just about any road in peru. did anyone see that road of death special on the history channel? well that one is in bolivia but there is one that's exactly the same in peru and it's the main highway to go to the andes

Renous to Plaster Rock Highway Route 108 in Northern New Brunswick. The road was originally created for commercial logging and was then paved (I think) at one time and not worked on since. There aren't really any massive potholes...but there are massive waves in the road that, if you care is too low and long, you could easily get hung up nose-to-tail.

Also, the main highway in Labrador (Northern Canada) is mainly gravel.

On vacation in the Chilean Andes, we drove through a small mountain village's main road, and happened upon a semi truck (sans trailer) stuck in a pothole. The entire truck was in a pothole about a foot deep. The rest of the gravel road was similarly pitted.

I-10 between 610 and BW8 in West Houston. The construction has reached an unprecedented level of absurdity. Everything from one lane bottlenecks, detours off the freeway, sidestreet access that changes by the hour, etc. They actually closed the nicest fiesta in town because it was along the freeway at an intersection that was so bad nobody could get to the parking lot.

North Georgia backroads.

When you drive off the main-roads, you end up in he 18th century on crappy rut-filled dirt roads. What makes it worse is the crazy locals that are waiting for you to get stuck so they can jump you and violate your anus.

Two opposite extremes:

A little red line on my Idaho state map that turned into rutted, unpaved two-track for about 50 miles, or...

I-70 across Kansas, before they paved over the frost-heaved concrete joints -- ka-CHUNK, ka-CHUNK, ka-CHUNK for 5 1/2 hours...

I tried to inline skate on a cobblestone street one time. That was pretty bad. I've managed to avoid the really crappy roads with cars.

Costa Rica near Domincal... where I ran into this lovely sign

[share.shutterfly.com]

it was like the Costa Ricans purposely bombed the roads in preparation for a Panamanian attack ... fun stuff, ended up fording a river

@TheGuinnessTooth: that's odd... the minus sign next to your name just turned back into a plus sign...

Well, how about "ridden on"? When I was kid, my aunt lived in West Lebanon, Maine, on a road called (really) Gully Oven Road. 8 months of the year, it was made of primordial ooze-type mud squelching from between glacial detritus rocks, some of which were Datsun-sized (the rest of them were pretty big). In the winter of course, add a foot of snow to hide some of the oilpan-destroyers.

Good thing you could actually buy a decent beater for 50 or 100 bucks back then, every six months or as needed..

PA turnpike on the north side of Philly.

That road stinks.

How about ANY road in, say, the East Side of Manhattan? I mean I don't even really have to mention the cobblestones down in SOHO, but NYC has some of the most wrecked roads. I think they purposely don't fix them to keep people from speeding like maniacs... or perhaps to increase cab & public transportation usage as these civil servant vehicles are much more well-equipped to handle the massive undulations & crevasses littered about the streets. Here's a fine example of such a crater about to swallow up a car:
[i28.tinypic.com]

Mine has to be the sodden, goopy morass that passed for roads in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, driven in a Dacia about ten years ago.
In the towns I passed through there were still bear and wolf hunters who kept the orphaned cubs as pets.
I ended up getting very drunk behind the wheel because there was no danger of building up enough speed to actually harm anything and because we were all covered in mud and sick of pushing. Also palinka is a superb liquor...

I75 through Detroit.

I hope I never go back there.

Between 80mph over a minefield of potholes, and the fact that everyone in MI sucks at driving, it's a nightmare.

An acquaintance of mine once boasted that MI doesn't have any toll roads. I fail to see how that's good.

Then again, every road in Michigan sucks.

@Paul Y. is Going Dumb at the Sideshow: hell, we've got a ton of toll roads in NJ (Turnpike, Parkway, etc.) & we're still not perfect :D

@Dr.Danger's got the power:
The weird thing about North GA is that all of the "medium" state roads are impeccably maintained, I assume due to so little heavy truck traffic through the mountains. I've never seen such nice roads in rural areas before (Clayton/Toccoa/Blairsville/Dahlonega areas).

The road from Baboua, Central African Republic to Garoua Boulai, Cameroon.

What do I win?

Most confusing: The loop around Dayton, OH. On a road trip to the USAF museum years ago, I'm still not sure how we found our motel afterwards.

Most inhospitable to modern passenger cars: Almost every surface street in the downtown Detroit area. The potholes eat rims and tires. The drainage after a rain or snowmelt is non-existent. So you wade through axle deep and pray there aren't any of the aforementioned potholes under the surface.

Current bane of my existence: The Clay Avenue exit and overpass from I-75 in Detroit. I could be enjoying the crisp spring air in my Capri and sipping fuel at over 30 mpg. But the thought of replacing rims which are well nigh unobtainable and the thought of permanently damaging my kidneys as the sport suspension tries to cope is just too much to bear. Sigh.

@Paul Y. is Going Dumb at the Sideshow: +1

Though I am sure not worst in the world or the US by a long shot. There is still no excuse for it. Won't stop me from driving from Cleveland to Detroit for the Belle Isle Grand Prix. ALMS only for me will pass on INDY cars.

