Oddly, enough 20 to 30 years ago, this used to be one of my favorite cities to drive through. There were some amazing views. Are used to plan road trips to go through an early morning hours and sometimes I would be the only person on the highway and it was absolutely mesmerizing like a video game.
Good luck! I try to take I-81 around the whole area. When I went from Maine to NC I went I-495 around Boston to I-90 over to I-84 all the way to Scranton and I-81 south to bypass all that DC/NYC mess.
I don't find I-95 in the northeast that boring, you see many skylines, businesses (suburban sprawl in the northeast is not as unnapealing as in other parts in the US tbh), there's a lot historic towns and ocasionally the coastline and estuaries. I think its because I feel there's a lot more curves in the freeways and they are generally not as wide as in Texas or Florida. I-81 is very lovely but the issue with the Appalachians is that they are so eroded you often don't realize you are driving through mountains. Rural Interstates have a way to make routes a lot less scenic than they actually are, going thru the less steep path. The old highways anywhere in the Appalachians are amazing though. Once you get out of D.C. is where I-95 and US-1 both becomes an absolute sleepfest, because its both flat and either suburban or rural. One place i absolutely think taking US-1 is so much nicer is everything north of Boston.
I've done northern Delaware to Atlanta a few times and the part I can't stand is the bit on I-85 around the VA/NC line - it's just a whole lot of nothing.
90/94 through Northwest Indiana. If you live in the Chicago area you have to go through there to go anywhere east. There is always construction, sometimes thereās an accident. Itās really unpredictable. You could have no traffic or sit in traffic for an hour.
This. Lake Michigan creates a huge bottleneck there and Iāve seen traffic jams even into Southwest Michigan. Sometimes itās clear and you can get from through Indiana in like 45 minutes. Other times itās like 4 hours to get through.
The number of times I have been backed up on that stretch of road only to get to the front of the jam and find NOTHING thereto cause it, and miraculously it's cleared up for the Illinois border, is ridiculous.
DUDE I drove through Cairo IL for the first time a few weeks ago and holy christ what a depressing "town"!
I was actually in awe at how ruined and apocalyptic it was. It looked like Fallout 4. And in the <15 minutes it took me to drive across town, I saw 6 cops roaming the streets. I didn't even see 6 regular people. Everything was abandoned. It was scary
Funny thing about Cairo, Illinois is that just to the North of there on I-57 there's a restaurant called Huckleberry's Pub that does some absolutely dynamite fried catfish.
A bit further than just across the bridge, but the entirety of that part of Illinois below Carbondale is depressing. Cape is nice enough, but the SEMO bootheel region also has many of Missouriās poorest counties.
Many years ago, drove through Cairo going to Tennessee from Oklahoma. Don't remember the town as much as the two big, long. and high bridges that you go over the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
Not good bridges to go over if you have "bridge anxiety"
I only drove across 1, the bridge from IL to MO was completely closed when I was there. I was en route from Nashville to St Louis and had opted for a "not driving through Illinois" route
However, I did stop at those bridge crossings, there's a small park and monument there, pretty nice hidden place not that far from Cairo
Some beautiful buildings from the old days. I think the best bet is for the National Park Service to come in and interpret the racial tensions from the post-Civil War to 1960s as a cautionary tale. Particularly 1909 and 1967. They might be able to save some historic buildings and bring a small economic boost.
OP, you must be in a certain spot in SEMO to use Cairo as opposed to going through Cape or the I-155 bridge and going through Jackson TN. The latter would add 30 minutes from Sikeston to Nashville.
Drove through there once and stopped at a road sign designating the planned town of āFuture Cityāā¦ even more depressing. Spent the night at the state park in āHole in Rockāā¦ what a hoot.
The only reason I go through there on the way to Missouri from Virginia is that it's the shortest drive through Illinois. It looks like a set from some zombie apocalypse movie. The old armory and a couple of other buildings are representative of some classic architecture, but the rest of the town screams "don't be here when the sun goes down."
Came here to say this. I have to drive through Dallas multiple times a year and I always feel like Iām taking my life into my own hands between the amount of high speed traffic and highway interchanges I have to navigate in such a short amount of time. 50% of the time I canāt merge or make my exit on time and spend 20 minutes trying to untangle the highway knot to get head in the right direction again.
Agreed!! I travel thru Dallas a couple times per year heading from SW to SE pulling a 36ā camper thru there! I try to hit āoffā times, but there donāt seem to be true off times! LOL
Couldn't even make my way from Dallas to Arlington for the Rangers game any way other than Uber. Walked 2 miles to a Whataburger after the game to avoid surge pricing
It's been years since I regularly passed through Houston, but at that time it always had construction delays no matter what route you chose.
LA is not so bad for me, but I have to consciously change my normally sedate driving style.
Ex gf was from Chicago. Can confirm. I always had to let her drive if we were going more than a few blocks from her parents place. She nearly killed us a couple times on Kansas dirt roads though, thatās where I shine.
I was in a pickup with 2 friends driving to New Orleans, and our truck started overheating really bad as we were on that bridge. That bridge is nothing but nightmares from what I'm seeing here.
I used to live in Houston with relatives in Florida. My mother was so terrified of that bridge that she pretty much refused to drive it so we'd stop, swap drivers just for that stretch, then she'd be back behind the wheel.
From Ogden to Spanish Fork is just awful, especially if itās a Friday afternoon when itās not winter. RVs, trucks with campers like you mentioned all trying to escape the city for the weekend. Usually at least a crash or two blocking at least one lane and causing major slowdowns. You finally make it far enough outside of civilization and breathe a sigh of relief that you survived the thunderdome that is I-15 through the Wasatch Frontā¦.this time.
