Nearest Freeway Segment You've Never Driven

[bzakharin]

There are several very close to me:

1. NJ Turnpike south of Exit 4. Since it's my answer to the "what exit?" question, there's no reason not to take I-295 instead unless it's jammed, and I just don't traverse that area frequently enough to have encountered that.
2. I-676 south of the US 30 split. It's extremely local, so unless your destination is right on it, it doesn't make sense
3. I-295 between Exit 34 and 36. This one is "almost never" since I remember driving it at least once,  when the southbound entrance was jammed, and I decided to go north instead (didn't help me a bit, got into a worse jam, won't be repeating it any time soon). It's actually the closest segment of Interstate to me, but because of that, I enter at 36 to go north and 34 (or sometimes 32) to go south.

[SteveG1988]

I-195 east of NJ 18, never had a need to go past there.

[bzakharin]

Looking at the OP, "drive" probably wasn't literal.

Well, if so, then my entire list might be disqualified. Even I-676. Back when Admiral Wilson Blvd (US 30) flooded frequently I remember my school bus driver being forced onto 676 instead. Though I'm pretty sure we never went all the way south to I-76 on it. Then I'd have to say DE 1/7.

[Super Mateo]

Before the I-57/I-294 partial interchange was built, my answer would probably be I-94 from I-57 to I-80.  I still rarely travel it, but once the 57/294 interchange was opened, I-294 from I-57 to I-80 would be the new winner.  Using the Harlem/IL 43/Exit 148 point of entry, I go to I-57, then 294 north when going to Rosemont for various games/shows.  If I'm going to points east (like another location of my workplace), I'll stay on Interstate 80, even if I'm paying tolls to be stuck behind trucks that don't follow IL lane restrictions that the cops won't enforce, along with the illogical use of 294's exit numbers instead of I-80's.

TL;DR:  The short stretch of I-294 from I-80 to I-57.

[SectorZ]

MA 240, which is the only inch of freeway in my state I've never been on.

MA 240 is not a freeway. It's similar to Industrial Ave. in Haverhill (most people on this forum aren't familiar with it, but I know you are).

I guess that explains why I need to drive on it so I would actually know that! In that case mine is probably RI 10 down near 95, which may actually be closer than MA 240 anyways.

[webny99]

Something in Chicago; IL 53 probably.  Was a passenger on part of it, but never drove.

Looking at the OP, "drive" probably wasn't literal.

Correct.
I actually considered phrasing it as "been on" instead of "driven", but decided the latter was more concise. I try to avoid wordy thread titles.

[webny99]

mine would be the Lake Ontario Parkway east of NY 390

For me, it's probably the 104 Freeway in Rochester.

Irony of all ironies, I use the NY 104 freeway every day, and the east end of the LOSP quite frequently as well.

I guess Rochester's highway network isn't particularly well-suited to clinching if you're not from the area. I imagine I've clinched a lot more of the Buffalo/Syracuse freeway networks than someone from there has clinched of Rochester's, simply because we're further from the beaten path.

[roadman65]

I-95 from Riveria Beach to Fort Lauderdale.

[Duke87]

I don't think I have ever been on the section of Nicolls Road south of the LIE (I-495). But it is difficult for me to say definitively since I do not actively keep track of what county roads I have or have not been on.

If I have, then the next closest is the short freeway spur to the Walt Whitman Bridge from NJ 168 (internal designation NJ 76C, but no signed number).

[Flint1979]

If I say it then I'll probably be making plans to go drive on it to clinch it. I'd guess that it's I-94 between Port Huron and Detroit since I don't ever recall going to Port Huron and Detroit in the same day before. It's nowhere on I-75 that's for sure since I have that highway clinched all the way from Sault Ste. Marie to Fort Myers.

[Buffaboy]

Some interstates and other freeways, even in our own local areas, are positioned such that we never, or rarely, have a reason to use them.
So I ask, what is the nearest freeway segment to you that you've never been on?

I live on the east side of the Rochester, NY, metro, which makes this segment of the thruway particularly hard to find a use for. I'd only use it when traveling between two places other than home - say Buffalo to Syracuse, or maybe even Henrietta to Victor. In my case, that set of circumstances never aligned until just a few years ago. So there was 12 miles of freeway that was a mere 8 miles from home, that I had never seen in person up until I was 15. As for now, I think this segment of NY 33 in Buffalo, at 68 linear miles away, takes the cake. I've been on every freeway closer than that multiple times.

