Most boring states for those into roads

[texaskdog]

What, in your opinion, is the most boring state when it comes to the interesting road things we like?  I haven't given this a lot of thought yet but Oklahoma seems to be one where there are few changes or few things of interest.

[agentsteel53]

North Dakota is a wasteland devoid of old signs.  even Texas, Tennessee and Kansas have some buried if you know where to look.  in general, North Dakota doesn't seem to have much interesting old infrastructure.  the occasional bridge and that's really about it.  I remember exploring all of US-10 in North Dakota and getting more and more disappointed about how it compared to Montana.

Oklahoma has plenty of exciting - or just bizarre and malfunctioning - things. 

[texaskdog]

North Dakota is a wasteland devoid of old signs.  even Texas, Tennessee and Kansas have some buried if you know where to look.  in general, North Dakota doesn't seem to have much interesting old infrastructure.  the occasional bridge and that's really about it.  I remember exploring all of US-10 in North Dakota and getting more and more disappointed about how it compared to Montana.

Oklahoma has plenty of exciting - or just bizarre and malfunctioning - things. 

Good choice.  North Dakota is pretty boring to drive through in any capacity.  And what's with the duplex just to have a few miles of US 81?

[corco]

Wyoming. It has nice signage,  but it's very consistent, most of it is well replaced, and there's not a ton of cool old infrastructure.

[ski-man]

Ohio..........

[Brandon]

Ohio..........

Huh?  There's a shitload of old signs in that state.  Add to that more than a few interesting bridges and Cedar Point, and you have one interesting state, even if they do have that horrible U in Columbus and stole the Toledo Strip.

[SD Mapman]

Wyoming. It has nice signage,  but it's very consistent, most of it is well replaced, and there's not a ton of cool old infrastructure.

I think either Wyoming, SD, or ND are the worst for old signs.

[Ian]

Maine is starting to get boring. In the past few years, MaineDOT has been replacing a majority of their old LeHay font signs, so most signage you see on the state highways are post-2011 made. That being said, there still are a good handful of LeHay signs on town maintained routes across the state.

Also, Delaware.

[agentsteel53]

Also, Delaware.

is there anything of interest outside the worst parts of downtown Wilmington?

Wyoming is okay for old signs.  there's a few random 1980s business route markers here and there, and I believe the circle shields for Carbon County still survive.

South Dakota has plenty of old signage - it all seems to be in the western part of the state, though.  lots of '61 spec black square US shields, and there's even a Rushmore state route 79 if you know where to look. 

[jeffandnicole]

Also, Delaware.

is there anything of interest outside the worst parts of downtown Wilmington?

Wyoming is okay for old signs.  there's a few random 1980s business route markers here and there, and I believe the circle shields for Carbon County still survive.

South Dakota has plenty of old signage - it all seems to be in the western part of the state, though.  lots of '61 spec black square US shields, and there's even a Rushmore state route 79 if you know where to look. 

For a good 20 years, Delaware extensively widened nearly all of their major state roads.  But since that's been completed, it seems like it's dwindled down to interchange reconstructions and watching the competition for the worst-looking BGS.  In a very heated battle, they do manage to outdo themselves over and over again.

[leroys73]

Is this boring highways and or signs or the drive itself.

Oklahoma does have some interesting roads to drive on.  They are not just all over like some states.

I would say the most boring to drive in although I found it worth my trip is ND.  The far western part is somewhat better.  I have found a lot of Kansas not much better.

[texaskdog]

Mainly for the things we are interested in: old highways to look it, interesting signage, etc.  Texas is not the best for that either.

[corco]

I actually really enjoy driving across Texas- there's some gems, but they're well hidden usually. Definitely a lot of neat older infrastructure, and a lot of neat newer infrastructure.

[Duke87]

Mississippi seems very forgettable to me. But then, I didn't really explore at all, I just drove across it via I-20/US 49/I-55/US 98.

Kansas would be boring as hell if I lived there, but I enjoyed seeing it just because it's so different from what I'm used to. I have to explore the plains states more on a future trip.


Although I'm judging all this based on the general scenery in addition to road-related things. Road trips aren't entirely about signs and bridges, you know.

[bugo]

What, in your opinion, is the most boring state when it comes to the interesting road things we like?  I haven't given this a lot of thought yet but Oklahoma seems to be one where there are few changes or few things of interest.

Oklahoma is a FANTASTIC state for the road enthusiast.  You have many truss bridges still in service on the state highway system.  You have dozens of old alignments of state and US highways.  You have the abandoned Will Rogers Turnpike.  You have a 75 MPH speed limit on rural turnpikes.  You have US 66.  You have US 266, a short US route, and US 377, a non-AASHTO-approved route.  The Oklahoma City and Tulsa roadmeets were interesting and we got to see lots of cool stuff.  Have you ever been here?  If not, you should try it before you knock it.

