I feel like this has been made before, but I did a quick search and couldn't find anything.
What are some street names in your local area that are named in such a way they suggest like they are more interesting or more important than they are? Near where I live, there are two named highways that come to mind.
- Templin Highway: The name makes some sense as it was once planned to be longer than it is. As it stands, this "highway" only runs for a couple miles and then ends.
Whitnall Highway: Another similar case, this was once planned to be longer and grander than it was. Today, it's a short street in the San Fernando Valley, maybe about three or four miles total.
I feel a lot of streets that are suffixed with "highway" or "boulevard" might qualify. Or street names that are quite wordy, often with "mountain" or "canyon" in the name. One local street near me is called "Eagle Mountain Avenue," which suggests it would at least go uphill or something. It's not, it's just a street that is one block long and is on completely flat ground, with nothing more than a few hills nearby.
There's the Circumferential Highway in Nashua NH, which is a 1.5-mile straight line.
Main Street in Fresno exists as a connecting driveway from O Street to the parking facility for the Robert E Coyle Federal Building.
Gary Freeway in Clinton OK is not a freeway and was never planned to be one. It's just a four-lane street.
Lenawee County Michigan calls all their north-south county roads highways, east-west are roads.
Quote from: 1 on February 03, 2024, 07:48:05 AM
There's the Circumferential Highway in Nashua NH, which is a 1.5-mile straight line.
The locals call it Circumcision Highway.
Northern Durham Parkway (https://www.google.com/maps/@35.9550232,-78.8167469,1415m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu) was intended to ultimately extend from US 501 in north Durham county, down to I-540 and Aviation Parkway near RDU. The only built section exists inside a neighborhood, and the project has basically been abandoned.
Quote from: Quillz on February 03, 2024, 04:58:13 AM
I feel like this has been made before, but I did a quick search and couldn't find anything.
...
Perhaps not quite the same question, but a few years ago I started a thread called "Pretentious street names" that asked about streets whose names are perhaps grandiose for what they are. Your post made me think of a street near me named Clemaline Boulevard that is basically an access road for Wegmans, so I searched for "Clemaline" and found the prior thread. My comments there about said street apply to this thread too.
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=30490.msg2677322#msg2677322
Bicentennial Highway (https://maps.app.goo.gl/MNX5uSEZfe26DnsG6) in Springfield, MA is a <1-mile divided highway that doesn't do much more than bypass a strip mall. I have heard that this was meant to be a piece of an outer-circumferential highway around Springfield (outside of I-291) but don't know much about the details of how this would've looked.
Northwest Expressway, Oklahoma City. Most major roads it meets at traffic lights, except at North May Avenue, it's a 3/4 interchange. The only missing movement is EB NW Expressway to NB May, which is done by making a legal (albeit not very safe) U-turn at Ross Avenue.
There are two Old Baltimore Roads in Montgomery County, MD.
The road name implies that they each parallel newer roads that go to Baltimore and/or they themselves went to Baltimore at some time. Not the case for either one.
There's also MA 107 from Revere to Lynn which is called the Salem Turnpike. It runs from MA 60 in Revere through the Rumney Marsh reservation to Ballard St in Lynn before going over a super congested drawbridge and it has no interchanges. Was this ever proposed as part of I-95 north of Boston?
Quote from: BlueOutback7 on February 04, 2024, 12:53:13 PM
There's also MA 107 from Revere to Lynn which is called the Salem Turnpike. It runs from MA 60 in Revere through the Rumney Marsh reservation to Ballard St in Lynn before going over a super congested drawbridge and it has no interchanges. Was this ever proposed as part of I-95 north of Boston?
I was always under the impression it was a 19th century turnpike.
Bridge St in Green Bay - narrow 2-block industrial road with no bridges on it.
Madison Heights, MI has Northeastern Highway. It has several oddities:
- It exists as 2 separate segments, separated by 1.75 miles.
- One of the segments is a little over 1 block long, and is a residential street.
- The other segment is only 1/2 block long, and is likewise a residential street. After bending slightly mid-block, it turns into a different named street.
- The 2 segments are aligned, suggesting that they might have once been connected. However, there is no evidence that this is the case on old topographic maps.
