Say I want to hike through the country, but for whatever reason, fear of bears, I wanted to stick to more traveled roads. So growing up on the east coast, US Route 1 which goes from Fort Kent, Maine near the Canadian border, down to Key West, Florida becomes an appealing idea instead.
At 2,377 miles, at an easy 20 miles a day, I can do it in four months. Say budget, while not unlimited, is not so poor so that I can stay in motels along the way where available, can such a travel be done in relative safety?
You could probably stay fairly safe by going through those areas only during the daylight hours. If you are entering a city and it is nightfall, stop at a motel for the night.
Are you allowed to journey off US 1 temporarily to seek shelter/food/etc., or are you limited to services that are immediately adjacent to the road? E.g. if there is a decent motel two blocks east of US 1, are you allowed to go there as long as you re-enter US 1 at the same point that you left it?
You could probably make your journey easier and/or safer by allowing yourself to take detours here and there as long as your route stays primarily on US 1. For example, when passing DC, you could opt to veer off US 1 and travel to the Tenleytown and Georgetown neighborhoods, cross the Potomac river at Rosslyn, walk past Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon to Reagan Airport, then get back on US 1 there. Those neighborhoods are fairly safe.
The few hundred miles of it that I am familiar with range from rural four-lane to urban major thoroughfares. There are rural areas with shoulders to walk on, and usually sidewalks in the urban and suburban areas. I can’t think of a 20 mile stretch between Philadelphia and Richmond that doesn’t have a cheap old motel on it.
In many areas Rt1 is overlaid on the interstate. For about 10 miles in Maine it runs on I-295, it runs across Boston on I-93, im sure these aren’t the only areas where Rt 1 is a section of interstate.
In my mind (and this would be something done in a very distant future so I know things can change), traveling off the route for some part of it to spend the night is ok, but ideally the whole thing would be covered, so no skipping bits.
Having grown up in Maine and NH, and then having driven a big chunk of it in Florida, it always seem obtainable, but I guess it’s those bits in the middle that make it maybe not so. That said, it’s better to complete it with minor detours than get shot or run over so I’m open to all ideas.
There are many long stretches of freeway, where pedestrians are prohibited – like the 50 mile section between Raleigh and Sanford NC. There would also be a lot of sections much more than a day’s walk in which there are no public accommodations, and you’d have to camp out near the highway for the night. There is a 42 mile gap between motels between Weston and Princeton, Maine,
In cases where route 1 is now part of a freeway, there might be an “Old Route 1” of the original highway. I doubt the freeways were built over the same path because Route 1 was the major road and I doubt it would have been torn up for the freeway. Of course the original route might not be labeled “old Route 1” and be hard to find, but I have seen such markers on some routes.
I think this would both be boring and unsafe. Instead I suggest backroads going through small towns and selecting lots of interesting historic and recreational sites along the way to visit.
First thing would be research - maps (modern and historic), google earth etc. Then I would want to drive it; preferably with someone to take notes. Then plan the walk.
There are several large bridges in the state of Connecticut where US-1 twins up (briefly) with I-95 as well. Some of them have pedestrian access (I’m thinking particularly of the bridge between Groton & New London), but I doubt that all of them do.