Weird Routes

[CoreySamson]

The Indian Nation Turnpike (nascent OK-375) doesn't look too weird on paper, being mostly a straight line, but it connects Henryetta to...Hugo? Paris TX? Not a very common origin/destination pair at all, made worse by the fact that it manages to deftly dodge most of the population centers in eastern Oklahoma. (When you're reduced to using Antlers as a control city, you've kinda fucked up.) Whatever traffic is gets is Tulsa-to-Dallas traffic that jumps off of it at US-69, so everything south of there is a ghost town.

I do like using OK 375 on trips between home and college. It largely avoids I-45 and Dallas (and all the construction on US 75 near the TX/OK border right now), plus it has little traffic and 80 mph speed limits to boot. The tolls to me are negligible and not a big deal.

It supposed to be part of a Houston / Beaumont to Tulsa-4-laned route. US-59 or US-69 from Beaumont to Houston to Lufkin. US-69 to Greenville. I-30 to SH-24. SH-24 to Paris and US-271 to Hugo / INT.  INT / US-75 to Tulsa.

Most of it actually has over the decades been built out as  4-lanes.  Lufkin  to  Longview to Paris is a better route from Beaumont, but it wasn't pushed by a consortium of community route organizers. Following SH-19 from Huntsville to Paris is almost a straight line from Houston to Tulsa.

THE INT is on the route Google maps suggests. It makes the route between two of the biggest players in the oil and gas significantly closer. And yes, it does run between Bugtussell & BFE. Part of the allure was there really was no road there before the INT.

Most of the time, my aforementioned route between college and home usually is just to take TX-19 the whole way between Paris and Huntsville, and honestly, there's not much bad to say about the route. Many of the towns along TX-19 are bypassed (but not all). Out of those that aren't, Emory is the most annoying because of the nasty speed limit drop, but the others are tolerable. For my spring break trip back home, I'm probably going to try out US 271 from Paris to Tyler to US 69 to Lufkin to US 59 to Houston to clinch most of the counties I'm missing in east Texas (and catch up on some I-69 construction).

[webny99]

^ It's worth mentioning that they were once connected, through a freeway through Niagara Falls State Park.  From NY 18, it was intended to connect to the Lake Ontario State Parkway.

https://nysroads.com/rmpkwy.php

All of that is extremely interesting. Thanks for sharing!

A bit late as I'm just seeing this now, but wow, that is interesting. I knew that the one-way segment now called the Riverway used to be two-way, but I guess I always thought it still dumped into city streets for a short stretch. I never knew that it was a full freeway through the park.

[webny99]

^ It's worth mentioning that they were once connected, through a freeway through Niagara Falls State Park.  From NY 18, it was intended to connect to the Lake Ontario State Parkway.

https://nysroads.com/rmpkwy.php

All of that is extremely interesting. Thanks for sharing!

A bit late as I'm just seeing this now, but wow, that is interesting. I knew that the one-way segment now called the Riverway used to be two-way, but I guess I always thought it still dumped into city streets for a short stretch. I never knew that it was a full freeway through the park.

I also completely forgot that the Parkway went right over top of the US Customs area at Whirlpool. It had a pretty good view of the Falls too, albeit behind the Rainbow Bridge: https://goo.gl/maps/AAVP8uGrok7aBhhk8

[StogieGuy7]

The Indian Nation Turnpike (nascent OK-375) doesn't look too weird on paper, being mostly a straight line, but it connects Henryetta to...Hugo? Paris TX? Not a very common origin/destination pair at all, made worse by the fact that it manages to deftly dodge most of the population centers in eastern Oklahoma. (When you're reduced to using Antlers as a control city, you've kinda fucked up.) Whatever traffic is gets is Tulsa-to-Dallas traffic that jumps off of it at US-69, so everything south of there is a ghost town.

It supposed to be part of a Houston / Beaumont to Tulsa-4-laned route. US-59 or US-69 from Beaumont to Houston to Lufkin. US-69 to Greenville. I-30 to SH-24. SH-24 to Paris and US-271 to Hugo / INT.  INT / US-75 to Tulsa.

Most of it actually has over the decades been built out as  4-lanes.  Lufkin  to  Longview to Paris is a better route from Beaumont, but it wasn't pushed by a consortium of community route organizers. Following SH-19 from Huntsville to Paris is almost a straight line from Houston to Tulsa.

THE INT is on the route Google maps suggests. It makes the route between two of the biggest players in the oil and gas significantly closer. And yes, it does run between Bugtussell & BFE. Part of the allure was there really was no road there before the INT.

