What is the most impressive motorway you've driven on?

[wdw35]

Some of us may like coastal motorways... or it may be tunnel-viaduct-tunnel for some... then for some it may be crazy urban motorways... or yet 10-lane suburban sweet hilly freeways.

What is the most impressive (for you) *motorway* you've driven on - and why? If you want to create a top 3 motorways you like - even better!
Note: you must have driven on it to qualify!

[wyqtor]

Struma, of course ... Oh wait, I didn't drive on it yet . Sure feels like I did though, with all the discussions and picture analyses...

Now for the serious answer:

1. Brenner Motorway, Innsbruck - Bolzano: fantastic scenery and lots of tunnels, as well as the Europabrucke.
2. A1 Croatia, Zagreb - Split: the climb from Zadar to Sv.Rok Tunnel is something that I haven't seen anywhere else, the Maslenica and Krka bridges are also impressive.
3. Genova - Nice, for the nice median with mediterranean flowers.
4. Belluno - Treviso, for the nice big viaduct.
5. Napoli - Salerno (and perhaps further south)
6. Finally the A4 Mestre - Milano, impressive for its 2x3 (or more) lanes all the way and those Autogrills (Italian top rest area restaurant company) suspended over it.

[urbanfan89]

In no particular order:

Highway 1 through Banff Park. Scenery is gorgeous.

Highway 5 between Kamloops and Hope. The Alpine road engineering is impressive. You feel surreal zooming through remote mountains.

Some of the viaducts around Napoli...that's quite the view.

The tollway between Longyan and Xiamen in Fujian province, China. They built viaducts straight through lush valleys. It's an environmental crime, but beautiful for drivers.

[Timon91]

I can't think of a whole list of motorways, but I think the most beautiful motorway for me is the Brenner motorway.

[Robosteve]

I would have to say the N2 freeway in Cape Town, between its eastern terminus in Somerset West and Cape Town CBD. This one morning while on holiday in Cape Town, my dad and I were running late (due to me oversleeping) for meeting someone in the CBD. We were staying in Gordon's Bay at the time, so I said I would drive. Got onto the N2, which has a speed limit of 120 km/h until about Mowbray and then 80 km/h the rest of the way in, and maintained a good 140 km/h for most of the route. We ended up getting there early.

Anyway, what makes this freeway so great is the view of Table Mountain as you're driving towards the city. Of course, you'll get that on any of Cape Town's freeways, but something about the N2 strikes me as different. I think it's the way the innermost section (Eastern Boulevard) kind of snakes its way through the inner eastern suburbs, whereas the innermost section of the N1 was built on reclaimed land, and the innermost section of the M3 follows the contours along the base of the mountain, so they aren't as interesting.

[ChrisZwolle]

Tricky choice. I think mountain motorways do it for me

1. A75 Clermont-Ferrand - Béziers (France)
2. A2 Luzern - Bellinzona (Switzerland)
3. B-20 Barcelona (Spain)

[seawastate]

There are two Interstates which I would nominate.

1) Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon
image hosted on flickr


2) Interstate 90 through the Cascade Mountains
image hosted on flickr

image hosted on flickr

[Mateusz]

I really liked Antwerpen ring road

[Radish2]

The Struma motorway and the motorway Slovenian border - Ljubliana had the best asphalt. It´s aobut which was the most impressive motorway, not which landscape next to the motroway was most impressive.

[LT1550]

Until now it must be:

I-80 between San Francisco and Sacramento
TF-1/5 on Tenerife island
GC-1 on Gran Canaria island

...when we talk about motorways. But I have driven on much more impressive highways which are not motorways.

[Timon91]

Yeah, me too. The most beautiful roads I've driven on:
1. Richardson Hwy, AK, USA
2. Parks Hwy, AK, USA
3. Glenn Hwy, AK, USA
4. All roads I've driven on my way to Glacier, MT, USA
5. US 395 Spokane-Canada, WA, USA

[Ron2K]

Originally Posted by Robosteve

I would have to say the N2 freeway in Cape Town, between its eastern terminus in Somerset West and Cape Town CBD. This one morning while on holiday in Cape Town, my dad and I were running late (due to me oversleeping) for meeting someone in the CBD. We were staying in Gordon's Bay at the time, so I said I would drive. Got onto the N2, which has a speed limit of 120 km/h until about Mowbray and then 80 km/h the rest of the way in, and maintained a good 140 km/h for most of the route. We ended up getting there early.

