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[ipeters61]

I wasn't sure where to put this (and this is kind of difficult to search for, so I'm afraid I might be starting a new topic unnecessarily), but given where I live, there are tons of mini-peninsulas off Delmarva (and surrounding portions of the mainland US) that take a ridiculous amount of time to get to from points that are, as the crow flies, very close to them.

Of course, I am aware that building a bridge or running a ferry between these points is likely pointless, but I just was thinking about this when I was talking to a Verizon representative who said I could go to a store in Camden DE (5 miles, 10 minutes from me) or I could go to Bridgeton NJ (25 miles, but 90 minutes from me).

I'm sure there are other places in the US and around the world with these situations, so please feel free to share some.

Here are some examples:

3301 MD-18, Stevensville, MD 21666 to Ingleside Rd, Rock Hall, MD 21661: 3.7 miles as the crow flies, 61 miles by road

Abbey Point Rd, Aberdeen, MD 21001 to 24301-24373 Still Pond Neck Rd, Worton, MD 21678: 4.6 miles as the crow flies, 68 miles by road

3329 Lighthouse Blvd, Lusby, MD 20657 to 3470-3446 Meekins Neck Rd, Church Creek, MD 21622: 5.9 miles as the crow flies, 131 miles by road

6 Beach Ave, Smyrna, DE 19977 to County Rd 601, Bridgeton, NJ 08302: 7.4 miles as the crow flies, 83 miles by road

9120 MD-363, Deal Island, MD 21821 to Easley Rd, Dameron, MD 20628: 20.4 miles as the crow flies, 200 miles by road

[ftballfan]

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/44.0502651,-83.5807501/43.9163674,-83.4013055/@44.0162699,-83.7175734,11.07z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0
5613 Bay Ave, Au Gres, MI 48703 to Sunset Blvd, Pigeon, MI 48755 (12.85 miles as the crow flies, 105 miles by road)

[1]

Less than 100 feet as the crow flies, 69.8 miles driving:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/32.6122107,-116.1863162/32.6120173,-116.1863018/@32.5839319,-116.5539302,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!4m1!3e0

[Big John]

Marinette WI to Egg Harbor WI, 16.69 as the crow flies over the bay of Green Bay and 113  miles by highways  https://www.distance-cities.com/distance-egg-harbor-wi-to-marinette-wi

[ipeters61]

Less than 100 feet as the crow flies, 69.8 miles driving:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/32.6122107,-116.1863162/32.6120173,-116.1863018/@32.5839319,-116.5539302,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!4m1!3e0

Those international borders sure are unforgiving!

[oscar]

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Wrigley,+NT,+Canada/Tsiigehtchic,+NT,+Canada/@59.4663362,-145.1345477,4z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m15!4m14!1m5!1m1!1s0x53df6f9d14b4d769:0x8e8626b65cdd3759!2m2!1d-123.4547809!2d63.221472!1m5!1m1!1s0x516acf12de77e3ff:0xcf0d4be6c660176a!2m2!1d-133.7429146!2d67.4418167!3e0!4e1

Wrigley, Northwest Territories to Tsiigehtchic, Northwest Territories (on the Dempster Highway, near its closest point to Wrigley): 1671 miles by road (via British Columbia and Yukon Territory), about 415 miles as the crow flies. The disparity would be even greater if the starting point were Fort Good Hope NT (about 165 miles from Tsiigehtchic as the crow flies) rather than Wrigley. But Google Maps doesn't recognize the open (for now) ~305-mile winter road between those two communities, which would make the total road distance from Fort Good Hope to Tsiigehtchic almost 2000 miles.

There is not even a winter road between Fort Good Hope and Tsiigehtchic. Someday, there may be a complete winter road connection, or even an all-season road, allowing people in the northwestern corner of NT to drive to the rest of NT without the long detour through BC and YT. Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

[TheHighwayMan394]

I guess it depends on how strictly we want to interpret “close”:

Thunder Bay to Copper Harbor, MI
-89 miles by air (90 minute drive roughly)
-472 miles by road (9 1/2 hour drive)

[Max Rockatansky]

Fresno to Mammoth Lakes.  The issue is the massive crest of the Sierras splitting a relatively short geographic distance.  Tioga Pass is closed for half the year which means CA 99, CA 178, CA 14 and US 395 is the quickest route by road. 