[bugo]

North Dakota is a wasteland devoid of old signs.  even Texas, Tennessee and Kansas have some buried if you know where to look.  in general, North Dakota doesn't seem to have much interesting old infrastructure.  the occasional bridge and that's really about it.  I remember exploring all of US-10 in North Dakota and getting more and more disappointed about how it compared to Montana.

Oklahoma has plenty of exciting - or just bizarre and malfunctioning - things. 

Good choice.  North Dakota is pretty boring to drive through in any capacity.  And what's with the duplex just to have a few miles of US 81?

North Dakota is another great state to visit.  Not just because of roads - the scenery and the atmosphere make it an exciting place.

[vdeane]

From what I've seen in street view, the entire southeast looks VERY boring.  As my cousin described it "they took one tree and photoshopped it down the entire length of I-10".

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

The pros for Louisiana:

- Many signed state routes
- Many bridges, a fair number of which are historic or superlative in some manner (length, age, importance to state transportation history, etc.)
- Antique 1950s urban freeways in nearly every major city
- Plenty of old US highway alignments, most of which are still state maintained (LA 73, LA 182, LA 964, etc.)
- Old auto trails still exist in places out in the field and are relatively easy to follow (Jefferson Highway, Old Spanish Trail)

The cons:

- Old signage rare and what's left is disappearing fast (especially green state highway shields)
- Clearview sines multiplying like kudzu
- Interstates can be boring in many places
- No "historic" decommissioned US routes if you're into that sort of thing
- Not a lot of variety from place to place within the state in terms of what you might expect to find that is road-related (though standardization plays a role here)

[Duke87]

From what I've seen in street view, the entire southeast looks VERY boring.  As my cousin described it "they took one tree and photoshopped it down the entire length of I-10".

The great smoky region of TN/NC (if you consider that "southeast") is anything but. And Chattanooga is one of the more intriguing cities I've been to.

Outside of that, though... yeah, the rural areas can get rather repetitive. But the cities have fun stuff. 75/85 through Atlanta should be on every roadgeek's bucket list. It's best driven when somewhat crowded but not congested, when you can enjoy the experience of weaving around slower drivers across six lanes of traffic. That was fun!

[Ned Weasel]

What, in your opinion, is the most boring state when it comes to the interesting road things we like?  I haven't given this a lot of thought yet but Oklahoma seems to be one where there are few changes or few things of interest.

Oklahoma is a FANTASTIC state for the road enthusiast.  You have many truss bridges still in service on the state highway system.  You have dozens of old alignments of state and US highways.  You have the abandoned Will Rogers Turnpike.  You have a 75 MPH speed limit on rural turnpikes.  You have US 66.  You have US 266, a short US route, and US 377, a non-AASHTO-approved route.  The Oklahoma City and Tulsa roadmeets were interesting and we got to see lots of cool stuff.  Have you ever been here?  If not, you should try it before you knock it.

Oklahoma is also the only state that has toll roads that use a receipt/refund system, instead of a "closed" ticket system or an "open" point-tolling system.  It's also an interesting state for toll road enthusiasts in general.

[Road Hog]

Oklahoma east of U.S. 69 is very scenic with some unique drives. But one time I diverged to the west and found an abandoned alignment of U.S. 62/75 paralleling I-40 west of Henryetta. Four-lane divided and everything. Hugely fascinating. Rode it out (it was rough) and followed it all the way into downtown Henryetta.

(On further review, only the 62-75 junction was divided and it's two-lane the rest of the way.)

[roadman65]

I-70 from Limon, Co into Kansas has no turnovers around it.  Its pretty much the same all the way long.

[realjd]

From what I've seen in street view, the entire southeast looks VERY boring.  As my cousin described it "they took one tree and photoshopped it down the entire length of I-10".

The SE can be hit or miss. I-10 through most of Florida is pretty dull but there are some neat stretches like the super long bridge over the swamp in Louisiana or the bridge and tunnels in Mobile.

[empirestate]

How would we rank Alaska here? Certainly, what roads it does have are very interesting by themselves, but the great distance between everything in the state would make it very time-consuming to visit all the interesting bits.

Of course, the time in between would be interesting for other, non-road reasons perhaps; I certainly wouldn't be bored, but is it a boring state strictly from a roads point of view?

[oscar]

How would we rank Alaska here? Certainly, what roads it does have are very interesting by themselves, but the great distance between everything in the state would make it very time-consuming to visit all the interesting bits.

If you like driving, you can do a lot of it in Alaska, especially if you're willing to go off-pavement to places like Deadhorse and McCarthy.  The great distances should be no deterrent.

I don't think Alaska has many boring highways, though the north end of AK 11 (Dalton Highway) north of Atigun Pass can get pretty boring as it crosses mostly featureless tundra.  The freeways around Anchorage, and AK 2 between Tok and Fairbanks, are also mostly uninteresting.