I70 thru Indy - AVOID

[captdaddy]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Drove through Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee one to four weeks ago. The interstates in Indiana are all in pretty bad shape. I-80 is in slightly better shape than I-70, but still not great. East / west in Kentucky on interstates is sightly better than anything in Indiana. Tennessee is a better bet than Kentucky. Oddly enough others seem to have caught on to this and the traffic is pretty intense on the better roads.... In Ohio, the I-80 / I-70 thing is.a bit of a toss up, they both have bad sections. Then there's Pennsylvania ... the land of unpaved interstates (and lots of traffic)

Bob

We are on our 5th Airstream in 33 years of streaming from coast to coast and this past summer we decided to stay exclusively on US highways except where we no option,then we resorted to state roads,which were for the most part nice, last resort was I-whatever .... 4200 miles from Texas to NM, Oklahoma, Kansas Missouri Illinois Indiana Michigan Ohio and back to Texas. Part of our desire was to travel the roads like we did when we were kids with our parents and part was a desire to get off the speedway.....it was wonderful and relaxing plus a lot better roads and less traffic, especially the semi truck racers, and honestly awe made better time. Not much of America can be seen from the interstate! A lot of cute little towns and fuel was 10-15% cheaper than the station on interstate. Try it , you’ll love it

[sajohnson]

Originally Posted by captdaddy

We are on our 5th Airstream in 33 years of streaming from coast to coast and this past summer we decided to stay exclusively on US highways except where we no option,then we resorted to state roads,which were for the most part nice, last resort was I-whatever .... 4200 miles from Texas to NM, Oklahoma, Kansas Missouri Illinois Indiana Michigan Ohio and back to Texas. Part of our desire was to travel the roads like we did when we were kids with our parents and part was a desire to get off the speedway.....it was wonderful and relaxing plus a lot better roads and less traffic, especially the semi truck racers, and honestly awe made better time. Not much of America can be seen from the interstate! A lot of cute little towns and fuel was 10-15% cheaper than the station on interstate. Try it , you’ll love it

Didn't you mean to say it was a horrible experience -- stay on the Interstates?

Call someplace paradise...

I agree. We often try to do the same, esp west of the Mississippi. In the East (particularly closer too the coast) there are often a lot more small towns and more homes along the highways. The roads are also narrower on average. Nothing wrong with any of that, but it means lower average speeds than on the US/state highways out West. Often that won't matter. Just something to consider. Still the only way to really see the countryside.

An exception to what I said above: In our area, we can take either US 40 or I-70 between Frederick and Hagerstown. We often take US 40 because it's more scenic, there are no towns in between, and only two stop lights. The speed limit is 50 the entire way. So even if a person is just concerned with getting from A>B, the time difference is minimal over that short of a stretch.

A note on Interstates in general (and something that most people here realize) -- the further you get from cities, the lower the population density, the better behaved people are. They generally stay close to the speed limit and keep right except to pass. It is much less stressful to drive on Interstates in rural areas (but often not as scenic).

[sajohnson]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Drove through Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee one to four weeks ago. The interstates in Indiana are all in pretty bad shape. I-80 is in slightly better shape than I-70, but still not great. East / west in Kentucky on interstates is sightly better than anything in Indiana. Tennessee is a better bet than Kentucky. Oddly enough others seem to have caught on to this and the traffic is pretty intense on the better roads.... In Ohio, the I-80 / I-70 thing is.a bit of a toss up, they both have bad sections. Then there's Pennsylvania ... the land of unpaved interstates (and lots of traffic)

Bob

Thanks Bob, that's good to know.

In the past, when family members have traveled between here (MD) and Northern IL, Iowa, (and points west), the most popular route was "the toll road" -- I-76, I-80, and I-80/90. Now that has become very expensive, and as you said, I-80 isn't much better than I-70. So a rational person might ask, what are we paying the exorbitant tolls for (on top of the fuel tax)?!

I-70 has always been a close second option to avoid the traffic around Chicago, and tolls in PA; Ohio; IN; and IL. Now that I-70 is in such bad shape, the question becomes:

What is a good alternative to I-70/I-74 and/or I-76, I-80, and I-80/90?

In our case, dropping further south than I-70 doesn't make sense -- not for people coming from Iowa to MD.

In my post above I mentioned:

From I-70 north of Richmond, IN: take exit 149, US 35 north; to IN 38 west; to IN 32 west; to I-74.

Anyone familiar with those roads -- Indiana 38 and 32?

[Muriel 1]

I will be leaving JC next Wednesday heading to Denver.
I-70 rocked my teeth this spring heading that way.
I’m thinking I-75 south thru Cincinnati
to I-71 to Louisville and west.
Anybody take that route?
Tom

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by sajohnson

Thanks Bob, that's good to know.