I always like it when you open up these threads...

While you didn't drive on that section of I-90 for many years, I did many times when we would take the Thruway from Buffalo to NYC.

Also, with regards to NY 33, I probably first rode on that when I was an infant.

I think the 2 closest segments of highway I've never driven are I-390 from I-90 to Mount Morris and I-86 west of Broad St in. Jamestown. Just as you have no reason to ride on I-90 east of that interchange to I-490, it doesn't make sense for me to backtrack from there unless I have to go to the Coneseus area.

I would say the same with I-86. I would doubt many people in the Buffalo area have a reason to use it.

[webny99]

mine would be the Lake Ontario Parkway east of NY 390

For me, it's probably the 104 Freeway in Rochester.

I-390 from I-90 to Mount Morris

This is getting better and better! 

I always like it when you open up these threads...

Thanks!
86 replies in 48 hours is not too bad. I find it intriguing, the way some of us don't even have a use for freeways near to home that long-distance travelers use all the time.

I would say the same with I-86. I would doubt many people in the Buffalo area have a reason to use it.

Very true. And since you say that, this section of I-86 just popped into my mind. I've never driven it and quite possibly never will: If we're headed southeast we take I-390, and if we're headed southwest we take NY 36. People from Rochester have zero use for that section in the middle.

Where else does this happen? I imagine it happens more frequently than we tend to think.

[ET21]

IL-394 and anything north of Golf Road on the Edens (I-94)

[Eth]

I would say the same with I-86. I would doubt many people in the Buffalo area have a reason to use it.

Very true. And since you say that, this section of I-86 just popped into my mind. I've never driven it and quite possibly never will: If we're headed southeast we take I-390, and if we're headed southwest we take NY 36. People from Rochester have zero use for that section in the middle.

Where else does this happen? I imagine it happens more frequently than we tend to think.

From where I am (Decatur, GA), I have no likely use for:

• about half of I-285 (from I-75 down the west side and around to I-675, and also between US 78 and US 278 on the east side)
  
• I-75 between the southern I-85 split and I-675
  
• I-85 between the northern I-75 split and I-285, unless traffic on I-285 is particularly horrible (even if bound for Buckhead, I'm likely to use surface streets rather than I-85 to GA 400)
  
• I-20 between Maynard Terrace (exit 61A) and I-285 on the east side
  

I've covered all of those, but currently traveling on any of those segments would have to be an intentional thing.

Outside metro Atlanta, I can't think of any reason for me (other than intentionally doing so) to use

• I-59 north of Birmingham
  
• I-26 between Columbia and Spartanburg
  
• I-77 south of Charlotte
  
• I-95 between Savannah and Florence
  

(and sure enough, I have not been on any of those, except for little bits of I-59 and I-95 I picked up specifically to clinch Georgia's Interstate system).

[SSOWorld]

I'd say US 14 west of I-35 in MN.

[inkyatari]

I-155 between Peoria and Lincoln, IL

[vdeane]

mine would be the Lake Ontario Parkway east of NY 390

For me, it's probably the 104 Freeway in Rochester.

Irony of all ironies, I use the NY 104 freeway every day, and the east end of the LOSP quite frequently as well.

I guess Rochester's highway network isn't particularly well-suited to clinching if you're not from the area. I imagine I've clinched a lot more of the Buffalo/Syracuse freeway networks than someone from there has clinched of Rochester's, simply because we're further from the beaten path.

Depends on where you live too.  My first time on I-590 between exits 1 and 2 would have been much later than just about everything else in the area.  Likewise, I may well have been in high school by the time I saw the Thruway between 45 and 46, and that may have been Mom allowing me to structure some errands specifically to see it.  I can still count on one hand the number of times I've been there.  And aside from pieces I saw on the way to and during the Salamanca meet, the only two times I've been on I-86 west of I-390 were to clinch and photograph it (and that clinch is remarkable for me somehow convincing Mom to spend a day driving me on it; I'm still not sure how I did that, and I may well have been joking when I first suggested it).

