# Weirdest road you’ve ever been on **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 11, 2024, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098 "2024-09-11T00:07:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/21 "2024-09-11T16:32:59Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > There was nothing there; no buildings, no towns, not even any other cars for miles. That reminded me of the road that bordered the back of my grandparents’ farm. My parents and I drove down it once just to see where it went, and where it went was pretty much nowhere. It passed a couple of farmhouses, then went into the woods, and just ended at a dead end. We expected there would be _something_ at the end of the road – another farmhouse, or someone’s cabin, or the gate to a farmer’s field, but there was nothing there to even really give the road a reason to exist. Looking at Google Maps today, it appears the county has in fact abandoned that last section of the road – you can still see the remnants of a road there, but it looks like it’s no longer maintained beyond the last actual farmhouse on the road. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/22 "2024-09-11T16:49:46Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Looking at Google Maps today, it appears the county has in fact abandoned that last section of the road – you can still see the remnants of a road there, but it looks like it’s no longer maintained beyond the last actual farmhouse on the road. I used to have friends in rural MO who were the last house on such a road. Then there was a ~100’ long one-lane WPA-era steel truss bridge across a creek and ravine then the road continued a few more miles into the bush. A few years after they bought the property and moved in, the bridge fell down in a flood. The county left the bridge wreckage laying in the creek and abandoned the road beyond the bridge. AFAIK the debris is still there about 30 years later. > [@Shoeless](#): > > On the way back home I was looking at a map and saw a road that looked like it might be an interesting drive, so I got off the highway and started to follow it. After about a quarter mile it went from pavement to gravel, and shortly after that just a couple of tracks in the dirt. So I turned around and got back on the highway. > > I took a closer look at the map after I got home. It wasn’t a road after all, it was the Santa Fe Trail! When I lived in Las Vegas back when all maps were paper maps there appeared to be a back road that led across the mountains to the west of the Las Vegas valley. I had a 4x4 at the time so we decided to see how the road was and where it went. Once off the 2-lane blacktop it was gravel for about a mile into the foothills then became a rutted out bulldozer track. Which wasn’t too bad until it abruptly turned uphill to climb at what looked like about a 30 degree angle. And the track was all gullied out since there’s only two kinds of rain in Las Vegas: zero & torrent. Coming down that slope the water is erosive as hell. That was the end of that adventure. Per the map, we’d covered maybe 5% of the distance to the main road on the other side of the mountain ridge, and probably more like 2%. Oh well. Fun and interesting while it lasted. But not nearly as cool as finding the Santa Fe Trail. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2024, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/23 "2024-09-11T17:00:58Z")
There was a road near me that was shown on the map as being drivable through to the next community but I’ve been on that road and I had a hard time even walking to the next community. I always figured it was a copyright trap. More neat than weird I’ve driven over a pontoon bridge and a road that had a small stream running across it. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2024, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/24 "2024-09-11T17:04:36Z")
Lots of screwy streets in MSP. You’ll be driving down a one-way street, come to an intersection, and suddenly realize that the traffic on the other side of the intersection is now one way _coming at you_. I almost had a head-on collision a few months ago because of that. ---
**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:** [September 11, 2024, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/25 "2024-09-11T18:00:32Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > This reminds me of a “road” I tried to drive on once. I worked for a non profit with offices across the state and had to make a trip to an office I had never been to before. On the way back home I was looking at a map and saw a road that looked like it might be an interesting drive, so I got off the highway and started to follow it. After about a quarter mile it went from pavement to gravel, and shortly after that just a couple of tracks in the dirt. So I turned around and got back on the highway. > > I took a closer look at the map after I got home. It wasn’t a road after all, it was the Santa Fe Trail! Love it. I’d have been more inclined to drive it if I’d known it was the Santa Fe Trail. The road I was describing along Lake Ontario was a proper parkway; two lanes each way, and a grassy median. It felt for all the world like a limited-access highway, but maybe that’s just because there was nothing to access. I expect it was built in anticipation of that area being developed to some degree, and then the development just never happened. I’m actually kinda glad I got to see that area before the road falls into disrepair. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2024, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/26 "2024-09-12T02:04:30Z")
Damn, did I make this one 17 years ago?! Anyway, old thread on point here: > [@Most clusterf\*\*\*ed highway interchanges](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-clusterf-ed-highway-interchanges/400568): > > I was driving in Norfolk last year, and got on I-64 with the aim of getting onto 58/560/13 and from there to I-95 south. Things started out well and fine, medium traffic but tons of lanes (they even had an HOV lane, tho this was a weekend), but then I noticed that lanes kept disappearing the further west I traveled (HOV lane vanished too), until it became a standard 2 by 2 highway, complete with horrible traffic jam. While stuck in the pattern (for more than an hour) I wondered about the plan… ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/27 "2024-09-13T19:42:30Z")
