Which Highways in Your State are Most/Likely to be Clinched by Travelers

[ZLoth]

Texas... oh boy. Because of the size of the state, the population density follows Interstate 35 in East Texas with Houston being connected via Interstate 45. Between Interstate 35 and El Paso, the population density drops off, and you can trace the interstates by the population centers. My guesses...

Most likely... Unsigned I-345/US-75 in Dallas. Follow that with I-40 in Amarillo in North Texas.

Least likely... I-44 in Wichita Falls. It's a freeway stub that doesn't connect to any other Texas freeways, and goes into Oklahoma.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Here in Wisconsin, I would also think that US 53 has a very low rate of being driven from end to end in single trips.

Mike

It could be one of those routes that could be truncated from La Crosse to I-94 and hardly anyone would notice.

[pderocco]

As to longish roads that are likely to be clinched in California, I agree that I-40 is one, for obvious reasons. But while I think most people on I-80 aren't driving the whole thing, San Francisco is the biggest destination along it, and I'll bet quite a few people from out of state drive the whole thing. I did once back in the 1990s, when I was in a hurry to get across country, pretty much staying on I-80 all the way from Chicago into downtown SF. That's probably also true about I-80 in the other western states, too. A lot of through traffic.

Another possibility is CA-14. Lots of Angelinos drive the whole thing on their weekend ski trips to Mammoth. Another would be US-50, since it's a touristy road with no other major roads off it.

[JayhawkCO]

Texas... oh boy. Because of the size of the state, the population density follows Interstate 35 in East Texas with Houston being connected via Interstate 45. Between Interstate 35 and El Paso, the population density drops off, and you can trace the interstates by the population centers. My guesses...

Most likely... Unsigned I-345/US-75 in Dallas. Follow that with I-40 in Amarillo in North Texas.

Least likely... I-44 in Wichita Falls. It's a freeway stub that doesn't connect to any other Texas freeways, and goes into Oklahoma.

I don't think I can agree on I-44 being the least likely to be clinched. Any loop or partial loop (I-410, I-610,I-635, I-820) would be less likely. The one time I was on I-44 in Texas, I clinched it. In fact, I would argue that it would be the most likely 2di to clinch in Texas just because it's so short, but wouldn't qualify based on the rules I outlined in the OP.

[jlam]

It doesn't look like Arizona has been done yet, so here are my inputs:


Most likely to clinch

Interstate: I-15 (29.32 mi), no question. It's part of the fastest route between Los Angeles and much of the rest of the nation. The stretch is pretty rural, and there's only one major exit. The only way you might pass through here without clinching I-15 is if you decide to get part of the historic US 91.

U.S. Highway: US 163 (23.50 mi). As with I-15, there isn't much to do along this stretch of road. Also pretty scenic, US 163 runs through the hot tourist destination of Monument Valley. There isn't much to speak of about camping, so if you get on this road, you're likely continuing to Utah.

State Route: This is probably SR 72 (37.30 mi). This route mostly serves as a cutoff from US 60 to Parker. Bouse is located in the middle of the route, but that town doesn't look like it's doing too well. I wouldn't view it as the most alluring of attractions. Not many people take this route, but most of them clinch it.


Least likely to clinch

Interstate: I-19 (64.37 mi) fits here. The majority of it is pretty straight-forward, just a spur from Tucson to Nogales, but the routing gets pretty funky when you enter downtown Nogales. The route utilizes zigging and zagging along surface streets to get to the port of entry.
I-10 (398.88 mi) could also work here, since many people heading east from Los Angeles take SR 85 -> I-8 to bypass Phoenix. It's a bit longer though.

U.S. Highway: This one might be US 180 (284.82 mi), at least in terms of the ratio of people traveling this route to actually clinching it. The western bit of US 180 is the fastest path from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon, but outside of that and the I-40 concurrency, the rest of the route doesn't have much utilization. It just passes through rural eastern Arizona.

State Route: There are a bunch of useless SR spurs in Arizona, but here it might be SR 99 (44.71 mi). Outside of its concurrency with I-40, there isn't much reason to be on this road unless you live on a ranch or in Leupp.