In the past, when family members have traveled between here (MD) and Northern IL, Iowa, (and points west), the most popular route was "the toll road" -- I-76, I-80, and I-80/90. Now that has become very expensive, and as you said, I-80 isn't much better than I-70. So a rational person might ask, what are we paying the exorbitant tolls for (on top of the fuel tax)?!

I-70 has always been a close second option to avoid the traffic around Chicago, and tolls in PA; Ohio; IN; and IL. Now that I-70 is in such bad shape, the question becomes:

What is a good alternative to I-70/I-74 and/or I-76, I-80, and I-80/90?

In our case, dropping further south than I-70 doesn't make sense -- not for people coming from Iowa to MD.

In my post above I mentioned:

From I-70 north of Richmond, IN: take exit 149, US 35 north; to IN 38 west; to IN 32 west; to I-74.

Anyone familiar with those roads -- Indiana 38 and 32?

Hi

Good old US route 30 is the "traditional" route west from the MD area. It goes through a *lot* of small towns and thus a lot of stop and go traffic.

Smaller roads in Indiana? ... our standing joke has always been "Welcome to Indiana, pavement ends". That's been true for as long as we've been driving out there ( like since the 1950's ...).

====

We did the I-75 thing into Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago ... not in very good shape and there has always been a lot of traffic on I-75.

====

Why does all this happen? Indeed politics is generally not a good thing to get into on a forum like this. One could point fingers and cite examples, I don't think that's a good idea. I'll just leave it at "people like low taxes more than fixed up roads". Money gets moved from road repairs to pay for other things. Are those other things more worth doing? ... now you're right into a political debate. Having that debate here ... not my intent. I'm only pointing out that in pretty much every state in the union, that's the way the deal has been done. It doesn't much matter who's running what, that's the way the money has been moved around.

Bob

[sajohnson]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Good old US route 30 is the "traditional" route west from the MD area. It goes through a *lot* of small towns and thus a lot of stop and go traffic.

Smaller roads in Indiana? ... our standing joke has always been "Welcome to Indiana, pavement ends". That's been true for as long as we've been driving out there ( like since the 1950's ...).

====

We did the I-75 thing into Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago ... not in very good shape and there has always been a lot of traffic on I-75.

====

Why does all this happen? Indeed politics is generally not a good thing to get into on a forum like this. One could point fingers and cite examples, I don't think that's a good idea. I'll just leave it at "people like low taxes more than fixed up roads". Money gets moved from road repairs to pay for other things. Are those other things more worth doing? ... now you're right into a political debate. Having that debate here ... not my intent. I'm only pointing out that in pretty much every state in the union, that's the way the deal has been done. It doesn't much matter who's running what, that's the way the money has been moved around.

Bob

Thanks Bob.

I'm familiar with US 30 of course. Some sections of that highway are nice -- either limited access or 2 lanes each way with at-grade intersections.

As you said though, US 30 does go thru a lot of towns in this part of the country. I recall one trip to Iowa about 35 years ago when I took US 250 from Wheeling NW to Wooster and picked up 30 west there. That is about the shortest distance -- even less than the toll roads IIRC -- but relatively slow.

I do not recall the portion of US 30 south of Chicago being to bad back then, but now that part of the highway is a nightmare -- one long strip of stop light after stop light. I'd rather avoid all that. At some point the rough Interstates start to look pretty good!

I'm still considering the route I mentioned earlier -- From I-70 north of Richmond, IN: take exit 149, US 35 north; to IN 38 west; to IN 32 west; to I-74.

Are you familiar with those roads -- Indiana 38 and 32?

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by sajohnson

Thanks Bob.

I'm familiar with US 30 of course. Some sections of that highway are nice -- either limited access or 2 lanes each way with at-grade intersections.

As you said though, US 30 does go thru a lot of towns in this part of the country. I recall one trip to Iowa about 35 years ago when I took US 250 from Wheeling NW to Wooster and picked up 30 west there. That is about the shortest distance -- even less than the toll roads IIRC -- but relatively slow.

I do not recall the portion of US 30 south of Chicago being to bad back then, but now that part of the highway is a nightmare -- one long strip of stop light after stop light. I'd rather avoid all that. At some point the rough Interstates start to look pretty good!

I'm still considering the route I mentioned earlier -- From I-70 north of Richmond, IN: take exit 149, US 35 north; to IN 38 west; to IN 32 west; to I-74.

Are you familiar with those roads -- Indiana 38 and 32?

Hi

Familiar with 32 and 38, sure, I've driven them many times. Small-ish country roads. Do I have useful information about them? Well .... last time I drove them was in ...errr ... 1974 ...

Sorry about that

Bob

[sajohnson]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Familiar with 32 and 38, sure, I've driven them many times. Small-ish country roads. Do I have useful information about them? Well .... last time I drove them was in ...errr ... 1974 ...

Sorry about that

Bob

No problem, thanks for the reply!