- The name "Northeastern" suggests that it runs southwest to northeast, but it actually runs southeast to northwest (like the true highway Northwestern Highway elsewhere in metro Detroit).
Hunter Boulevard in Seattle is a two-block-long green strip in a normal street. Hardly a boulevard, but it was included in a city park plan for some reason.
Quote from: tallfull on February 04, 2024, 11:49:31 PM
Madison Heights, MI has Northeastern Highway. It has several oddities:
- It exists as 2 separate segments, separated by 1.75 miles.
- One of the segments is a little over 1 block long, and is a residential street.
- The other segment is only 1/2 block long, and is likewise a residential street. After bending slightly mid-block, it turns into a different named street.
- The 2 segments are aligned, suggesting that they might have once been connected. However, there is no evidence that this is the case on old topographic maps.
- The name "Northeastern" suggests that it runs southwest to northeast, but it actually runs southeast to northwest (like the true highway Northwestern Highway elsewhere in metro Detroit).
I had never heard of this street, despite being only a few miles away from it.
That little section by Girard is really weird, given that it flows directly into Barrington.
It's not unusual for local streets to have more than one section on the same alignment with breaks in between. Houstonia in Royal Oak has 5 sections, some only with a block missing between sections. But usually those streets are on (or close to) the grid, not diagonal like Northeastern.
Metro Detroit has Coolidge Highway, which is just another undivided arterial road.
Quote from: tmoore952 on February 04, 2024, 12:18:43 PM
There are two Old Baltimore Roads in Montgomery County, MD.
The road name implies that they each parallel newer roads that go to Baltimore and/or they themselves went to Baltimore at some time. Not the case for either one.
The Baltimore Rd in Rockville and Old Baltimore Rd in Olney were once part of the Rockville-Baltimore Rd.
One that comes to mind: in Jefferson City, MO, there's a street called "Swifts Highway" that's really just a small, ordinary residential street.
Greene County, OH has a Waynesville-Jamestown Road: https://maps.app.goo.gl/1r78FwKDCCNzxHkD6. While the eastern end is in Jamestown, the western end requires using three other roads and 13 more miles to get to Waynesville.
Quote from: Mapmikey on February 05, 2024, 12:52:36 PM
Quote from: tmoore952 on February 04, 2024, 12:18:43 PM
There are two Old Baltimore Roads in Montgomery County, MD.
The road name implies that they each parallel newer roads that go to Baltimore and/or they themselves went to Baltimore at some time. Not the case for either one.
The Baltimore Rd in Rockville and Old Baltimore Rd in Olney were once part of the Rockville-Baltimore Rd.
I was referring to Old Baltimore Road in Olney, but I was "not" referring to Baltimore Road in Rockville.
The other Old Baltimore Road I was referring to is north of Germantown, and west of MD 355.
To go back to the Olney example, I highly suspect that only the portion south of MD 108 was part of the Rockville--Baltimore Road. The part north of MD 108 is a residential development road which was not fully completed until the 1990s.
I knew someone brought up Silicon Valley Blvd in San Jose, CA as an example of such a street name, and I found the original thread which has a similar topic name:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=25760.0
Quote from: wanderer2575 on February 05, 2024, 09:17:29 AM
Metro Detroit has Coolidge Highway, which is just another undivided arterial road.
Vernor Hwy as well
I've always liked "International Road" by LAX. Despite the name, it does not lead you to either Canada or Mexico.
Quote from: Quillz on February 23, 2024, 04:29:38 AM
I've always liked "International Road" by LAX. Despite the name, it does not lead you to either Canada or Mexico.
Read your first sentence more slowly. :D
Two examples in Oxnard, CA:
Fashion Park Pl suggests that it leads to a shopping mall. It's really just a residential street that goes to some apartments. Nearby, other residential streets are named after people. I checked Historic Aerials, and there's nothing that suggests there was anything related to fashion there at any point.
Outlet Center Dr leads to a rather vacant retail shopping center. These "outlets" were built in the 90s to compete with the Camarillo Outlets, but they never performed well, so now the shopping center just has a weird collection of dead businesses.
