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I -95 is better IMO as I despise the Golden State Freeway through the central valley. Of course when you have conditions that work out to make the agricultural capital of the world that's going to take precedence. The west coast as a whole is much more interesting, but the 5 takes the path of least resistance despite this you still have places like grapevine winch is prone to wintery snow storms.
There was a great article published a few years ago that mentioned how there is only 4 counties along the entire I-95 corridor that could be considered truly rural (two in South Carolina, one in Southern Virginia and the end county in northern Maine), comparing that to I-5 which skirts many of the larger coastal cities much more than I-95 and is much more rural. While it is true that both rides can be quite boring in large sections, I would take I-95 over I-5 any day (even if I-5 has some nice scenery in parts of California and Oregon).
As awful as I-5 is.....I-95 must be totally nuts to drive IF 37% of the US population is clustered around it!! I-5 was actually fun to drive in the early 1970’s when the traffic was pretty light along it. These days it is no fun at all to drive.
My favorite north-south Highways for me are US191 and US93....though the traffic on 93 is getting pretty bad.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Originally Posted by 509
As awful as I-5 is.....I-95 must be totally nuts to drive IF 37% of the US population is clustered around it!! I-5 was actually fun to drive in the early 1970’s when the traffic was pretty light along it. These days it is no fun at all to drive.
My favorite north-south Highways for me are US191 and US93....though the traffic on 93 is getting pretty bad.
It is indeed totally nuts. My sister lives in NC, and I've done the I-95 Bos-Wash rat race on the way down a good number of times. When I was in my late teens and 20's it was a bit of an adrenaline rush (90's/2000's) to go from one major city's metro into the next with prime cities just a few short hours away. There was a good deal of traffic then, but still flowed better than it does currently. Now its so saturated with congestion it just sucks to drive on it unless you have it timed right with overnight driving.
Some of the worst spots...
Virginia south of the Springfield interchange, it's a mega bottleneck
Capital Beltway
NJ Turnpike approach to the GW Bridge/Cross Bronx/Westchester, all of it.
Anywhere in Connecticut
I took an alternate route and drove connecting interstates to I-81 through the Appalachians to get down to NC. It adds three hours, but its so much better with pretty good scenery and saved a lot of aggravation. I'll probably do that again on my next road trip down there.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 06-18-2019 at 08:16 PM..
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS
I-95 between New Haven and Providence generally isn’t that bad in my experience.
True, not like Fairfield county, though I've sat in stop and go on a section between New Haven and New London and thought two lanes is not cutting the mustard on this highway and just kind of affirmed my experience of having to sit in traffic all over that state (on other highways too).
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