@PeteJayhawk: Meningo-encephalitic malaria, as I recall.

Hands down, Indian Road 7 in AZ...from Canyon de Chelly toward Ganado. Back in 1993 during a 4 Corners trip. Unpaved and terrifying. Too narrow to turn back. You know the story.

The road was made worse because I tackled it in a rental Mazda 626. A vehicle whose oscillating vents could not overcome the sweat beading up on my forehead for much of the drive. Massive ruts hardened by the AZ sun. I can't imagine what it would be like wet.

I just googled it and it's listed in some off-roaders directory, so perhaps that explains things. I though I'd be okay since I saw a few natives headed down it in things like 80s vintage Old Cutlass Cierras. How I didn't high side myself (and my wife to be) is a mystery.

In terms of traffic, any road within a 50 mile radius of Washington, D.C. This place is an absolute mess. Thank God for the subway.

The road construction season in Boston/Cambridge can be quite a nightmare, as well.

I-24, Nashville, 30 years ago. The entire road through town was like a washboard.

Long Island Expressway on any given Friday @ 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. between June 1 and September 1. You might as well jog than drive if you want to get anywhere.

Any stretch of road with a speed limit and cameras.

My cousin Phelim was a columnist for the Financial Times, based out of Bucharest. He's not really what I would consider a Jalop, except for the relatively sweet move of buying Nikolai Chauchescu's VW shooting brake. Anyway, some time ago he related to me the following story:

In Romania, the theft rate is very high. Any tools or scrap metal left at roadworks are snapped up immediately. Thieves have even gotten into the habit of stealing cones, flashers and signage. Therefore, roadcrews take all their equipment with them when they knock off home for the night. Most recently, there were major repairs being done to a bridge which necessitated the cutting of a large hole in the surface. Unfortunately, all repairs were unable to be completed before it was time to go home....

As for myself: anything with speed limits.

@Ash78: It is a trap for the tourists.

Peru's not so bad in my opinion. Labrador Canada is quite nasty, but the worst roads I've been on are at mines in those two places. Not only are the roads temporary and thus crap. they are just graded paths with F350 sized potholes. Worst element is the danger of getting smushed by enormous mining trusks with 12' wheels that can't possibly see you, nor feel you as they bomb around the mine. Amazingly, these things can sneak up on you like tankers in the ocean.

This used to be the worst road in Puyallup Washington (where cars cost less!)

In google maps... 47.192527,-122.291844

It used to be 50 feet of paved nightmare, and was where I learned the faster you go the less you feel the bumps.

The sat image shows they've repaved it though. Sigh...

I didn't drive it, but there's a county road in the hills outside of Yankton, Oregon that is used for a New Years Day mud run by all the local off-roaders. I went with a brother-in-law one year to spectate. There were mud holes deep enough to drown and tip lifted Jeeps and full size Blazers. The road is apparently never dry and always requires 4WD to negotiate even during the summer. In January, the shallow spots were shin deep everywhere.

The Bruckner expressway in the Bronx......If anyone can make a case for having a lifter Defender 90 in NYC, its THIS highway!

@zacarious:

Oh man, can I relate. I encountered a very similar sign in the most rural reaches of Andalusia, in southern Spain:

What followed a couple of miles later was a thirty-mile descent into a civil engineer's worst nightmare. A 14 or 15-foot wide carriageway (total for both lanes), with a 400-foot drop on one side, and your only guardrail was a series of rough-hewn stone blocks perched precariously on the edge. Some parts felt like Middle Earth. I half-expected Gollum to leap out from behind a tree and grab my wedding band.

"The Precious!"

hmmmm. south ryan st in lake charles. seems the cajuns haven't figured out that if you add a turning lane, it might help traffic flow smoothly. i-610 in houston. i-10 in ontario. i-215 and the 60 interchange in riverside. that interchange confounds me.

i drove the alcan highway to Alaska before it was paved in a 90 ford probe. once you are north of Edmonton, there are no cops or gas stations. i drove as fast as the conditions would allow for several thousand miles with 20 plus hours of daylight per day. sometimes, i would line up over holes and rocks on unpaved road doing 90 through the mountains. sometimes, i had to crawl at 5mph for hours. once, i managed to stop from 90 with the front wheels 1/2 way in the water from a river. i had no idea i left the highway and was 60 miles from a 2 house town. all the roads looked the same.
its paved now. this is a drivers paradise.

@tmkforever: exactly, although my theory is that the street workers do a bad job on purpose to make sure they have plenty of work, especially that favorite "emergency overtime".

I once had to drive the wrong way out of Red Rocks in Vegas, in a rented Viper that was running out of gas... stupid and scary.

I got lots of fingers and horns and I deserved them all, but I wouldnt have made it out the other end.

That was the worst road, in terms of driving experience, not in terms of road quality.

What a piece of shit I must have looked like...

