State Route 9 - Delaware
AKA: Coastal Heritage Byway
New Castle - Dover Air Force Base
Distance/Driving time: 50 miles/1h, 18m
County(ies): New Castle, Kent
Submit your on this road.
Rider Comments:
- The only time I have ever been stopped for speeding when I was actually innocent was on this road. What surprised me is that it was a State Trooper. He was set up in a restaurant parking lot in a small town. I saw him, checked the speedo and was 5 mph under the 35 mph limit. I have normally found State Troopers to be above pettiness in my few other encounters. If my wife had kept her mouth shut I still might have left without a ticket. It is a good road, other than that experience. - Tom Dooley (6/29/12)
- I completely disagree with the negative comment posted, but I guess that we are looking for different types of roads. I started this road at the Dover end. There were no stop signs, red lights, construction, or traffic for the first 42 miles. There was, however, several slow signs for 15 and 20 mph turns which made the road interesting. On the negative side, in 42 miles there was only one business and I was extremely thristy, thankfully it was a bar! The landscape was mostly farms, state parks, and private residences that are far from the road. Road quality was good, and if you are a photographer, you'll use a couple of rolls. Later, it became very industrial as you neared the end. The road became littered with train tracks, cross streets, and the beautiful scenery turned into hundreds of oil tanks, and associated plumbing. I strongly suggest that you start from the Dover end, and enjoy it for what it is, a nice alternative to the expressway where nothing or no one is going to bother you, except for the scenery. Do yourself a favor, take a moment at the top of the Reeds Bridge and look around. I enjoyed the view for about 5 minutes, and only one car passed by. - Tom Jones (8/6/10)
- The southern half of the road is ok. Lets face it not too many nice roads in lower DE. - Anonymous (9/18/09)
- Almost no traffic, very few intersections, and handful of tight turns - but its mostly just provides very pleasant scenery as you roll through farm land, marsh land and a wildlife refuge as you have the road to yourself. The most interesting sight I saw was a few low flying huge military transport planes fly right over my head - courtesy of Dover AFB. Its a nice, pleasant ride - not a peg scraping thrill ride. In my opinion its a far better North/South alternative than SR 1 or US 13 for sure!! - Brad Morgan (6/25/07)
- A nice quiet road to ride, not a lot of traffic. Mainly going through farm land, not a lot to see, some slow points going through little towns then nice long streches of black top. A few nice curves and a couple of bridges, all in all a nice lazy ride (if you need speed run down to where it meets route 1 and take the toll road back up north). - Rider from Bear, Delaware (5/31/07)
- This road has absolutely nothing to offer. Basically it is rubbish. I did the road based on your site. I'm disappointed. - Ken Merlino (5/29/07)
Other Resources:
- North American Sportbike Road Registry - Delaware Sport Bike Roads
- Wikipedia Delaware Route 9
- Rand McNally Road Atlas