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From: warren@ihwpt.UUCP (warren montgomery)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Best/Worst roads
Message-ID: <535@ihwpt.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Oct-85 09:30:29 EST
Article-I.D.: ihwpt.535
Posted: Tue Oct 29 09:30:29 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Oct-85 06:49:20 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 37

I could strongly support the Beartooth Highway as a candidate.  It's
spectacular, generally in very good shape, and not very crowded. 
The only problems you have are snow (It's closed except for a couple
months in the summer), and the high altitude, which some cars find
very distasteful.  Since this is supposed to be "in the world", I
could also introduce an Italian candidate known as the Amalfi drive.
This is where they film a lot of car chases for movies set in
southern Europe.  The drive is actually a collection of roads that
wander along the coast of a peninsula just south of Naples.  They
are narrow and winding and wind among large villas with spectacular
gardens, sheer cliffs, and towns with streets built for donkey
carts.  There are spectacular views of the Mediterranean everywhere.
It's not a place for racing, but for staring at the scenery at a
modest pace on an interesting road to drive on, it's hard to beat.

As for worst, they have recently fixed two of my best US candidates.
(Interstate 90, Cleveland to the NY line, which had deteriorated so
badly that traffic was detoured onto local roads in several spots
for years, and the Eisenhower expressway in Chicago, which features
rush hour traffic 24 hours a day and until recently was also falling
apart).  There have been many other fine suggestions, but I think just on
the basis of length, monotony, and consistent rottenness, I would nominate
all of Interstate 80.  This road goes through or near many of the
industrial high spots of the east (Northern NJ, Scranton,
Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Gary Indiana), is constantly crowded with
trucks, and as a result is constantly falling apart.  It goes
through 450 interminable miles of Nebraska, not to mention Iowa,
Wyoming, and the deserts of Nevada and Utah.  It somehow seems to
get through the rockies without ever giving you much of a view of
the mountains.  It goes through areas of the west so bleak that they
made towns and major tourist attractions out of gas stations with a
lot of pumps!  Sure, there are sections that aren't all bad, but for
as a whole it's consistently awful.

-- 

Warren Montgomery,  ihesa!warren