Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The LIE and South Shore Expressway in NY, Garden State Parkway/AC Expressway/NJ 55 in South Jersey, US 50 and MD 404 to the MD/DE beaches all can have heavy traffic at times during the summer despite largely being located in rural areas. Any other roads that despite being located in a low density area, can exprenience heavy traffic?
Well are those just interstates/expressways taking people THROUGH rural areas? I mean most interstates are pretty busy.
Growing up we had around 50,000 trucks and cars a day go by our house on I-80, even though we were in Iowa. It's a fairly rural area, but with tons of interstate traffic. Some of those counties had 7 times as many people zooming by on I-80 than there were people living in the entire county.
Rural northcentral PA has seen a huge increase in the amount of heavy truck traffic due to the fracking industry. This type of traffic has pretty much overwhelmed many of the country roads there.
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
2,709 posts, read 5,097,146 times
Reputation: 1028
I'd definitely have to say that I-70 in rural Missouri gets pretty heavy traffic. THe big one though that comes to mind is I-39/I-90/I-94 in Northern Illinois. Crossing into Wisconsin took forever. Also, I-80 and I-90 east of Chicago have pretty heavy traffic all the way to Cleveland. And finally, I-75 pretty much has heavy traffic in Florida and Georgia. I-44 in rural Missouri is pretty heavily traveled too.
Of all the interstates I'd imagine would be heavily traveled even in rural areas...this is my hypothesis: I-4, I-10, I-12, I-15, I-16, I-20, I-24, I-25, I-29, I-30, I-35, I-40, I-44, I-45, I-55, I-57, I-64, I-65, I-66, I-69, I-70, I-74, I-75, I-76, I-77, I-80, I-81, I-85, I-87, I-88(west), I-90, and I-94. The reason I suggest this is because all of these interstates are either very long, indicating major routes, they connect Mexico or Canada to big cities, or they directly link large cities (I-45 links Dallas and Houston). Many also function as bypass routes for other interstates. Finally, an -0 or -5 route is going to have significant traffic. The last thing is that these interstates, especially the ones ending in -4, serve as important connectors between transcontinental interstates or a branch-off of those interstates (I-94 more or less is a branch of I-90, I-44 is an important connector between I-40, I-35, I-55, and I-70, and I-64 essentially functions as a branch off of I-70...the two interstates are almost never more much more than 100 miles apart at any given point in time.
Last edited by stlouisan; 03-08-2012 at 11:17 AM..
I will say that California is interesting in that you see a huge volume of cars driving across barren desert. People traveling between LA and Las Vegas. Between Barstow and Victorville/Hesperia is a perfect example. There is nothing out there for a stretch but the volume of vehicles is impressive. You got I-15 and I-40 merging.
I certainly wouldn't call it traffic choked, but its a lot of cars traveling through an areas where there are apparently no people.
Certain famous resort towns like
Branson Mo,
Gatlinburg TN,
Myrtle Beach SC
Maybe some of the most famous Western national parks (although I've not personally been to them)
Interstate 94 and 35 just north of the Twin Cities can get pretty busy with people escaping to the cabin. Sometimes you'll see traffic moving fast, not rare to see a truck pulling a boat going about 80 weaving in and out of traffic but sometimes usually on a sunday morning there can be some backups with people coming home after there weekend trip
Certain famous resort towns like
Branson Mo,
Gatlinburg TN,
Myrtle Beach SC
Maybe some of the most famous Western national parks (although I've not personally been to them)
I can certainly agree with Gatlinburg. One of the most memorable traffic jams I've ever been in was in Cades Cove in Smoky Mountain NP. I also got in a huge jam coming out of Gatlinburg into Pigeon Forge.
The highway(US 1 I believe) leading out to Key West can get a bit crowded I've heard. Luckily it wasn't too bad when I visited.
Rural northcentral PA has seen a huge increase in the amount of heavy truck traffic due to the fracking industry. This type of traffic has pretty much overwhelmed many of the country roads there.
That same scenario is playing out here in Northwest North Dakota because of the oil boom. The amount of semi traffic up here is unbelievable.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
