Worst roads ever
Posted by Nathaniel.
A few days ago I was talking to one of the other postdocs here and he was saying how bad the roads in Baltimore are. Frankly, I don’t think the roads here are that bad at all. A LOT of them need to be repaved, but they’re laid out half-ways well and most of the people driving know what they’re doing (or if they don’t, they’re at least semi-friendly about it.)
That made me think about the worst driving places that I’ve ever run into. My immediate thought was the intersection of Western Avenue and Soldiers Field Road in Cambridge, MA. In the intersection, traffic can be going any one of three ways depending on the light. It’s not a big deal when traffic volume is low (as in this picture), but as soon as someone gets stuck in there trying to make it on the last gasp of a yellow it jams up with cars pointed every direction.
I like how you can see a guy rowing on the Charles.
What do all of you think the worst roads are?
December 7th, 2006 at 10:52 am Using
I found this while looking for a picture of rural Maine roads. seriously, washboarding that can eat small cars. Not quite the same theme as the poorly-designed urban thing that you were going with Nathaniel, but still entertaining.
December 7th, 2006 at 5:27 pm Using
The whole of Pennsylvania has a reputation for horrible roads (perhaps because of all the truck traffic??), but I found that I-84 through NY is actually worse than through PA, road-surface-wise. But the traffic nightmare that is I-84 through Danbury, Waterbury, and into Hartford is the worst I’ve ever seen. One year, driving home for Christmas, it was stop and go eastbound (thank heavens I was going westbound) all the way from Hartford to the NY/CT border. I suppose some of the problem is construction through there, which has opened up a bit more last time I went through. They were at least working to address the congestion problem, as the construction was adding lanes.
BTW, if anyone has to take I-84 into NY and PA, for the love of god, DON’T go through CT. I found a nice little by-pass, that perhaps adds a half-hour to what the drive time would be through CT with minimal traffic, that completely avoids CT. Get on the Mass Pike and take it to the Taconic Parkway, just past the toll booths in NY. It’s like a $0.40 toll for the tiny stretch of the NY Thruway (no charge for passenger cars for the stretch of the Mass Pike), and it’s so definitely worth it. The Taconic is a toll-free passenger vehicle only scenic expressway from I-90 to I-84. A very pretty, very relaxing drive. Only downside is that the speed limit is only 55, but it’s one of those roads where you don’t mind so much slowing down. I think it puts you onto I-84 somewhere around Beacon, east of the big Newburgh-Beacon bridge (over the Hudson).
December 7th, 2006 at 5:33 pm Using
Over Thanksgiving Kirsten and I ended up detouring up to I-84 in NY to get around the mess that is the New Jersey Turnpike. I didn’t think that I-84 was bad at all. We used to drive I-84 around Waterbury, Hartford, and on to Boston a lot too, and it’s not that bad. Admittedly though, there is an ass-load of construction going on around Waterbury so I wouldn’t drive through there at rush hour.
I saw the Taconic on the drive and thought it was a funny name for a road.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:00 pm Using
It’s all about timing, and I would often have the worst timing. It’s true, it’s really not that bad to come through CT if traffic is low. More often than not, though, my timing was awful.
I think the worst stretch surface-wise was just before coming into PA. There were some fairly large potholes. Somewhere, either in Pike County, PA or in NY, there’s a fairly long stretch with some rough edges where each section of pavement joins the next.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:09 pm Using
Oh, and Taconic is an anglicized version of a Native American word. Conflicting reports give it as Algonquin for “in the trees” or Mohican for “steep ascent”.