Ever since we figured out how to carve a road through or around a mountain we have tried to create the best ways to get to the other side of something in order to enjoy what is out there. Spurned by discovery and a desire to find something new, better, more interesting or just different the desire to reach a new destination by carving a path has been part of the makeup of human beings since the dawn of man. Driving on roads that are made for safety can be a dangerous task each day, but I offer you ten of the most dangerous roads in the world that are meant to test your driving abilities and provide you some thrills.
Karakoram Highway – China to Pakistan
This road cuts through the Himalayas, the tallest mountain range in the world to give us the road that is the highest paved international roadway in the entire world. This road runs through the Uyghur region and into northwest China to norther Pakistan to give a road that can be very difficult to travel on especially when the winters are harsh.
Fairy Meadows Road – Pakistan
This road is so hazardous it has to be closed during the winter and offers no guardrails or even pavement. As a mostly dirt road this road is carved along one the ninth highest mountain in the world, Nanga Parbat and reaches from the village of Tato in Pakistan to the Gilgit-Baltistan region in Kashmir. The elevation change is 8,000 feet and a part of the road can only be traveled on by foot or bicycle.
Road of Death – Yungas, Bolivia
This road is considered to be the most dangerous road in the world as it descends 11,800 feet in only forty miles. This narrow dirt track is the only road that connects the rain forest to the capitol in Bolivia requiring this road to be traveled even though there are hundreds of deaths each year from vehicles that fall down the cliff to the jagged rocks.
James Dalton Highway – Alaska, USA
This is a unique road with several areas that have been named for their danger by the truckers who use it. Better used during the winter than the summer this road is a dirt track that runs along the Trans-Alaskan pipeline. The summer months turn the road into a quagmire of mud and floods and with harsh winds and temperatures there is high chance of trouble at any part of the road.
Passage of the Gois – Ile de Noirmoutier, France
This is a very unique road indeed. It’s actually a paved sandbar and the only road that connects the Ile de Noirmoutier to the coast of France. This road is normally under four meters of water but is passable 1 ½ hours before and 1 ½ hour after the lowest tide. Covered in seaweed and slippery this is a road to be very cautious on.
Commonwealth Avenue – Quezon City, Philippines
This road appears to be just another multi-lane highway (ten to be exact) as it weaves through the city, but instead this highway has no actual traffic laws associated with it to make the daily drive of many drivers a close to death experience. Pedestrians often wander into traffic and during the rainy season this road turns into a river that becomes unpassable and extremely dangerous.
Highway 1 – Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan
Overaggressive drivers and a road that winds up nearly 2,000 feet above sea level into the mountains has caused this to be a very dangerous path to travel. There are so many deaths from crashes on this road the toll has stopped being tallied as this road takes so many lives each and every year.
BR-116 – Brazil
It’s bad enough this road runs along steep cliffs at some points which can have a driver plummeting to their doom, but this road has other problems as well. Running 2,725 miles along the coast of Brazil, this road is mostly driven by truck drivers who have a reputation of driving drunk, or under the influence of other drugs. If that’s not enough carjackings are normal occurrences on this road which leads to the crooked traffic cops who don’t enforce much at all.
Taroko Gorge Road – Taiwan
This is a one lane road that is used in both directions. Add to that the possibilities of landslides, falling rocks, sudden fog, torrential downpours, crumbling cliff faces and earthquakes and you can easily see how this dangerous game of chicken can go wrong very quickly, but if you can pass it safely you can see the beautiful nation al parks of Taiwan.
Strada degli Eroi – Verona and Vicenza, Italy
Even though you can’t drive on this road, because motorized traffic became forbidden in the 1980s after a string if deadly crashes, there are tour buses that take tourist up the road in the summertime to enjoy the amazing views. It is popular with backpackers and hikers and is certainly high in the mountains where many backpackers have gotten lost in the mist that covers the road.
Any one of these ten roads could easily take your life if you aren’t careful. Even though daily driving presents its own version of danger, especially in highly populated areas, these ten increase that danger by an enormous factor in order to be some of the most dangerous roads in the entire world that would certainly test your skills if you attempted to drive on any of these roads.
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