Here are 19 of the most dangerous and complex roads in the world. Several are in Europe. They also call out a couple of complex interchanges in US (LA) and UK.

19 most complex and challenging roads in the world

I've been over the first one mentioned - Col de Turini in France. It was on a bus and half of the bus got car sick! Many of the roads in the SE area of France going into the Alps are similar. I love to drive these roads and the ones mentioned in Norway look very appealing.

Have you been on any of these? Or is there a road you think they should have included?

These make me nervousjust looking at the pictures!

Very fun, Marta. Thanks for posting this.
I'd love to visit every one!

The #6 Road of Death in Bolivia reminds me of some of the roads we drove in Montenegro. Especially the picture of the trucks and busses trying to pass each other.

If you take #10 the tunnel road in China and put railroad tracks down, that is what our trian ride from Belgrade to Podgorica looked like.

Marta, I am simply amazed that anyone would even think about wanting to drive those roads. Mind you, I write as a person who has never owned a car. The number 7 Pico Blvd. bus is as about exciting as I can stand it, but I have lived long enough in LA that I can vicariously lose myself in Maria's love affair with the freeways, in Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays." The passage starts:

"In the first hot month of the fall after the summer she left Carter (the summer Carter left her, the summer Carter stopped living in the house in Beverly Hills), Maria drove the freeway...."

The rest of the passage can be read on googlebooks.

Yrs, Robert

Joan Didion writes rhapsodically about driving, esp in "Play". Like Robert SM, I'd rather read her writing about driving than to be in a car in a network of freeways-unto-themselves. No wonder Marilyn Monroe thought LA was one large varicose vein.

I love Didion's descriptions of driving. I don't particularly like the congestion, etc but a warm evening with a wide open freeway, jazz low on the radio, windows open and just 6 lanes open and clear....

Marta, count me in as another who loves driving these amazing roads. Very cautiously, mind you. But where in the world can you enjoy such amazing views and perspectives?

I'm gobsmacked -- the thought of driving any of those roads is completely daunting!

Great idea for a blog post, thanks Marta!

Sandra

It was quite funny seeing dear old Spaghetti Junction (the interchange near Birmingham at No 8) featured amongst the terrifying vertiginous mountain roads. It looks a little complex from above, but doesn't seem it when you are in it (though it obviously helps to keep in mind where you are going!) and traffic doesn't move very fast.

I can think of worse in the UK now - I'm not very fond of the 'improved' blending of the M3 South with the M25, when you are joining the M25 slip road in the fast lane , and the M25 boy racers in the fast lane have just had enough time to get up some speed......
There are a few places on the M25 where
you need to keep more than the usual amount of wits about you, especially with the increase in left-hand drive huge lorries from mainland Europe who cannot see you.

I bicycled down the "death rode" in Bolivia, good memories. A van did go off the precipice the day before I took my van-ride back, made my return trip a bit jittery.

in about 1990 I was in southern Venezuela. There was a road in the El Milagro ares(not on the map. It had ruts that were so deep that they kept shaving off the center. When I drove them, the surface of the land was over the top of the land cruiser. We were there at the begining of the rainy season and when we got to El Milagro, we had to fly out in a Cessna 206 because the water made all the road impassable. They said it would open up in 3-4 months. We had to send someone back to get the Land Cruiser later. Of course, there were many parts removed off of it by then. But, that is another story

Marta..what a great posting. Incredible routes !
Until I clicked on the link I was ready to nominate any road in the UK

I've driven on I-105 - I-110 interchange in Los Angeles. It's not so bad, really. You just have to watch the signs and make sure you're in the proper lane for where you want to go. The photo looks pretty intimadating though.

The worst interchange I've encountered is the south bound 605 to the east 10 in Los Angeles. Gives me shivers everytime I have to use it.

Tracey

The Moki Dugway in Utah near Monument Valley was an exhilarating ride. Approaching from the west we stopped at the ranger station and were told that they banned semi-trailers due to the danger they created. Naturally there was one following us down the whole 1000 foot drop.

Gave me vertigo just seeing those pics.

Been on the Col de Turini. Beautiful but, yeah, am not eager to repeat...

I once rented a house on the beautiful village of Saint Agnès above Menton on the French border near Italy. The drive from and to town is up there, like the Col: narrow, multiple multiple sharp turns, no barrier. In fact while the Col has 2 lanes, the St Agnès road has only one lane "shared" by both directions and, let me repeat, no barrier.
For the entire week my MIL could never enjoy the breathtaking seaview. Her eyes were closed the whole time. Actually the road is not far from the same road where Grace Kelly scared the hell out of Cary Grant in "To Catch a Thief" (and where she died).

In all fairness, the Saint Agnès road and the Col look like a piece of cake compared to some of the other roads listed…

quote:

The Moki Dugway in Utah near Monument Valley

Too bad that video isn't better quality! I thought of that road immediately when I saw this thread. It should be on the list!