Google Maps: route option to avoid "highways"

[A.J. Bertin]

In a thread on the Road Trips board, I described a route that I'm planning to take from the Cleveland area to Scranton PA in March that will involve U.S. 6 for pretty much the entire drive. I was just playing around with Google Maps to see how long it estimates my route will take, and I used the Route Options feature. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what would happen if I checked the option to avoid highways. Sure enough, it gave me the exact route I wanted. It avoided I-80.

Kinda funny because U.S. 6 is a highway: a non-freeway highway. I couldn't help but wonder why Google Maps doesn't change the word "highway" in the options to avoid to the word "freeway".

"Highway" is too generic of a term for Google Maps to suggest avoiding it. "Freeway" would be more specific. You can't avoid using highways traveling between cities of any significant distance. Strange.

[kphoger]

That meaning of "highway" is fairly specific to our part of the world. Spend enough time on skyscraper city roadgeek forums long enough, and you'll come to understand that the rest of the world (i.e. Europe) generally reserves the term "highway" for freeways.

It would also be very difficult for Google to know exactly how minor of a road you might want to travel on. If US-6 is too major, then what about state routes? county highways?

[dfwmapper]

It avoids anything with a priority of freeway or expressway, keeping in mind that Google's definition of expressway is inconsistent with what most of us would consider expressways.

[bugo]

In Tulsa, all freeways are "the highway".

[AsphaltPlanet]

Here in southern Ontario too, the term "the highway" is typically reserved for a freeway.

"the" seems to be the qualifier.

In common parlance, "Highway 7" would be understood as an at-grade road, whereas "the highway" or "the 401" would be understood to be a freeway.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I thought 'highway' meant any main road.

[A.J. Bertin]

I thought 'highway' meant any main road.

Yeah... any main road that connects cities/towns of any significant distance.  U.S. 6 is a "highway" which is why I was intrigued by Google Maps' use of the term highway. But I guess when they suggest to avoid "highways" they mean to avoid "freeways".

[cl94]

Out east, "highway" implies limited-access

[Sykotyk]

I've driven the whole stretch of US 6 through Pennsylvania except for the crossing from Matamoras into New York from I-84.

Remember for time, whether to take US6 from Warren to Smethport or whether you want to take the shorter route and run through PA-59. Personally, I like sticking to US-6 if only because I really like to stick to the same route for as long as possible on a trip. It's got more towns, etc and if you have time for a side trip, can stop and see the Kinzua Viaduct easily from US6.

Though, if you're doing a round trip, I'd recommend returning the way you didn't come in. US6 is a fun road. Has a few 'freeway' like sections. The Meadville expressway portion (has lights), the Youngsville bypass and the freeway around Warren. It's scenic. And also, it is a rather large trucking route as there isn't any other major east-west roads in the area between I-86 and I-80.

[mrsman]

It's a little hard to come up with a generic term to describe all limited-access highways.

Freeways?  Well, in the east they don't consider toll roads like NJTP to be freeways. 
Expressways? In the east, these are freeways, but in the west these are more or less limited access roads with traffic lights and occasional interchanges.  (Think of the Bay Area expressways for example)
Highways?  As expressed above, this would refer to any signed routing, not just freeways.

So highway tends to work.   Basically avoid anything that operates like a freeway in that you have to get on and off via ramps (as opposed to intersections), where at-grade intersections are virtually non-existant, and one has to regularly change lanes.

Incidentally, I don't beleive it's possible to make a trip from Cleveland to Scranton without hitting a signed state, US, or Interstate highway.  What's the furthest one can travel on ordinary streets in the US, where the streets are not US or state highways or the old routings of state or US highways.

[bzakharin]

I don't beleive it's possible to make a trip from Cleveland to Scranton without hitting a signed state, US, or Interstate highway.  What's the furthest one can travel on ordinary streets in the US, where the streets are not US or state highways or the old routings of state or US highways.

I imagine not, but you can get pretty far here in NJ, if county routes don't count. You can travel 52 miles (Camden to Freehold) just on CR 537 before hitting the first overlap with a state route. I'm sure you can find a way through just about the entire state using only county routes and local roads.

