… for what it’s worth…
Worldwide…
https://wanderwisdom.com/road-trips/10-Most-Dangerous-Roads-in-the-World
1 Like
I can verify 3 of those roads… I4 is always a mess, everyone seems to think I95 is the speed limit and Flagstaff to Phoenix is a top speed challenge road!
I can’t agree with I10, though. Maybe its gotten worse but my time on it was OK.
Is it the roads or the drivers on the road?? 
Cause I would think that the Tail Of The Dragon would be a pretty dangerous Road,
29 deaths on the 11 mile section of roadway known as “The Dragon”. 28 of these deaths were on motorcycles.
My 1st cousin rides very fast Sportbikes on it, or used to anyway, had a very bad wreck a few years ago on it…
1 Like
I have to think that it’s the drivers.
The only road on that list with which I am familiar is I-78, and I don’t think that it’s worse than other Interstate highways that I have driven on. In fact, I much prefer driving on I-78, rather than I-80, which also runs through NJ. But, as to why the people who drive on I-78 would be more dangerous than the ones on I-80, I have no idea.
1 Like
I’m surprised US-175, Dallas to Jacksonville, TX, is on there. It’s a rural 2/4 lane, nothing unusual as far as traffic or road conditions. Odd.
I always thought cars and roads caused deaths. (Sarc). You mean it’s drivers? Interesting that there don’t seem to be a lot of northern icy deaths. On the other hand statistics can be tricky. One burning church van or bus, can get that road on the list.
Around here, they just got done installing 20 miles of cable restraining system along I95. It has some hills but basically straight road. It had one of the highest incidence rates of people crossing the median and colliding with traffic going the other way. The reason given was people were lulled into complacency due to the lack of any curves…
… and yet, despite it being a mostly straight road, the incidence of head-on collisions was so high that new (presumably stronger) barriers had to be installed.
That seems like more evidence of driver error, and not something related to a badly-designed road.
Just today, I would have had one of my front fenders torn off if if I hadn’t reacted very rapidly to a guy in the left lane who decided that it was time to suddenly move to the right lane–without signaling, of course. NY plates, naturally…
And, the latest serious accident on I-78 was clearly caused by driver error:
A more meaningful comparison for I10 would be to divide it into 4 or 5 sections, each confined to the same area of the country. A coast to coast freeway, not really comparable to the others in the list. I’ve always thought of I15 as being a little less safe than other western freeways, like I80. I wonder what the results would be if they take into account the number of vehicles on the road, rather than just deaths per mile?
1 Like
I’ve said that several times about I-95 in Maryland, especially during the early rush hour.
Is it limited access? If not, crossing traffic can be a big problem, especially if through traffic on US-175 are driving over the speed limit.
1 Like
Hey now. Especially being originally from NY, half the drivers I’m cussing out on the roads are from New Jersey. Y’all are some of the worst! (Present company excluded, I’m sure 
)
I was wondering that too and did a quick “spin” the road on Google maps. And I only “cruise-surfed” a couple of miles, so I’m sure there’s plenty of variation along that whole stretch. But what I saw 5 lanes - 2 in each direction with a center turn lane. (My brother calls those “suicide lanes”). And it was not limited access, and in addition to crossing traffic, a lot of driveways.
So then the question becomes how heavy traffic volumes are. Those stats are basically standardized by something like vehicle mile traveled. So a lightly traveled road (comparatively speaking to main interstates or whatever) will basically have a small denominator and it won’t take too much to pop the stats high.
US-15 from Frederick, MD to PA is mixed, with some limited access and some intersections with no traffic lights.
Exactly what I was trying to point out. Curves tend to help with keeping the operator alert versus being lulled to sleep. Curves have the issue of people exceeding their, or their vehicle, capability. Not much can go wrong in the design of a straight road
The expressway already had the V median that is quite wide. Those work best when the angle of approach is sharp. When people fall asleep, they tend to drift off the road and can ride through the base of the V and up the other side.
So they installed the tensioned cable barriers due to the significant distances involved. There were cars wrapped up in those practically the day they were put up. I understand it, yet… I do not understand it… 
I’m just happy there is another layer of protection against the lane challenged.
I just had that driving experience and not wanting to repeat that again soon. Drove down to DC area (Gaithersburg) from Philly and back the same day for a business meeting. Trip down was normal but the other side was absolutely packed. Came back during evening rush hour and there was nothing about rush involved. It was like a parking lot from the DC area all the way to Baltimore. What an excruciating commute…made Boston look like a cake walk…
I’ve driven it many times. If you do 15 to the south toward NOVA (e.g. Leesburg) it eventually passes not too far from me in central VA. It’s one of my normal routes if I’m headed “back home” to upstate NY (picking up I81 around Harrisburg). The road is so diverse that I don’t recall the full details of that stretch. But the route from Frederick until, approximately, Dillsburg PA, I think is lots of limited access. And even where there are crossroads, there is still a big median and very few driveways, if any. But I’ve never taken notes.
The bits of US-175 I visited via google maps reminded me of rt 460 from Petersburg VA to the Suffolk VA area. I take that when I go to the beach. Very mellow road, but maybe similar to 175. 4 lanes, no median, the occasional town (down from 55/60 to 45/35mpg) and plenty of driveways. But it’s mellow enough that it never seemed like a high incident area.
It’s no different than 100s of miles of other roads in Texas. So not particularly safe, but not particularly unsafe. That’s why I’m surprised it’s on the list.
It is the drivers on the roads and the roads. It is also the amount of traffic, but I’m not sure which category that falls in to.
If the amount of traffic doubles, basically the chances of going across the median and hitting another vehicle is now four times higher.
What I saw in Florida were lots of highways with very steep drop offs on the right sides. Then a small area of grass and then heavy trees and big metal road sign posts without any energy absorbers but with decorations at the bottoms of nearly each one to remember someone who had been killed.
If it’s not a divided highway then head on collisions can happen. That’s the most deadly type of accident.
You have to remember that these statistics are based on deaths per mile of road, which is proportional to the amount that the road is used or the amount of traffic. Double the traffic and you double the deaths per mile, while the danger of driving on it remains the same.
When I encounter a car stopped–dead–in the left lane of US Route-1, waiting to make a left turn while sitting next to a “no left turn” sign, 100% of the time the car has NY plates. When I come up on a car moseying along under the speed limit in the left lane of I-78 or the NJ Turnpike, I estimate that ~80% of them have NY plates, with the remainder having PA plates.
While I’m sure that my observations don’t include you, the bottom line is that this is what I observe on a regular basis.
1 Like
Thank you for the feed back but it was more of a rhetorical question…
It is the drivers not the roads, if the drivers did there job correctly according to the roads and condition of the roads then there would basically be no wrecks… Over built city’s, states etc is the reason the roads are over crowded by drivers, and not the roads fault, it is the peoples fault for not adjusting the roads accordingly (widening them, new better roads, or better yet STOP over building)…
I can take you to some very hilly and curvy dangerous roads where drivers fly down them, but they are not over crowded and have very few wrecks…
Look at The Dragon, 318 curves in a 11 miles stretch of road and a lot of those curves you can check your own brake lights (lol) on…
The wrecks are from riders trying to beat a time, if you drive the road in the very boring way it was intended to be driven you will enjoy a very beautiful scenic view, but the ones that are there for the crazy tight curves and push themselves and their mode of transportation beyond both of their capability’s are the ones that end up hurt or worse…
No more than Pikes Peak road wrecks and or kills drivers, it is the drivers driving beyond the vehicles and their own capabilities that causes the wrecks…
4 Likes