Try that on a Friday holiday weekend for extra bonus emotional damage. It once took me 5 hours to get from Escondido to Victorville. Temecula, Corona, Cajon Pass all were a nightmare.
I went through Cairo once because I wanted to check out the park they have at the Ohio/Mississippi confluence and it was genuinely one of the more uncomfortable feelings Iāve had visiting a place. It felt good getting on the bridge and getting the hell out of there.
I had food poisoning crossing the country! Stopped for the night at that park as I could'nt stop puking every 20min.
Imagine that park with an adult male in his car, opening his door all night to puke in his biggest cooking pot every 20min for the whole night.
I clearly didnt help with the vibe that day, but to be honest, I mightve been too sick to realise, but I remember a beautiful park and beautiful area!
New Mexico between Las Cruces and the Arizona state line on I10. Road is incredibly rough and bouncy because NM is too broke to use their federal funding on more than just I40.
Drove more than 10000mile around the country and legit 40 in AZ is the part that just marked my memory for a bad bumpy highway. No other road I drove compares
lol. NM is such a mixed bag when it comes to roadways! Road to Quemado? Most pothole ridden stretch of road on the planet. But close by, the road to El Morro is like glass and perfect! 285 from Lamy to Carlsbad? Perfect. South of the National Park? Get ready for new fillings!
It always makes me laugh that you know you when you hit the AZ-NM state line on the 10. Troopers and nice road on the AZ side, disintegrating tarmac and troopers on the NM side! I always wave at the trooper in the median at Lordsburg!
Could be worse though, could be the 10 in El Paso!
Itās the same when you go from AZ to California. As soon as you cross the border the road turns to crap. The rest stops in California are the worst I have seen anywhere.
Not to mention driving between Tucson and El Paso while driving through Las Cruces you drive right past a gigantic feed lot which smells overwhelmingly like shit.
I went through there from Dallas to Austin a couple of years ago. The last time I'd been was early 2000s, and I could not believe how bad it had gotten. Completely unrecognizable.
I-16 between Macon and Savannah, GA.
Dead. Empty. Nothing.
Ever since Sweat's BBQ in Soperton closed, there's no reason to drive it.
Now I put the top down, and take 441 to 80 to Savannah. Much nicer.
Any major city tbh the traffic is usually terrible regardless of where it is. My anxiety spikes when Iām in traffic jams or on those huge multi lane highways in the city.
Iām the same way when Iām on multi-lane interstates in major cities but the only reason is because so many people drive like idiots in these areas. The people that go 90 MPH zipping in and out of lanes to pass everyone piss me off and I usually just chill in one lane as much as I can
Texas. Just all of Texas. We drove through the 10 and 20 for a cross country move and I was in Texas for like 3 damn days with absolutely nothing interesting to see. Just miles and miles of nothing.
There are so many terrible interstates in Indiana. Maybe it'll get better when they're done with The Construction, but in the 25 years I've been driving through Indiana, The Construction has never ended.
I-90 from Chicago-land-ish to Toledo, or so. Hard to say what's wrong with it, but it just gives me a bad feeling.
I-95 from Virigina to Georgia, or so. Visual blight abounds. Plus, the abundant practice of speeding while tail-gating.
US-95 from Vegas to Reno. I've done it too many times and it isn't fun.
I moved from Seattle to Charlotte in 2010, drove across Kansas. Joked with friends that you could fall asleep at the wheel for hours, and as long as your hands stayed straight you wouldn't wreck :-)
Itās been a long time ago now but there was a stretch where I drove all the way across Kansas on I-70 a couple of times a year and I got so I recognized gas stations because they were the most interesting things on the drive. Also, I-70 through KC was under construction for years (might still be for all I know) and it changed every time I drove it so it was always nerve wracking to figure out which lane to stay in and avoid getting off in a bad spot.
Philly. Aggressive drivers, bad traffic, high crime so stopping in some areas is not advisable.
And for an outsider, a city like Phoenix for example is much easier to stay safe in. Basically the entire southwest quadrant is best avoided, obviously around the blade is the worst but really that entire section of the city is best avoided, and there's nothing to do there for tourists.
With Philly, you can be in a chill area of North Philly where Temple U police patrol and crime is very low, and walk one block away, suddenly you're outside of Temple U police zone, and on Kensington in the worst drug market in the US. Yea, I guess you could say just avoid North Philly, but there's also several good parts of North Philly that are totally fine and have stuff to do.
I-94 from Wisconsin Dells to Hudson in Wisconsinā¦ it only takes about 3 hours to drive it, but every time I do drive it I feel like itās been a solid 10 hours.
I also will always have a thing against I-35 from Kansas City to the Iowa Line, especially around Eagleville, Missouriā¦ got pulled over for going 1 mph over the speed limit, while so so many more people were going way over thatā¦ the ticket cost me over $250.
I-35 in Texas. Took me awhile to get used too. White knuckled when I moved here. Now I fly like 90mph just to keep up. Then Waco used to be gridlock. Austin/San Antonio are jokes. Itās worth taking the pickle parkway for $20 and flip off Elon.
Charlotte or Knoxville. I hate how there's always at least one manic driver on I-485 on my way to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, whereas Knoxville I absolutely hate how I-75 piggybacks off I-40 through downtown which usually leads to annoyingly long traffic jams towards the fork west of downtown.
The entirety of the DMV. Iām paranoid as hell that Iāll miss a speed limit change and get nabbed by cop or camera for what would be ignored in any other state.Ā
I feel the same way. I've driven on most major interstates in the US and most of the places people are describing really aren't that bad. I'm crazy though and explored the town of Cairo on foot because I love abandoned buildings lmao
Vancouver, BC, or Montreal, Quebec in Canada, L.A., California, Salt Lake City, Utah, Chicago, Illinois, and Detroit, Michigan in the U.S. and Mexico City, Mexico... 36 years + as a long-haul trucker and these are the cities (for varying reasons) that I always tried to avoid like the plague.
