<![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On? - Jalopnik Comments]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On? - Jalopnik Comments]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> I posted this on the Best Road post... The worst road I have ever driven on is none other than Auto Club Drive in Dearborn, MI. To say this road resembles the surface of the moon would be an insult to the surface of the moon. To add insult to injury its named Auto Club Drive because it right out side AAA's national headquarters.

_

Crash Chloride

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> it's a toss-up between rural Vermont roads, downtown Montreal or West Philadelphia

Mazda Plainview

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Worst by what measure?

Regardless, paved roads in Western Europe or North America cannot possibly be included on this list!

my favorite car is a motorcycle

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Dirt highway from Jinotega, Nicaragua, 80 miles into the northeast interior, 1988. Eight flats in one day and bent chassis on the 78 Land Cruiser. Dust, heat, and only warm soda at the hamlets where we stopped to patch the inner tubes. Lesson: never drive faster than 20 mph on bad surfaces.

Atalante

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> New York State Throughway between Albany and Buffalo. Pulaski Skyway and Huey Long Bridge (how was that affected by Katrina?) would fit most definitions of bad.

philspinach

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> The Pulaski Skyway, with its Depression-era narrow lanes, left hand on- and off-ramps, lack of any place to pull over, and frequent potholes. Also, the bottom of several of the ramps flood deep whenever it rains.

There's also a lot of local roads around where I am which will leave you the choice of falling into a car-eating pothole or driving into a man-hole cover sticking four inches out. It's not a construction zone, either.

zsvdkhnorc

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Masai Mara, Kenya.. at 5 a.m. in a Toyota Landcruiser... driving down the hill into the plains on a stone "paved" road with holes so big and deep you can see them from the moon... encountering a mother elephant with child that we needed to pass... of course on the valley side... one push by that elephant and we would have been history... Wilshire blvd between Fairfax and downtown L.A. is pretty bad too.

sos10

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @Majoroutage: THANK YOU i was going to say this as well one of our main roads is so bad that it is literally a danger and has cause a few crashes. one of the other roads was also that bad and i personally know someone that lost a muffler to it but mercifully the state finally got around to repaving that one... and we have several of those "puente en mal estados" here....

amanz

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Definitely the road between Jinja and Iganga in Uganda. The road was abandoned mid construction due to a funding dispute. That left a major transcontinental thoroughfare a mix of dirt and concrete, sometimes concrete dropoffs over a foot, many bridges missing, and of course no road signs, or police, save an occasional checkpoint for contraband, nor emergency services. Then factor in the normal conditions, goats, chickens, children, bicycles, fast moving tractor trailers, buses. Some parts of the road are down to one lane, and you just play chicken. And we rode mostly in shared taxis, Toyota Hiace minivans crammed with four rows of seats, with 20 or more people, gear tied to the roof, sometimes chickens under your feet. The cross country bus also had roaches as passengers, and the Kenyan driver had the largest hands I've ever seen, and he new how to use the vehicles mass in the game of chicken.. And . That's the worst road I've been on. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

AllegraGadgie

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> I'm with many here, the environment of northern BC, Alberta, Yukon and Alaska means many of the paved roads should have been left gravel and the gravel roads should be maintained.

Canadians make/maintain awesome gravel roads. We're talking 100 kph in a 40' motothome + a towed car, without any problems. Paved road, however...30 MPH, max, in many cases.

OTOH, Alaskans have great paved road, but the 300+ miles of gravel we traversed there was covered at disturbingly low speeds.

Oh, and worse road...the Haul Road north of Fairbanks. You can rent cars which you can then abuse to the Artic Circle and back, just regular ole Tauruses, but I managed only about 4 miles in our motorhome, which I've had on bona-fide Forest Service roads, much to the entertainment of others, before turning around.

Think gravel, used almost exclusively by tractor-trailers which are obviously not owned by the drivers, and there is effectively no speed limit. Additionally, the summer temps are 90F, winter has to get to -50F.

Worst paved road...I-75 in Detroit. If the holes don't get you, slabs of rot falling from the bridges, will.

Kelly

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @Novaload: But all those cheerleaders on that road clog my windshield wipers.

SpeedWagon

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Worst road I've been driven on (as I was a kid at the time) was the road to Killoughter beach, Co. Wicklow (in Ireland). The local residents didn't want it to be paved as it would have encouraged more traffic in their little idyll, so it turned into this mess of natural debris, potholes, water, and assorted animal carcasses. In saying that, some of those roads mentioned above sound a lot worse, which just goes to show how sheltered an automotive existence I've lived.

