Most Dangerous Road You've Ever Ridden

[CoarsegoldKid]

...all roads with ice or snow on them.

[rdsmith3]

Many, many moons ago I was in a band that played a lot of gigs in Rockland county. Almost every Monday, after a long weekend of playing and partying, I would leave my friend's house very early in the morning on a Kawasaki KH1 (2 stroke triple) and head directly to work on Long Island via the Cross Bronx Expressway.

 

Between the unbelievably bad road condition, the traffic, all the cr@p in the road, no shoulders, trucks on top of you, and the tunnel blindness when going from bright sun to non-lit tunnels it was a very puckering experience.

 

It could not have rained for two weeks, but you'd always get something splashed on you on that road. By far and away my least favorite road, but I was always back the next Monday.

 

Any main road in the NYC area is very dangerous, for the reasons noted above. The roads are poorly maintained with lots of potholes and split seams from winter frost and salt. If the cracks get filled, we get tar snakes. If the potholes get filled, it is with the loose cold patch stuff, and they never come back to do a proper job. Plus, it is a very densely populated area, and many of the people driving learned to drive later in life, if they even have a license. Add to that the fact that most drivers have an extreme sense of self-entitlement, to the point that they feel somehow justified in trying to occupy the space that you and your bike are currently in (while talking on the cell phone, of course).

 

Having said that, I am on I-80 in New Jersey almost every day, and I vote that the most dangerous. This summer, within a few miles of my house, I think there has been at least one fatality every month on a relatively straight and wide road.

 

 

[Kitsap]

Just because I'm acrophobic..

 

[Dave McReynolds]

My most dangerous road was part of a trip I took last month. The trip involved riding my motorcycle to the campground at the end of Rock Creek Road out of Tom's Place on 395, just north of Bishop. From there, I hiked across the Sierras and met a friend at 4th Recess Lake, where we camped for the night and swapped keys. He hiked on toward Rock Creek, and I hiked on to Edison Lake. I picked up his motorcycle there and looped back around to the top of Sonora Pass, where we met again and swapped back to our original motorcycles.

 

The unique thing about this trip, other than the road to Edison Lake, is the opportunity to hike completely across the High Sierras in just two days and one night's camp. The High Sierras are that part of the Sierras extending roughly south of Sonora Pass and north of Hwy 178 where there are no through roads. This region contains 11 of the 13 14,000'+ peaks in California. But the road to Edison Lake penetrates far enough into the Sierras from the West, and the Rock Creek road penetrates far enough from the East, that the gap in between is hikable by anyone in moderately good shape in two days, particularly since you can cut several miles off by taking the boat taxi across Edison Lake. I don't know of any other place in the Sierras where I could do that. I'm sure there are other people who could skip across the Sierras in less time in many other places, but not this wine drinking, overweight, post-middle aged man.

 

All of the approach roads are paved, and all are wonderful motorcycle roads, except for the 25 miles from Huntington Lake to Edison Lake. That 25 mile stretch is also paved, if your definition of pavement includes pouring asphalt over the boulders without grading them out of the way, so they stick up 6-8" out of the road in places. It is one lane for the entire 25 miles, with occasional turnouts. There are shear dropoffs of a thousand feet or so with the road carved out of the mountainside in places, and of course those places don't have any turnouts. When two cars meet in one of those places, one of them has to back up. A motorcycle, of course, is expected to squeeze by somehow. The Vermillion Inn at Edison Lake sells Tee shirts similar to the ones you can buy in Maui on the road to Hana, saying "I survived the road to Edison Lake."

 

I don't know if it is really a dangerous road, compared with some of the traffic situations described earlier, which have a greater potential to be deadly. You just have to pay attention and pick your way around the rocks and potholes. But you do tend to say focused. To get to Edison Lake, you might start from Madiera and find your way to Hwy 168 past Shaver Lake and Huntington Lake, then follow the signs.

[LarryM]

I can think of a few.

 

 

Mt. Washington, NH during a thunder and lightning storm.

Coming down off the mountain we got caught in a sudden storm. The road is narrow and some parts are unpaved. Part of one lane washed away leaving a big hole in the road. Miss a turn and off a cliff you go.

 

 

 

The Pulaski Skyway coming out of Jersey City during Friday evening rush hour. Again a thunder and lightning storm and surrounded by a billion insane drivers rushing to get home for the weekend.