[hotdogPi]

I imagine not, but you can get pretty far here in NJ, if county routes don't count. You can travel 52 miles (Camden to Freehold) just on CR 537 before hitting the first overlap with a state route. I'm sure you can find a way through just about the entire state using only county routes and local roads.

I found a way from Downe, NJ to the New York border without using state routes, US routes, Interstates, or other freeways.

[dgolub]

Among non-roadgeeks in the Northeast, "highway" is used to mean "freeway" as defined by FHWA.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I think you can get pretty much anywhere in Minnesota on county roads except parts of the Arrowhead where the only way in is on MN 61. You'll have some issues finding a non-state route across the two major rivers, but there are a few county roads that cross them.

[cl94]

In New York, it's possible to get across the state without touching a state-numbered road, but it's not easy to get across the Hudson because all but 4 bridges on through roads are state-maintained and one of those requires using US 4 immediately west of the bridge. All 3 touch Saratoga County. In that part of the state, as with neighboring Vermont and northern New England, all of the major roads have a state number, including the majority of through roads in the Adirondacks. If you cross on one of those three bridges, you could probably drive just south of the Adirondacks and get across the state on county or town roads, while it's a pretty straight shot to Vermont and you could almost certainly get to a few miles west of Montauk.

Similarly, it's hard (if not impossible) to drive between Queensbury and Plattsburgh on non-state roads without looping around to near NY 12. To do a full north-south, you'd have to skirt the south and west sides of Adirondack Park and cross the Hudson in Hudson Falls, Corinth, or Hadley. Additionally, the southernmost point (on Staten Island) is not accessible without using a state route ever since the Staten Island Ferry stopped carrying cars, so furthest south one could go is Brooklyn.

[NE2]

I don't think it's possible to cross Florida without using a state road. I can draw a line from Georgia to the Everglades using the St. Johns and Kissimmee Rivers, with the Fort Gates Ferry as the only non-state road crossing. But I can't find any way to cross US 1 and the adjacent FEC Railway (US 17 is also sketchy depending on whether the roads through the Lake George Conservation Area are open).

Perhaps this should be a separate thread.

[1995hoo]

Among non-roadgeeks people in the Northeast, "highway" is used to mean "freeway" as defined by FHWA.

FTFY

[cl94]

Among non-roadgeeks people in the Northeast, "highway" is used to mean "freeway" as defined by FHWA.

FTFY

Yep. Only thing that comes close is "expressway". Use "freeway" and people look at you like you have two heads. Highway, freeway, and expressway are synonyms up here and they have been for a long time.

[bzakharin]

Among non-roadgeeks people in the Northeast, "highway" is used to mean "freeway" as defined by FHWA.

FTFY

Yep. Only thing that comes close is "expressway". Use "freeway" and people look at you like you have two heads. Highway, freeway, and expressway are synonyms up here and they have been for a long time.

So apparently, in much of the country, partially access controlled highways are rare to non-existent, so the distinction is academic anyway. Here in NJ divided highways with a hodge-podge of interchanges, regular left turns, and jughandles are commonplace. Yet, people here don't get confused when such a thing is called a highway on par with a freeway somehow.

[vdeane]

Among non-roadgeeks people in the Northeast, "highway" is used to mean "freeway" as defined by FHWA.

FTFY

Yep. Only thing that comes close is "expressway". Use "freeway" and people look at you like you have two heads. Highway, freeway, and expressway are synonyms up here and they have been for a long time.

Yep, expressway and freeway are largely treated as synonyms even by some in NYSDOT.

[1995hoo]

Among non-roadgeeks people in the Northeast, "highway" is used to mean "freeway" as defined by FHWA.

FTFY

Yep. Only thing that comes close is "expressway". Use "freeway" and people look at you like you have two heads. Highway, freeway, and expressway are synonyms up here and they have been for a long time.

Heh. When my brother-in-law and his wife visited us in June 2013, they used "freeway" to refer to the Interstate and they used "highway" as a prefix before a route number (e.g., "Highway 29 was scenic" in reference to the US Route bearing that number). I knew what they meant, of course, but it sounded very strange to us.