State or US Highways with little or no use.

[hbelkins]

One thing I found interesting is that in some places, a Virginia primary route will branch off a secondary route if it's a route serving a state park or other facility. Such occurs at Natural Tunnel State Park, where the old route of US 23/58/421 has a secondary number, but there are several branches of a 300-series primary route intersecting it.

[jeffandnicole]

Half of the 1.5 mile NJ 324 is a closed road; the other half has 3 houses and a boat yard on it. Due to nearby construction, it's only accessible one way, via a local street that goes under the Commodore Barry Bridge.

Low-hanging fruit in my opinion, along with NJ 167 that caters to Chestnut Neck Boat Yard, and NJ 163 which could easily be grassed over.

Isn't that the point of this discussion?

NJ 47 between both ends of NJ 347 is a little easier to knock and could be downgraded to a county highway (CR 553 extension?), with the designation transferred full-time to current NJ 347.

While the majority of traffic in the NJ 347 area uses 347, and while relative to other state routes within NJ it's not used as often in that particular area, it's still hardly little used, and doesn't meet the OP's other criteria as it's 75 miles long in total, meets up with 130, and intersects with numerous other state and/or US and/or Interstate routes.

[silverback1065]

Two that come to mind right away:

-IA 165:  A state route that doesn't connect to any other routes in a town (Carter Lake, IA) that is separated from the remainder of the state by a river.  There is no direct access to the rest of the state.  It ends at the NE border on both sides.
-IN 134:  Applied on the north-most segment of Girls School Road, this state highway randomly disappears once it passes the girls' school the road is named after.  It does hit US 136, however.

IN 134 used to go south to US 40, it was cut back to where it ends now a while ago, I think in the early 90s.  It's worthless now. 

[DandyDan]

Two that come to mind right away:

-IA 165:  A state route that doesn't connect to any other routes in a town (Carter Lake, IA) that is separated from the remainder of the state by a river.  There is no direct access to the rest of the state.  It ends at the NE border on both sides.

IA 165 is most definitely a useful route, as it's the route from downtown Omaha to Eppley Airfield.  It's a bizarre piece of geography there, in that Carter Lake is the part of Iowa west of the Missouri River. IA 165 is generally not useful to Iowans unless you are going to or from Carter Lake.

[Beltway]

I can think of a few near where I live that have importance but IMO don't really need to be state primary routes, they could be state secondary routes.

VA-271 in Henrico and Hanover counties
VA-38 in Amelia County
VA-13 in Powhatan and Cumberland counties

[Bruce]

WA 339 hasn't had a single car drive over it in decades!

[Mapmikey]

One thing I found interesting is that in some places, a Virginia primary route will branch off a secondary route if it's a route serving a state park or other facility. Such occurs at Natural Tunnel State Park, where the old route of US 23/58/421 has a secondary number, but there are several branches of a 300-series primary route intersecting it.

Virginia Primary Routes that only intersect secondary routes (* indicates it once did connect to the primary system):

318, 320*, 322, 324, 325, 326, 328, 330, 335, 336*, 341, 342*, 345*, 353, 355, 370*, 371, 379, 382, 392, 394, 398

[hotdogPi]

Some of New Hampshire's suffixed routes, like 11D and 28A, both in Alton.

[SD Mapman]

WY 391: a less than 0.5 pointless spur to a gravel parking lot.

[Super Mateo]

Two that come to mind right away:

-IA 165:  A state route that doesn't connect to any other routes in a town (Carter Lake, IA) that is separated from the remainder of the state by a river.  There is no direct access to the rest of the state.  It ends at the NE border on both sides.

IA 165 is most definitely a useful route, as it's the route from downtown Omaha to Eppley Airfield.  It's a bizarre piece of geography there, in that Carter Lake is the part of Iowa west of the Missouri River. IA 165 is generally not useful to Iowans unless you are going to or from Carter Lake.

Now, my personal definition of a "useless highway" is a highway that's less than a mile long, usually has a hanging/random ending, and has no intersections of any other highways.

I was going by this definition that the OP used.  It's less than a mile, it has a hanging ending, and doesn't intersect any other highways.  The road itself may be useful, but the state route number on it isn't.

IN 134 used to go south to US 40, it was cut back to where it ends now a while ago, I think in the early 90s.  It's worthless now. 

I did not know that.  That means it may have had some utility in the past, depending on when I-465 was built.  Other than the intersection with US 136, this route fits the criteria.