Mojonaut

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> We drove through parts of Gujurat in India that were totally flooded. The indian SUV was in up to the windows. I have no clue how we made it out.

karan1003

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> just about any road in Bowral, Australia.

Naturally Exasperated?

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Absolutely any road within Rhode Island state boundaries.

Seriously. You can tell what side of the line you're on by how many potholes you hit.

MajorOutage

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Wow that's way too many typos, sorry.

miels = miles

Shor = Shore

county = city

Friday lunches occasionally involve drinking.

panos540

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> When I was in 5th grade my Dad took my brother and I to see the Grand Canyon. We rented a first-gen Subaru Outback and started out on the 5 or so hour drive. My dad thought he remembered a short cut from when he went there 25 years prior, so we cut off the highway behind a hotel and went onto a dirt road. As we passed a Jeep Excursion business we stopped, asked the guys if the road went to Havasu Canyon, and they kind of stared... they said "yeah, it does, but even our Jeeps can't make it." These were lifted FJ40s. So, naturally, we took off down the road in the Subaru. It was just dirt for a while, which we flew down at about 60 mph. And kept flying down at about 60. Then, we'd come to a fence, open it, and keep going. My brother and I were sort of nervous at the signs saying "Indian Land - DO NOT TRESPASS", but my dad thought it was a good idea to keep going. We passed all sorts of lovely sights like an emaciated horse tied to a the old frame of a barn, about 10 feet from the one small circle of water. We eventually got past the dirt roads and onto some rocks, at which point my dad told us to get out so he could drive over the boulders. As we walked, he put the Subaru sidways at about a 40 degree angle on the boulder, then slammed it back down and said this way might not work, so we hopped back in with just a little bit of smoke coming from the bottom of the Subie (probably just some grass in there, obviously). As we came back out another way, we found various dead ends where there was once a road, but part of it had fallen 2 or 3 feet. The best image that is forever burnt in my mind is the carcass of a cow hung between two posts by several strands of barbed wire, next a creepy dark shed. At this point we told our dad to drive faster, so we returned to the 60 miles an hour down the dirt roads back to the highway.

6 hours of dirt roads later, we got back on the highway, and continued the 5 hour drive to the trailhead for the Havasu. We survived and eventually made it into the canyon, but that was the worst road I've ever driven on.

Naters4

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Last 2 miels of the the north end of Lake Shor Drive in Chicago are downright dangerous after this winter's beating. The potholes will consume an entire SUV sized wheel and all the driver's swerving to avoid them pose an additional hazard.

Another bad one is the north/south stretch of Wacker Drive. Come on, how do you leave a main road going through the financial district of the 3rd largest country in the US in such shambles? You would never gues so much money is changing hands in the skyscrpaes which line this 3rd world street.

[www.examiner.com]

[bp3.blogger.com]

panos540

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> I hit a pothole that shredded two tyres on US30 near Plymouth IN a few weeks ago but I have to go with Lake Shore Drive, I didn't know eight lane goat tracks existed before I moved to Chicago.

Halib

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Ha! I slay me with my typo's. Let's go with "regarded" for $200, Alex.

DSLPWR

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> First, I won't try to compare to any of the disastrous roads mentioned above. I will say that the road mentioned below is openly regraded as 4x4 territory. Having driven it, I must concur. No normal sedan would survive.

Take the Parks Highway, Route 3, out of Wasilla, Alaska towards Denali National Park. At Trapper Creek, turn left, towards Petersville. Go about 15 miles out to the roadhouse. Break right, go around the roadhouse and keep heading towards the hills. This begins 4x4 turf. You'll get to a point where it's cliffs on one side and ravines on the other, with washout cuts in the road. Traverse this, and you'll cross Peter's Creek. If you're looking for gold, it's out there.

[www.akmining.com]

DSLPWR

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> The Metropolitan Avenue exit on the BQE. Cost me a tensioner and several other small parts a few years back.

Package

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @SpeedWagon: That was a good road! Did you see the air he got?!

NovaloadMissesPolar

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @mofoturbo: So many to choose from the PA Turnpike has been a monster since its birth. We had to drag along it to visit our family in Ohio and it was always a nightmare.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is a little tough. US 1 heading down to the Keys, used to be 2 lane, gator bedecked, slow tourist etc etc. And it takes forever.

NovaloadMissesPolar

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> No wait! Does Carver,MA high school practice field count?

