What do you think the most isolated/low traffic Interstate is?

[PNWRoadgeek]

I was reading some Reddit threads about how I-8 in Arizona is apparently a very isolated freeway, and it brought some thoughts to my mind. How low traffic are certain parts of Interstates?

Obviously, not counting I-180 in Illinois.

I have to say, I-95 in Maine north of Bangor looks eerily low traffic, which makes it even weirder considering that's like a 200 mile stretch until the border.

Also, I-84 in Oregon, past the Gorge at least, is not as low traffic as you'd think, but eastbound the only big two points of interest are Boise and SLC, which are an hour past the border and a whole other state after the next, respectively. Most of the traffic heading that way on the 84 is going to Boise, and local traffic I'd say is very low.

[TheCatalyst31]

We had a similar thread a few years ago. Looks like I-95 in Maine and I-15 in Montana are the lowest, not counting the unsigned Alaska interstates.

[pderocco]

We had a similar thread a few years ago. Looks like I-95 in Maine and I-15 in Montana are the lowest, not counting the unsigned Alaska interstates.

I'm not at all surprised. An international border certainly reduces traffic, and there are no nearby cities. I've driven the north ends of both in the past few years, and I-15 was really deserted.

I-29 is probably fairly low, but Fargo and Winnipeg are fairly close.

[Quillz]

95 north of Bangor was only crowded during the 2024 eclipse. 

[ZLoth]

What would be the criteria for a "isolated" Interstate? I suspect the criteria for "isolated" is more subjective. My suspicions would probably include:

• The number of services (food, fuel, lodging) in a stretch of Interstate, and the distance between those service areas.
• Cell service availability in case of a vehicle breakdown.
• How much of the the vehicle traffic is passenger vehicle traffic, passenger bus traffic, and freight traffic.

Would I-70 between Salina and Green River qualify? How about I-10 between the I-10/I-20 split and San Antonio in Texas? Or Interstate 80 in Nevada east of Fernly?

[1995hoo]

We had a similar thread a few years ago. Looks like I-95 in Maine and I-15 in Montana are the lowest, not counting the unsigned Alaska interstates.

I'm not at all surprised. An international border certainly reduces traffic, and there are no nearby cities. I've driven the north ends of both in the past few years, and I-15 was really deserted.

I-29 is probably fairly low, but Fargo and Winnipeg are fairly close.

Another issue in the case of I-95 is that some amount of traffic bound for the Maritimes exits at Bangor and uses ME-9 to the border instead, especially people bound for an intermediate destination like Saint John, NB. I remember in 1989 when we took a Boy Scout trip to PEI for the Canadian Jamboree, my father planned the route and he had us exit at Bangor onto I-395, then use ME-9/US-1 to the border (the crossing was in Calais then, not via the new upstream bridge that exists now), then up NB-1 through Saint John to the Trans-Canada Highway. I always wondered whether I-95 and the Trans-Canada via Fredericton would have been faster. Measuring it just now, and recognizing Google Maps uses the new border crossing near Calais, I see the route we took is 35 miles shorter, although the travel time is shown as only 8 minutes less (no doubt due in part to I-95's 75-mph speed limit that didn't, and couldn't, exist in July 1989). I recall a lot of truck traffic on ME-9. When our two cars stopped on the side of the road for a piss break, the truckers seemed quite amused to be passing a line of six Boy Scouts and two adult leaders, all in full uniform, engaged in said activity. I recall air horns getting beeped in amusement.

I have to concede that when you look at it on a flat map, the ME-9 route looks somewhat more direct—you might say it looks like an hypotenuse, as it were. I-95 looks like you're going further north and then looping back. If I ever get back to PEI or if I ever drive to Nova Scotia instead of taking the ferry, I want to use the I-95 route.

[JayhawkCO]

We had a similar thread a few years ago. Looks like I-95 in Maine and I-15 in Montana are the lowest, not counting the unsigned Alaska interstates.

Thanks for quoting my post. That one took a lot of work. What you posted is correct, but also those are near borders. The lowest "through" interstate is I-90 in Wyoming.

[mgk920]

Yea, the Guinness book once called I-15 at the ID-MT state line the loneliest mainline I-route.  It was a 'Super Two' for many years after opening.

Mike

[paulthemapguy]

Anecdotally, I was on I-15 near the Canadian border, and there was nobody. I was also there on a Sunday morning, so timing may have contributed to the unusually sparse traffic. There was maybe one or two vehicles per mile. Traffic was notably heavier, though still very sparse, when I was closer to the Idaho border. This was this past September.