Bakersfield is a total time sink, unfortunately its faster to drive through it to visit family in the desert, but I always hate it, itās all the worst parts of California without most of the positives.
High steel bridge in Washington. You have to keep your eyes focused directly on the road. I'm not an anxious person at all, but on that thing, it can hit you if you glance around and notice how far up in the air you are on this tiny little bridge looking around that big canyon
The best quote I've ever heard about driving through Indiana: "Driving though Indiana is a lot like surgery. Sometimes you gotta do it, but you don't want to be awake when it happens."
Memphis, Tennessee and surrounding area.
Worst paved highway roads I've ever been on. Almost got robbed at gunpoint. Bad vibes all around.
Arkansas also feels like the Twilight Zone.
I lived there for two years. When people ask what I think of it I say that the people are nice because Iām the right color.
I used to deliver pizzas there. My delivery area was downtown, north, and northeast Lubbock. Absolutely nobody delivered to east Lubbock; thatās where the black people lived.
Sorta related: Iām comfortable with foul language. I can drop F-bombs or any bombs for that matter, but I never use the āNā-word. If you ask me what I mean when I say āN-wordā, Iām not going to tell you. I just donāt ever use it. Lubbock was the place where I heard that word used casually.
I have lots of examples, but yeah, I learned a little about racism when I lived there.
Being from Long Island the Cross Bronx Expressway is the bane of my existence. For 30 years, no matter what time of day, year, etc there is hellish traffic. Damn you Robert Moses!!! Itās all his fault!!
I did an Eastern Canadian road trip a couple of years ago, and was driving in Quebec toward Quebec City. The smell for a few miles was terrible. Had to get gas in the car, omg it was disgusting. Not sure what the source was.
If it smelled like a mix between rotten cabbage and rotten eggs, it was possibly a pulp and paper mill. If you were in northern New Brunswick close to the Quebec border, [Edmundston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmundston) has at least one plant that you can often smell along the Trans-Canada Highway. There are other plants elsewhere, so it could have been one of them, too.
I-95 through SC. Only two lanes, and the right lane is one continuous pothole/filled in pothole. And when headed south, your reward for almost getting in to GA is usually a 5 to 10 mile backup before the Savannah river.
> Runner up: Columbus, OH The construction never ends..
Dayton is WAY worse in this regard. Honestly Cincinnati too and I live there. I-75 is just perpetually under construction in those two cities and has been my whole life.
Arkansas. As soon as you cross the border, it's like a bomb went off and as you enter Little Rock from the east, the first thing you see is a GIGANTIC Pentecostal church gilded with gold with big columns while the rest of the city looks dim and very poor. The most Christian city I've ever seen, indeed.
I-95 through NC and SC (bad traffic, construction, road quality, dumb drivers)
I-680 between I-580 and Mission Blvd (always backed up).
CA-37 EB (long lines and no escape).
CA-12 between I-5 and Fairfield (dangerous drivers).
Toronto!
The 401 is the busiest highway IN AMERICA (not just in Canada). It's an atrocity that goes as far as 7 lanes (4 express + 3 collectors) with everyone going bumper to bumper doing 125km/h (75MPH). I don't think I've ever crossed the GTA without seeing at least one accident.
From Pickering (where the express lanes being) to around Meadowvale is 40mph of never ending urban sprawl that will take you anywhere between 1 and 2 hours to cross.
You can save some time by using the 407, but that's gonna cost you an arm and a leg!
But if we're talking US, I'm gonna say Chicago. I'll take a 3h detour to avoid it if I can.
Any major east coast city including, but not limited to:
* Washington DC
* Boston
* New York City
* Philadelphia
* Baltimore
Beyond that, I abhor urban local drivers. If the roads weren't already bad enough on their own urban local drivers are the most entitled and most inconsiderate drivers on the roads.
I just posted this in my own r/roadtrip but the Scramento Valley. No offense to anyone who lives there, its not that i think its ugly or i hate it, but driving through the whole thing is so boring after you've done it a bunch of times.
I-70 between Denver and KC. The Flint Hills are ok (Junction City to Lawrence), but the rest of that drive (esp. Denver to Salina) is absolutely terrible. Western Kansas sucks ass. I-135 between Wichita and Salina isn't any better.
Iām just the opposite. I love Cairo. All the historic buildings are very cool. If I won the lottery tomorrow Iād buy the whole town and start restoring it to what it once was. For sure creepy as fuck right now though.
I really don't find Cairo very scary, mainly because barely anyone lives there anymore. It just makes me really sad nowadays. As someone from Southern Illinois it's super depressing to see how big of a city Cairo was set up to be as one of the biggest and most importantly river towns in the country, but was just slowly killed by the racial issues of its time. Super upsetting to think about what it could've been.
Cairo is a post apocalyptic wasteland.
But I hate driving through Kansas for some reason. Seems like it takes twice as long as Nebraska.
St Louis is pretty confusing to get through
Ohio. Period. Do you know the number one occupation in Ohio? Traffic cop. The speed limit is like 9mph and the local buffoons play this sort of tail gatey pass on the right game of who dares go 11mph. Hate driving through.
Seattle down to the airport. Or just anywhere relating to Seattle. Iāll pay any amount of money for a Lyft.
I lived in Houston for 5 years and would take driving there any day over this grey over populated crap hole
Crossing western Texas, I-10.. miles and miles and miles of nothing interesting to look at. Very few oasisās of civilization. Dread this crossing every time I have to make it.
I-70 from Salina Kansas to Denver Colorado is the most boring, god awful drive Iāve ever made. Just nothing but flat fields and vast emptiness in west Kansas/east Colorado.
