Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
For years, the state's 110,300 miles of roads were all in pretty good shape and consistently
were highly rated by travel media. The experts, however, have begun to quibble with this,
ranking WI 31st overall in 2010, the last year for which data were available. (At least we
have good bridges.)
Urban interstates around Milwaukee and, to a lesser extent, Madison can be awful for
road conditions and congestion. In fact, the stretch of I-94 running through Milwaukee is
one of the nation's 10 most congested highways. Having just driven I-43 between Milwau-
kee and Green Bay for this edition, I can honestly say I was embarrassed that any visitor
would be subjected to that thud-thud-thud for two hours. The next-worst roads you'll ex-
perience are Madison's Beltline Highway and I-90 interchange, both of which, along with
Milwaukee's interstates, are inhospitable during rush hours.
Theoretically, the state Department of Transportation is now operating under a 20-year
plan to improve existing multilane highways and expand certain two-lane highways. These
two-laneroadsarecrucial,astheyconstituteonly4percentofthestate'shighwaysbutcarry
42 percent of the traffic. And they have been sorely neglected. Trust me. At least we don't
have any toll roads—yet.
County roads are designated by letters. You can determine in advance the general con-
dition of the road by the letters designating it. The road deteriorates in direct proportion to
the number of letters. Thus, Highway RR will be narrower than Highway R, and possibly
decaying. County roads are generally paved, but don't be surprised if they're not.
Major Routes
I-94 from Chicago and its siblings, I-794 and I-894, carve up Milwaukee and always seem
to be polar opposites: either terrifyingly busy and fast or crawling along maddeningly. I
wish I could give you alternatives, but the U.S. and state highways in and around Milwau-
kee aren't much better. (To head north to Green Bay and Door County, I-43 is in terrible
shape; it's in much better shape running southwest from Milwaukee to the Lake Geneva re-
sort area.) I-94 leads from Milwaukee to Madison, where it joins I-90 also from Chicago,
at which point they lead west toward Minnesota (and traffic is always bad for the first hour
out of Madison). An hour northwest of Madison, I-39/US-51 split from the interstate and
