# What's the longest road in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770 "2002-08-27T13:42:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/1 "2002-08-27T13:42:49Z")
The longest road I know of in the U.S. is Interstate 10, which stretches from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. Is this the longest road on Earth? I can imagine a road that goes from Western Europe all the way into Russian Asia, which would probably be longer, but I don’t know that such a road exists. I also realize this may be a hard concept to pin down, because some roads may change names, countries and surfaces many times while still following the same right-of-way. Still, I’d love to read any surmise y’all have. ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/2 "2002-08-27T13:45:51Z")
The longest STREET in the world is Yonge street which stretches from The waterfront in downtown Toronto, Canada, and going all of the way to Manitoba (or thereabouts), the distance being approx. 1800kms. These numbers may be slightly off… I’m not sure if that answers part of your question. But it is one continuous street. 😃 ---
**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:** [August 27, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/3 "2002-08-27T14:01:30Z")
I’d say the [Pan-American Highway](http://www.lonelyplanet.com/theme/roadtrips/road_panamerican.htm) is a good candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/4 "2002-08-27T14:13:39Z")
The Stuart highway must be pretty long, Darwin to Adelaide. Can’t find an exact figure, but it’s got to be 1500 miles. ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/5 "2002-08-27T14:22:39Z")
Those are good candidates except that they are not one specific road, rather a collection of attached routes which I think would violate the spirit of the question. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/6 "2002-08-27T14:25:08Z")
And **CuriousCanuck** , what is the difference between a “street” and a “road?” I’m not aware of one. ---
**Author:** ![Wooglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@Wooglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wooglin)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/7 "2002-08-27T14:26:25Z")
i´ll tell you what the longest road on earth is, the road to hell. and it starts in my house, baby. ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/8 "2002-08-27T14:27:09Z")
OK… you have me there. I’m not sure off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/9 "2002-08-27T14:38:17Z")
What makes a road a single road as opposed to several connected roads? If it is the name it is pretty easy to just name a the road from Lisbon to Vladivostok the Listok road. ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/10 "2002-08-27T16:17:07Z")
Without specific clarification as to what constitutes a road for the sake of the OP, I’ll offer this. According to [Guinness World Records](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/), the longest motorable road is the Pan-American Highway. It stretches from Fairbanks, Alaska to Brasilia, Brazil. It measures out to be 15,000 miles, or 24,140 km. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/11 "2002-08-27T16:58:25Z")
Around here, roads will sometimes “jog.” Typical example: as you drive south on Orchard Lake Rd, you run into Grand River Ave, where Orchard Lake appears to end. Maybe a quarter-mile east, however, Orchard Lake picks up again and continues on south. I’d assume that this violates the spirtit of the OP since, when you get right down to it, they’re really two different roads with the same name. As to what constitutes a single road, I offer the following: 1. Name changes are irrelevant, since the same road can change names as it enters different municipalities (around here, many roads change names when they cross the county line). 2. Surface is irrelevant; who cares if it starts out as cement and then turns into blacktop later? Likewise, it doesn’t matter if it’s a dirt road, as long as motor vehicles can use the road. (I’m assuming that we’re not talking about foot paths or cattle trails.) 3. Intersections & Continuity: It’s OK if the road curves, but if you come to an intersection, there must be a direct path through the intersection. No jogging or other discontinuities are permitted. How’s that for a definition? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/12 "2002-08-27T17:10:18Z")
The Trans-Canada Highway (~7000 km) is a good contender… I thought there was a gap in the Panamerican Highway in Panama? I’ve always thought the idea of Yonge Street starting in Toronto and going all the way to Rainy River was inaccurate. True, _Highway 11_ starts out as Yonge Street and goes to Rainy River, but Yonge Street itself was only laid out as far as Holland Landing north of Toronto. People along Yonge Street north of Toronto, in such places as Richmond Hill and Aurora, number their houses in a continuous sequence that starts at the lake in Toronto: there are addresses like 17967 Yonge Street, Aurora. This numbering sequence, and the name, does not extend to all the places that Highway 11 does. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/13 "2002-08-27T19:12:07Z")
\>\> Intersections & Continuity: It’s OK if the road curves, but if you come to an intersection, there must be a direct path through the intersection. No jogging or other discontinuities are permitted. Not clear enough. What’s a “jog”? What happens when a road just goes into a town and you have to wend your way around? Imagine I am going west on a road. I come to an intersection and have to go south for a while and then at another intersection west again. Can I say I am on the same road? I cannot see any way to have a clear-cut definition. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/14 "2002-08-27T19:27:35Z")
I have a traffic circle (or rotary or roundabout) that you can just keep on going around and never find the end. ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/15 "2002-08-27T19:37:44Z")
Well if we want to count any route at all, what aboutthe path that Voyager has taken out of the solar system… that would win if we are talking about “routes” and not 1 continuous street like Yonge in Toronto. ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/16 "2002-08-27T19:45:53Z")
Well if we want to count any route at all, what aboutthe path that Voyager has taken out of the solar system… that would win if we are talking about “routes” and not 1 continuous street like Yonge in Toronto. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/17 "2002-08-27T19:48:40Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Sunspace \* > \*\* I thought there was a gap in the Panamerican Highway in Panama?_\* Yes, the “Darien Gap” is about 54 miles, from Yaziva, the end of the road in eastern Panama, to western Colombia. There have, however, been several expeditions that got vehicles through the Gap, the first in 1959-60. The Bristish Trans-America Expedition of 1972, led by Major John Blashford-Snell, went all the way from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego by land. They chopped temporary routes through the Darien gap, winching the vehicles across bad spots, and rafted across the Atrato Swamp in Colombia. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/18 "2002-08-27T19:52:13Z")
[The Hundred Days of Darien](http://www.4wdonline.com/LandRover/RR1/Darien.html) ---
**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:** [August 27, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/19 "2002-08-27T20:18:52Z")
Sunspace: > [@](#): > > The Trans-Canada Highway (~7000 km) is a good contender… I thought there was a gap in the Panamerican Highway in Panama? There is, but I think the Deadhorse (AK) to the beginning of the gap in Panama stretch is longer than the unbroken portion of the Trans-Canada highway, from Vancouver to whatever the terminus is at Prince Edward Island where it becomes a water route to continue in Nova Scotia. Chaim Mattis Keller ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770/20 "2002-08-27T20:25:59Z")
Also, isn’t I-90 the longest road in the US? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-road-in-the-world/125770.md?page=2)