[CtrlAltDel]

I'm not sure if this counts as "geography," but here are two roads separated by about 250 feet, with a travel distance of 7.2 miles.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I once tweeted I was only 9 miles away from Gavarnie, France in a straight line, but due to no roads crossing that part of the Pyrenees it is a 101 mile drive and several mountain passes (instead of just one) from Torla, Spain. The French did their part, Spain didn't. Benasque, Spain to Bagneres-de-Luchon, France is another nice detour due to unbuilt border crossings.

Edit to add links to the routes:
Torla-Ordesa to Gavarnie. Currently it is even longer (115 miles) as the French Col d'Aubisque is closed for the Winter
Benasque to Bagneres-de-Luchon, 70 road miles for 13 air miles.

[Roadgeekteen]

Grand Canyon North rim to South rim.

[ipeters61]

I'm not sure if this counts as "geography," but here are two roads separated by about 250 feet, with a travel distance of 7.2 miles.

"Planned community"

[english si]

Kinshasa to Brazzaville - 4km across the Congo taking the ferry (and less at other places), but the ferry that could take vehicles has been out of action for a long time.

So you can drive ~1330km (and via Angola) taking the only bridge across the Congo (oddly the most downstream crossing of the entire river is the one that's not a ferry). Or driving 240km (much less by the river itself - swamps in the way) downstream (DRC side) to the next ferry across, which can fit one (small) truck, or 2 cars, and makes the mile-long crossing just 4 times a day in each direction - oh, and on the ROC side drive on a road google doesn't have (the only one that actually goes between the two Congos) apparently it takes a day on it to do 60km.

Either way it's taking multiple days - someone who took the shorter, ferry, route took 6 days to go suburb-suburb (with the crow flies distance being about a mile and a half), and Google's 22 hours for the bridge route assumes 60km/h (~40mph) plus fairly short periods (~30 minutes) at the two borders. That seems a little optimistic, although the road is mostly paved - I'd imagine it would take more than 30 hours + rest/sleep stops: however that's actually going to be quicker than the shorter route with its long stretches of effectively 'off-road' driving (including on supposed roads!) - probably only take 3 or 4 days.

[hbelkins]

One of the ones that always struck me was Gatlinburg, Tenn., and Cherokee, NC. It's a 33-mile drive across Newfound Gap Parkway in GSMNP, but that's closed to commercial vehicles. I never bothered to figure out how long the detour would be, but it would involve US 321, I-40, US 276 and US 19.

In Kentucky, water has created a few issues where portions of counties are cut off from the rest of the county. There are a couple of instances along Lake Cumberland, plus the infamous Kentucky Bend in the far western part of the state.

[abefroman329]

Probably not the worst example, but the most annoying to me: Hot Springs, AR to Hot Springs Village, AR is about 12 miles as the crow flies, but a 30-minute drive due to the fact that the trip is on twisting mountain roads.

[michravera]

Kinshasa to Brazzaville - 4km across the Congo taking the ferry (and less at other places), but the ferry that could take vehicles has been out of action for a long time.

So you can drive ~1330km (and via Angola) taking the only bridge across the Congo (oddly the most downstream crossing of the entire river is the one that's not a ferry). Or driving 240km (much less by the river itself - swamps in the way) downstream (DRC side) to the next ferry across, which can fit one (small) truck, or 2 cars, and makes the mile-long crossing just 4 times a day in each direction - oh, and on the ROC side drive on a road google doesn't have (the only one that actually goes between the two Congos) apparently it takes a day on it to do 60km.

Either way it's taking multiple days - someone who took the shorter, ferry, route took 6 days to go suburb-suburb (with the crow flies distance being about a mile and a half), and Google's 22 hours for the bridge route assumes 60km/h (~40mph) plus fairly short periods (~30 minutes) at the two borders. That seems a little optimistic, although the road is mostly paved - I'd imagine it would take more than 30 hours + rest/sleep stops: however that's actually going to be quicker than the shorter route with its long stretches of effectively 'off-road' driving (including on supposed roads!) - probably only take 3 or 4 days.

This makes all of my San Jose to Fresno complaints seem like petty whining!

[froggie]

I'm not sure if this counts as "geography," but here are two roads separated by about 250 feet, with a travel distance of 7.2 miles.

This was one of the longer examples, but suburban development is rife with similar situations.  What suburbanites don't realize (or don't care about) is that such a lack of a street grid and limited ingress/egress actually increases traffic and the distances they need to drive.