Gee, I once used the Indian Nation Tpke as a route from OKC to Idabel. Enjoyed the ride, too.

[Kulerage]

U.S. 69 within Kansas City. Freeway-induced realignments are probably the cause, but it still doesn't change the fact that this is one of the most batshit insane routings I've ever seen.

[LilianaUwU]

U.S. 69 within Kansas City. Freeway-induced realignments are probably the cause, but it still doesn't change the fact that this is one of the most batshit insane routings I've ever seen.

Jesus Christ, you weren't lying. Perhaps it's one of those cases where it would be better for the US highway to remain on the Interstate, and have the old routing be state routes.

[Scott5114]

The actual cause of the routing of US 69 is that KDOT has a policy that does not allow K routes to be entirely within municipal boundaries. (I'm not 100% clear on whether this is "the boundaries of one municipality, but two or more are okay" or if it's a more general "at least part of the route must be in unincorporated territory".) At the same time, however, KDOT (and/or the cities involved) wants to keep certain roads in Johnson County state maintained. So since nobody but a roadgeek is actually going to be following US 69 all the way across Johnson County, its routing (along with that of US 169) has been manipulated to hit as many of these segments of road as possible.

[mrsman]

The approximately 0.09 miles of CA 225 that still exists as a rail underpass.

- Route 238 even if the I-238 segment was still state route only - the "bump" with 580 means that those two segments really do not operate as one cohesive route at all.  If anything, the state route portion of 238 really should be tied together with 185 instead.

Love this idea!

I can see CA-238 along Foothill Blvd betweeen 580/238 and Downtown Hayward as being part of CA-92.  There probably is a good reason to provide better connections between I-580 (to/from Central Valley) and the San Mateo Bridge using surface streets as alternates to I-880.

And along with that, CA-185 continuing southward as the surface route providing the original Oakland - San Jose surface route.

A good connection as the "second" east bay N-S interstate connecting I-680 with the north-south I-580.

IMO, I-980 is a wasted designation, this could have easily been an extension of CA-24.  With that said, I can definitely see a fix in the designation of I-580 that the E-W portion should have a different designation from the N-S portion.

I-580 is clearly an amalgamation of four separate routings:  San Rafael - Berkeley; Berkeley - Oakland Maze; Oakland Maze - Castro Valley; Castro Valley - Central Valley.  This means that these routings do not need to all be in the same number, as it doesnt make some sense.  I would keep the first three as 580 (the second one co-signed with I-80 of course), and the fourth one being a new number [maybe 705?].  In that case, we will no longer need I-238.  I-705 as an E-W interstate connecting I-5 to I-880 and a I-580 that continues north from Castro Valley.

[LilianaUwU]

Were QC 132, QC 169 and QC 368 mentioned yet? Two of those highways (QC 132, QC 169) loop to end at themselves, and the third one (QC 368) never ends, as the ÃŽle d'Orléans bridge and connector road aren't officially part of 368.

[vdeane]

Were QC 132, QC 169 and QC 368 mentioned yet? Two of those highways (QC 132, QC 169) loop to end at themselves, and the third one (QC 368) never ends, as the ÃŽle d'Orléans bridge and connector road aren't officially part of 368.

The connection is shown as part of 368 here.  Is there a better source of route data available?

[LilianaUwU]

Were QC 132, QC 169 and QC 368 mentioned yet? Two of those highways (QC 132, QC 169) loop to end at themselves, and the third one (QC 368) never ends, as the ÃŽle d'Orléans bridge and connector road aren't officially part of 368.

The connection is shown as part of 368 here.  Is there a better source of route data available?

Huh, so it is part of 368. Signage on ÃŽle d'Orléans seems to contradict that, perhaps for simplicity's sake.

[Quillz]

US-57 and US-96 would fit into the grid a lot better if they were swapped. US-57 makes sense in a larger sense because it's a continuation of MX-57 which goes south to Mexico City. But I have no clue why US-96 was numbered the way it was.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

When US 59 got rerouted to Laredo on what had been until then US 96, they decided to relocate the latter on the section left behind by the former.

It should also be noted that the original US 96 was also weird, running from Rosenberg (at the time, Alt US 90 was "plain" US 90) to Brownsville. They assumed the entire Gulf Coast was East-West and US 96 was numbered accordingly despite it running clearly North-South. Only when the Southern part was taken over by US 281 and US 96 was rerouted to Laredo did it make sense.

[DesertedHighwayz]

I-85 in Virginia.

It just goes through much forest, not a lot to look at. It lacks exits until North Carolina.

