Interstates safer than "Blue Highways?"TRIP UPDATE

[GizmosMom]

We are now retired and I have our summer trip to Colorado planned. We share the driving.

I want to travel the back roads and blue highways. I want to take our time. The Interstates make me nervous and they are boring.

DH wants to travel the Interstates as much as possible because he feels they are safer. He doesn't like to have to slow down and stop for traffic lights in small towns when he drives. Feels that blue highways are more prone to head-on collisions.

What do you think?

[Bumpyroad]

what exactly did you consider to be "bad" about trucks passing you on the interstates? when in my RV on IS highways I most always just cruised along in the right lane at 55-60 mph and yep, lots of vehicles passed me.
bumpy

[GizmosMom]

Trip Update:
Just returned from 3 week trip to Colorado. We found that the trucks using Interstates 20 and 40 drove us crazy. We wanted to drive at the slower speeds and they (of course) kept passing us. So we opted for the secondary highways and were very happy.

YES! We saw much more than on the Interstates. Of course we had to drive slower but were in no hurry to get home.

Thanks again to everyone who posted!

[ppine]

I think interstates are very safe, but not that interesting. Blue highways and turkey trails are very interesting, but can be challenging driving pulling a load. Some of the roads in Colorado in particular have giant drop offs and no guard rails. There can be hail and sleet even in summer. There is plenty of OTR truck traffic. Some of the roads are narrow. It takes a lot of focus to drive on those roads, especially if you are not used to them. Plan on fewer miles per day than usual.

[paulj]

Clearance is more likely to an issue on non-freeway roads, especially in 'older' parts of the country. Modern RVs are wider and taller than most trucks in the pre-interstate years.

I've seen questions about railway underpass clearance on US20 in upstate New York. I've even seen that kind of question for a town in west Texas.

So if your rig is big, and you want to travel off the main-grid, you want to invest in some sort of trucker's atlas or clearance database.

[jnharley]

People drive crazy on all sorts of roads not just interstates. And the problems we encounter on secondary roads are places to pull off to take a bathroom break. You occasionally find rest areas on U.S routes. State and county roads are even worse. And we have to worry about low hanging trees on some of the local roads.

[Roy_Lynne]

Personally, I am with you. I love the backroads and byways. I love driving thru little towns and stopping at quaint restaurants. We drove cross country two summers a go and on the way we were in a hurry so we did the interstates but on the way back we stayed off of them and enjoyed each day. I love rural American

[paulj]

On Verizon's Coverage Map, most of the white space is in the Western mountains - and deserts of Nevada. Idaho has the largest white space - and the largest contiguous Wilderness areas (where RVs can't drive).

In Washington state you will get better coverage on I90 where it crosses the Cascades, than on US2 or US12 (or WA20 or 410).

Cell coverage, especially the new digital, is line of sight. Older analog systems (1G) used high power (and maybe different frequencies), and could cover larger areas with fewer towers. But carriers were allowed to abandon those in 2008.

[john_bet]

2gypsies wrote:

2oldman wrote:


The problem with many is that there is no phone service, and passing can be a challenge for those behind you.

Nowadays there are cell towers all over the place. Phone service can be had.

Not really. I can drive down a state road in my area and within 5 miles of a tower and loose signal and a call is dropped.

[4runnerguy]

On my first trip to the east coast, I used interstates for 20 miles of my nearly 3000 mile trip from Denver to Rhode Island (the long way). Saw so much more that way.

We use the interstate to get from point A to point B in some cases, but often our trips are on interstate for 10% to 20% of our trip.

No cell service??? Heck, we have to drive 15 miles from our cabin to get a signal. Our teenage nieces know that will happen and don't mind a bit, as there's so much more to do in the wilds than post and text.

[2gypsies1]

Well, guess we're the exception. We traveled secondary roads 90% of our time and boondocked 20 miles off a paved highway and got Verizon service. There are many ways of boosting your signal.

When we began full-timing we didn't even have a cell phone or internet. Somehow we got by even traveling across Saskatchewan Canada and having a spring break on our travel trailer at the time. Got it done by two teens jerry-rigging it until we got to a small town for a quick repair. They didn't even want to charge us but naturally, they got a nice tip. 🙂 Amazing how folks along the secondary roads are much nicer than the interstates where they're in a hurry.

[vermilye]

While I depend pretty heavily on finding internet service (I post daily to a journal of my trips & maintain a RV related website, as well as keep up with many RV & photography forums) if I decided where to drive depending on cell service I would have skipped most of the best parts of the US & Canada.

While the interstates and most US highways have cell service, you will find far more interesting scenery, attractions, and people by getting out into the "back country" on county roads.

[stevenicol]

GizmosMom wrote:
We are now retired and I have our summer trip to Colorado planned. We share the driving.

I want to travel the back roads and blue highways. I want to take our time. The Interstates make me nervous and they are boring.

What do you think?

Interstates are statistically safer, but as Benjamin Disraeli said, "There are three kinds of lies, lies, dirty lies, and statistics." He said this before Mark Twain. Driving on the freeway is for speed, nothing else: except maybe I70 between Denver and Grand Junction.

We lived in Colorado for 11 years, and the "Blue Highways" in that state are epic! You will not be sorry if you explore the Colorado Blue Highways, 285, 34, and 40 are all easy, and non-boring drives; it's okay for tourists to drive slow.

[2oldman]

Atlee wrote:
There were places in the great southwest USA where our service was problematic.

Eastern NV is problematic. I think many folks are leery of travelling in sparsely populated areas with no phone service in case of trouble.

[Atlee]

There are places where cell service is not available.I was just up on the mountain west of Stuart, VA near Meadows of Dan. While I had some service, the other guys in our party who had something other than Verizon did not have service.

There were places in the great southwest USA where our service was problematic.

Bumpyroad wrote:

2gypsies wrote:

2oldman wrote:


The problem with many is that there is no phone service, and passing can be a challenge for those behind you.

Nowadays there are cell towers all over the place. Phone service can be had.

not available at my house. and the quality of coverage varies greatly dependent upon location.
bumpy