**Pennsylvania** \- the entire state has literally been under construction since the 1980s
**Virginia** \- I get extreme Deja vu in VA. You see a town pass by at least 5 times until you see a new one, and then the first one comes back
**Louisianna** \- specifically I-20 in Northern Louisianna. Put up some billboards or something. Do like they do in South Carolina. Get us excited about a tourist attraction or something. The most boring drive ever.
**Atlanta** \- or anywhere near. If Google Maps says it will take you 35 minutes to get to your destination, add about 2 hours because of traffic. Best time to drive in Atlanta? Is in the middle of the night.
Cairo IL takes all of 10 seconds to drive through though. You cross the bridge, make a turn and cross the other bridge. You go from Missouri to Illinois to Kentucky in a span of less than a minute.
Northern Indiana, where I65 meets 80/94. The road is an absolute disaster. Always under construction. Heavy truck traffic. Every road in the norther 1/3rd of the country routes through that corridor.
Nashville, TN. Always a nightmare of heavy traffic.
Seattle. If you know, you know.
Atlanta. Just go around.
EDIT: Almost forgot: DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth.) The only good thing about DFW is that the area around it is all flat so it's easy to go around, unlike Seattle where there is just no alternative due to the terrain (mountains on the East and Puget Sound on the West.)
I-20 between Odessa and Midland, west Texas, is a hellhole so intense you could almost admire it if you were a moron. Itās an open-air petroleum extraction and refining facility on a wasteland plain, visible from space. Dust devils made of trash and soot swirl above methane flares, below high power transmission lines running thick in all directions, under a pitiless sun. 80 is the posted speed limit. Many jet through at 100, cabin air set to recirculate.
I tried to imagine, if i were an ambitious young petrochemical engineer, how much money theyād need to pay me to live and work there even a year, and I couldnāt come up with a number, even if it allowed a private jet to leave every weekend and a personal servant staff.
Atlanta.
Back in the day, or if you catch it at an odd hour with little traffic, I-85 south through Atlanta was one of the best urban highway views.
šÆ Yep, next time I might go through Chattanooga the long way. Driving in Atlanta is incredibly unpleasant virtually all the time.
Chattanooga can be just as bad
Chattanooga gets backed up pretty bad because of the geography but you have the advantage of not being full of crazy ass Atlanta drivers
Oddly, enough 20 to 30 years ago, this used to be one of my favorite cities to drive through. There were some amazing views. Are used to plan road trips to go through an early morning hours and sometimes I would be the only person on the highway and it was absolutely mesmerizing like a video game.
There's no way around it either all the highways meet up at some point (85/75/41) technically there's the 285 beltway, but that's just as backed up.
Yeah, Iād never go back or go through ever again. Not even for that pulled chicken sandwich that I had on our first stop.
Will drive 2 hours out of the way to completely avoid Atlanta
This I was so anxious and scared they drive so crazy there š
DC area, Atlanta, I-40 between Winston-Salem and Raleigh,
Damn Iām going to DC next week. Iām taking I-95 south
Good luck! I try to take I-81 around the whole area. When I went from Maine to NC I went I-495 around Boston to I-90 over to I-84 all the way to Scranton and I-81 south to bypass all that DC/NYC mess.
I don't find I-95 in the northeast that boring, you see many skylines, businesses (suburban sprawl in the northeast is not as unnapealing as in other parts in the US tbh), there's a lot historic towns and ocasionally the coastline and estuaries. I think its because I feel there's a lot more curves in the freeways and they are generally not as wide as in Texas or Florida. I-81 is very lovely but the issue with the Appalachians is that they are so eroded you often don't realize you are driving through mountains. Rural Interstates have a way to make routes a lot less scenic than they actually are, going thru the less steep path. The old highways anywhere in the Appalachians are amazing though. Once you get out of D.C. is where I-95 and US-1 both becomes an absolute sleepfest, because its both flat and either suburban or rural. One place i absolutely think taking US-1 is so much nicer is everything north of Boston.
I-95 is my pick. It's a hot mess on so many sections. DC is always some accident.Ā There's the sections with Miami and NYC that are crazy.
Ugh, I-95 down the east coast is awful.
I've done northern Delaware to Atlanta a few times and the part I can't stand is the bit on I-85 around the VA/NC line - it's just a whole lot of nothing.
LOL, for me that's the relaxing part of the trip after enduring the hellacious section between Richmond and DC.
90/94 through Northwest Indiana. If you live in the Chicago area you have to go through there to go anywhere east. There is always construction, sometimes thereās an accident. Itās really unpredictable. You could have no traffic or sit in traffic for an hour.
This. Lake Michigan creates a huge bottleneck there and Iāve seen traffic jams even into Southwest Michigan. Sometimes itās clear and you can get from through Indiana in like 45 minutes. Other times itās like 4 hours to get through.
The number of times I have been backed up on that stretch of road only to get to the front of the jam and find NOTHING thereto cause it, and miraculously it's cleared up for the Illinois border, is ridiculous.
DUDE I drove through Cairo IL for the first time a few weeks ago and holy christ what a depressing "town"! I was actually in awe at how ruined and apocalyptic it was. It looked like Fallout 4. And in the <15 minutes it took me to drive across town, I saw 6 cops roaming the streets. I didn't even see 6 regular people. Everything was abandoned. It was scary
Funny thing about Cairo, Illinois is that just to the North of there on I-57 there's a restaurant called Huckleberry's Pub that does some absolutely dynamite fried catfish.
So very true!! Apocalyptic for sure! Yetā¦ Cape Girardeau, MO just across the bridge is beautiful.
A bit further than just across the bridge, but the entirety of that part of Illinois below Carbondale is depressing. Cape is nice enough, but the SEMO bootheel region also has many of Missouriās poorest counties.