[sbeaver44]

According to PennDOT's traffic counts, showing the HIGHEST AADT I can find for each route, here are some very low counts:

-PA 284 (100)
-PA 928 (350)
-PA 731 (250)
-PA 456 (500)
-PA 546 (550)
-PA 643 (600)
-PA 184 (1500)
-PA 607 (1000)
-PA 244 (950)
-PA 554 (1100)
-PA 641 Truck (600)

I love PA's diverse road network, but sometimes I really wonder if some of these routes should be signed.




Nexus 6P

[MNHighwayMan]

Two that come to mind right away:

-IA 165:  A state route that doesn't connect to any other routes in a town (Carter Lake, IA) that is separated from the remainder of the state by a river.  There is no direct access to the rest of the state.  It ends at the NE border on both sides.

IA 165 is most definitely a useful route, as it's the route from downtown Omaha to Eppley Airfield.  It's a bizarre piece of geography there, in that Carter Lake is the part of Iowa west of the Missouri River. IA 165 is generally not useful to Iowans unless you are going to or from Carter Lake.

I was going by this definition that the OP used.  It's less than a mile, it has a hanging ending, and doesn't intersect any other highways.  The road itself may be useful, but the state route number on it isn't.

I think we can all agree that the situation wouldn't be nearly so odd if Nebraska's part of the road were a state route too.

[NWI_Irish96]

IN 111 south of IN 211 has no need to be a state highway.  It serves no businesses, very few people, and dead ends at a group of houses on the Ohio River.

IN 203 between IN 56 and IN 356 doesn't need to be a state highway.  There are other connections between those two highways just a few miles to the east and west.

[index]

I should also add that M-185 isn't particularly useful as a numbered route. Sure it's useful for as a road and the numbering of it's cool, but to look at it from a practical standpoint, what point does it serve to number it? I'm sure you could argue this with a good chunk of numbered routes, though. Motor vehicles aren't allowed. It's short and doesn't intersect any other highways. I'm not saying it's bad or anything though, it's an interesting quirk in the highways of the US.

With this, you could also argue that the numbering of highways such as Ohio SR 575 and 357 are pointless. They have hanging ends, intersect no highways, and are isolated, being on islands and all. You could even argue that NC 12 being numbered is pointless by this logic... I'll stop going on about this, not that big a deal. I don't support the decommissioning of these numbers and don't oppose them being there, though. (i'd rather that they would be kept, they're nice and all)

But it is these kind of routes and a lot more that make roadgeeking as interesting as it is, imagine if everything was 100% practical and uniform, and different states did the exact same things with their roads, signals, etc, and there wasn't any variety. Wouldn't be any fun now, would it? Anyways, I'm going really off topic here, I think I'll wrap this up for real.

[Max Rockatansky]

I should also add that M-185 isn't particularly useful as a numbered route. Sure it's useful for as a road and the numbering of it's cool, but to look at it from a practical standpoint, what point does it serve to number it? I'm sure you could argue this with a good chunk of numbered routes, though. Motor vehicles aren't allowed. It's short and doesn't intersect any other highways. I'm not saying it's bad or anything though, it's an interesting quirk in the highways of the US.

As quirky as M-185 is it does serve a purpose to the people who actually live on Mackinac Island.  The road isn't totally closed to motorized traffic as it is used by motorized vehicles.  M-185 is really well post-miled which is really useful trying to find locations on the island.  There is actually only one M-185 shield at the beginning/end of the route.

IMG_4445 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Here is an example of a stand-alone mile marker.

IMG_4466 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

[silverback1065]

I should also add that M-185 isn't particularly useful as a numbered route. Sure it's useful for as a road and the numbering of it's cool, but to look at it from a practical standpoint, what point does it serve to number it? I'm sure you could argue this with a good chunk of numbered routes, though. Motor vehicles aren't allowed. It's short and doesn't intersect any other highways. I'm not saying it's bad or anything though, it's an interesting quirk in the highways of the US.

With this, you could also argue that the numbering of highways such as Ohio SR 575 and 357 are pointless. They have hanging ends, intersect no highways, and are isolated, being on islands and all. You could even argue that NC 12 being numbered is pointless by this logic... I'll stop going on about this, not that big a deal. I don't support the decommissioning of these numbers and don't oppose them being there, though. (i'd rather that they would be kept, they're nice and all)

But it is these kind of routes and a lot more that make roadgeeking as interesting as it is, imagine if everything was 100% practical and uniform, and different states did the exact same things with their roads, signals, etc, and there wasn't any variety. Wouldn't be any fun now, would it? Anyways, I'm going really off topic here, I think I'll wrap this up for real.

i'd say most of ohio's urban state highways are useless.  also IN 166 is a waste of time. 

[NWI_Irish96]

i'd say most of ohio's urban state highways are useless.  also IN 166 is a waste of time. 

