Highways You Have Clinched

[kphoger]

US24 - Easy to follow with the exception of the impossible-to-drive-straight-through portion just west of Burlington

Depends on your vehicle's ground clearance.  Looks like you can get around the fence here.

[pderocco]

The east coast is way too full of inhabited places to often make US Route clinching practical.  The amount of effort took me to finish just US 1 in Florida was far more taxing than finishing the entire US Route system in states like Nevada and Arizona.

How long do you think it would take to drive all 550 miles of US-1? A couple long days? How about all the bits of A1A? That might be more interesting since it stays close to the beach.

[Max Rockatansky]

The east coast is way too full of inhabited places to often make US Route clinching practical.  The amount of effort took me to finish just US 1 in Florida was far more taxing than finishing the entire US Route system in states like Nevada and Arizona.

How long do you think it would take to drive all 550 miles of US-1? A couple long days? How about all the bits of A1A? That might be more interesting since it stays close to the beach.

I would need to sit down and figure that out.  For US 1 I would think they really would depend on how many hours of slogging through urban surface traffic you're willing to put up with.  Several segments of A1A are actually pretty scenic and get into sparsely populated areas.   

[Rothman]

Reminds me of anyone who wants to drive US 1 (Boston Post Road) between NYC and Boston.  "Well, whatever floats your boat..."

[pderocco]

The east coast is way too full of inhabited places to often make US Route clinching practical.  The amount of effort took me to finish just US 1 in Florida was far more taxing than finishing the entire US Route system in states like Nevada and Arizona.

How long do you think it would take to drive all 550 miles of US-1? A couple long days? How about all the bits of A1A? That might be more interesting since it stays close to the beach.

I would need to sit down and figure that out.  For US 1 I would think they really would depend on how many hours of slogging through urban surface traffic you're willing to put up with.  Several segments of A1A are actually pretty scenic and get into sparsely populated areas. 

One solution to clinching roads with hundreds of traffic lights is to do it in the middle of the night. That's how I did CA-82 in a little over an hour, starting at about midnight. I normally go for clinches during the day when you can see the scenery, but in urban areas there's enough lighting that you can still see plenty of stuff at night.

[pderocco]

Reminds me of anyone who wants to drive US 1 (Boston Post Road) between NYC and Boston.  "Well, whatever floats your boat..."

That would be me. I've driven almost none of it in from NYC to Providence, but at least some of the towns along the way are pretty nice. I'm tackling that in a New England trip next month.

[Max Rockatansky]

The east coast is way too full of inhabited places to often make US Route clinching practical.  The amount of effort took me to finish just US 1 in Florida was far more taxing than finishing the entire US Route system in states like Nevada and Arizona.

How long do you think it would take to drive all 550 miles of US-1? A couple long days? How about all the bits of A1A? That might be more interesting since it stays close to the beach.

I would need to sit down and figure that out.  For US 1 I would think they really would depend on how many hours of slogging through urban surface traffic you're willing to put up with.  Several segments of A1A are actually pretty scenic and get into sparsely populated areas. 

One solution to clinching roads with hundreds of traffic lights is to do it in the middle of the night. That's how I did CA-82 in a little over an hour, starting at about midnight. I normally go for clinches during the day when you can see the scenery, but in urban areas there's enough lighting that you can still see plenty of stuff at night.

Yes, trouble in my case is that I wouldn't have any photos to harvest for our page.  The only quality nighttime shots that I've ever really consistently gotten were from standing position outside my car.

[SkyPesos]

Only counting Interstates, as I lost track of state routes and don't think I've clinched any US routes.

2di: I-57, I-71, I-78, I-88 NY
3di: I-640 (TN), I-465, I-865, I-170, I-270 (MO/IL), I-470 (OH/WV), I-670 (OH), I-271, I-471, I-275 (MI, OH/KY/IN, TN), I-475 (GA), I-675 (GA, OH), I-684, I-295 (NY)

[dlsterner]

The more I think about it, clinching any US Highway feels radically more difficult. If nothing else, you have to go out of your way to do it, as you're more likely to take the faster, parallel running interstate if it's available.

I definitelyy noticed that myself when compiling my list.  Was surprised when at the end, I didn't have a single US Highway clinched.

I've since clinched US 192, US 222, US 331, and US 340, but had to go a bit out of my way to get the last pieces.  Still don't have a 100% clinched 2dus.  Thinking that US 13 may be the closest for me, but not in a hurry to clinch that one.

