Most pretensious highway designations

[roadman65]

Avenue of the Americas.  Come on, what's wrong with 6th Ave.?

It is 6th Avenue.  It is called by most New Yorkers as such even though the street signs say otherwise.

Don't the signs say both now?  That's my recollection.

I believe they do just as part of 7th Avenue is signed as Fashion Ave.  I cannot remember if solely it was ever signed as Avenue of the Americas though, but that is what I refer to it as.  To me 6th Avenue sounds so foreign just as calling the Thruway I-87.  I know that from NYC to Exit 24 it is indeed I-87, it seems so out of place to call it that.

[Ned Weasel]

I thought it was called a "Memorial Highway" to memorialize all the people who died in vehicular collisions on an interchange that used to be so God-awful that someone thought it would be really helpful to put call boxes on every ramp and divide the interchange into several "zones," each designated by a letter of the alphabet.

Wrong end of KC.  The interchange in question, which I call and will always call the "Grandview Triangle" is south of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and the "alphabet loop" is the loop around downtown KC (I-35/I-70/I-670/Alt I-70/US 24/US 169/US 71/US 40 and probably some other US routes that I forgot.)

I remembered it wrong; the zones were given numbers, not letters.  But I was, in fact, talking about the Grandview Triangle.

http://www.okroads.com/063003/enteringtriangle.JPG

[Scott5114]

I thought it was called a "Memorial Highway" to memorialize all the people who died in vehicular collisions on an interchange that used to be so God-awful that someone thought it would be really helpful to put call boxes on every ramp and divide the interchange into several "zones," each designated by a letter of the alphabet.

Wrong end of KC.  The interchange in question, which I call and will always call the "Grandview Triangle" is south of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and the "alphabet loop" is the loop around downtown KC (I-35/I-70/I-670/Alt I-70/US 24/US 169/US 71/US 40 and probably some other US routes that I forgot.)

I remembered it wrong; the zones were given numbers, not letters.  But I was, in fact, talking about the Grandview Triangle.

http://www.okroads.com/063003/enteringtriangle.JPG

The "ENTERING TRIANGLE" signs are long gone, but the zone numbers are still in place.

[achilles765]

A stretch of US 59 south of downtown Houston is designated "Senator Lloyd Bentsen Highway," which is pretentious because no one ever calls it that.  It is the Southwest Freeway.

[jp the roadgeek]

A stretch of US 59 south of downtown Houston is designated "Senator Lloyd Bentsen Highway," which is pretentious because no one ever calls it that.  It is the Southwest Freeway.

Same with the RFK bridge in NYC.  Everyone still calls it the Triboro, including traffic reporters.  Or the Yankee Division Expressway in the Boston area.  Everyone still calls it...and yes most people even want you call it something else than this...Route 128.

[Alps]

I am not a racist by any means, It is just interesting that Dr. King is not just known as a simple last name.  It might be that the name "King" is also a monarch in many governments, and many just want people to know that it is a person and not the title as King Blvd. King Street, etc. might suggest that.

Yes. This. Kennedy Parkway was renamed JFK Parkway here in Essex County, NJ. (There are several Kennedys.) "MLK" is the most common moniker I see for King, and I'd rather see that on a highway sign than everything spelled out. Frederick Douglass, on the other hand, you can just go with Douglass and it's pretty unambiguous.

[Pete from Boston]

Avenue of the Americas.  Come on, what's wrong with 6th Ave.?

It is 6th Avenue.  It is called by most New Yorkers as such even though the street signs say otherwise.

Don't the signs say both now?  That's my recollection.

I believe they do just as part of 7th Avenue is signed as Fashion Ave.  I cannot remember if solely it was ever signed as Avenue of the Americas though, but that is what I refer to it as.  To me 6th Avenue sounds so foreign just as calling the Thruway I-87.  I know that from NYC to Exit 24 it is indeed I-87, it seems so out of place to call it that.