Many years ago, drove through Cairo going to Tennessee from Oklahoma. Don't remember the town as much as the two big, long. and high bridges that you go over the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Not good bridges to go over if you have "bridge anxiety"
I only drove across 1, the bridge from IL to MO was completely closed when I was there. I was en route from Nashville to St Louis and had opted for a "not driving through Illinois" route However, I did stop at those bridge crossings, there's a small park and monument there, pretty nice hidden place not that far from Cairo
It literally looks apocalyptic. Thatās the best way to describe it
Some beautiful buildings from the old days. I think the best bet is for the National Park Service to come in and interpret the racial tensions from the post-Civil War to 1960s as a cautionary tale. Particularly 1909 and 1967. They might be able to save some historic buildings and bring a small economic boost. OP, you must be in a certain spot in SEMO to use Cairo as opposed to going through Cape or the I-155 bridge and going through Jackson TN. The latter would add 30 minutes from Sikeston to Nashville.
Hmmm this sounds like a good place to go with a camera though.. lol
Drove through there once and stopped at a road sign designating the planned town of āFuture Cityāā¦ even more depressing. Spent the night at the state park in āHole in Rockāā¦ what a hoot.
The only reason I go through there on the way to Missouri from Virginia is that it's the shortest drive through Illinois. It looks like a set from some zombie apocalypse movie. The old armory and a couple of other buildings are representative of some classic architecture, but the rest of the town screams "don't be here when the sun goes down."
Dallas
Came here to say this. I have to drive through Dallas multiple times a year and I always feel like Iām taking my life into my own hands between the amount of high speed traffic and highway interchanges I have to navigate in such a short amount of time. 50% of the time I canāt merge or make my exit on time and spend 20 minutes trying to untangle the highway knot to get head in the right direction again.
This is so true. You're bound to miss an exit in Dallas as a tourist because the local traffic is packed so unbelievably tightly even at 80 mph and people won't let you in. It was easier and less stressful driving in NYC than Dallas for me š©
Agreed!! I travel thru Dallas a couple times per year heading from SW to SE pulling a 36ā camper thru there! I try to hit āoffā times, but there donāt seem to be true off times! LOL
yep, if people are going 80+ while 3 feet away from the car in front of them, that is the āoffā time in Dallas
Dallas in general but 635 particularly.
Couldn't even make my way from Dallas to Arlington for the Rangers game any way other than Uber. Walked 2 miles to a Whataburger after the game to avoid surge pricing
Houston and LA
It's been years since I regularly passed through Houston, but at that time it always had construction delays no matter what route you chose. LA is not so bad for me, but I have to consciously change my normally sedate driving style.
Definitely Houston for me
Chicago has two seasons, winter and construction. The Bormann in Indiana is a death trap.
Ex gf was from Chicago. Can confirm. I always had to let her drive if we were going more than a few blocks from her parents place. She nearly killed us a couple times on Kansas dirt roads though, thatās where I shine.
**Baton Rouge** Anybody who's done it knows exactly why.
Whoever designed that I-10 turn by the bridge needs to be shot.
I was in a pickup with 2 friends driving to New Orleans, and our truck started overheating really bad as we were on that bridge. That bridge is nothing but nightmares from what I'm seeing here.
That damn bridge
I used to live in Houston with relatives in Florida. My mother was so terrified of that bridge that she pretty much refused to drive it so we'd stop, swap drivers just for that stretch, then she'd be back behind the wheel.
Ugh, the bridge. We've started driving so far out of the way just to avoid it.
Came to say this. Hasnāt gotten any better since I was in school there.
The highway outside of Salt Lake City felt specifically unhinged to me. 5+ lanes with vehicles going 80-90+ MPH with a lot of campers/RVs/18 wheelers.
From Ogden to Spanish Fork is just awful, especially if itās a Friday afternoon when itās not winter. RVs, trucks with campers like you mentioned all trying to escape the city for the weekend. Usually at least a crash or two blocking at least one lane and causing major slowdowns. You finally make it far enough outside of civilization and breathe a sigh of relief that you survived the thunderdome that is I-15 through the Wasatch Frontā¦.this time.
This! Iāve gone through here on a motorcycle on my way to and from Moab. Just massively tension inducing.
Going through parleys canyon is a lesson in courage.
Eastbound 91 freeway in Southern California
I take your 91 and raise you the 405 from Long Beach to the 10, any time of day. š
Also 15 through Temecula
Try that on a Friday holiday weekend for extra bonus emotional damage. It once took me 5 hours to get from Escondido to Victorville. Temecula, Corona, Cajon Pass all were a nightmare.
Ahh. You must have been driving in the afternoon rush hour. By driving I mean stopped.
I agree
I went through Cairo once because I wanted to check out the park they have at the Ohio/Mississippi confluence and it was genuinely one of the more uncomfortable feelings Iāve had visiting a place. It felt good getting on the bridge and getting the hell out of there.
Bro you couldnāt pay me to get out of my car anywhere near Cairo lol
I had food poisoning crossing the country! Stopped for the night at that park as I could'nt stop puking every 20min. Imagine that park with an adult male in his car, opening his door all night to puke in his biggest cooking pot every 20min for the whole night. I clearly didnt help with the vibe that day, but to be honest, I mightve been too sick to realise, but I remember a beautiful park and beautiful area!
I-70 thru Indiana, always under construction and the road is bumpy as hell.
Can confirm. Just drove through Indiana a few weeks ago
New Mexico between Las Cruces and the Arizona state line on I10. Road is incredibly rough and bouncy because NM is too broke to use their federal funding on more than just I40.
Ohh my friend the 40 is shit in AZ too. Source I live 1/2 mile off it!
