boston.

[CoreySamson]

I have a couple of nominees for Texas:

TX 44
TX 60
TX 124
TX 288

As for US Highways, to me US 59 and 90 Alt aren't that scenic.

[TEG24601]

SR 99 (WA) - An Urban/sub-uban surface street.  Used to be interesting along the Alaskan Way Viaduct, decent view on the George Washington (Aurora) Bridge, otherwise grey with traffic.

[Flint1979]

M-57, especially the stretch between M-52 and US-127 but it's bad even west of US-127 as well. Just farm field after farm field after farm field, then you come to Carson City, a true hick town. Towards it's western end it's not as bad but I'd rank the stretch through Genesee County as non scenic. East of M-13 you pass through Montrose, another small town then in between Montrose and Clio you pass a landfill. Clio is nothing special and neither is anything else on M-57.

It's nice if you like farms.

No one is going to enjoy farms as a form of scenery. Looking at beans and corn for miles is not interesting.

Better than the trees or suburbia of metro Boston.

I don't know how you figure that. Driving around Metro Boston as much of a pain in the ass that it is would be much more interesting. Boston suffers from having narrow windy streets and having a big population in such a small area. I'd much rather drive anywhere in Massachusetts than driving on a road in Michigan that has an endless slew of farms for miles on top of miles. M-57 qualifies for that, heck I know someone that lives right on M-57 in the middle of this slew of farms. Chesaning is a small town that is surrounded by farms heck most of western Saginaw County and almost all of Gratiot County are nothing but farms. Give me some hills and lakes and that beats driving through farms. And driving through farms on a dirt road is even worse.

[zzcarp]

Assuming we're sticking to state highways like my thread of the most scenic, I'm going to nominate CO53.  It runs just for a couple miles through a shitty part of industrial Denver with almost no redeeming value.  You can't even really see the mountains from it and there's no "wide open spaces" vibe like you can at least get from the eastern Colorado "less scenic" routes.  Just a lot of auto body shops, pot holes, parking lots, and questions of "why does this state highway exist?".

Chris

I agree CO 53 is one of the least scenic state routes. CO 53 provides a vital purpose on North Broadway in unincorporated Adams County. It has a Clear Creek bridge and provides a state route spur connection from US 36 to I-25 at 58th Avenue which can be used when the US 36 EB ramp to I-25 SB ramp is clobbered at rush hour (which happened often pre-pandemic). 

Why it exists is that the Valley Highway, the precursor to today's I-25 through downtown Denver, was constructed as CO 185, and the freeway ended roughly at 58th Avenue. CO 185 was routed north from there on Broadway to 70th Avenue then east to Washington Street, then all the way north to Wellington. As I-25 was completed north from there, CO 185's routing was moved onto I-25 as well and eventually decommissioned. Meanwhile, CO 53 was commissioned as its surface route replacement between 58th and 70th Avenues.

I nominate CO 265 which follows Brighton Boulevard through industrial areas of Denver, Adams County, and Commerce City. There's really no mountain views to speak of. It does have this cool narrow railroad underpass (with the new RTD SlowTracks light rail overpass shown in street view), though. Its pavement is even worse than 53, but if you find oil refineries and garbage transfer stations interesting, CO 265 is your route!

[Rick Powell]

Illinois 115 would be a good candidate. It connects the south edge of Kankakee with Route 9 west of I-57, and other than its origin doesn't go by any big bodies of water or (excepting Kankakee) any towns larger than a few hundred people, and the topography is very flat for the whole route. And you won't see many vehicles either on most days. I once jokingly proclaimed the intersection of IL 115 and 116 the "crossroads of the world" , commemorated by a vacant and run-down building in the northeast corner.

[jakeroot]

SR 99 (WA) - An Urban/sub-uban surface street.  Used to be interesting along the Alaskan Way Viaduct, decent view on the George Washington (Aurora) Bridge, otherwise grey with traffic.

I get your point. It's pretty drab. But having both the 99 tunnel, and the Aurora Bridge, makes it very hard for me to agree. Both of those are pretty spectacular road features.

I'm not totally in a position to suggest an alternative just yet, but maybe something in eastern Washington?

[SectorZ]

Massachusetts I'd go for MA-20A, and a bonus NH-101A for New Hampshire.

[Max Rockatansky]

SR 99 (WA) - An Urban/sub-uban surface street.  Used to be interesting along the Alaskan Way Viaduct, decent view on the George Washington (Aurora) Bridge, otherwise grey with traffic.

I get your point. It's pretty drab. But having both the 99 tunnel, and the Aurora Bridge, makes it very hard for me to agree. Both of those are pretty spectacular road features.

I'm not totally in a position to suggest an alternative just yet, but maybe something in eastern Washington?

WA 599 is even worse, there isn't even anything drab to look at. 

[Flint1979]

Another one for Michigan for me is M-142. It cuts across the middle of the thumb and ends at M-25 on both ends with boring farm land. Outside of the lake shore Huron County is pretty boring.

[US 89]

Hard to come up with one for Utah. One candidate might be SR 257, which is a flat route across the Sevier Desert, but even then a lot of people find that sort of terrain interesting. Another possibility might be SR 155.

[webny99]

People are confusing "least scenic" and "boring". They're not synonyms. Sure, corn fields are boring... but they're certainly more scenic than suburbia and strip malls. I'm surprised more people haven't been mentioning strictly urban/suburban routes. Those seem like the obvious answers.

I think my nominations for NY would be NY 324, NY 252, and... NY 635?

[jakeroot]

SR 99 (WA) - An Urban/sub-uban surface street.  Used to be interesting along the Alaskan Way Viaduct, decent view on the George Washington (Aurora) Bridge, otherwise grey with traffic.

