Up the valley (which is south, counterintuitively) on I-81 in Virginia is one of my favorite interstate drives, provided the truck traffic isn’t out of hand. Gorgeous country, the Shenandoah. Long slog from NoVa turning off at Roanoke and continuing on into NC via 220, though. Whole lotta nothing along the way, pretty nothing but no place to be low on gas.
Which brings up another question. How much road congestion should be solved by just increasing capacity and how much by separating freight traffic from light vehicle traffic ? Should we be building more dedicated truck routes and getting them off the regular highways ? Not possible in towns, where obviously trucks need to actually deliver their goods, but interstates could be done.
Yes, and I-81 has already turned much of the Valley into a truck nightmare. I hate the thought of more lanes and more traffic. The East Coast congestion is a real problem. More freight needs to move by rail, IMHO. More people too, though I know the automobile supremacists won't see it that way.
I-81 is by far the prettiest driving interstate on the east coast. Well, I can’t speak for whats in NH/VT/ME there may be some nice country there as well, but at least in the south it’s I-81 for scenery.