One long stretch one way and not as long the other

[roadman65]

I was always amazed at how the I-75 between Exits 329 and 341  a distance of over 10 miles seem different when traveling NB compared to SB.  Whenever I drive I-75 NB it does not seem as long to go between Wildwood and Dunnellon, but coming the other way it seems longer to go from Exit 341 to Exit 329, yet its the same road with the same conditions.

Then Alternate US 27 from Bronson to Chiefland seems longer NB than SB.  In fact from Williston to Bronson is almost the same exact distance between Bronson and Chiefland along US 27 ALT yet it seems shorter.  For some reason from the city limits of Bronson to the US 19 intersection, you seem to ride, ride, and ride just to go 14 miles.

Anyone have stories of situations where one way seems shorter than the other using the same exact road under the same exact conditions?

[cpzilliacus]

Anyone have stories of situations where one way seems shorter than the other using the same exact road under the same exact conditions?

Interstate 8 between Ocotillo, Imperial County, California and Boulevard, San Diego County takes a rather different routing depending on if one is driving east or west. 

It is 0.4 miles longer westbound than it is eastbound. 

[74/171FAN]

I'm not sure if this really counts...but in Virginia with the 4-laning (I've mostly noticed this on US 460) of some roads have the old alignment remain the way it is (becoming one direction-curvy and hilly as well) while the new parallel alignment is more improved and straight.

[1995hoo]

Back in the 1990s I thought I-95 through North Carolina felt like a shorter drive southbound than northbound even though the distance is almost precisely the same each way. I think the reason is that back then the southbound drive still had all the old utterly un-PC billboards for South of the Border. Many of them were so absurd that they provided a reason to read the billboards and thus broke up the monotony. Northbound, of course, there were (and are) no billboards other than a few immediately north of the place (those few were in the nature of "Hey, amigo! Turn around, you just missed us!"), and I think that's partly why the drive usually felt longer to me.

Nowadays the vast majority of the funny billboards are gone and the ones that are left are bowdlerized. The resulting boredom with a road I've travelled way too often, coupled with ever-increasing traffic, has caused me just to avoid I-95 through North Carolina when possible in favor of other routes–essentially, trying to find a new or more interesting route through very familiar territory.


I can think of some other drives that tend to feel shorter in one direction due to other factors. In general, any drive that takes me west or southwest via I-66 feels shorter on the way home (eastbound) than on the way out because I feel like I'm "almost home" when I hit the Fairfax County line, even though it's almost another 30 miles from there before I actually get home. If I go somewhere to the northwest via I-270 in Maryland, the trip home usually feels faster because the road gets substantially wider as you come south towards the DC area. (Usually I don't use the same route in both directions on such trips if I can avoid it, though....for example, on a hockey trip to Hershey last month we went through Baltimore on the way up because I wanted to clinch some roads and then we came home via Frederick on US-15 and I-270.)

Any trip that uses unfamiliar roads will usually wind up feeling shorter on the way home when I hit familiar roads. I think a familiar road almost always feels substantially shorter than one I don't know.

[agentsteel53]

any drive that takes me west or southwest via I-66 feels shorter on the way home (eastbound) than on the way out because I feel like I'm "almost home"

for me it's the exact opposite.  I-5 feels long heading to San Francisco, and extra long heading back.  especially since on the way back it's "crap, I've got LA to deal with." 

[1995hoo]

any drive that takes me west or southwest via I-66 feels shorter on the way home (eastbound) than on the way out because I feel like I'm "almost home"

for me it's the exact opposite.  I-5 feels long heading to San Francisco, and extra long heading back.  especially since on the way back it's "crap, I've got LA to deal with." 

I've never been that far south on the West Coast (furthest south I've been is Vancouver, BC). But if you're talking about traffic and the like, I know what you mean because the worst traffic on trips using I-66 is on the 7-mile stretch from US-50 to I-495, which is usually just a very frustrating road to drive. There are other routes I can and do use, of course. But as a general matter, it's when I hit the Fairfax County sign that I feel like I'm "almost home" regardless of the traffic, and I think part of the reason for that is that I grew up here and have lived in a few different places in the county. The house where my parents currently live is the same one they've lived in since I was 10 years old, and it's further west (closer to I-66 and Fairfax City) than where I live now, so no doubt that contributes to my "almost home" feeling when I come that way since for quite a few years that house was my ultimate destination.

[hbelkins]

I've made the comment before that I've driven I-79 in West Virginia so often that I have gotten to the point where I hate that road.

It seems like the drive southbound takes forever anymore.

[DandyDan]

When I am out of town for days at a time, going home towards Omaha always feels longer, and it's always because I dread the end of vacation time.  Then again, it might be different with my current car, which I've only taken on a trip longer than 50 miles away once so far in the 6 months I've owned it.

[Ian]

For me, I always feel like the drive on the New York Thruway from where I usually pick it up (exit 15A/I-287) up to Albany going north is usually a lot longer than it is to take it south.