SpeedWagon

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> New York State Reference Route 908G

Built for cars in the 30's, not for 70MPH SUVs of the 90's...

SpeedWagon

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Comment on What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On? Any road in Costa Rica is pretty bad...and that doesn't include some of the worst drivers on the road. kr

SushmaChamois

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @Tanshanomi: I once followed my grandpa from Pocatello to West Yellowstone on roads that I'm pretty sure only he knows about. The toughest part was that he felt comfortable doing 70-80 MPH, which meant I had to stay at least a 1/2 mile back just so I could see through the dust. There was no way I was going to lose him though - I might still be there if I had.

@zacarious: I drove some pretty awful roads in Costa Rica, but there was one stretch in San Jose we frequented that had more potholes than asphalt. We always timed our runs, with a spotter in the passenger seat to help navigate. Worked great in the Hiace (forward-control FTW!), not so much in the Aerostar. Sometimes the sliding door would get stuck so we'd have to go run it into another pothole to shake it loose again.

Bo Darville

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @A strolling player: Actually wasn't as bad as you were made to think it was, though we didn't go too far north of 30mph because it was still bad. We had an Explorer so we weren't too bad off. It was amusing to see the locals blow by us in pickup trucks that only the Taliban could love.

1300ccsoffury

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> There is a short-cut road in Northern BC between (I think) Clearwater, BC and 100-Mile-House. It is actually promoted heavily on road signs as a great alternate route.

BULLSHIT.

I tried it in the Corrado. I'm sure you've all seen footage of cooled magma, where it looks nice and smooth and appealing, except for the five-inch-wide cracks everywhere? Yes. This road.

The problem is, it's in Northern BC and high in the mountains. Northern BC gets winters of -40C and summers of +40C. In the mountains, you can have 35C during the day, and -5C that night. Roads do not hold up well to that weather. I literally could have taken the 300+ extra kms to go on the "normal" route and arrived at my destination faster.

BeerDearthair

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Vermont roads are infamous for being the most neglected ones in the lower 48. Every state has backroads but even our Main St. drags are a mess. Vermont has a history of this and it goes back to when we refused to raise the drinking age to 21 again and only after years of no federal funding did we finally buckle.

The other major problem is that we have a special way of constructing our roads. Instead of creating a crown shape like every other road in the country, our road is completely flat and at some places, inverted so water has a nice area to collect in.

THEN EVERYTHING FREEZES!

118 between Montgomery Center and Morrisville is general washboard style with some surprise holes but in terms of launching your vehicle at record height of a frost heave, Route 128 on the way to Westford wins. Bonus points for racing suspension.

Barre has the worst Main Street drag out of any town in the country, guaranteed.

skaspy

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Salmon Lake Rd/Whites Lake Rd in Gooderham, Ontario. [maps.google.com]
The all gravel road is one and a half cars wide with short and tall "Rollercoaster" hills. In the winter all the gravel is scraped off by plows.
One hill when approaching from the highway raises about ten feet then drops on a 45 degree angle down for about 100 metres! If you want to take that way back in the winter you have to start accelerating about 600 metres back and get as much speed as possible . If you try and take the hill at the posted speed limit (40km/h) in the winter you'll at best make it half way before you start sliding backwards.
In the summer the roads are lined wit cottages and the City drivers whip around the blind corners causing you to swerve into the bushs or ditch. At least once every weekend a wrecked SUV is getting towed out.

inkedfusion

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @Tanshanomi: I second I-70 in Kansas for its mind-numbing boredom and many patrol cars that limit speeding.
I watched The Long Way Round recently and the Road of Bones in Siberia looks pretty tough to navigate even if you can jump in the back of a 6x6 Kamaz.

joshman

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Rt. 89 from Lake Tahoe to Eureka, CA. Ink-black. didn't see another motorist for hours. the road would suddenly drop off about two feet, without warning.

driving in Napoli IT.

Fjorder

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Mother Russia looks hard to beat!


+ Watch video


smokeydog001

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Detroit.

danio3834

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @smoke~:
Turkey you twit!


smokeydog001

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> If memory serves, Route 15 around Harrisburg, PA is pretty bad for about a 20-30 mile stretch. For a while there, it was the standard #1 winner on the truckers' survey for worst road in America.

Rode on it once when I was younger and it was indeed pretty awful.