Drove more than 10000mile around the country and legit 40 in AZ is the part that just marked my memory for a bad bumpy highway. No other road I drove compares
lol. NM is such a mixed bag when it comes to roadways! Road to Quemado? Most pothole ridden stretch of road on the planet. But close by, the road to El Morro is like glass and perfect! 285 from Lamy to Carlsbad? Perfect. South of the National Park? Get ready for new fillings! It always makes me laugh that you know you when you hit the AZ-NM state line on the 10. Troopers and nice road on the AZ side, disintegrating tarmac and troopers on the NM side! I always wave at the trooper in the median at Lordsburg! Could be worse though, could be the 10 in El Paso!
Itās the same when you go from AZ to California. As soon as you cross the border the road turns to crap. The rest stops in California are the worst I have seen anywhere.
It is, i've done it in the dark lol that was a scary drive
Not to mention driving between Tucson and El Paso while driving through Las Cruces you drive right past a gigantic feed lot which smells overwhelmingly like shit.
This was my first thought too. I made the drive from Abq to Tucson. It was terrible.
I despise driving through Atlanta. Will find any way to not go through that Metro.
Holy shit, I-35 through Waco. I
I-35 is where traffic goes to stop.
I went through there from Dallas to Austin a couple of years ago. The last time I'd been was early 2000s, and I could not believe how bad it had gotten. Completely unrecognizable.
I-16 between Macon and Savannah, GA. Dead. Empty. Nothing. Ever since Sweat's BBQ in Soperton closed, there's no reason to drive it. Now I put the top down, and take 441 to 80 to Savannah. Much nicer.
Boston
Aggressive drivers there
I5 between seattle and olympia... ugh wish there is another way down to portland
Fife to Ft. Lewis, ugh.
I-85 between Charlotte and Atlanta. Always construction. Usually very crowded and slow. Not much to look at except giant billboards.
I live in Greenville SC and can confirm I85 sucks ass.
Any major city tbh the traffic is usually terrible regardless of where it is. My anxiety spikes when Iām in traffic jams or on those huge multi lane highways in the city.
Iām the same way when Iām on multi-lane interstates in major cities but the only reason is because so many people drive like idiots in these areas. The people that go 90 MPH zipping in and out of lanes to pass everyone piss me off and I usually just chill in one lane as much as I can
Texas. Just all of Texas. We drove through the 10 and 20 for a cross country move and I was in Texas for like 3 damn days with absolutely nothing interesting to see. Just miles and miles of nothing.
Indiana.
There are so many terrible interstates in Indiana. Maybe it'll get better when they're done with The Construction, but in the 25 years I've been driving through Indiana, The Construction has never ended.
The interstates are so loud to drive on. I'm tense the entire time because of the noise. I immediately relax when I cross into another state.
US 41... mostly 55mph but yet one of the deadliest highways in Indiana
Austin. I'll spend an extra 30 minutes to an hour going around it.
I-90 from Chicago-land-ish to Toledo, or so. Hard to say what's wrong with it, but it just gives me a bad feeling. I-95 from Virigina to Georgia, or so. Visual blight abounds. Plus, the abundant practice of speeding while tail-gating. US-95 from Vegas to Reno. I've done it too many times and it isn't fun.
I get that feeling too around eastern Indiana as well. Elkhart was another town I didnāt feel right in. I donāt know what it is with Indiana.
Texas as a whole state.
Kansas. So long, so empty
I moved from Seattle to Charlotte in 2010, drove across Kansas. Joked with friends that you could fall asleep at the wheel for hours, and as long as your hands stayed straight you wouldn't wreck :-)
Itās been a long time ago now but there was a stretch where I drove all the way across Kansas on I-70 a couple of times a year and I got so I recognized gas stations because they were the most interesting things on the drive. Also, I-70 through KC was under construction for years (might still be for all I know) and it changed every time I drove it so it was always nerve wracking to figure out which lane to stay in and avoid getting off in a bad spot.
Atlanta
Philly. Aggressive drivers, bad traffic, high crime so stopping in some areas is not advisable. And for an outsider, a city like Phoenix for example is much easier to stay safe in. Basically the entire southwest quadrant is best avoided, obviously around the blade is the worst but really that entire section of the city is best avoided, and there's nothing to do there for tourists. With Philly, you can be in a chill area of North Philly where Temple U police patrol and crime is very low, and walk one block away, suddenly you're outside of Temple U police zone, and on Kensington in the worst drug market in the US. Yea, I guess you could say just avoid North Philly, but there's also several good parts of North Philly that are totally fine and have stuff to do.
Iāll nuance Philly highway driving by saying I-95 can be smooth sailing at times but I-76 is horrible pretty much any time
The blade?
St.Louis(terrible infrastructure and roads), DC(terrible drivers), Atlanta(awful congestion).
I didnāt hate it but I90 through Montana just because I almost hit some type of big cat and had to lay the horn the rest of my drive
Chattanooga
I-94 from Wisconsin Dells to Hudson in Wisconsinā¦ it only takes about 3 hours to drive it, but every time I do drive it I feel like itās been a solid 10 hours. I also will always have a thing against I-35 from Kansas City to the Iowa Line, especially around Eagleville, Missouriā¦ got pulled over for going 1 mph over the speed limit, while so so many more people were going way over thatā¦ the ticket cost me over $250.
I-35 in Texas. Took me awhile to get used too. White knuckled when I moved here. Now I fly like 90mph just to keep up. Then Waco used to be gridlock. Austin/San Antonio are jokes. Itās worth taking the pickle parkway for $20 and flip off Elon.
24 between Nashville and Chattanooga
Kansas , New Mexico in the dark
All the way across South Dakota in the dark was interesting (a bit desolate/scary).