Ridge Road in Pleasant Ridge, metro Detroit. Both the road and the city have aspirations.
Technically there is some kind of ridge, because either the road or this little city sits on the divide between the Clinton and Rouge drainage basins. But you sure can't tell it by driving.
What is the least "main" Main Street?
In Illinois, Carol Stream's Main Pl (https://maps.app.goo.gl/46g7vM1au1sdrimJ8) comes to mind, but I'm sure there are better examples out there.
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
In Illinois, Carol Stream's Main Pl (https://maps.app.goo.gl/46g7vM1au1sdrimJ8) comes to mind, but I'm sure there are better examples out there.
Main Avenue in Sylacauga, AL (https://www.google.com/maps/@33.1711297,-86.2478072,3a,75y,358.24h,88.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7vN4QZUOqJR8qIxKpBJsIg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) also comes pretty close, not really entering the downtown area and running to the east of the main N/S road through the city (AL 21/Broadway).
In Redford Township, MI just west of Detroit, there's the intersection of Southwestern Highway and Fordson Highway in the middle of an otherwise normal subdivision.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hHDgFjES2Le9DLX19
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
In Illinois, Carol Stream's Main Pl (https://maps.app.goo.gl/46g7vM1au1sdrimJ8) comes to mind, but I'm sure there are better examples out there.
San Francisco's
Main Street (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Main+St,+San+Francisco,+CA+94105/@37.7901597,-122.3954133,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x808580652ba3cefd:0xc6146d5e377e268a!8m2!3d37.7901597!4d-122.392833!16s%2Fg%2F1vf9cll_?entry=ttu) is not particularly main. (It's actually named for Charles Main, an early businessman.)
Quote from: BlueOutback7 on February 04, 2024, 12:53:13 PM
There's also MA 107 from Revere to Lynn which is called the Salem Turnpike. It runs from MA 60 in Revere through the Rumney Marsh reservation to Ballard St in Lynn before going over a super congested drawbridge and it has no interchanges. Was this ever proposed as part of I-95 north of Boston?
I-95 was to be just west of it. There was a dirt berm a couple of miles long that you could see from 107, but it was dug out and dumped along Winthrop Beach to help with storm resilience.
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
In Illinois, Carol Stream's Main Pl (https://maps.app.goo.gl/46g7vM1au1sdrimJ8) comes to mind, but I'm sure there are better examples out there.
Main Street in Sturgis, MI isn't much: https://maps.app.goo.gl/tLcPQWAqPq6aPbb4A
"Valley Circle Boulevard" suggests it would be some kind of beltway around the San Fernando Valley. (Think McCarren Boulevard through Reno-Sparks). Instead it's a mostly linear street at the far west end of the valley.
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
In Illinois, Carol Stream's Main Pl (https://maps.app.goo.gl/46g7vM1au1sdrimJ8) comes to mind, but I'm sure there are better examples out there.
I'm inclined, based on personal experience, to say Bellevue, NE's Main Street is not "main". It's a N-S street that's mostly residential. Mission Avenue should be Bellevue's Main Street. My guess is it was probably more important before they built the toll bridge across the Missouri River there.
In Madison WI, Main St. is a minor street that runs 1 block south and parallel to the major throughfare of Washington Ave.
"Interocean Blvd" in Holyoke, CO.
Holyoke consists of about 20 farmers and 2,000 cows.
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
...
The one in my hometown, Hamden CT, is an excellent candidate. Over two miles long, but just two lanes without a single traffic light or business of any kind, bordering one of CT's largest state parks. Probably named for Elias or Jerusha Main, buried in a town cemetery.
Lots of other good candidates. Each of NYC's five boroughs has its own Main St., but only the Queens one could be considered a principal thoroughfare. The Manhattan one isn't even on Manhattan Island but Roosevelt Island, which is part of the borough.
Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on February 24, 2024, 09:45:18 AM
"Interocean Blvd" in Holyoke, CO.
Holyoke consists of about 20 farmers and 2,000 cows.
It's between oceans, right? Just not all the way between. :-/
Ocala, Florida has an "Easy Street."
Quote from: roadman65 on February 24, 2024, 02:27:00 PM
Ocala, Florida has an "Easy Street."