It was not solely signed as Avenue of the Americas at any time I can remember.  It has been a dual designation going back at least three decades.  I don't think the coats-of-arms of all the American countries are still there on the lampposts.  It seemed slightly more evident when they were.

As a kid, I liked the Pan-Americanism about it.  Between the UN and the World's Fair and the rest, it seemed like NY had gone through this big postwar internationalist phase (which was over by my time) and "Avenue of the Americas" felt like part of this.

[sp_redelectric]

Cesar E. Chavez (insert whatever facility).

The guy was a union organizer (not exactly a "hero"), a Navy sailor (he called it the worst three years of his life), and was an extremely vocal opponent of immigration rights (ironic!), even finding illegal alien farmworkers and turning them into authorities to be immediately deported.  The reason, was that the illegal immigrants took away jobs from his union members.

He only set foot in Oregon one time - yes, just one time - yet there was an extremely outspoken effort to name a street - not just any street, but specific, high profile streets - after the guy.  Portland settled on 39th Avenue for him, and an elementary school.

[formulanone]

Found this while sorting though my Miami-Dade shots: I know it's more of a local street, but I suppose "Santander-Azcoitia Boulevard" just wasn't long enough?


Appellation Overload by formulanone, on Flickr

[1995hoo]

"Santander" without the first name makes it sound like a corporate sponsor (the financial institution of that name).

[roadman]

A stretch of US 59 south of downtown Houston is designated "Senator Lloyd Bentsen Highway," which is pretentious because no one ever calls it that.  It is the Southwest Freeway.

Same with the RFK bridge in NYC.  Everyone still calls it the Triboro, including traffic reporters.  Or the Yankee Division Expressway in the Boston area.  Everyone still calls it...and yes most people even want you call it something else than this...Route 128.

The Yankee Division Highway designation was actually given to Route 128 between Braintree and Gloucester by the Massachusetts Legislature in the late 1940s, just before they first widened the roadway.  Since the Canton to Peabody section was designated as part of I-95 in 1974, nearly all the memorial markers south of Peabody have been removed.

In the early 1980s, as part of an effort to promote tourism, MassDPW was directed by the Legislature to install large BBS signs at intervals along the "128" section of I-95 indicating "128 America's Technology Highway".  Within six months, the "Highway" portion on these signs was overlaid with "Region" to appease the members and relatives of the National Guard's Yankee Division.  The last of the Technology Region signs was removed, at the direction of FHWA, during the early 1990s sign updates on I-95 between Wellesley and Reading.

[DSS5]

This is another local street (in Winston-Salem, NC) but a definite winner.

Not a politician or a sports figure (some kind of minister, so I've heard), but definitely pretentious.

[DTComposer]

Silicon Valley Boulevard in the southern part of San Jose. It's under a mile long, 10 miles from downtown, used mostly to access one office park and a bunch of residential neighborhoods, and is even further away from what most people consider the "heart" of Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale/Mountain View/Palo Alto).

[DSS5]

Silicon Valley Boulevard in the southern part of San Jose. It's under a mile long, 10 miles from downtown, used mostly to access one office park and a bunch of residential neighborhoods, and is even further away from what most people consider the "heart" of Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale/Mountain View/Palo Alto).

'Silicon Valley Boulevard' sounds more like it should be a main thoroughfare or even a freeway designation.

[kkt]

Silicon Valley Boulevard in the southern part of San Jose. It's under a mile long, 10 miles from downtown, used mostly to access one office park and a bunch of residential neighborhoods, and is even further away from what most people consider the "heart" of Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale/Mountain View/Palo Alto).

'Silicon Valley Boulevard' sounds more like it should be a main thoroughfare or even a freeway designation.

It would be a good nickname for El Camino.

[SteveG1988]

NJ Route 70, John Davison Rockefeller Memorial Highway, Memorial for a man who ran standard oil, which was ruled to be a trust and was broken up, but he was also heavily involved in Philanthropy.

