Keep in mind that while the US loves its highways, many "roads" in rural areas are dirt or gravel tracks. Here's a drone shot of Hartnet Cathedral Rd in Utah:
It's all carved up for farming. This was the norm in my home state (Iowa). They're all gravel roads mind you, so not ideal driving if you don't live there. You kick up dust the whole way.
Roads are all fine, I just want them to be gravel or dirt ;). While we're dreaming that is.
I grew up in rural California and dirt roads were quite common not far out of town, it's a different way of driving and one that'll make you wonder why you aren't using a mountain bike, if you aren't hauling a bunch of kids or gear.
This all said I am beyond biased, I escaped the bay area to London at least partially because I don't want driving to be a part of my daily life. But I understand opinions vary and people back home love their cars and TV ;)
Oh right, i was adjusting my language for an international audience. We call them dirt roads mostly here, I think on account of them being mostly dirt, though they often do contain gravel. Up north some of the dirt roads are so thick with dust you need to leave a few minutes between car / road train so the dust settles enough to see.
But yeah, I have been sent on 'roads' that are just a little more than overgrown goat tracks, or across private land.
TBH I would try a lot of these roads even if I didn't use google.
One point of clarification - I as a motorcyclist love rural roads. They make for fantastic, low stress rides. As a bonus in my area, they tend to include a lot of curves, which are lots of fun on a motorcycle.
Huge chunks of the midwest are a paved checkerboard of roads spaced at 1 mile intervals. Many of these get 3-5 cars passing a day, if that. There is no need for a lot of these to be paved, as they serve as field access roads. The houses off these roads are farm houses, and most of the farmers I know don't mind either way if it's a gravel or paved road. Some actually prefer gravel, as in the winter, when it is icy, the gravel can provide better traction, and the county doesn't do a good job plowing.
I live in a rural area where gravel and dirt roads outnumber paved roads by an easy 100 to 1. The issue with these roads is that they change with the season, the weather, the stage that farmers are at and the health of the county road department. Those nuances are known to locals but cannot be expected to be known by gps. I travel gravel and dirt daily by paying attention to butte landmarks, the location of the sun, certain farms and barns but most importantly, local gossip. I recall Los Angeles friends visiting and exclaiming "oh my gawd how in the world do you drive these roads -- no signage, no businesses, no gps?" I said all you have to do is look and listen very well and I can drive roads here I have never been on. Look ma..no gps..just eyes and ears.
On the one hand, it does have character and gives the place a certain "look." OTOH, people don't necessarily slow down, so the road gets rutted. Badly! And then you're forced to drive at a snail's pace because of the massive holes. And that sucks because unlike the visitors who are out for a pleasant country drive, you live here and have to get someplace on time. Sure, the road is graded weekly, but until then, you're dodging potholes.
And then there's the dust. Every vehicle has a coat of dust, inside and out and it gets everywhere
The road leading to mine was recently paved over the most heavily traveled section. Night and day difference. In winter, the snow and ice melts much faster, it's far quieter to drive on and you can drive at a reasonable speed. I happily pay the extra county tax in exchange for it.
It's much easier to appreciate the dirt roads when you're a tourist. Having grown up on a dirt road in New England, I can say that I'd much rather it were paved.
Building new, faster roads in rural areas would be outrageously expensive per capita and would rarely be used, there is no economy to justify the expenditure. There are 2.2 million kilometers of unpaved road in the US. Even for the paved rural roads, many of them are relatively low-speed or circuitous because it is cheaper to go around myriad engineering obstacles than through them. It is difficult to justify tunneling 20 kilometers through a mountain range with a high-speed road so that 100 people can shave an hour off getting to the other side of that mountain range where there might be a fast highway.
Helicopters and similar have problems of limited range and operating ceiling, which are particularly relevant in the western US, in addition to requiring safe landing areas that may not be readily available. It is a challenging problem to solve, the US is quite large and many areas where people live are rugged and remote.
Is it sad? Perhaps there's a middle ground between Manifest Destiny and no infrastructure at all. Iowa has recognized that its infrastructure costs far exceeded it's tax revenue, and with a dwindling population, it no longer made sense to continue to maintain roads that were acceptable as gravel [1].
A sibling post mentions "giving up on rural America". I think we need to continue to find ways to keep quality of life high as progress marches forward; run fiber to rural America, but gravel roads aren't too much of a sacrifice (as long as we keep the interstates maintained through rural areas).
It appears in a lot of cases, a gravel road is just as good as a paved road [2].
"The decision to pave is a matter of trade-offs. Paving helps to seal the surface from rainfall, and thus protects the base and subgrade material. It eliminates dust problems, has high user acceptance because of increased smoothness, and can accommodate many types of vehicles such as tractor-trailers that do not operate as effectively on unsurfaced roads.
In spite of the benefits of paved roads, well-maintained gravel roads are an effective alternative. In fact, some local agencies are reverting to gravel roads. Gravel roads have the advantage of lower construction and sometimes lower maintenance costs. They may be easier to maintain, requiring less equipment and possibly lower operator skill levels. Potholes can be patched more effectively. Gravel roads generate lower speeds than paved surfaces. Another advantage of the unpaved road is its forgiveness of external forces. For example, today vehicles with gross weights of 100,000 pounds or more operate on Kentucky’s local roads. Such vehicles would damage a lightly paved road so as to require resealing, or even reconstruction. The damage on a gravel road would be much easier and less
expensive to correct.
There is nothing wrong with a good gravel road. Properly
maintained, a gravel road can serve general traffic adequately
for many years."
https://maps.app.goo.gl/FWp3tzVhwBs7r6bt6
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