Highways Where the Quickest Way to Travel Between Endpoints is to Turn Off

[JayhawkCO]

I was thinking about this the other day. Which highways (and I'll bring up 2dis) would it be faster to exit or turn off of and take a different road in order to go from one terminus to the other? I think we've had similar topics, but not exactly this (at least from what I could find from a search). This is assuming normal traffic. For 2dis, according to GMaps:

I-5 - Quicker to use I-805 in San Diego
I-10 - Quicker to use I-12
I-20 - Quicker to use I-459 around Birmingham
I-35 - Quicker to use I-335->I-70->I-635->I-29 in KS/MO
I-41 - Quicker to use I-43
I-43 - Quicker to use I-90->US151->WI26->I-41
I-55 - Quicker to use I-57->I-90/94
I-64 - Quicker to use I-295 around Richmond
I-65 - Quicker to use I-40->I-24 in Nashville
I-69 - Quicker to use I-469->US24->I-475->I-75->I-94 in IN/OH/MI
I-70 - Quicker to use I-270 in St. Louis and US40->I-68 in PA/WV
I-75 - Quicker to use Palmetto Expressway->Florida's Turnpike in FL, I-475 in Macon, and I-475->US23 in OH/MI
I-90 - Quicker to use US212 in MT/WY/SD
I-94 - Quicker to use I-90->US212->I-90->I-290->I-294 and then I-69 in MI
I-95 - Quicker to use I-295->DC295->Baltimore-Washington Parkway, then quicker to use I-295->NJTpk, then quicker to use I-87->Cross-County Parkway->Hutchinson River Parkway->Merritt Parkway (CT15)->I-91->I-84->I-90->I-290->I-495, then quicker to use I-295 in ME
I-96 - Quicker to use I-696->M-10->I-75

Am I missing any here? And any other good long distance examples that aren't interstates? I figured not many state highways would be interesting here since there are some really dumb routings for some states.

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 18 by turning off of it at Crestline onto CA 138 and following west to the opposite terminus (of CA 18).

[TheStranger]

US 101 (I-5 is more direct between Los Angeles and Olympia)
CA 1 (I-5 and US 101 are quicker between Dana Point and Leggett)
CA 99 (this only works in I-5's favor because 99 between Yuba City and Oroville is not a freeway/expressway)
CA 70 (I-80 is the faster route; this makes sense in light of CA 70's history as Alternate US 40 and I-80's history along mostly US 40)
CA 82 (as the old surface street US 101, either I-280 or US 101 are faster from San Jose to San Francisco)
CA 238/I-238 (in theory, 680 south to 262 west to 880 north is faster)

[Big John]

US 151 - bypass Madison by US 12/18 & I-39/90

[hotdogPi]

Duplicate of https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9247.0

I can't find the US route thread right now, but I know NE2 created it. (Edit: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9540)

[JayhawkCO]

Duplicate of https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9247.0

Definitely didn't find it from 12 years ago. My examples actually manage to be quite different from those listed there.

[Max Rockatansky]

Duplicate of https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9247.0

Definitely didn't find it from 12 years ago. My examples actually manage to be quite different from those listed there.

Might be time to let the duplicate thread stuff go anyways given it is often nigh impossible to find like-stuff in searches.

[Max Rockatansky]

Duplicate of https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9247.0

Definitely didn't find it from 12 years ago. My examples actually manage to be quite different from those listed there.

Might be time to let the duplicate thread stuff go anyways given it is often nigh impossible to find like-stuff in searches.

And this was the example that swayed my opinion (as noted in your thread).  I tried a search for the older thread and couldn't come up with anything due to the common words used.  Who really cares if anyways if new conversation gets generated?

[pderocco]

Any 3/4 beltway, and many 1/2 beltways, would qualify, like I-215 in Utah, or I-215/CR-215 in Nevada, or AZ-101.

[SEWIGuy]

Duplicate of https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9247.0

Definitely didn't find it from 12 years ago. My examples actually manage to be quite different from those listed there.

Might be time to let the duplicate thread stuff go anyways given it is often nigh impossible to find like-stuff in searches.

Right. If it were a couple months or a year ago? Fine.

But TWELVE years ago? Cmon...