[Buster Cannon]

Added VA I-195 and NC I-587 to my list on a road trip this weekend. 195/VA-76/VA-150 is a pretty solid downtown Richmond bypass, hadn't thought to jump on it despite having run through that area countless times.


Edit: (5/11/2026)

Had another road trip this weekend to Berlin CT, fully clinched I-684 (NY/CT) and I-691 (CT). Few random notes:

• Didn't fully clinch it, but the Merrit Parkway is beautiful
• There's no real painless way to get up to CT from the greater NYC area. 84-East has its fair share of bottlenecks; CT-15/I-95 feels like rolling dice.
• Jersey drivers = Chaotic Good. CT drivers = Chaotic Neutral.
• Haven't been upstate NY in at least a decade, sequential exit numbers throwing me off lol

[ElishaGOtis]

Multiple new clinches, much of them at 1 AM lol:

2di / Multi State 3di:
- I-78
- I-97
- I-287 (NY/NJ)

Delaware:
- I-95 within state
- I-295 within state

Maryland:
- I-95 within state
- MD-665

New Jersey:
- Atlantic City Expressway
- ACE Connector
- I-95 within state

New York:
- FDR Drive

North Carolina:
- I-295

Pennsylvania:
- I-95 within state

South Carolina:
- BR-20 Florence
- Otis Way 🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓 (username-checks-out ahh clinch)

[formulanone]

If nothing else, you have to go out of your way to do it, as you're more likely to take the faster, parallel running interstate if it's available.

I hadn't even looked at your list and this sentence told me you lived far east of the Mississippi. Out west, US routes aren't just the "alternative interstates" with a couple exceptions (US30, US6, US85/87 through Colorado, etc.).

The east coast is way too full of inhabited places to often make US Route clinching practical.  The amount of effort took me to finish just US 1 in Florida was far more taxing than finishing the entire US Route system in states like Nevada and Arizona.

Yeah. When I just did the Overseas Highway, I thought for a second to try to go for a clinch of US1 in Florida, and then I thought that sounded hellish.

I only ever did it because I was living in the center of the state and had a lot of time on my hands.  Fortunately there is a fair bit of interesting roads in eastern Florida that I could dissect US 1 into 30-50 mile chunks at a time.  US 1 and US 41 are the most difficult US Routes to clinch for Florida.  27, 27A, 129, 301, 231, 192 and 319 are all relatively easy to finish given they are either short or mostly rural.  441, 19, 90 and 17 all have some awful urban mileage but are relatively easy once you get out of the big cities.  92 is short enough that I was able to finish it on a day trip even though it is highly urbanized.  98 and 90 just take a long time but I don't recall either being especially frustrating.  90 mostly fronts I-10 and doesn't make a lot of sense to take most of the time.

Probably Not:

The problem with Florida's US Route system is that many of them are well over a day's-long drive: 1, 17, 41, 98, 441. US 1 and US 441 are traffic hell, though 441 at least has some varied scenery in places. US 98 is just very long and much of 41 is a west-coast version of 441, once you head north of Naples. Of this bunch, maybe 17 could be done in a long day.

Maybe:

You might get US 27 down in one day if you started in Miami, because it soon goes through a lot of rural areas and much of it has four lanes with a wide median. You'll bog down again around Haines City, then Clermont, and Leesburg. Then it's rural until Tallahassee. It's just over 500 miles so you'd probably not enjoy it very much that way. Maybe a summer's Sunday with longer daylight...so this would be a bit of challenge.

Maybe US 90? It's empty in a lot of sections but not as much is four-laned, either. You will have to stop at every little town along the way and trundle around at 30-35 mph.

US 301 goes through a lot of this-and-that towns, then lots of open sections. It could be done in a day.

US 19 is a slog through the Tampa Bay area but then it opens up north of New Port Richey to the western trackless wastelands and is also under 300 miles.

Easy:

US 23, 29, 129, 221, 231, 319, and 331 are easy enough within the state, 331 just goes to Montgomery, Alabama so that whole thing could be done in a day with limited traffic.  US 92 and 192; one could be done in a half-day (lots of traffic despite its short length) and the other is a lazy afternoon starter-kit of a My First US Route

* Add 10% Travel Time if FHP (et al) is on quota patrol.