I always think of tidal roads as pleasingly weird - the idea that it may or may not be there, depending on the tide. I’m not thinking of a causeway to a sometimes-island here, but a real road by the coast. We’ve driven a couple recently: one in Normandy; and one in Hampshire, opposite the Isle Of Wight. j ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2024, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/28 "2024-09-13T20:01:29Z")
There’s a stretch of road not far from here where people must drive exclusively on the left, which is very unusual here in the U.S. There’s also a stretch of “nine foot road” near here. It has a sign saying that, as if it were the name of the road, but that’s actually a generic term. A nine foot road has a paved lane nine feet wide, and adjacent to it is an unpaved, gravel lane. It’s intended for low traffic locations. If you’re the only car on the road, you drive on the paved lane. If you meet oncoming traffic, each of you drives on the lane on your right (whether that’s the paved lane or the unpaved lane). ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2024, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/29 "2024-09-13T20:12:41Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > A nine foot road has a paved lane nine feet wide, and adjacent to it is an unpaved, gravel lane. It’s intended for low traffic locations. This reminds me of rural roads in NZ, where they have a paved lane down the middle and half a land of gravel on either side. They seemed pretty common on the South Island. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/30 "2024-09-14T21:47:58Z")
Years ago, I drove back east from out west. Somewhere, I really can’t remember, may have been Cleveland, the interstate is 4 lanes wide, heading north straight towards whatever Great Lake that would be. People and huge trucks going 70+ mph. Heavy traffic. First I see the signs, warning of a sharp turn ahead. Then I see flashing lights. More signs, more lights. Then I become aware of the wreckage and debris littering the sides of the road, now hemmed in by concrete walls. It looked like a war zone! I seem to recall it narrowing down to maybe 2 lanes, then taking a _M-F’ing 90 degree right turn!_ 20 foot walls on either side, no way to escape whatever carnage is coming up behind you. This is the major interstate, not some little country road. I was flabbergasted! That place must be an insurance underwriter’s nightmare! ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/31 "2024-09-14T22:32:24Z")
Yeah, I-90’s [Dead Man’s Curve](https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/12/why-its-called-dead-mans-curve-and-whether-the-name-really-fits.html), drove it last week in point of fact. It apparently got better in terms of avoiding the potential carnage in question. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/32 "2024-09-14T23:32:57Z")
I-40 in Winston-Salem used to be sort of like that. The curves weren’t quite 90 degrees like Cleveland’s Dead Man’s Curve, but there were two curves where you were supposed to slow down to like 40-45 mph, with big warning signs as you approached. Including a sign with flashing lights that read “TOO FAST FOR CURVE WHEN FLASHING”. I never saw that sign not flashing. In the 1990s they rerouted I-40 to bypass downtown Winston-Salem and the old routing with the sharp curves was redesignated 40 Business, and now it appears to be US-421. I think they must have done something to fix those curves, like straighten them out a bit or increase the bank, because I can’t find the warning signs on Street View anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/33 "2024-09-15T19:02:42Z")
Yeah, I-40 in W-S. Basically on bridges over the hospital. Seemed convenient. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/34 "2024-09-15T19:28:28Z")
Worse, you have to go around Dead Man’s Curve to go either direction on the Shoreway from there. If you want to go from 90 to the westbound Shoreway, you go around the Curve, then go around a single leaf of a cloverleaf to turn around the other way. So it gets all the traffic. The “street I live on” (i.e., it provides the “street name” part of my address) is nothing but a parking lot. But that’s not the weirdest one. In the family housing area of Montana State University, there’s “Gopher Street”, off of W. Garfield Street. On this map, it looks like a short street perpendicular (as most cross streets are) to Garfield. But switch to photo view, and you’ll see that the “street” is actually wider than it is long. > **[Google Maps](https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ydzk7XGai2wDvbSj6)** > > Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/35 "2024-09-15T20:10:10Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Yeah, I-40 in W-S. Basically on bridges over the hospital. Seemed convenient. Apparently it was nicknamed “Kurfees Curve”, after the mayor of Winston-Salem at the time it was built, because who else but a politician doing favors for his cronies would put in a curve like that? And it looks like my assumption was correct – that curve was straightened in the late 1990s. > **[Kurfees Curve…the true story…](https://northcarolinaroom.wordpress.com/2020/07/07/kurfees-curve-the-true-story/)** > > Kurfees Curve Strikes Again! The Killer Curve! Disaster Over Hawthorne! On A Fast Track! Death Trap! (quote from a local mayor) Drama queen headline writers loved it. It was, they said, the curve t… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/36 "2024-09-15T20:15:07Z")
I’ve wended my way down [Snake Alley.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_Alley_(Burlington,_Iowa)) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/37 "2024-09-15T20:21:47Z")
I remember it being much worse than that. Maybe I’m thinking of somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/38 "2024-09-15T20:40:22Z")
I’ve driven on a highway that went straight through an office building. [Gate Tower Building – Osaka, Japan - Atlas Obscura](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gate-tower-building) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/39 "2024-09-15T21:02:49Z")
OK, I’ve got to wonder… If you work in that building, and your commute takes you down that road, where do you park? Do you go right through your office on the way to the parking garage, and then double back? ---
**Author:** ![MW\_Degen\_Gamblr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ec9cab/32.png) [@MW\_Degen\_Gamblr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MW_Degen_Gamblr)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098/40 "2024-09-15T23:00:34Z")
Any road that has an “uneven” speed limit sign. Like 9, 13, 27 mph. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-road-you-ve-ever-been-on/1007098.md?page=3)