 

 

Finally, some unknown road in Kentucky. More turns than The Dragon. Around each curve lurked a monster coal truck with 7' tires taking up both lanes. After about 40 miles we got off, covered with black coal dust.

[questrider]

(or maybe that was an avalanche "tunnel"?)

From Google Images:

 

[dhanson]

Tunnel of Death

 

UNRally VI Pied Piper run.

 

+2 I didn't think the road was that bad after I was finally able to SEE it. I was more impressed by my foolhardyness of driving into the DARK tunnel without even considering flipping my sunvisor up. Brand new helmet and may I say, took me many long seconds to find the flipup lever!!! As soon as I went in I was blind, then on the GMRS I hear OH SHIT from first bike (I was 6th), talk about instant adrenaline flow and full PUCKER!

 

Road was offset in middle, slimy, dripping water from overhead the tunnel and slanted off camber. Rear slipping, so much data coming into my brain at once, still gives me a shiver up my spine. Great fun after we got out tho!

[Laura]

Having said that, I am on I-80 in New Jersey almost every day, and I vote that the most dangerous. This summer, within a few miles of my house, I think there has been at least one fatality every month on a relatively straight and wide road.

 

You know what, I'll vote with you on that. The strip between Parsippany and Rockaway is a death strip. I had travelled route 80 on the bikes ever since I learned to ride and felt comfortable with the road but I spent the last 15 years living off exit 42. The amount of fatal accidents in that 15 years was horrendous and had me thinking 3X before travelling that strip on the bikes. Coming from West I used to bug out early onto route 10 or route 46 to go east.

 

 

[Bill_Walker]

Any road on which I'm following Howard.

[pbbeck]

The 405, N or S, doesn't matter. Any day, any time. LA drivers are beyond bad.

[Bob Menton]

Deal's Gap on a weekend. Squids get behind you, see you're on a BMW, and have to pass - after all, you're on a 'slow' Beemer. And coming the other way, many need to cross the double yellow into your lane to avoid running off the road. Scary. Much nicer during the week.

 

- Bob

[Paul Mihalka]

Deal's Gap on a weekend. Squids get behind you, see you're on a BMW, and have to pass - after all, you're on a 'slow' Beemer. And coming the other way, many need to cross the double yellow into your lane to avoid running off the road. Scary. Much nicer during the week.

 

- Bob

 

+1 How are you, Bob? Welcome to this group of riding guys and gals. You'll like it here.

[Bob Menton]

Hi Paul

 

Nice to hear from you. You ever get to the Greenville, SC area, stop in at Touring Sport BMW. I drink their free coffee there - frequently! Take care.

 

- Bob

[roadhome]

Deal's gap was a lot safer (and more fun) before it was glamorized. Oh well, even the best kept secrets....

 

FREE COFFEE!!?? That's worth the ride by itself! Touring Sport sports a great reputation to those I've asked about it, never had anything done there though.

[Green RT]

This isn't a fair response to the original question, but I will post it anyway. The most dangerous road I have been on is a track road through triple canopy jungle from the Angel's wing in Vietnam into Cambodia. This was during Nixon's invasion of Cambodia in 1970. I was driving an APC (Armored Personnel Carrier). The jungle was so thick you could not see into it on either side. The brush was right up against the APC on both sides. We knew what might be in the brush. We knew the road might be mined. Probably similar but different roads in every war.

 

Will

[BeamieToo]

Most dangerous was an unforgettable ride years ago in 1974 heading southbound in the rain on the Westside Hwy in Manhattan, NY.

 

Bike- a naked Honda CB750

 

Gear- Denim (soaked) jacket, Bell helmet with a blue bubble low viz fogged up faceshield, converse canvas sneakers.

 

Impression- Large, bumps, potholes, wet polished Belgian cobbelstones, maniacs in cages all around that seemed to be playing kill the stupid kid on the motorcycle.

 

LIVE and learn !!!!

[Lone_RT_rider]

I-275 in the Western Burbs of Detroit from 6:30 AM until 7 AM in prime commuting time. I rode that stretch on my R1100RT for 4 years from 2000 to 2004. I have heard that over 1 million cars per day go up and down that stretch of highway. I think only about 999,995 of them are genuinely out to get you.

 

Shawn