So a road in NJ named for a rich guy from new york who ran Standard Oil

[DSS5]

NJ Route 70, John Davison Rockefeller Memorial Highway, Memorial for a man who ran standard oil, which was ruled to be a trust and was broken up, but he was also heavily involved in Philanthropy.

So a road in NJ named for a rich guy from new york who ran Standard Oil

Cleveland has a "Carnegie Avenue," named after a guy who made his fortune in Pittsburgh. That's about as incompatible as it gets.

[SteveG1988]

NJ Route 70, John Davison Rockefeller Memorial Highway, Memorial for a man who ran standard oil, which was ruled to be a trust and was broken up, but he was also heavily involved in Philanthropy.

So a road in NJ named for a rich guy from new york who ran Standard Oil

Cleveland has a "Carnegie Avenue," named after a guy who made his fortune in Pittsburgh. That's about as incompatible as it gets.

That's up there with the vince lombardi service plaza, guy not from NJ, barely did anything sports related in NJ, and then went to greatness elsewhere

[Mr_Northside]

Cleveland has a "Carnegie Avenue," named after a guy who made his fortune in Pittsburgh. That's about as incompatible as it gets.

It's quite possible that some of his philanthropic efforts made their way into Cleveland in some form.

[Pete from Boston]

(not counting any and all memorials to politicians or sports figures)

My nominee (which I just saw for the first time yesterday afternoon):  Greater Hazelton Chamber Of Commerce Beltway, which now adorns the signs on I-81 for Exit 141 in Hazelton, PA.  And the signs are in Clearview, which makes a bad idea even worse.

Just mentioned in another thread is possibly the most saccharine designation, Hazelton's "Can Do Expressway."  I stopped for a beer in Hazelton once and would have expected the bar to be full of positive civic boosters, but as it turns out, no.

[sbeaver44]

Not sure if it's still there with the recent roundabout constructed at WV 705 & US 119, but the right turn lane coming off WV 705 was the:

Neil E. Bolyard "Tippy" Buck Turning Lane

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=39.6439,-79.933906&spn=0.016787,0.042272&sll=41.117935,-77.604698&sspn=4.204125,10.821533&oq=Mileground&hnear=Mileground+Rd,+Morgantown,+West+Virginia&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=39.643963,-79.933983&panoid=ou_ffcir4W4U-YjX9Fmxnw&cbp=12,162.21,,0,0

[NE2]

Not sure if it's still there with the recent roundabout constructed at WV 705 & US 119, but the right turn lane coming off WV 705 was the:

Neil E. Bolyard "Tippy" Buck Turning Lane

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=39.6439,-79.933906&spn=0.016787,0.042272&sll=41.117935,-77.604698&sspn=4.204125,10.821533&oq=Mileground&hnear=Mileground+Rd,+Morgantown,+West+Virginia&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=39.643963,-79.933983&panoid=ou_ffcir4W4U-YjX9Fmxnw&cbp=12,162.21,,0,0

Holy shit. Which lane did he get?

[agentsteel53]

Neil E. Bolyard "Tippy" Buck

most pretentious personal names...

[sbeaver44]

Not sure if it's still there with the recent roundabout constructed at WV 705 & US 119, but the right turn lane coming off WV 705 was the:

Neil E. Bolyard "Tippy" Buck Turning Lane

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=39.6439,-79.933906&spn=0.016787,0.042272&sll=41.117935,-77.604698&sspn=4.204125,10.821533&oq=Mileground&hnear=Mileground+Rd,+Morgantown,+West+Virginia&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=39.643963,-79.933983&panoid=ou_ffcir4W4U-YjX9Fmxnw&cbp=12,162.21,,0,0

Holy shit. Which lane did he get?

I always assumed the right lane (both are really long turn lanes) because you had to turn into it rather than the left lane where you just went straight into it, but it could really go either way.

[NE2]

I always assumed the right lane (both are really long turn lanes) because you had to turn into it rather than the left lane where you just went straight into it, but it could really go either way.

Are you sure about that? It looks from aerials like both lanes go back all the way to the turn at Van Voorhis.