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Duplicate of https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9247.0

Definitely didn't find it from 12 years ago. My examples actually manage to be quite different from those listed there.

Might be time to let the duplicate thread stuff go anyways given it is often nigh impossible to find like-stuff in searches.

Right. If it were a couple months or a year ago? Fine.

But TWELVE years ago? Cmon...

I've commented before, but 1/hotdogpi basically lives for digging up duplicates and putting far more time than he should into such.

[JayhawkCO]

It's what it is. I understand the intent is organization.

[mgk920]

It is far faster and easier to use IN 63 than it is to stay on US 41 north of Terra Haute, IN.

Mike

[SEWIGuy]

It's what it is. I understand the intent is organization.

If that's the intent, it's misguided.

[Tom958]

I-40, Asheville to Wilmington: Quicker and much shorter to use US 74 through Charlotte.

[GaryV]

In da' UP:

US-41 - it's shorter to take US-141

US-2 - it's shorter to take M-28

M-123 - It's shorter to take M-28 or US-2

M-94 - it's shorter to take US-2 and US-41

[kphoger]

it is often nigh impossible to find like-stuff in searches

ugh

Yes, I now use Google to search for old forum posts.  But I have my forum settings to display newest posts at the top, whereas the page number generated by Google assumes the opposite.  So then, after following the link to the correct thread, I have to figure out which page the post is actually on.

[oscar]

Duplicate of https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9247.0

Definitely didn't find it from 12 years ago. My examples actually manage to be quite different from those listed there.

Might be time to let the duplicate thread stuff go anyways given it is often nigh impossible to find like-stuff in searches.

And this was the example that swayed my opinion (as noted in your thread).  I tried a search for the older thread and couldn't come up with anything due to the common words used.  Who really cares if anyways if new conversation gets generated?

But any new conversation misses any info from old conversations. Especially if the members participating in the old conversations don't feel like repeating themselves for new conversations.

The reminders of old conversations covering the same ground can be helpful for our newer members, and aren't necessarily criticisms of our newer members' proficiency in overcoming the limitations of our search tool. In some cases, the reminders can encourage thread merges to combine the old and new threads, though that requires management intervention which doesn't always happen.

[1995hoo]

Until the new segment of US-219 in Pennsylvania opened from near Somerset to near Meyersdale a while back, it was faster and about nine miles more direct to use Garrett Shortcut Road—dare I say that road is essentially the hypotenuse of a triangle on which the old US-219 routing formed the other two sides? 

Another current one not yet mentioned in the thread is that the OP's listing of places where the quickest way is to exit I-95 omits the vicinity of Wilmington, Delaware. Google Maps says I-495 is only one minute faster (despite being 0.3 of a mile longer), but I've always found it saves a lot more time than that because traffic moves so much faster on I-495. While I haven't driven that way since 2019, I generally found that if you were going 80 mph you were the slowest person on the road. Can't go anywhere near that fast on I-95 through the city. (Edited to add: And of course this is absent from the OP's listing because he quite rightly notes that the faster route still is to go over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and use the Jersey Turnpike.)

[SEWIGuy]

Duplicate of https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=9247.0

Definitely didn't find it from 12 years ago. My examples actually manage to be quite different from those listed there.

Might be time to let the duplicate thread stuff go anyways given it is often nigh impossible to find like-stuff in searches.

And this was the example that swayed my opinion (as noted in your thread).  I tried a search for the older thread and couldn't come up with anything due to the common words used.  Who really cares if anyways if new conversation gets generated?

But any new conversation misses any info from old conversations. Especially if the members participating in the old conversations don't feel like repeating themselves for new conversations.

The reminders of old conversations covering the same ground can be helpful for our newer members, and aren't necessarily criticisms of our newer members' proficiency in overcoming the limitations of our search tool. In some cases, the reminders can encourage thread merges to combine the old and new threads, though that requires management intervention which doesn't always happen.

Again, I get all of this if the topic is recent.

But this was 12 years ago!

[JayhawkCO]

Until the new segment of US-219 in Pennsylvania opened from near Somerset to near Meyersdale a while back, it was faster and about nine miles more direct to use Garrett Shortcut Road—dare I say that road is essentially the hypotenuse of a triangle on which the old US-219 routing formed the other two sides? 

