Why isn't current US 82 numbered US 62/82 and why isn't what is now US 62 Business numbered 62/82? US 62 clearly functions as a business loop off the US 82 freeway/expressway. Since US 62 and 82 don't parallel interstates in this area, US 62 isn't a secondary legacy route that hops off the main route like so many US highways that parallel interstates for hundreds of miles. Since US 62 is a through route in the area and not an obsolete old alignment paralleling a more major route, it is signed for navigational purposes. Traffic following US 62 shouldn't be hopping off the main highway to drag through town just to hop back on it a few miles down the road. The signs should point to the best route for every highway, and this does not happen here. Also, why isn't US 87 through Canyon, Tulia and Kress BL 27? US 87 is also a through route north of Amarillo and south of Lubbock and traffic following US 87 should be staying on I-27.
One minor point of clarification: originally US 62-82 went through Lubbock via Broadway. So today's US 62 along 19th actually is Lubbock's original east-west bypass: https://www.usends.com/lubbock.html
That doesn't change the fact that now there's a better east-west bypass, so your question is still valid. But we could point to hundreds of similar examples outside of west Texas about which one could ask the same question. My hunch is, it all boils down to the fact that many communities still want a signed route that takes traffic off the freeways and goes closer to their central business districts. Some use a Business designation, others just keep the legacy designation.
Quote from: bugo on January 28, 2019, 04:44:52 AM
Also, why isn't US 87 through Canyon, Tulia and Kress BL 27? US 87 is also a through route north of Amarillo and south of Lubbock and traffic following US 87 should be staying on I-27.
I don't know this for sure, but I would guess it depends on the length. The Canyon and Tulia-to-Kress parts are pretty lengthy parts away from I-27, compared to the Bus I-27's in Plainview and Hale Center. If the off- I-27 parts in Canyon, Tulia, and Kress were just short hops off-then-back-on, it could be that they would have been considered for Bus I-27 status. I was only out there for the very last of the I-27 construction, so I never heard anything definitively as to why the US 87 <> Bus I-27 differences occurred.