I wasn't really aware of it until I was a teenager, and we moved from north NJ to central NJ. Occasionally, my Mom or Dad would drive me back to north Jersey to visit friends, and we'd travel up 287 as far as Montville, where the highway ended. We then had to drive back roads through Lincoln Park, Mountain View (the residents of that area had to evacuate their homes via canoe and rowboat every time there was a heavy rain and the Passaic River overflowed), Pompton Plains, Haledon (home of the late SLA terrorist Angela Atwood), etc. until we reached my erstwhile home. We'd follow the same route if we were traveling to New England or upstate NY, as we often did. 287 to Montville-- then Lincoln Park, Wayne, Oakland, Mahwah, and the NY Thruway. At some point during the early 90's, they extended 287 so that it continued past Montville up to Mahway, where it connected directly with the NY Thruway. This has made life enormously easier for me, as I'm still traveling north to visit friends, genetic family members (I didn't realize until we re-connected some years ago that many of them only live a few miles away from where I grew up, which I was probably better off not knowing back then), and my frequent travels to New England and upstate NY (well...those travels used to be frequent until gas prices went through the roof). I do sometimes miss the scenic, meandering drives through Oakland and Mahwah (home of William Buckley's murderer-friend Edgar Smith), towns which used to be quite lovely, but the convenience of the recent highway extension that bypasses those back roads outweighs any aesthetic pleasures involved in those long, long drives. Driving south, 287 will take you down to one of NJ's uglier areas; namely, Sayreville (former home of one of NJ's less talented and inexplicably popular pop stars, Bon Jovi), Perth Amboy (haven't been there much myself, but I've been told by people who have that it's NJ's version of the South Bronx), and the Garden State Parkway (unfortunately, major portions of central Jersey are drab, polluted, devoid of mountains or beauty of any sort, and can resemble the flat, industrial landscape of Ohio). Of course, this is the gateway to the Jersey Shore, for those who are so inclined (I'm not one of them, except for occasionally visiting a friend who lives down there).

An interstate that can be used to get to New England or upstate New York, while bypassing heavy traffic near NYC. Unfortunately the traffic can still be bad during rush hour, and the road surface could be improved at some points.