Elgin, Illinois has one, too. I knew someone from college at NIU who grew up on it. Glendale Heights and Carol Stream also have an Easy Street
There are numerous streets in the S.F. Valley and nearby that reference non-existent canyons. Dixie Canyon, Ventura Canyon, Walnut Canyon. I guess adding "canyon" to the street name makes them more interesting. All of these are also short, mostly residential, streets that barely even have twists or turns. It reminds me of the "Eagle Mountain Avenue" I mentioned earlier. References to geographic locations that sound interesting, but probably don't even exist.
Alewife Parkway (https://maps.app.goo.gl/iS45gjppbk8eTEH46) in New London, CT, is 1.2 blocks long. It's named for Alewife Cove, which it abuts (and alewife is a type of fish).
I remember seeing proposals from the 1920s or so including a longer Alewife Parkway, but a quick check of USGS historical maps does not show a longer alignment. And Ocean Avenue (part of CT 213) to the east already does a fine job of connecting Ocean Beach and other points to downtown and US 1.
(I wish I could find a doc supporting this, but can't locate it right now)
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
I'm sure you can find examples of streets more minor than Oklahoma City's Main Street, since it at least goes through downtown. But it doesn't go much beyond that, and its role as address baseline is more or less usurped by Reno Avenue in most of the city.
Las Vegas's Main Street is pretty dinky too, considering that Las Vegas Blvd.—you know, our
real main street—is right next to it.
Quote from: Streetman on February 24, 2024, 12:27:22 PM
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
...
The one in my hometown, Hamden CT, is an excellent candidate. Over two miles long, but just two lanes without a single traffic light or business of any kind, bordering one of CT's largest state parks. Probably named for Elias or Jerusha Main, buried in a town cemetery.
Lots of other good candidates. Each of NYC's five boroughs has its own Main St., but only the Queens one could be considered a principal thoroughfare. The Manhattan one isn't even on Manhattan Island but Roosevelt Island, which is part of the borough.
Bristol, CT's Main Street doesn't have much on it, but go a block west to North Main Street and you have the PD, courthouse, city hall, the post office, and many restaurants.
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
Albany's Main Street (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6723149,-73.7371199,18z?entry=ttu%5B/url) is one block long and nowhere near downtown.
Quote from: vdeane on February 25, 2024, 02:45:55 PM
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
Albany's Main Street (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6723149,-73.7371199,18z?entry=ttu%5B/url) is one block long and nowhere near downtown.
Doing a quick search on Google, I suspect the history of that neighborhood may have something to do with it, especially since you have a North Street, South Street, and Centre Street all right around it.
Quote from: freebrickproductions on February 26, 2024, 10:18:34 AM
Quote from: vdeane on February 25, 2024, 02:45:55 PM
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
Albany's Main Street (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6723149,-73.7371199,18z?entry=ttu%5B/url) is one block long and nowhere near downtown.
Doing a quick search on Google, I suspect the history of that neighborhood may have something to do with it, especially since you have a North Street, South Street, and Centre Street all right around it.
Eh, maybe. Real Albany is all about birds.
Quote from: freebrickproductions on February 26, 2024, 10:18:34 AM
Quote from: vdeane on February 25, 2024, 02:45:55 PM
Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2024, 01:43:14 PM
What is the least "main" Main Street?
Albany's Main Street (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6723149,-73.7371199,18z?entry=ttu%5B/url) is one block long and nowhere near downtown.
Doing a quick search on Google, I suspect the history of that neighborhood may have something to do with it, especially since you have a North Street, South Street, and Centre Street all right around it.
Perhaps they were streets in a small village that was annexed by Albany. I've seen streets elsewhere that were truly Main in their small communities become less so when absorbed by a larger city.
An even smaller Main Street in Culver City, CA that is less than a block. A small street, but very central, In the middle of the block between Culver and Venice, there is the political line between LA and CC and Main Street changes its name to Bagley Ave. Bagley is a decent neighborhood collector and does connect with Doheny north of Pico, which is a moderate arterial. So Main is essentially the southern extension of Doheny's traffic that had the patience to stick with it without diverting despite a lot of bumps and stop signs in Beverlywood.