# Scariest road you've ever driven on? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051 "2010-01-07T18:46:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/101 "2010-01-11T17:18:19Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > What’s with the tire marks in the first diamond? Gravel roads cause spinouts? We have a similar graphic in the UK - I always take it to mean “the road ahead will cause your wheels to switch sides”. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/102 "2010-01-11T17:21:57Z")
Driving over Hoover Dam from Arizona heading to Las Vegas. Lombard Street in San Francisco. Driving on the 510 in the Labrador Straits, a certain stretch of the road was uphill, it was nighttime and foggy, and I don’t think there was a guardrail on the side of the road. Not counting bad precipitation, I think this is the most scared I was of falling off the side of a road. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/103 "2010-01-11T18:03:17Z")
The road going up to the Clay Butte fire tower, in the Beartooth mountains in Montana. No, on second thought, it was the road going down from the Clay Butte fire tower. A close second, the M5/E65 from Bitola to Ohrid, Macedonia. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/104 "2010-01-13T09:20:28Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > What’s with the tire marks in the first diamond? Gravel roads cause spinouts? It means slippery surface, or loose gravel, which may cause you to skid. It’s one of the NZ signs shown in the Road Code and supplanted the text version which said the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/105 "2010-01-15T21:58:14Z")
Scariest “paved” highway- The Million Dollar Highway between Silverton and Ouray in western Colorado. It is called the “Million Dollar” Highway because back in the '30s when it was built, normally it cost maybe $1,000 per mile to built a mile of highway. But this one in the area of 13,000 feet in elevation cost a cool million a mile to put into the mountains. It is a two-lane highway with cutbacks, switchbacks and cliffs that flat-landers should not even consider. Since it is a federal highway, technically it is open year-round. But trust me, in reality, it isn’t. Every year some idiots are killed on it independent of those caught in the lower reaches in avalanches. More are injured (or killed) when pushed off the highway because some trucker’s jake breaks have gone out on him. That doesn’t even count the people who simply can handle the highway. Scariest “unpaved” road - Black Bear Pass going into Teluride from the south. At least it used to be the scariest. Now that Teluride has become gentrified, it may be mildly passable. I used to give guided jeep trips around the area and it was a bit unsettling to see pieces of jeeps at the base of Black Bear (at around 12,500 feet). There was one part if you took it, you had to have a large group of people hanging off the passenger’s side to counter balance the slope of the track. You are doing this while looking straight down thousands of feet. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/106 "2010-01-15T22:09:53Z")
> [@TV\_time](#): > > Scariest “paved” highway- The Million Dollar Highway between Silverton and Ouray in western Colorado. It is called the “Million Dollar” Highway because back in the '30s when it was built, normally it cost maybe $1,000 per mile to built a mile of highway. But this one in the area of 13,000 feet in elevation cost a cool million a mile to put into the mountains. It is a two-lane highway with cutbacks, switchbacks and cliffs that flat-landers should not even consider. Since it is a federal highway, technically it is open year-round. But trust me, in reality, it isn’t. Every year some idiots are killed on it independent of those caught in the lower reaches in avalanches. More are injured (or killed) when pushed off the highway because some trucker’s jake breaks have gone out on him. That doesn’t even count the people who simply can handle the highway. > > Scariest “unpaved” road - Black Bear Pass going into Teluride from the south. At least it used to be the scariest. Now that Teluride has become gentrified, it may be mildly passable. I used to give guided jeep trips around the area and it was a bit unsettling to see pieces of jeeps at the base of Black Bear (at around 12,500 feet). There was one part if you took it, you had to have a large group of people hanging off the passenger’s side to counter balance the slope of the track. You are doing this while looking straight down thousands of feet. I’d never heard of the Million Dollar Highway so I mapped it on Google maps… then went into street view. I’m not a tenth of a mile down the route out of Silverton and I can see what you mean. Beautiful… but maybe not for the faint of heart. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/107 "2010-01-15T22:20:45Z")
Reading this, all I can think of is “The Long, Long Trailer” in which Lucy and Desi drive a monstrous huge motor home across country, with variable adventures, until they reach the Rockies…:eek: ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/108 "2010-01-15T22:21:53Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > A few years ago I was in California and had the occasion to drive several times between San Jose and Berkeley. I’m not sure which road I took – presumably either I-880 or US 101 – but it has stood out in my memory ever since as a particularly scary road for someone not familiar with the area. Although it was an extremely busy road with frequent on- and off-ramps, I guess it somehow got designated as “rural”, as the speed limit was 65 mph… and _everyone_ was going _at least_ 75. OK, fine, but the big problem was… if you wanted to just poke along at 67 or 68 in the right hand lane, _you couldn’t,_ because the right hand lane was constantly becoming an exit-only lane. I spent the whole time with people zooming up behind me, sitting on my ass, and then swerving madly around me as soon as a spot opened up in the solid lines of cars on