[Chris19001]

Silverton, CO has two decent ones involving its neighbor towns.
Silverton to Ophir is 9.7 miles by air and 79 miles by a non 4x4 car.  (One could argue Ophir isn't much of a town, but Telluride is around the corner with only slightly less or a distance by car.)
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Silverton,+Colorado+81433/Ophir,+Colorado+81426/@37.9824131,-107.9954865,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x873ee7f8d43e3f4d:0x68df382eb57dcb3f!2m2!1d-107.6645057!2d37.811941!1m5!1m1!1s0x873eda238ad133b9:0x86219879cfa982c!2m2!1d-107.8325644!2d37.8569392!3e0

Silverton to Lake City is 24.3 miles by air and 160 miles by a non 4x4 car. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Silverton,+Colorado+81433/Lake+City,+Colorado+81235/@38.1471825,-107.7429575,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x873ee7f8d43e3f4d:0x68df382eb57dcb3f!2m2!1d-107.6645057!2d37.811941!1m5!1m1!1s0x873f001ee153bcf1:0x9d2aa26c1fa2d73b!2m2!1d-107.3153335!2d38.0299967!3e0

[kphoger]

Silverton, CO has two decent ones involving its neighbor towns.
Silverton to Ophir is 9.7 miles by air and 79 miles by a non 4x4 car.  (One could argue Ophir isn't much of a town, but Telluride is around the corner with only slightly less or a distance by car.)
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Silverton,+Colorado+81433/Ophir,+Colorado+81426/@37.9824131,-107.9954865,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x873ee7f8d43e3f4d:0x68df382eb57dcb3f!2m2!1d-107.6645057!2d37.811941!1m5!1m1!1s0x873eda238ad133b9:0x86219879cfa982c!2m2!1d-107.8325644!2d37.8569392!3e0

Silverton to Lake City is 24.3 miles by air and 160 miles by a non 4x4 car. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Silverton,+Colorado+81433/Lake+City,+Colorado+81235/@38.1471825,-107.7429575,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x873ee7f8d43e3f4d:0x68df382eb57dcb3f!2m2!1d-107.6645057!2d37.811941!1m5!1m1!1s0x873f001ee153bcf1:0x9d2aa26c1fa2d73b!2m2!1d-107.3153335!2d38.0299967!3e0

I've personally driven Ophir Road without using 4WD.  Granted, it was a Jeep Wrangler, but I drove it in normal 2WD the whole way from Ouray to Telluride.  (Locals drive it in regular pickups, too.)  Imogene Pass coming back into Ophir, of course, definitely required 4WD—and low gear.

[sbeaver44]

Orient Point NY, on Long Island, to Old Lyme, CT.  About 12 miles across the Long Island Sound.  194 miles by car.  Yes, there is a ferry to New London, but if the ferry schedule doesn't work for you, you're looking at 4+ hours of driving and having to go through NYC.

[Ben114]

Little Compton to Middletown (both RI).

6 miles by air
22 miles by road

[CtrlAltDel]

Routing around Tampa Bay doesn’t seem all that bad, really. A trip of 5.33 miles as the crow flies is a bit less of a drive than I expected, at 42.7 miles.

[skluth]

I've lived in a lot of places where trips are much longer due to geography. Getting from Green Bay to anywhere in Lower Michigan or as previously stated just getting from one side of Green Bay to the other can be a pain. In St Louis, the further you are from a bridge the longer it will take to get to the opposite bank of the Mississippi River in Illinois. Getting across the Missouri River can also be frustrating. The Hampton Roads area of Virginia is also separated by several bodies of water; I lived maybe a half-mile from the Midtown Tunnel but it would be a couple mile journey to drive there because of Scott Creek. I now live in Palm Springs and getting over the mountains anywhere in California is usually a challenge even when a road is available. However, the strangest was when I was stationed in Rota, Spain. It wasn't too bad if you had access to the base. But if you wanted to get from Rota to Puerto de Santa Maria, you added a good ten miles to the trip going around the base. The distance between the two gates was less than two miles by road inside the base.

[ce929wax]

When I lived in Maynardville, TN my girlfriend at the time lived in LaFollette, TN.  It was 20 miles as the crow flies, but 43 miles by road because there were no roads that went over Norris Lake.

[Takumi]

Anywhere where a bridge has been closed or demolished.