[Duke87]

The toll-free route from The Bronx to Queens always feels longer than the toll-free route from Queens to the Bronx. This is due to there being more obstacles and it being more complex. Between the endpoints of where the two routes differ:
- the southbound route has 2 intersections with red light cameras, the northbound route has none.
- the southbound route has a total of 17 traffic signals, the northbound route has 9.
- the southbound route requires taking 10 turns or exits, the northbound route requires 5.
- the southbound route involves briefly competing with a perpetual traffic jam on the Harlem River Drive, the northbound route usually moves well outside of rush hour.

Google even acknowledges the difference...
Southbound, 7.9 miles and 16 minutes: https://goo.gl/maps/Y3spo
Northbound, 6.9 miles and 14 minutes: https://goo.gl/maps/Ud4zk

Although the latter is slightly incorrect, the actual route involves taking a ramp from the inner roadway of Bruckner Blvd onto the Bruckner Expressway which Google seems to think does not exist (probably because it is obscured under the elevated structure and thus not visible in the satellite photo).

[hm insulators]

When I drive between Phoenix and Los Angeles, the stretch eastbound from the state line to Phoenix always seems longer than going westbound.

Wonder if Albert Einstein ever did any studies of that?

[GaryV]

When I drive between Phoenix and Los Angeles, the stretch eastbound from the state line to Phoenix always seems longer than going westbound.

Wonder if Albert Einstein ever did any studies of that?

When you're going westbound, the world is turning underneath you, so it should seem faster.   

[hotdogPi]

Are there any examples with timed traffic lights?

[NE2]

Beltways are longer going counterclockwise.

[Brandon]

Beltways are longer going counterclockwise.

You sure about that?  I think the M25 begs to differ.

[NE2]

Beltways are longer going counterclockwise.

You sure about that?  I think the M25 begs to differ.

This thread is under 'National Boards', not 'International Highways', Brain Little.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

This thread is under 'National Boards', not 'International Highways', Brain Little.

The 'International Highways' board is under 'Regional Boards' . Anyway, this thread is under 'General Highway Talk', so we can come up with examples all around the world despite the board being under 'National Boards'.

Back to thread, I feel Spanish A-23 between Zaragoza and Huesca has lenghtened and shortened over time. But I'm sure the road has had always the same lenght.

[sdmichael]

Even on a motorcycle... it gets down to one long slog on I-5 or I-15... pick one... coming from Los Angeles to home. At least I don't have to sit in the traffic... but lane splitting for miles on end gets tiring quick! So yeah, I-5 or I-15 NB feels a bit easier than the same SB... usually from about SR-1 on I-5 and Rainbow on I-15.

[amroad17]

I-75 in Kentucky is longer southbound than northbound.  Only because of the northern I-75/I-64 interchange (exit 118).  Southbound, you drive over I-64 and make a sweeping left curve to join I-64 about a half a mile after you drove over it.  Northbound, you simply have a short right side ramp at the split to negotiate.  The difference may only be 0.1 or 0.2 miles, but southbound is longer.  This interchange here also qualifies for "exiting to stay on the route you are on" as I-64 seems to be the mainline and I-75 enters/leaves even though the exit number is I-75's.

[english si]

Beltways are longer going counterclockwise.

Barely - only 2*pi*width of road

[hbelkins]

This interchange here also qualifies for "exiting to stay on the route you are on" as I-64 seems to be the mainline and I-75 enters/leaves even though the exit number is I-75's.

Not really. This is a true split, and I-75 was built and in use for many years before I-64. I remember traveling north on I-75 toward Cincinnati sometime before 1967 (because my dad had a '57 Chevy that we took on that trip, and we would have been in his new '67 Chevy if it was then or after) and I-64 wasn't built until 1971.

[thenetwork]

Traditionally for me, the drive seems shorter if the mile markers are counting DOWN along my journey than if they are going UP. 

May or may not be a coincidence that most of my vacation trips take me south or west on interstates -- and I have the adrenaline to drive 12-15 straight going down, but take two days driving back!! 

[ZLoth]

How about I-5 around the Shasta Lake area between exits 690 and 698? I think the northbound is slightly longer than the southbound due to the different routings.

[bugo]

I-70 between St Louis and Collinsville seems like a short drive eastbound, but westbound it just keeps going on and on.

[1995hoo]

Traditionally for me, the drive seems shorter if the mile markers are counting DOWN along my journey than if they are going UP. 

....

This seems sensible to me because when the mileposts are counting down, you know how far it is to the state line. When they're counting up, you may not know how far it is unless you already knew for some other reason what the last milepost in the state is. (For some reason I find this to be worse in states that persist in using those silly sequential exit numbers.) I think a trip feels shorter when you know the distance to the next point of significance (I count state lines among those, except maybe the Virginia/Maryland one because it's six miles from my house) than when you don't know. I've also long thought that it feels faster when you view the trip in segments instead of all as a whole–that is, if I think of a trip as being 1134 miles to Fort Myers, that will feel a whole lot longer than if I think of it in terms of 174 miles to North Carolina, then 181 miles to South Carolina, etc.