either side. I hated being a traffic hazard, but I just couldn’t bring myself to drive over 70 in a rental car on an unfamiliar road in heavy traffic with my wife and kid in the car. I don’t normally get scared by freeway driving, but that was a real sweaty-palm experience. > > Your stories? From your description, that sounds more like you took 880 -\> Mission Street-\> 680 -\> 580. If you took 101, you would remember going over the Bay Bridge, into a notorious section of interchanges known locally as “The Maze”. If you took 880 into West Berkeley, you would have passed through the maze in a different pattern, without crossing the bay. I used to travel all that routinely. Not scary at all. But where I live now is truly rural. Took me a long time to get comfortable driving he perfectly straight 2 lane highways, with no shoulders and orchard trees parked right up against eh sides of the road, or where tehre ore field crops, ditches along the side of the roads. Night is worse - no lights. Head on collisions at 55-80 miles an hour - now that is scary! Now add fog that can occur any time and anywhere reducing visibility to the end of your arm, don’t you feel better now? Bonus **not\_alice** trivia: My drivers ed behind the wheel teacher was the guy lampooned in the movie Borat. I was telling stories about that guy for decades before the movie came out. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/109 "2010-01-15T22:27:18Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > I have had a similar pants-shitting fear while driving on 580 to San Francisco. I’m used to it now, though. > > I used to live in very rural Tulare county, CA. Central Valley, right between Bakersfield and Fresno. Tulare is famous for [Tule fog](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_fog). It’s a very thick seasonal fog. There is an approximately 5-mile access road between the highway and the small town in which I lived. It was a 2-lane road with absolutely NO overhead lights, except at the 2 stop-sign intersections. I used to work 3 nights per week until 12:30 in the morning. There is nothing scarier than that road in Tule fog at 1 AM. It’s a 50 MPH speed limit, and I’d have to go 15-20. Mornings after, there would always be a few dead critters on the road, though I never hit any. > > Joe Hey ex-neighbor. Looks like we traded places. Have you heard that now we have 11 year old kids getting driving lessons from uncles on the way home from soccer practice? Driving lessons that don’t include the import of stop signs, I might add? ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/110 "2010-01-15T22:30:01Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Yes, I think I’ll seriously avoid that. Yikes! > > Hogsback Ridge looks scary too. I’ll probably also avoid the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam as well. I drove the Hoover Dam AZ-\> NV this summer, turtles were leaving me in the dust. Couldn’t even really see anything anyway from the driver’s seat. The security on the road was pretty scary though. But there seems to be a new skyway off the dam under construction thanks to DHS, that might be impressive when done. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/111 "2010-01-15T22:32:16Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Oh hell no. I got maybe 30 feet out on the Golden Gate and had to turn back. The Mass Ave bridge kind of freaks me out too. How many smoots did you make it out on that bridge? ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/112 "2010-01-15T22:39:14Z")
> [@typhoon](#): > > The Oatman Highway outside of Oatman, Arizona. I think it’s one of the more notorious segments of Old 66 (such that it was bypassed even before the route was decommissioned, making it Old, Old 66), two lanes of winding and twisting and climbing and falling. I took the drive at night, and there’s basically no lights out there until the end of it when you start coming up toward Kingman. > > Parts of California Highway 1 are pretty nutty, too. I took it from Cambria or so up to the Golden Gate (also at night, also two lanes). This segment is mostly twisting mountain road, seemingly always climbing, flanked by the Pacific on the left. Rarely enough straightaway to get much speed, and often not much visibility around the turns. Of course, the locals raced through it like madmen. I forgot about that one! I lost the road in Oatman once, intending to drive Rt 66 as far as possible into CA (moving cross country). some other car was in front of me kicking up dust. I couldn’t tell if that car was 30 feet in front of me or 5 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/113 "2010-01-15T22:55:00Z")
> [@not\_alice](#): > > How many smoots did you make it out on that bridge? Go to Google and type “convert 30 feet to smoots” into the search box. Seriously. I don’t think the new bridge near Hoover Dam is purely for Homeland Security reasons. The traffic horrendous and it’s the primary route between Phoenix and Las Vegas. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/114 "2010-01-15T22:59:54Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Go to Google and type “convert 30 feet to smoots” into the search box. > > Seriously. > > I don’t think the new bridge near Hoover Dam is purely for Homeland Security reasons. The traffic horrendous and it’s the primary route between Phoenix and Las Vegas. No, it is DHS. That there is a bridge at all is probably a compromise, I am sure DHS would prefer everyone detour around the Grand Canyon. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051/115 "2010-01-16T04:08:29Z")
Diving from the coast to Cilaos on Reunion Island - 400 loops in the road. Here is a [small sample](http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cilaos&sll=-25.335448,135.745076&sspn=39.500978,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Cilaos,+Saint+Pierre,+Reunion&ll=-21.185942,55.451614&spn=0.005052,0.009645&t=h&z=17) via Google Maps. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-road-youve-ever-driven-on/524051.md?page=5)