Ash78

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @Dr.Danger's got the power:

I love the roads in north Jawgee! Since the hoons took over the Dragon, they are a nice alternative. From my experience, almost any road in any 3rd world country could make a case for worse road. North Africa and Turkee are exceptionally undesirable due to the occasional wandering camel.

smokeydog001

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> The NY State Thruway across the Tappan Zee Bridge from NJ to NY was some of the worst roads I've ever driven on. The whole area was under construction and I was driving a 3/4 ton Silverado pulling a big trailer, at night, in the rain. I still remember how hard the from tires were banging in all the potholes and ruts. Amazingly, people in S-class Benzes were just flying past me like it was nothing.

Uncle Bo, ironically aestheticized

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Any side street in Worcester, MA. I drove an oil truck and had to creep an inch at a time on some roads. Part of it was the truck but I'd hit my head on the ceiling over moderate bumps, even with a seatbelt.

EmperorPalpatine

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> I-10 between Beaumont, TX and Lake Charles, LA. I've driven on gravel roads that were smoother! When you're heading westbound you can tell when you hit the Texas just by the feel of the road.... and the you get to Houston. Great.

TurboBrick

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @acidic - thanks! You brought back memories. I used to drive it when it was first paved - when it was a huge time saver. You could fly on that road... I remember coming around a corner at about 150 kph to find a moose standing in the middle. That'll pucker yer arse.

ChzPlz

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @Tanshanomi: I believe I've driven that road in Idaho with my father. Or another one exactly like it.

ka-CHUNK defines any road in Illinois.

FЯeeMan

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Any road in Durham, NC. I believe this town was paved once about 30 years ago, and they just put up their tools and said "Well, we're done with that! ". The roads in this city totally destroyed a new set of shocks in less that 6 months, and that's driving at 25mph on most roads.

Highway 147 outside of Durham, while mostly pothole-free, uses non-reflective paint, and they place lane markers about 600 feet apart. So if a light rain storm comes through, you can't see any lines on the road---you just have to realign yourself with the next marker and hope that you don't drift much between markers. If the rain is heavy, you can give up. Especially when everyone starts going 40mph because they can't see any lines on the road.

delsydsoftware

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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?

A strolling player

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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.

combat chuck

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

nytmare

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

1300ccsoffury

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]>

Tanshanomi

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Roads in Belgium,on the way to the Nurburgring in Germany,so it was worth it.

layabout

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> The south road back from Hana in Maui, Hawaii. You know, the one the rental companies strictly forbid you to take.

1300ccsoffury

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Any road Caltrans has done any recent work on.

Froggmann

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

loosse

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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]

Jon

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.




selfhatingotaku

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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!

monsterajr

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @staircar: classic - I am sure there are some more "puente en mal estado" horror stories out there.

zacarious

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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.

MeMikeYouNot

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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]

staircar

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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.

Ben Simons

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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...

tbennett017

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

dolo54

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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...

Braff Wayne

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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".

dolo54

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

smsolo1

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

skyln95

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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!"

staircar

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> The Bruckner expressway in the Bronx......If anyone can make a case for having a lifter Defender 90 in NYC, its THIS highway!

Indiana Bento and the lost Temple of Citroens

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

NatefromOgden

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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...

JoSCh

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

Daga

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @Ash78: It is a trap for the tourists.

Dr.Danger, Shogun of Jalopnik

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> As for myself: anything with speed limits.

boosted-lego-wagon

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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....

boosted-lego-wagon

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Any stretch of road with a speed limit and cameras.

Bee1

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

poxpopulus

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> I-24, Nashville, 30 years ago. The entire road through town was like a washboard.

TPSreports

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

mercedesuberalles

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

Al Navarro

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @PeteJayhawk: Meningo-encephalitic malaria, as I recall.

Number_Six

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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.

BLS

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

SundaySunday

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> The road from Baboua, Central African Republic to Garoua Boulai, Cameroon.

What do I win?

PeteJayhawk

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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).


Ash78

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @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

tmkforever

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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. -- Now With More Sodium!

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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...



Number_Six

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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]

tmkforever

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> PA turnpike on the north side of Philly.

That road stinks.

mofoturbo

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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..

Slantsick goes hybrid: Burns Oil and Rubber

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> @TheGuinnessTooth: that's odd... the minus sign next to your name just turned back into a plus sign...

Braff Wayne

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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

zacarious

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

TheGuinnessTooth

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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...

Tanshanomi

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

Dr.Danger, Shogun of Jalopnik

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

workingonyourinvoice

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

combat chuck

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> Also, the main highway in Labrador (Northern Canada) is mainly gravel.

acidic

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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.

acidic

]]> <![CDATA[What's The Worst Road You've Ever Driven On?]]> 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

osnofla

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