[sprjus4]

I-85 in Virginia.

It just goes through much forest, not a lot to look at. It lacks exits until North Carolina.

How is it a weird route though? It connects Richmond / Petersburg & the I-95 corridor (feeding from the Northeast & DC metro) to Durham, Greensboro, Charlotte, Atlanta, and points southwest.

The portion between Durham and Petersburg is rural but that doesn't discount its importance. I wouldn't call it "weird" .

Also, while the exits are rural and light traffic, they certainly do exist in Virginia. It even features a full cloverleaf with US-58, which connects east towards Hampton Roads, a major traffic generator.

[1995hoo]

I agree with sprjus4. If you look back to the first post in this thread, you'll see the OP was using "weird" in a particular way–and perhaps it bears mention that he originally didn't use the word "weird" at all. Instead, he called the thread "Retard Roads" and wanted people to post roads that followed "retarded routes." That might give the original post a little more context (and it might explain the moderator's comment–the thread was locked at one point when a few people took offense at the wording, which didn't seem to occur to the now-banned Mike2357 as he seemed to like using that word in a routine way, like the way people used to use it in the 1970s).

If a Virginia Interstate qualifies, arguably the one that best fits what he had in mind is I-64 due to how its eastern end loops around.

[Flint1979]

I don't see what's weird about I-85 in Virginia. I remember eating at a Huddle House at exit 4 about 2 years ago and there were other things around there too. It might be rural but it's not real remote.

[vdeane]

I-85 in VA probably feels more remote than it actually is because the whole road is lined with a wall on trees too thick to see through.  The whole route feels like you're in the middle of nowhere in a huge, unending forest, which, while true for a lot of the route, isn't true for all of it, but the trees make you think that it is.

[sprjus4]

I-85 in VA probably feels more remote than it actually is because the whole road is lined with a wall on trees too thick to see through.  The whole route feels like you're in the middle of nowhere in a huge, unending forest, which, while true for a lot of the route, isn't true for all of it, but the trees make you think that it is.

Besides the northern 7 or so miles near Petersburg, the rest of the route is certainly in the middle of nowhere in a huge, unending forest.

Even the portion a few miles west of I-95 travels through only sparsely developed exurban area before turning fully rural south of US-460.

[1995hoo]

^^^^

I had a college friend who hailed from one of the small towns along I-85 in Virginia. She said her family never locked the doors to their house except the one week a year when they visited relatives in Michigan. I'd say that's a great sign of a rural area!

[Rothman]

^^^^

I had a college friend who hailed from one of the small towns along I-85 in Virginia. She said her family never locked the doors to their house except the one week a year when they visited relatives in Michigan. I'd say that's a great sign of a rural area!

So...weird?  Seems like a stretch.

[1995hoo]

^^^^

I had a college friend who hailed from one of the small towns along I-85 in Virginia. She said her family never locked the doors to their house except the one week a year when they visited relatives in Michigan. I'd say that's a great sign of a rural area!

So...weird?  Seems like a stretch.

I'm not the one who said it's a weird route. That was "Desertedhighwayz" in Reply #313. I was just agreeing with sprjus4 that it's a very rural area. My name is not Beltway, so I'm allowed to agree with sprjus4.

[Rothman]

^^^^

I had a college friend who hailed from one of the small towns along I-85 in Virginia. She said her family never locked the doors to their house except the one week a year when they visited relatives in Michigan. I'd say that's a great sign of a rural area!

So...weird?  Seems like a stretch.

I'm not the one who said it's a weird route. That was "Desertedhighwayz" in Reply #313. I was just agreeing with sprjus4 that it's a very rural area. My name is not Beltway, so I'm allowed to agree with sprjus4.

Oh, I know.  Just following the discussion to find something weird and failing.

[vdeane]

I-85 in VA probably feels more remote than it actually is because the whole road is lined with a wall on trees too thick to see through.  The whole route feels like you're in the middle of nowhere in a huge, unending forest, which, while true for a lot of the route, isn't true for all of it, but the trees make you think that it is.

Besides the northern 7 or so miles near Petersburg, the rest of the route is certainly in the middle of nowhere in a huge, unending forest.

Even the portion a few miles west of I-95 travels through only sparsely developed exurban area before turning fully rural south of US-460.

There's more development than the trees would suggest.  Especially around areas like the US 58 exit.  And there's the occasional farm.  Still very forested, but not to the extent the trees would have you believe.

[Mapmikey]

There used to be even more tree cover along I85 but a couple of ice storms over the years thinned them out a little