I also have to mention the L.I.E. (long island expressway). Not that the paving's so bad, but the drivers are the worst. Tailgating at 70mph while screaming on the cell phone and drinking coffee, yeah that's a good idea.

Any back road on the Big Island of Hawaii.. the volcanic rock is unforgiving, sharp and just waiting for the next oil pan. Rental Buick could hardly stand it...

@Tanshanomi:
i gotta agree with you.

i drove the ALCAN in 1993 in a 1985 fox bodyied LTD Police Package. Even though most of the ALCAN was potholes and gravel it was not nearly as annoying as that stretch of I-70 in Kansas.

@staircar:

Here's the CARRETERA EN MAL ESTADO from the above photo: the C-3331 road. Not so much hoontastic, more like abject terror. The roads around Ubrique are pretty phenomenal though.

[maps.google.com]

@osnofla: I've watched that show at least 3 times and am just astounded every time about how bad it would be to actually drive in a place like that.

@staircar: classic - I am sure there are some more "puente en mal estado" horror stories out there.

aside from most major arteries around the nyc area the worst "road" I have ever driven on in the US is Willets Point in Queens, ny. This street and immediate vicinity is home to a ton of car chop shops, repair shops, etc... The streets are not paved, nor are they graded. I went in February a few years ago to find a set of rims for my Focus using my wife's old Pontiac Gran Prix because it had better ground clearance. It was a few weeks after a major snow storm and the roads were littered with cars in various states of dismantle, giant slushy/muddy/oily lakes and a slow procession of others like myself in search of allusive parts. Never did get my rim but enjoyed the on road offroading!

Worst road out of this country was in Umbria, Italy. Took the Peugot 505 wagon I was using (with visions of the indestructible types in Africa) into the wilds to discover/explore dirt roads. I found one road that started out fine but as I got higher into the mountain it sort of dissappeared for about 200yards wherein I guessed based on the map I had, as to the general direction of where I was to go. Success was met with a new challenge of rounding a hairpin turn that had a good size stream running through and eroding the apex which was on a substantial drop off. The road was barely large enough for a car. I drove the outside wheels up onto the mountain to keep the inside wheels on terra firma. I was later told by my Italian buddy that he only ever goes on that road with his Fiat Panda 4x4 and was astonished that I made it back. Me too!

An industrial road between Hartlepool and Middlesbrough which is smooth enough, except at one long corner which has waves in it. When you're on it, the left hand side of the car starts bouncing up and down horribly.
On a single track country road, there is a truely massive pot hole that breks your spine. I hit it once, and now I will move as far over right as possible to avoid it.
Aside from that most roads are bumpy, but i'm so used to them I never really notice anymore, except at speed.
There's also a road that passes close to a beach and grotty beachfont themepark, that is lined for an entire mile, by speed bumps. Truely horrible to drive over.

Roads? Where we're going...we don't need roads.

Seriously, though, here's a collection of some that, while I haven't driven on them, are enough to keep me away.

[www.darkroastedblend.com]

I've been on the Peru/Bolivia roads and the North Indian himalayan roads. I have to go with any road into or out of Ladakh. The canyons are littered with burnt out hulks of fuel tankers, the jeeps careen along passing larger vehicles at speed, big buses doing 5 point turns over 500 ft cliffs, and the general disregard for THIS life that Hindu truck drivers seem to have.

Any road Caltrans has done any recent work on.

The south road back from Hana in Maui, Hawaii. You know, the one the rental companies strictly forbid you to take.

Roads in Belgium,on the way to the Nurburgring in Germany,so it was worth it.

Before the ripped it up and repaved it, I-88 between Aurora and DeKalb was once nicknamed 'The Washboard' because it made your car buck for something like 40 miles.

I once drove it back to Chicago in my Jeep Wrangler with some friends. We'd been drinking at Northern Illinois U the previous night.

Wrangler's short wheelbase + 3 hungover guys = vomit

Thank God for the hose-out qualities of its interior.

In the hills north of Boise, in a 2WD pickup, Grandpa and I got to the top of a mountain on a long one-lane dirt road where the sign said "Road closed ahead". Well that wasn't fair, we didn't come all that way to just turn around, so we went around the sign. It soon became evident why it was closed, the winding road down the mountain was washed out in spots. With barely enough room for one vehicle, it was luck no one was coming the other way (or rather, no one else was as foolhardy as us). Navigation around the washed-out missing sections of road involved scraping along the slope on the opposite side of the road, quite a challenge, but we cheated death and made it down to the main road. We never should have done that, but I'm glad we did.

@zacarious: We came across one of those signs in a mountainous area of Argentina, only to discover that the sign should have read "Puente No Existe". We ended up having to ford the river at a shallow point. That's when you really find out what your '83 Renault 12 wagon is made of.

@1300ccsoffury: How was that? I remember back when I was fourteen or so and we did the Road to Hana in a rental minivan, and I didn't understand why we couldn't just keep going 'round the loop.

Looking at a Google Earth photo makes me a little less skeptical. How bad was it?