I get your point. It's pretty drab. But having both the 99 tunnel, and the Aurora Bridge, makes it very hard for me to agree. Both of those are pretty spectacular road features.

I'm not totally in a position to suggest an alternative just yet, but maybe something in eastern Washington?

WA 599 is even worse, there isn't even anything drab to look at.

Well, there is the Link Light Rail, which runs adjacent to it for a little over a mile. If you're into trains, that's pretty scenic. Although traffic is usually going 70-75, so there's not usually much contest if you're into racing the trains

WA 181 is pretty unspectacular. It's fun, with a rare undivided urban 50mph limit. But, scenery-wise, it's just business parks and warehouses, with the occasional glimpse of the Green River. Yawn.

[Flint1979]

People are confusing "least scenic" and "boring". They're not synonyms. Sure, corn fields are boring... but they're certainly more scenic than suburbia and strip malls. I'm surprised more people haven't been mentioning strictly urban/suburban routes. Those seem like the obvious answers.

I think my nominations for NY would be NY 324, NY 252, and... NY 635?

Ok in that case I nominate M-58 in Michigan.

[JayhawkCO]

Assuming we're sticking to state highways like my thread of the most scenic, I'm going to nominate CO53.  It runs just for a couple miles through a shitty part of industrial Denver with almost no redeeming value.  You can't even really see the mountains from it and there's no "wide open spaces" vibe like you can at least get from the eastern Colorado "less scenic" routes.  Just a lot of auto body shops, pot holes, parking lots, and questions of "why does this state highway exist?".

Chris

I agree CO 53 is one of the least scenic state routes. CO 53 provides a vital purpose on North Broadway in unincorporated Adams County. It has a Clear Creek bridge and provides a state route spur connection from US 36 to I-25 at 58th Avenue which can be used when the US 36 EB ramp to I-25 SB ramp is clobbered at rush hour (which happened often pre-pandemic). 

Why it exists is that the Valley Highway, the precursor to today's I-25 through downtown Denver, was constructed as CO 185, and the freeway ended roughly at 58th Avenue. CO 185 was routed north from there on Broadway to 70th Avenue then east to Washington Street, then all the way north to Wellington. As I-25 was completed north from there, CO 185's routing was moved onto I-25 as well and eventually decommissioned. Meanwhile, CO 53 was commissioned as its surface route replacement between 58th and 70th Avenues.

I nominate CO 265 which follows Brighton Boulevard through industrial areas of Denver, Adams County, and Commerce City. There's really no mountain views to speak of. It does have this cool narrow railroad underpass (with the new RTD SlowTracks light rail overpass shown in street view), though. Its pavement is even worse than 53, but if you find oil refineries and garbage transfer stations interesting, CO 265 is your route!

I thought about CO265, but like someone else said for a different route above, the dystopian nature I at least felt was a little more interesting than CO53.  For the purposes of "scenic", there is more to look around at (and smell, I suppose) for me on CO265. Another near miss for me was CO22 in Brighton (another on my list of "Why is this a state highway?").

Chris

[mgk920]

I would have to say WI 125.  It runs between I-41 and downtown Appleton, a four lane mostly commercial street the whole way.  There is a somewhat sweeping vista of the semi-suburban western part of the metro area from its bridge over a railroad yard about at its midpoint, though.   

Mike

[Sctvhound]

In South Carolina I would say I-20, especially between Columbia and Florence. Mostly just flat, tree-less medians with no towns along the route once you get past I-77.

At least I-26 is hilly going from Charleston to Columbia and goes around Orangeburg, while I-95 goes over Lake Marion and goes through swampy scenery on a good portion of its route. I-20 has none of that.

[ClassicHasClass]

I'm nominating CA 103 (unrelinquished). That's about as yugly urban as you can get.

[Max Rockatansky]

In South Carolina I would say I-20, especially between Columbia and Florence. Mostly just flat, tree-less medians with no towns along the route once you get past I-77.

At least I-26 is hilly going from Charleston to Columbia and goes around Orangeburg, while I-95 goes over Lake Marion and goes through swampy scenery on a good portion of its route. I-20 has none of that.

I-20 might be the champion for least scenic X0 Interstate.  I-30 is close but it really in the same league as the other X0 Routes in terms of distance. 

[Gnutella]

In Georgia, I'd say U.S. 80. It's pretty much hills and trees the whole way across Georgia until you get east of Statesboro, when it becomes sand and trees.

[Max Rockatansky]

In Georgia, I'd say U.S. 80. It's pretty much hills and trees the whole way across Georgia until you get east of Statesboro, when it becomes sand and trees.

As opposed to the absolute bore which is I-16?  Personally I like US 80 on Tybee Island and at least it has some actual communities to offer.  There is absolutely nothing of interest on I-16. 

[debragga]

I-345

There's a great view of downtown Dallas

[texaskdog]

In Texas I'd say US 285.  It's awful, a lot of truck traffic too.

[jemacedo9]

PA 291...starts in Chester, passes through industrial land, then past the hotels outside PHL, over the Platt Bridge overlooking the oil refineries and scrap metal yards...

[NWI_Irish96]

People are confusing "least scenic" and "boring". They're not synonyms. Sure, corn fields are boring... but they're certainly more scenic than suburbia and strip malls. I'm surprised more people haven't been mentioning strictly urban/suburban routes. Those seem like the obvious answers.

I think my nominations for NY would be NY 324, NY 252, and... NY 635?

A cornfield may be slightly more scenic than a strip mall, but part of the point of "consistently" was to eliminate shorter urban/suburban routes. By default, the shortest routes are the least scenic, but it's harder to put together a route over 100 miles that lacks scenery. Maybe in NY you have longer routes that are nothing but strip malls but those routes don't exist in Indiana.