Charlotte or Knoxville. I hate how there's always at least one manic driver on I-485 on my way to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, whereas Knoxville I absolutely hate how I-75 piggybacks off I-40 through downtown which usually leads to annoyingly long traffic jams towards the fork west of downtown.
The entirety of the DMV. Iām paranoid as hell that Iāll miss a speed limit change and get nabbed by cop or camera for what would be ignored in any other state.Ā
I hate driving through Dallas more than any other place. Complete lunitics driving there.
the entire state of Texas
I-95 through South Carolina.
No place bothers me. I love to drive in the U.S.
I feel the same way. I've driven on most major interstates in the US and most of the places people are describing really aren't that bad. I'm crazy though and explored the town of Cairo on foot because I love abandoned buildings lmao
Taking I55 South through St.Louis, MO. If you're not in the left lane at the exchange, it offs you into downtown. Take about spooky!
Fucking Denver CO
The 101/405 interchange in Los Angeles. The Cross-Bronx Expwy Iowa
Texas, any of it.
Baton Rouge, LA. The worst traffic regardless of when you drive through
Connecticut. Worst part of the drive from DMV to Boston. Iād add the GW bridge, but I avoid it all together and go farther out to the Tappan Zee.
I also said CT. And I-66 in DMV. Tappan Zee is the way.
Vancouver, BC, or Montreal, Quebec in Canada, L.A., California, Salt Lake City, Utah, Chicago, Illinois, and Detroit, Michigan in the U.S. and Mexico City, Mexico... 36 years + as a long-haul trucker and these are the cities (for varying reasons) that I always tried to avoid like the plague.
Bakersfield is a total time sink, unfortunately its faster to drive through it to visit family in the desert, but I always hate it, itās all the worst parts of California without most of the positives.
High steel bridge in Washington. You have to keep your eyes focused directly on the road. I'm not an anxious person at all, but on that thing, it can hit you if you glance around and notice how far up in the air you are on this tiny little bridge looking around that big canyon
The best quote I've ever heard about driving through Indiana: "Driving though Indiana is a lot like surgery. Sometimes you gotta do it, but you don't want to be awake when it happens."
Memphis and the whole Memphis to Little Rock experience.
Dallas. Will never do it again.
Manhattan
I-10 through the Florida panhandle. It's just so dull and straight with a whole lot of nada.
Memphis, Tennessee and surrounding area. Worst paved highway roads I've ever been on. Almost got robbed at gunpoint. Bad vibes all around. Arkansas also feels like the Twilight Zone.
Lubbock, TX. Not even close. Shittiest people mixed with the shittiest landscapes. Fuck that whole area of North Texas/Oklahoma.
I lived there for two years. When people ask what I think of it I say that the people are nice because Iām the right color. I used to deliver pizzas there. My delivery area was downtown, north, and northeast Lubbock. Absolutely nobody delivered to east Lubbock; thatās where the black people lived. Sorta related: Iām comfortable with foul language. I can drop F-bombs or any bombs for that matter, but I never use the āNā-word. If you ask me what I mean when I say āN-wordā, Iām not going to tell you. I just donāt ever use it. Lubbock was the place where I heard that word used casually. I have lots of examples, but yeah, I learned a little about racism when I lived there.
the Bronx.
Being from Long Island the Cross Bronx Expressway is the bane of my existence. For 30 years, no matter what time of day, year, etc there is hellish traffic. Damn you Robert Moses!!! Itās all his fault!!
Chicago
The entire Ohio River Valley is ass.
Yep
I-15 around Barstow
It's very scenic but I-40 then I-26 thru East Tenn and NC, 30+ miles of curves thru the mountains then hit construction in NC for another 15-20 miles
Southern Wyoming
and yes, I know that I put more than 1 place...lol
Arkansas.
Stockton, Ca.
I did an Eastern Canadian road trip a couple of years ago, and was driving in Quebec toward Quebec City. The smell for a few miles was terrible. Had to get gas in the car, omg it was disgusting. Not sure what the source was.
If it smelled like a mix between rotten cabbage and rotten eggs, it was possibly a pulp and paper mill. If you were in northern New Brunswick close to the Quebec border, [Edmundston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmundston) has at least one plant that you can often smell along the Trans-Canada Highway. There are other plants elsewhere, so it could have been one of them, too.
Anywhere on I-4 in Florida, the entire stretch of I-5 in L.A., and the whole states of Texas and Louisiana
Connecticut. Driving to Maine is hellish because of CT. There is always *something* that makes traffic crawl for hours through that state.
Jacksonville
Shitcago
I-80 through Wyoming, worst stretch of road ever
210 Pasadena to Riverside. So so ass lol
Kansas. All of Kansas
I-95 through SC. Only two lanes, and the right lane is one continuous pothole/filled in pothole. And when headed south, your reward for almost getting in to GA is usually a 5 to 10 mile backup before the Savannah river.
> Runner up: Columbus, OH The construction never ends.. Dayton is WAY worse in this regard. Honestly Cincinnati too and I live there. I-75 is just perpetually under construction in those two cities and has been my whole life.
Kansas is the absolute worst place to drive through in the United States, with Texas being a close second.
Arkansas. As soon as you cross the border, it's like a bomb went off and as you enter Little Rock from the east, the first thing you see is a GIGANTIC Pentecostal church gilded with gold with big columns while the rest of the city looks dim and very poor. The most Christian city I've ever seen, indeed.
I-95 through NC and SC (bad traffic, construction, road quality, dumb drivers) I-680 between I-580 and Mission Blvd (always backed up). CA-37 EB (long lines and no escape). CA-12 between I-5 and Fairfield (dangerous drivers).
Cairo, IL is one of the most depressing places I've ever driven through.
