Return to alavigne.net home

I've ranked roads based on four criteria that I have defined. They are:

Twistiness: The amount and "tightness" of the curves on the road. a "1" is completely straight; a "10" is an abundance of super-tight 15 mph essess, hairpins, switchbacks, etc. A "6" is what most normal people would consider a curvy road.

Road Quality: The condition of the road surface. A "10" is a nice, wide, completely smooth road surface, with perfect signage and paint. A "1" is barely above gravel, full of potholes and patches, etc. A "5" is reasonably acceptable pavement.

Traffic: A busy road usually means no fun on the twisties. The more [slow] traffic there is on a road, the worse the score. A "1" means endless hordes of slow moving cars, SUVs, and motorhomes. A "10" means you might be un-lucky if you see four cars in an hour.

Scenic Impact: Although not really a factor for twisty road driving, this is still an attribute of a road's niceness. Completely jaw-dropping scenery gets you a "10" on this scale.

I generate two score values from the above criteria:

Fun-to-drive is a measure of how enjoyable a road is to drive from a purely motorsports perspective. This measure ignores scenery and places a heavier weight on twistiness and traffic. (The specific formula I use is: (twistiness * 1.7 + surface quality * 0.5 + traffic * 0.8) / 3)

Overall Score is a measure of the road taking into account scenery, and more heavily weighting the smoothness of the road. (The specific formula I use is: (twistiness * 0.95 + surface quality * 1.15 + traffic * 0.95 + scenic * 0.95) / 4)


[ Introduction & Day 1 | Day 2 - Journeying South | Day 3 - Exploring West Virginia | Day 4 - Dragon's Tooth and Yet More Twisties | Day 5 - Final Twisties and Drive Home | Related Presentation: The Dragon's Tooth Hike | Ranked Summary of Twisty Roads | PA-549 | PA-144 | WV-72 | WV-20 | WV-16 & VA-16 | VA-311 | WV-39 & VA-39 | US-250 | US-33 | PA-125 | Road Rankings Explained ]


Send feedback or leave comments (note: comments in message board below are separate from those in above message board)
send feedback | homemade custom message board
(1 message)
(last message posted on Mon. Dec. 22, 11:11 EST 2008 by [anonymous poster])
Web Page & Design Copyright 2001-2024 by Andrew Lavigne. (Privacy Policy)