In the Summer 5781 issue of Kashrus Kurrents, there is an article by Rabbi
Dovid Heber entitled "A Halachic Guide to Tefilas Haderech". In the section
"What distance must be traveled", he explains that Tefilas Haderech is said
for a trip in which one both leaves the general city area, *and* travels a
parsa (which he gives as 2.8 miles) past an open area where there are no
houses. (A note explains that warehouses, offices, and business, do *not*
count as "houses" for this purpose.)
Then he gives a trip from Lakewood to Monsey as an example which meets both
of those conditions. This is the part that I want to question. The route
from Lakewood to Monsey would be along the Garden State Parkway, and I
cannot find any part of that area which contains a 2.8-mile radius devoid
of residences.
From looking at Google Maps, the largest empty area I can find is in the
area of Cheesequake State Park, near Garden State Parkway exit 120. But the
distance from 92 Prusakowski Blvd, Sayreville, to 24 Kerr Lane, Matawan, is
only 2.0 miles. I cannot find any area along this route where there is a
larger empty area.
It occurred to me that I might be misunderstanding the criteria here.
Perhaps all we need is a one-parsah stretch of road where one cannot *see*
any residences from the road. Perhaps a trip qualifies for Tefilas Hederech
even if there are homes close to the road, but I cannot see them because of
the densely-packed trees and/or a fence which is along the side of the road?
Akiva Miller