Not gonna name the road for hopefully obvious reasons, but there’s a back road near me that’s named after a town that used to be along it’s side back in the 1910s, before it burned down. It’s a state highway now, and it connects my town to another town about 40 minutes. There are no stores, attractions, businesses, etc on it. There’s an interstate that also connects the two, that only takes 15 minutes. I always take that back road. That stretch of interstate is prone to rock slides, and that’s my excuse, but in reality, I just love that drive. It’s almost entirely state land, forested, a couple really nice meadows. About half of it is paved, half is gravel. I love it so much. I rarely have a reason to go to that other town, but sometimes I just make the drive to make the drive.
Does the interstate that takes 15 minutes actually take 15 minutes? If that interstate is crazy congested, the state highway might actually be faster. Or maybe this is some rural part of America, I don’t know.
That’s how I found it, actually. We were new to the area (and it is rural), and there was a rock slide on the interstate that blocked traffic for a couple days, and I needed to get to a mechanic that was over there. Had to find an alternate route. Never looked back since. Lol.
But yes, unless there’s a rock slide, wreck, or they’ve closed it for construction, it generally takes 15-20 minutes.
I live in the Philly suburbs, our highways are all a bit of a clusterfuck but if I had to choose
I476 (Northeast Extension to the PA turnpike) between about midcounty and Lansdale, maybe Quakertown isn’t usually too bad traffic wise, above that is probably the prettier drive but there is always some mind-breakingly bad traffic and/or construction whenever I go that way.
I76 (Schuylkill Expressway) between the city and Conshohocken is kind of nice if you’re on it at like 3AM when there’s no traffic, some really nice views of Manayunk and Boathouse Row and such, most of the rest of the time it’s a parking lot.
I76 (PA Turnpike) is usually pretty nice further out west when you’re away from major cities
It’s an absolute madhouse of different lanes and is always busy, but the NJ turnpike somehow manages to keep traffic moving better than nearly any other highway I’ve ever driven on.
A lot of the smaller highways further up in the mountains (usually) don’t have too much traffic and are very scenic, but you have to be at least an hour and probably 2 or 3 out of Philly to get the most of that, and at that point I often can’t recommend getting off the highway to interact with the locals.
The U2 metro line. No way in hell would I use the highway parallel to it in rush hour. There are many nicer parking spots than that highway.
Literally any road is preferable to the M6 in the uk
Interstate 97 in Maryland, from Annapolis to Baltimore. It’s almost always running smoothly with a 65mph speed limit. It’s just a no-bullshit fast straight run every day. Scenery is ass but that’s Maryland.
Outer tangenziale (ringroad) around Milan. Lets you avoid a lot of traffic, I always take it when leaving Linate, even if don’t expect traffic.