Anyway, what makes this freeway so great is the view of Table Mountain as you're driving towards the city. Of course, you'll get that on any of Cape Town's freeways, but something about the N2 strikes me as different. I think it's the way the innermost section (Eastern Boulevard) kind of snakes its way through the inner eastern suburbs, whereas the innermost section of the N1 was built on reclaimed land, and the innermost section of the M3 follows the contours along the base of the mountain, so they aren't as interesting.

Definitely agree there.

My list, apart from the above, would be:

• The N1 between Paarl and Worcester - you head through the Huguenot Tunnel, come out on the other side, and you're in a narrow river valley surrounded on all sides by mountains.
• The N1 through the Soutpansberg mountains north of Louis Trichardt, for very similar reasons.
• The short double-decker section of the M1 in Johannesburg.
• A short 5km section of N2 immediately to the west of the Storms River Bridge - cuts through a natural forest, it's like driving through a green tunnel.
• Outside of South Africa, I found some sections of the Sydney-Newcastle freeway very spectacular.

Not all of the above are freeways though, but were definitely worth mentioning.

[Ni3lS]

1. A40 France: Near Nantua, it's gorgeous!
2. E60 Switzerland: Near St. Gallen, also beautiful
3. E35 Switzerland: Near Lugano.
4. E80 Italy: Genova Ring.
5. E25 Belgium: Liegé, nice ring road. Sad of the huge traffic jams during the summerholidays.

[Verso]

Originally Posted by Ni3lS

1. A40 France: Near Nantua, it's gorgeous!

Agree! Surprisingly, I only noticed it when I drove there for the second time.

Originally Posted by Radish2

The Struma motorway and the motorway Slovenian border - Ljubliana had the best asphalt.

Slovenian border with which country, Croatia? A2 Zagreb - Ljubljana?

As for the smoothest pavement; by far the smoothest asphalt I've driven on (don't know, if it's still so smooth) was on the 'new' 8-lane Italian motorway A4 Bergamo - Milano, but not entire length; maybe also just in one direction, I don't remember.

[Radish2]

Originally Posted by Verso

Agree! Surprisingly, I only noticed it when I drove there for the second time.

Slovenian border with which country, Croatia? A2 Zagreb - Ljubljana?

As for the smoothest pavement; by far the smoothest asphalt I've driven on (don't know, if it's still so smooth) was on the 'new' 8-lane Italian motorway A4 Bergamo - Milano, but not entire length; maybe also just in one direction, I don't remember.

Ofcourse Croatian border, extremly smooth continuous asphalt with no bumps for lots of kilometers.

[x-type]

italian A10, although i know there are nicer motorways in the world. it is great because of intensity of objects, but road itself is not impressiv that much.
smoothest roads are so subjective. as the smoothest one i remember A9 in France between Narbonne and Perpignan, but is was years ago. who knows would it impress me now again.

[RipleyLV]

Italian A22 is the most impressive motorway I've ever driven on.

[DanielFigFoz]

STRUMA!

Really, the Portuguese A23.

[wdw35]

Originally Posted by Radish2

The Struma motorway and the motorway Slovenian border - Ljubliana had the best asphalt. It´s aobut which was the most impressive motorway, not which landscape next to the motroway was most impressive.

Radii, that should be the topic of another thread, I guess - the motorway which you appreciate most from a quality point of view; and smooth asphalt is only a small part of the quality of a motorway... or it may not be at all - I love concrete motorways much more than asphalt ones.

My thought when starting this thread was that the enjoyability of driving on a motorway is the result of many factors, not only motorway quality (or, why not, lack of quality: maybe some of us find it more "interesting"/"challenging" to drive on non-conform motorways than on boring smooth motorways ), but its surroundings, its traffic levels and many others - even subjective happenings one may have had when driving there (after all, it's, obviously, a subjective answer that all of us are giving to this question).

[ChrisZwolle]

The Dutch A4 from Leiden to Amsterdam is also interesting, first you drive on a very old alignment stretch with 4 lanes without a shoulder, then it suddenly widens to a full-scale 10 lane freeway... really cool transition.