Poll of the Day > Today I drove up the steepest street in the continental US.

(+) Yeah! (+)

The only qualifications are that its a paved road and its actually in use. This street qualifies. I've seen a few steeper listed, such as one in wales, new zealand, and hawaii, so continuous US gives it some sort of record.

37% grade over 6.4meters(21ft), we're talking about Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA.

Pittsburgh is a city of hills, possibly the hilliest in America. If you enter the city via the Fort Pitt Tunnel, you cannot see the city until you enter the tunnel and then its like a couple football fields away when you exit.

Anyways, I've been here before, but I never drove up it before until today. Things to note: many of the streets in this area to the south of Pittsburgh are like this. steep, often two way with parked cars but only room for one to go through at a time, and even at the top of this hill, a set of one of the 700+ city steps. the kinda shit your great grandad walked dahn ah get to the mill to get to his j (long o) b.

anyhow, I hyped that up a lot. Here is a video I made. might not seem so impressive on video, but in real life it did. When I went to San Fransisco a while back I was amazed. They had super steep inclines on their roads, but they were maintained, and a perfectly level incline. They aren't as steep as this but they were pleasant to drive on because of how nice they were(the ones those pictures are always taken on of the trolleys).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aERc6XMhukg

i thought the steepest one was a road in san francisco

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helIy posted...

i thought the steepest one was a road in san francisco

I thought it was in Los Angeles lol

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used to deliver to a road like that, except at the bottom was an exit onto the highway and there were no side streets. fine most of the time, but after a freezing rain... good god.

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Now, you must go to the steepest road in the world...
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7 9 1/4 rise. Thats not bad.

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Thats not steep

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You do know we switched to widescreen for a reason, right?

Those two streets you guys are referencing probably have an insane grade, but not 37%, but are carried over longer distances.

And, I knew somebody would mention my vertical filiming. I had plans to take a nice video, but when I got there I didnt feel like being a tourist or whatever so I ended up with a crappier video. The guy I was with is one of my friends, but its hard to get him interested in things that he doesnt already like, so while I thought this was cool as shit, he seemed like he didnt care that much so I didnt bother to ask his apathetic ass about holding my phone for a better video.

anyways, I looked up SF and I found this under the Wikipedia page for Filbert Street, detailing some high gradient streets in SF and elsewhere

An unofficial survey of San Francisco streets declared the steepest street in San Francisco to be a 30-foot section of Bradford Street,[5] paved in 2010, with a 40% grade.

So, that could have Canton Ave. beat. What gets me is how there seems to be some mystery behind this stuff, as if you couldnt send out a survey team and have accurate results in a few days or less. because that same wikipedia article says

Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh is said to have a 37% grade; the length of that grade is unknown.

It's 2.4 meters long, or 2.5, everywhere I've read, including the actual wikipedia page for Canton Ave.

I mean, I've been on some damn steep unpaved country roads through the woods... I doubt those would be in the system

Yeah...i said paved even thought Canton Ave is cobblestone. Basically, taking from the qualifications for the Guinness World Record, it has to be a public paved driveable road that people actually use.

Canton does not qualify for a record, and never did, worldwide because the 6.4/5 meters at the 37% grade isnt long enough to meet their standards, and some places have it beat in highest grade by a little

Here is a video of people riding bikes up this. Now i'd reckon almost all of these people are competant amatuer bikers - as in none of these people are just casual bikers on for the ride. There is some level of seriousness from the competitors. A lot of them peter out quickly. I know at my height of biking I tested myself to some degree but I was never anywhere near this level. I would have made it maybe 5 feet at my peak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z_lb4Dg744&t=905s

Something I find interesting: at 14:36 a person entered the race in one of the "city bikes" we have around town. Basic bikes you can rent from sidewalk kiosks that arent really made for this kind thing. They aparently did well on it.

CaptainStrong posted...

You do know we switched to widescreen for a reason, right?

To make sure you could fit your mom in the picture?

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Whoa now, my phone can't record DOUBLE WIDE SCREEN even if its horizontal.

this is the one I used to deliver to. driving back up this hill when slippery was almost impossible, but there was no where else to go unless I wanted to jump on the highway to downtown. there's even a house basically on the highway exit (behind to the left of the camera) that I had to deliver to sometimes.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0412895,-114.1178877,3a,75y,169.2h,73.25t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJta975i7bkLxUviLIqBjAg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en-GB

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That one seems worse because it seems like a road people need to drive on and connects to a highway

The street I went to was off a road that was off a main road and realistically outside of wanting to see the street, there is almost no reason to take it unless you live there even if it connects to other roads.

jramirez23 posted...

I thought it was in Los Angeles lol

I also heard it was in LA but it was from a news report that could have easily been getting their information wrong. It was a funny report about people being terrorized because their gps was guiding them down the super steep street and they werent prepared for it.

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aDirtyShisno posted...

I also heard it was in LA but it was from a news report that could have easily been getting their information wrong. It was a funny report about people being terrorized because their gps was guiding them down the super steep street and they werent prepared for it.

Exactly. It was like Baxter Street or something like that. And the app was Waze.

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helIy posted...

i thought the steepest one was a road in san francisco

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Meh Ive seen steeper lol

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Well it appears that Bradford street in San Fransisco may have a 40% grade. I've just never heard it referenced in any of my travels until yesterday, and even so it seems unofficial. But it shouldn't be too hard to get it tested if so, I mean i'm stupid at math but Geometry can't be all that difficult to trained surveyors, eh?

There may well be steeper streets out there but they haven't been officially tested and recorded.

SF is a nightmare. I would never drive there.

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I was only in the touristy areas of san fransisco. the hills with the famous trolleys on em. I liked those because they reminded me of Pittsburgh but were level inclines and well maintained roads. Maybe elsewhere in the city and surrounding areas its worse, but what I saw I liked.

Some of the shit you gotta do in Pittsburgh is weird. tons of hills all over the place but streets aren't exceptionally well maintained(especially since the pavement cracks in spring), but roads like this one aren't too out of the norm. Driving here can be quite an experience to people who arent used to it or are from flatter places.