Another current one not yet mentioned in the thread is that the OP's listing of places where the quickest way is to exit I-95 omits the vicinity of Wilmington, Delaware. Google Maps says I-495 is only one minute faster (despite being 0.3 of a mile longer), but I've always found it saves a lot more time than that because traffic moves so much faster on I-495. While I haven't driven that way since 2019, I generally found that if you were going 80 mph you were the slowest person on the road. Can't go anywhere near that fast on I-95 through the city. (Edited to add: And of course this is absent from the OP's listing because he quite rightly notes that the faster route still is to go over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and use the Jersey Turnpike.)

Similarly, most of the time when I've driven through there, Google Maps says I-235 is quicker in Des Moines vs. taking I-35/80. For some reason it didn't come up that way when I looked this time.

[DandyDan]

Until the new segment of US-219 in Pennsylvania opened from near Somerset to near Meyersdale a while back, it was faster and about nine miles more direct to use Garrett Shortcut Road—dare I say that road is essentially the hypotenuse of a triangle on which the old US-219 routing formed the other two sides? 

Another current one not yet mentioned in the thread is that the OP's listing of places where the quickest way is to exit I-95 omits the vicinity of Wilmington, Delaware. Google Maps says I-495 is only one minute faster (despite being 0.3 of a mile longer), but I've always found it saves a lot more time than that because traffic moves so much faster on I-495. While I haven't driven that way since 2019, I generally found that if you were going 80 mph you were the slowest person on the road. Can't go anywhere near that fast on I-95 through the city. (Edited to add: And of course this is absent from the OP's listing because he quite rightly notes that the faster route still is to go over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and use the Jersey Turnpike.)

Similarly, most of the time when I've driven through there, Google Maps says I-235 is quicker in Des Moines vs. taking I-35/80. For some reason it didn't come up that way when I looked this time.

I-235 doesn't get the long distance truck traffic that I-35/80 does, so it feels like you can go faster. It's quite possible now with the reconstructed interchange that that alters things timewise.

[Dirt Roads]

Breezewood, anyone? 

Splitting hairs here, but it's still a few minutes faster to use I-68/US-40/Mon-Fayette to bypass Breezewood.  But Apple Maps is also showing the same time if you can get off the Mon-Fayette and back onto US-40, which drops you onto I-79 for a short distance from the Laboratory exit.  That includes 28 miles of two-lane US-40 west of Keysers Ridge, plus another 17 miles of two-lane US-40 east of Laboratory.

I've never had much of a slowdown through Breezewood, but when it does occur, I-68/I-79 is certainly a tad bit faster as well.

[Konza]

Before it was decommissioned, US 80 in Arizona was the epitome of this.  If one was driving from Las Cruces to Yuma, it would have been shorter and faster to take NM 14 and AZ 86 to Benson instead of US 80 through Douglas and Bisbee.  From Tucson, taking AZ 84 would have saved the driver the grief of driving through the Phoenix area and then back south to where the routes reconnected at Gila Bend.  It shouldn't be surprising that when I-8 and I-10 were built, they followed these routes instead of US 80.

US 80 was over 497 miles across Arizona.  I-10 at the New Mexico State line to I-8 at the Colorado River is about 373 miles.

[jlam]

Non-freeways probably aren't as interesting, but here are Colorado's Interstates and US Highways. These are only within the state:

I-25: efficient
I-70: efficient
I-76: efficient
I-225: efficient
I-270: efficient

US 6: efficient (using Interstate bypasses)
US 24: quicker to take I-70
US 34: quicker to take US 40 -> I-70 -> I-76 (probably, would have to recheck when Trail Ridge Road is open)
US 36: efficient
US 40: quicker to take CO 64 -> CO 13 -> I-70
US 50: quicker to take I-70 -> US 287
US 84: efficient
US 85: quicker to take I-25 -> WCR 126 north of Denver
US 87: efficient
US 138: quicker to take I-76
US 160: efficient
US 285: quicker to take CO 17 through San Luis Valley
US 287: quicker to take Owl Canyon Road bypassing Ft. Collins, E-470
US 350: efficient
US 385: quicker to take US 287, CO 59
US 400: efficient
US 491: efficient
US 550: efficient