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Even though it doesn't hit as many major cities, I think US-101 is the best highway to get the full splendor of the West Coast.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Around
...As US 1 is the best highway to experience the full splendor of the East Coast (Ft. Kent, ME to Key West, FL). And it goes right thru the heart of the major cities, too!
That's the funny thing about U.S. 1 -- we think of it as the East Coast highway, but it actually isn't, entirely. If one were to drive on the U.S. highway that is closest to the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Florida, here's what they would do:
U.S. 1 from Maine down through New York
U.S. 9 through New Jersey into Delaware
U.S. 113 through Delaware into Maryland
U.S. 13 from Maryland through most of Virginia
U.S. 17 from Virginia through the Carolinas and Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida
U.S. 1 down the rest of Florida
So really, U.S. 1 is not the "East Coast" U.S. highway for the whole mid-section of the Eastern Seaboard, from New York down to Jacksonville. Why they didn't number the coastal highway as U.S. 1 all the way down, I don't know.
Quality of life, weather, cost of living, education, attractiveness of the population, natural beauty, culture, which group of cities you'd rather live in, jobs, economy, trendsetters, etc.
That post is almost 8 years old and I can’t for the life of me figure out why I said Santa Clara. I know it doesn’t go through the Bay Area, the very next sentence in there talks about how it’s 60 miles inland from downtown SF. The point I was trying to make is that the Central Valley stretch (Redding to Bakersfield) is soul crushing boring. But yeah.., Santa Clara is not accurate.
I realize this is the thread that never dies, now ten years on. But I happened across it and wanted to tell you not to beat yourself up over saying Santa Clara way back in 2011. You were no doubt thinking of Santa Clarita, CA, which is definitely on I-5 and sits right at the base of the L.A. side of the Grapevine. I have never heard a Californian confuse Santa Clarita and Santa Clara, but for someone from out of state it is certainly understandable how it could happen.
Actually, I’d say I-95 is more of a mother road than I-5. The SF Bay Area is far and away the second largest CSA on the West Coast and I-5 doesn’t go through it or anywhere near it. In fact, it’s about 30-40 miles from the closest Bay Area exurbs and about 70 miles from SF/Oakland. So people from the Bay Area are not using I-5 regularly at all.
I-95 goes through or within 10-20 miles of virtually every major city on the East Coast.
The bolded is untrue. People from the Bay Area use I-5 all the time. True, you have to drive a bit to get to I-5, but for people who need the fastest way to get to Southern California, parts of the Central Valley, far northern California, Oregon, Washington, Las Vegas, and quite a few other places, it's I-5 for at least part of the way and often for most of the way. A lot of those cars out there on I-5 belong to Bay Area people.
I realize this is the thread that never dies, now ten years on. But I happened across it and wanted to tell you not to beat yourself up over saying Santa Clara way back in 2011. You were no doubt thinking of Santa Clarita, CA, which is definitely on I-5 and sits right at the base of the L.A. side of the Grapevine. I have never heard a Californian confuse Santa Clarita and Santa Clara, but for someone from out of state it is certainly understandable how it could happen.
Haha thank you - I haven’t slept since 2011 because of this.
The East Coast is just so much more built up than the West Coast that it could literally have two separate I-95's and each one would still win out over I-5 for me.
I’ve driven all over the I-5 from San Diego to Vancouver, Canada. Seattle is 100x bigger than Portland.
This is incorrect, but I could see why passing through these cities on I-5 would lead someone to believe this. Metro Seattle is much longer than it is wide and metro Portland is wider than it is long. You hit middle of nowhere much, much quicker in the North/South direction from Portland than from Seattle.
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