[JayhawkCO]

Also anecdotally, taking I-91 near the Canadian border within a month of Canada re-opening to tourism post-Covid, I didn't pass another car going northbound past White River Junction and maaaaybe saw 10 cars going southbound.

[gonealookin]

Nevada's most isolated and lowest traffic is I-80 between Wells and West Wendover.  It's 55 miles with no services and AADT around 6000.  The percentage of truck traffic is very high.

As noted in Jayhawk's linked table though, those numbers aren't competitive with quite a few other places in the Interstate system.

[achilles765]

Yeah...Interstate 10 Between San Antonio and El Paso...especially the stretch between Van Horn and Sonora

I-8 was pretty desolate and empty for the most part too...in an oddly serene and beautiful way.

I have read and heard that I-70 in Utah is pretty remote and isolated as well

[kphoger]

Yeah...Interstate 10 Between San Antonio and El Paso...especially the stretch between Van Horn and Sonora

Looking at the traffic count map...  As you head east from El Paso...

AADT stays above 14k all the way to the I-20 split.
From the I-20 split to US-67 South, AADT is below 8k.
East of US-67 North, AADT drops below 8k again.
Approaching Sheffield, it climbs above 8k again.
East of Ozona, AADT is above the 10k mark all the way to Junction.
East of Junction, AADT stays above 15k till US-290, where there's only a small drop.
Nothing east of FM-479 is below 16k, and nothing east of Kerrville is below 20k.

[Beltway]

20 miles of I-64 between Clifton Forge and Lexington VA carries 8,400 AADT.

[LilianaUwU]

The current AADT for I-695 in MD between exits 44 and 1 is zero.

[kphoger]

The current AADT for I-695 in MD between exits 44 and 1 is zero.

Do you think it deserves to be an Interstate?

[mgk920]

We'll see about the AADT numbers on those I-routes at the northern border (when) the checkpoints go away.

Mike

[Rothman]

We'll see about the AADT numbers on those I-routes at the northern border (when) the checkpoints go away.

Mike

Wut.

[kphoger]

Wut.

Oh, come on.  Do the ag checkpoints cut down on traffic between California and the rest of the USA?

[Rothman]

Wut.

Oh, come on.  Do the ag checkpoints cut down on traffic between California and the rest of the USA?

I'm as confused as you are.

[NWI_Irish96]

Most definitely NOT the one I'm staring at out my window.

[LilianaUwU]

The current AADT for I-695 in MD between exits 44 and 1 is zero.

Do you think it deserves to be an Interstate?

Considering it has no traffic on it? Absolutely not. Pork barrel project.

[Quillz]

Wut.

Oh, come on.  Do the ag checkpoints cut down on traffic between California and the rest of the USA?

The funny thing about those is they don't even bother stopping normal motorists anymore (maybe they were never intended to?) I remember when going into the state, I'd always have to stop and they'd ask if I had any fruit or anything. Now they just wave you through, you don't even have to slow down. Maybe it was really just always intended for commercial truck traffic and they just felt like killing time with all the other cars, I don't know.

[TheCatalyst31]

Wut.

Oh, come on.  Do the ag checkpoints cut down on traffic between California and the rest of the USA?

The funny thing about those is they don't even bother stopping normal motorists anymore (maybe they were never intended to?) I remember when going into the state, I'd always have to stop and they'd ask if I had any fruit or anything. Now they just wave you through, you don't even have to slow down. Maybe it was really just always intended for commercial truck traffic and they just felt like killing time with all the other cars, I don't know.

Good to know that if I ever intend to smuggle a few boxes of bug-infested apples into California, I should do it in a sedan.

[Quillz]

Wut.

Oh, come on.  Do the ag checkpoints cut down on traffic between California and the rest of the USA?

The funny thing about those is they don't even bother stopping normal motorists anymore (maybe they were never intended to?) I remember when going into the state, I'd always have to stop and they'd ask if I had any fruit or anything. Now they just wave you through, you don't even have to slow down. Maybe it was really just always intended for commercial truck traffic and they just felt like killing time with all the other cars, I don't know.

Good to know that if I ever intend to smuggle a few boxes of bug-infested apples into California, I should do it in a sedan.

They just ask and will assume you're telling the truth. My guess is the fruit fly issue is a bit overstated.