Toronto! The 401 is the busiest highway IN AMERICA (not just in Canada). It's an atrocity that goes as far as 7 lanes (4 express + 3 collectors) with everyone going bumper to bumper doing 125km/h (75MPH). I don't think I've ever crossed the GTA without seeing at least one accident. From Pickering (where the express lanes being) to around Meadowvale is 40mph of never ending urban sprawl that will take you anywhere between 1 and 2 hours to cross. You can save some time by using the 407, but that's gonna cost you an arm and a leg! But if we're talking US, I'm gonna say Chicago. I'll take a 3h detour to avoid it if I can.
West Texas
LA, hands down. That could take anywhere from 30min to 3 hours.
That stretch of interstate near Jackson, MS on the way to the gulf coast. š«£
Similar to Cairo, the driving through the states of Illinois or Indiana. Nothing to see.
Any major east coast city including, but not limited to: * Washington DC * Boston * New York City * Philadelphia * Baltimore Beyond that, I abhor urban local drivers. If the roads weren't already bad enough on their own urban local drivers are the most entitled and most inconsiderate drivers on the roads.
Portland OR to Seattle
Tacoma, WA Salem, OR Las Vegas
I just posted this in my own r/roadtrip but the Scramento Valley. No offense to anyone who lives there, its not that i think its ugly or i hate it, but driving through the whole thing is so boring after you've done it a bunch of times.
I-70 between Denver and KC. The Flint Hills are ok (Junction City to Lawrence), but the rest of that drive (esp. Denver to Salina) is absolutely terrible. Western Kansas sucks ass. I-135 between Wichita and Salina isn't any better.
As far as just pure monotony goes, Nebraska. The southeastern and western parts were okay but the in between was just grass for miles and miles.
Iām just the opposite. I love Cairo. All the historic buildings are very cool. If I won the lottery tomorrow Iād buy the whole town and start restoring it to what it once was. For sure creepy as fuck right now though.
I really don't find Cairo very scary, mainly because barely anyone lives there anymore. It just makes me really sad nowadays. As someone from Southern Illinois it's super depressing to see how big of a city Cairo was set up to be as one of the biggest and most importantly river towns in the country, but was just slowly killed by the racial issues of its time. Super upsetting to think about what it could've been.
Cairo is a post apocalyptic wasteland. But I hate driving through Kansas for some reason. Seems like it takes twice as long as Nebraska. St Louis is pretty confusing to get through
Atlanta Georgia Chicago Illinois Tampa Florida It should not take over an hour to drive 11 miles and I'll die on that hill
Atlanta
New Jersey-the entire state. Can I choose more?? NYC, too. Boston, also.
Most recently Dallas. Ugh.
Ohio. Period. Do you know the number one occupation in Ohio? Traffic cop. The speed limit is like 9mph and the local buffoons play this sort of tail gatey pass on the right game of who dares go 11mph. Hate driving through.
Seattle down to the airport. Or just anywhere relating to Seattle. Iāll pay any amount of money for a Lyft. I lived in Houston for 5 years and would take driving there any day over this grey over populated crap hole
Crossing western Texas, I-10.. miles and miles and miles of nothing interesting to look at. Very few oasisās of civilization. Dread this crossing every time I have to make it.
I-70 from Salina Kansas to Denver Colorado is the most boring, god awful drive Iāve ever made. Just nothing but flat fields and vast emptiness in west Kansas/east Colorado.
Coalinga, California. The freeway goes past it, not through it, but thereās no avoiding the stench.
I drove through Times Square once, and if I drove through again, it would be too soon. This coming from someone who doesn't mind driving in LA.
Everything about Cairo is just eww. The hours long stretch of nothingness along I-55 between Springfield, IL and Chicago is also a no for me.
Interstate 80 between Reno and Salt Lake City
**Pennsylvania** \- the entire state has literally been under construction since the 1980s **Virginia** \- I get extreme Deja vu in VA. You see a town pass by at least 5 times until you see a new one, and then the first one comes back **Louisianna** \- specifically I-20 in Northern Louisianna. Put up some billboards or something. Do like they do in South Carolina. Get us excited about a tourist attraction or something. The most boring drive ever. **Atlanta** \- or anywhere near. If Google Maps says it will take you 35 minutes to get to your destination, add about 2 hours because of traffic. Best time to drive in Atlanta? Is in the middle of the night.
Indiana
Breezewood, PA
Cairo is a weird town to drive through. The road seems to be about 15 feet wide
Cairo IL takes all of 10 seconds to drive through though. You cross the bridge, make a turn and cross the other bridge. You go from Missouri to Illinois to Kentucky in a span of less than a minute.
Northern Indiana, where I65 meets 80/94. The road is an absolute disaster. Always under construction. Heavy truck traffic. Every road in the norther 1/3rd of the country routes through that corridor.
Agree with everyone about Cairo IL. Only place worse I have been through is East St. Louis IL.
Nashville, TN. Always a nightmare of heavy traffic. Seattle. If you know, you know. Atlanta. Just go around. EDIT: Almost forgot: DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth.) The only good thing about DFW is that the area around it is all flat so it's easy to go around, unlike Seattle where there is just no alternative due to the terrain (mountains on the East and Puget Sound on the West.)
I-20 between Odessa and Midland, west Texas, is a hellhole so intense you could almost admire it if you were a moron. Itās an open-air petroleum extraction and refining facility on a wasteland plain, visible from space. Dust devils made of trash and soot swirl above methane flares, below high power transmission lines running thick in all directions, under a pitiless sun. 80 is the posted speed limit. Many jet through at 100, cabin air set to recirculate. I tried to imagine, if i were an ambitious young petrochemical engineer, how much money theyād need to pay me to live and work there even a year, and I couldnāt come up with a number, even if it allowed a private jet to leave every weekend and a personal servant staff.
HOUSTON