Road Trip Data

All 694 miles of California's coast highway in 3D — real USGS terrain, live NOAA buoys, 118 real towns — seen from a boat at a sunset that never ends.

A city's pull on the interstate ends at 40 miles, almost exactly commuting range. Then for 100 straight miles, distance stops mattering at all. We measured all 19,675 exits.

On the interstates, chains own 55-64% of the lodging. On US 1, US 27 and Highway 1, the independents still hold the road. We counted every place on all six.

Ten interstate exits with almost no services and the best reasons in America to get off the road anyway: a hanging garden, a meteor crater, a ghost town, the Appalachian Trail.

Interstates that traced pre-1956 US highways have full exits. Interstates built on fresh alignment run empty. We classified all the big corridors and the pattern is real.

US-route interstates run 8.7% empty exits, state-route interstates 17.8%, new-terrain roads 22.9%. Reddit commenters found the middle rung and they were right.

Every chain truck stop and public rest area on the interstates. The best-covered corridors, the worst parking deserts, and why the longest one is in urban South Florida.

2,097 of America's 19,675 interstate exits have a Walmart within about a mile of the ramp. We mapped every one: the top states, the best corridors, and what it means for overnight parking.

Someone asked why an exit would exist if no town is nearby. So we lit all 19,675 US interstate exits by how much is actually there. 1 in 7 has almost nothing. 1,156 have nothing at all.

All 41 Buc-ee's at US interstate exits. Texas has 19, twelve other states split the rest, and the longest drive between two of them on one road is 993 miles of I-10.

58% of America's interstate exits have a playground within a mile of the ramp. We mapped all 11,542 of them, for every parent who has ever needed a kid to run in a circle for fifteen minutes.

In-N-Out and Whataburger, America’s two cult burger empires, coexist at exactly 14 interstate exits. Twelve are in Texas. Two are in Nashville. We have the list.

Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. are the same company with the same star logo. Across all 19,675 US interstate exits, the number they share is exactly zero — and the closest they ever get is 48 miles.

McDonald’s is at 6,588 US interstate exits — one in three. We measured how often every other burger and fast-food chain shares an exit with it. Taco Bell: 69%. Burger King: 61%. The legend is real, but the follower isn’t who you think.

A reader asked for the hotel version of the Chain Gap Index. Hyatt Place's longest gap is 536 miles of I-10 — one mile short of Panera's all-time record. Best Western quietly wins the whole thing.

Subway holds 6,286 interstate exits — untouchable. The real fight is below it: Jimmy John’s 1,041 vs Jersey Mike’s 952, a 22–20 state-by-state race. And Blimpie, once 2,000 stores strong, survives at just 45 exits.

We looked at the first few exits past every state line and found each state’s de facto welcome brand. New England is a Dunkin’ curtain, the Ohio Valley belongs to Marathon, and Arizona’s is somehow Cinnabon.

Sheetz holds 365 interstate exits. Wawa holds 276. They share only 21 — and eight of them are on one highway. We mapped the entire front line of America’s pettiest border war.

Waffle House appears at 1,545 US interstate exits. We mapped the exact northernmost one on every highway — the true border of the South — plus the westernmost outpost and the Cracker Barrel constant.

We measured the longest stretches of US interstate with no coffee at any exit. The record: 137 miles of I-40 across the Mojave. Plus the runner-ups and where the coffee chains have left the map empty.

The longest stretch of US interstate with no fuel at any exit is 101 miles of I-70 in Utah. The gas-gap records, the turnpike effect, and the famous last exits before nothing.

Exits with casinos are heavily overrepresented within 8 miles of a state line. Primm, West Wendover, and the geometry of American gambling law, measured exit by exit.

You pass a cemetery roughly every 10 interstate miles. I-40 passes 279. One stretch of I-26 in Tennessee passes 15 in ten miles. We counted them all — because of a kids' road trip game.

We run 23,000 exit guide pages, which means we can see which interstate exits Americans actually search for. The list is led by a Tennessee exit — and its exact twin in North Carolina.

For 20 major chains, the single longest stretch of interstate with zero locations at any exit. KFC’s gap is 505 miles. Panera’s is 537. Eleven of the twenty records are on the same road.

2,356 US interstate exits have nothing to eat, and the longest gap between meals is 104 miles. Data from all 19,675 exits.

Dunkin' controls half of I-95. Starbucks owns I-5. McDonald's runs everything in between. Data from all 19,675 US interstate exits.