I thought about including 166 when I mentioned 111, but 166 serves some businesses and more population than 111, so I can see the argument for keeping it a state highway.

[bzakharin]

NJ 47 between both ends of NJ 347 is a little easier to knock and could be downgraded to a county highway (CR 553 extension?), with the designation transferred full-time to current NJ 347.

Why? It's a useful bypass to relieve some capacity, and is similar in its construction to 347. Maybe swap 47 and 347, but why downgrade?

[hbelkins]

I've never understood why WV 635 is on the state primary system. It runs from WV 83 to the Virginia line, where it becomes VA Secondary 635. I don't see it as being any different than any number of West Virginia county routes that turn into Virginia secondary routes.

[CrystalWalrein]

NJ 47 between both ends of NJ 347 is a little easier to knock and could be downgraded to a county highway (CR 553 extension?), with the designation transferred full-time to current NJ 347.

Why? It's a useful bypass to relieve some capacity, and is similar in its construction to 347. Maybe swap 47 and 347, but why downgrade?

It still only serves Maurice River Township, where CR 616 is already the backbone of Dorchester, Leesburg, and Heislerville, all small hamlets. In the scheme of things, New Jersey's state road network tends to be stretched thin in favour of county highways, and downgrading this segment of NJ 47 wouldn't stop it from serving as a bypass of 347 in a pinch.

[Charles2]

What about the unsigned (or mostly unsigned) state routes that are paired with U.S. routes in Alabama?  Most of them are low-numbered routes that could have been assigned to more meaningful routes:

AL-1: paired with US 431, except south of Dothan, where it's paired with US 231
AL-2: paired with US 72
AL-3: paired with US 31
AL-4: paired with US 78
AL-6: paired with US 82
AL-7: paired with US 11
AL-8: paired with US 80
AL-9: signed north of Wetumpka, paired with US 331 south of Montgomery
AL-12: paired with US 84
AL-13: mainly with paired with US 43, although a minor state route in some stretched
AL-15: paired with US 29
AL-16: paired with US 90
AL-25: signed south of Leeds, but paired with US 411 north of there
AL-38: paired with US 280
AL-42: paired with US 98
AL-53: paired with US 231 from Dothan to Huntsville
AL-74: paired with US 278 east of Hamilton (the town, not the musical  )

[silverback1065]

i'd say all the us or state highways the parallel a Kentucky parkway in Kentucky, they should just throw them onto the parkway and let the parallel road go to local control.

[cpzilliacus]

I should also add that M-185 isn't particularly useful as a numbered route. Sure it's useful for as a road and the numbering of it's cool, but to look at it from a practical standpoint, what point does it serve to number it?

There are an assortment of VDOT-numbered and VDOT-maintained secondary system roads on the island of Tangier, much of which also happens to be an incorporated town of the same name.  A significant part of the population there gets around on foot, by bike, by motorbike, four wheeler or in one of the few cars there.  Should these secondary roads go away?  No! They serve an important purpose for the people that live there.

[cpzilliacus]

In terms of low traffic volumes, there's the matter of U.S. 250 in Highland County, Virginia. 

VDOT apparently likes to refer to it as Highland Turnpike, but I have also seen it called Mountain Turnpike (WVDOT calls it the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike).  2016 AAWDTs range from 360 at the border with Pocahontas County, West Virginia (about 13 miles west of the county seat of Monterey) to 1200 at the Augusta County border). Rugged and beautiful country, and probably should IMO remain  a Virginia primary system highway, but not exactly overloaded with traffic.

WVDOT shows a count from 2015 of about 341 on their side of the border (close enough IMO to the Virginia published count of 360).

[Max Rockatansky]

In terms of low traffic volumes, there's the matter of U.S. 250 in Highland County, Virginia. 

VDOT apparently likes to refer to it as Highland Turnpike, but I have also seen it called Mountain Turnpike (WVDOT calls it the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike).  2016 AAWDTs range from 360 at the border with Pocahontas County, West Virginia (about 13 miles west of the county seat of Monterey) to 1200 at the Augusta County border). Rugged and beautiful country, and probably should IMO remain  a Virginia primary system highway, but not exactly overloaded with traffic.

WVDOT shows a count from 2015 of about 341 on their side of the border (close enough IMO to the Virginia published count of 360).

I believe US 191 in Arizona on the Coronado Trail between US 180 south to US 70 in Arizona has even lower traffic counts (less than 100 a day).  In fact there was a whole thread dedicated to ADOT floating a couple proposals one of which included shuttering the Coronado Trail and routing US 191 into New Mexico.