These days, living in Albany, I have little use for the Quickway.  I did a couple of short hops when clinching things in the area, but that was it.

[clong]

I-185 Columbus GA

[roadman]

From where I live (Wakefield, MA), the nearest freeway segment I've never driven is I-295 in Maine.

Just making sure you have been on all of these:

• Everything in Greater Providence, including:
•     PVD airport connector
•     RI 10 east of I-95
•     RI 37 west of I-295 and east of I-95
• Circumferential Highway, Nashua, NH
• MA 18 in New Bedford (unlike MA 240, this is a freeway for one mile)
• Manchester NH airport connector
• I-89 east of I-93

Yep, I've been on all of those.  Have family in both the Manchester NH and Providence RI areas.

[webny99]

Depends on where you live too. My first time on I-590 between exits 1 and 2 would have been much later than just about everything else in the area.

See, in my case no matter what direction I'm headed (except for due east or northeast), I get on the freeway at NY 590 Exit 7. I don't have a "bottom of the triangle" segment like that (aside from the aforementioned Thruway, but that's on more of a macro-scale).

And aside from pieces I saw on the way to and during the Salamanca meet, the only two times I've been on I-86 west of I-390 were to clinch and photograph it.

I travel down to Cleveland fairly regularly, and if it so happens we're headed there in the summer, or especially fall, on a non-binding schedule, we'll take I-86 for the scenery. However, it is Allegany State Park that is responsible for most of my travels on that part of I-86.
That one segment I mentioned earlier, between I-390 and NY 36, is the only segment of I-86/NY 17 that haven't seen at all. Corning to Binghamton is the only other stretch that I can still easily count how many times I've been on - just three, to be exact.

[vdeane]

For some reason, we never traveled west often when I was young.  Even Buffalo was rare, and never west of there (aside from one trip to Toronto when I was in high school and the previously mentioned trip to clinch I-86).  Most of our vacations were to the 1000 Islands, though we also did Boston and Philadelphia when I was in middle school (and DC in college, following up on my 7th grade field trip).  The vast majority of my travels have been college and after.

These days, my long-range travels seems to have a south-west bias into the mid-Atlantic the the South.  For the most part, the midwest is still unexplored for me, with my only foray west of Erie north of the Ohio River being part of my return from Florida this year.  Even New England I haven't traveled significantly deep in as of late, and I haven't been to Canada in four years.

[mvak36]

I think that some of the highways in Jefferson city are freeways, so that would be mine. Otherwise, the next closest would be I-55 in St. Louis (everything south from the I-270/I-255 interchange).

[webny99]

These days, my long-range travels seems to have a south-west bias into the mid-Atlantic the the South.  For the most part, the midwest is still unexplored for me, with my only foray west of Erie north of the Ohio River being part of my return from Florida this year.

Funny, because my travels are pretty much the opposite, being tilted heavily towards the Midwest due to family in MN and ND.

I wouldn't say there's a certain direction we specifically don't travel towards or avoid, although the most glaring gap seems to be west/southwest towards Missouri and southern Illinois and Indiana. Weekend trips tend to be either Canada, Cleveland, or Rockland County/Northern Jersey, along with several to Philly and Baltimore.

[ilpt4u]

I wouldn't say there's a certain direction we specifically don't travel towards or avoid, although the most glaring gap seems to be west/southwest towards Missouri and southern Illinois and Indiana.

Come on down for a visit! Southern IL And Southeast Missouri is a nice area! Lots of local breweries and wineries, if you care for such things

[jon daly]

From where I live (Wakefield, MA), the nearest freeway segment I've never driven is I-295 in Maine.

Just making sure you have been on all of these:

• Everything in Greater Providence, including:
•     PVD airport connector
•     RI 10 east of I-95
•     RI 37 west of I-295 and east of I-95
• Circumferential Highway, Nashua, NH
• MA 18 in New Bedford (unlike MA 240, this is a freeway for one mile)
• Manchester NH airport connector
• I-89 east of I-93

Yep, I've been on all of those.  Have family in both the Manchester NH and Providence RI areas.

What about the East Shore Expressway? I've got that covered because I work off of the Wampanoag Trail.