"Wasted" road names

[DTComposer]

Silicon Valley Boulevard is a renamed half-mile stretch of Bernal Road between US-101 and Helleyer Avenue in southern San Jose. The road accesses a couple of industrial parks, but no notable tech firms are located there, and it is on the far southern edge of the valley, 8 miles south of downtown San Jose, and 10 miles or more from any of the real well-known tech firms (Intel, Apple, Google, etc.).

For such a well-known and important economic region, an eponymous road name like that should have a much more prominent route (compare to, say, Hollywood Boulevard, Pacific Coast Highway, etc.). For example, Alma Street/Central Expressway/De La Cruz Boulevard/Coleman Avenue connects downtown Palo Alto to downtown San Jose, passes through Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara, would get you within spitting distance of many of the major players in the industry, and thus would be a much more apropos route to get the "Silicon Valley" moniker.

Are there other examples of road names that are "wasted" in this manner?

[hotdogPi]

In my area, there are a lot of streets named after nearby towns. I find the ones that are dead ends to be a bit ridiculous, with the exception of theme naming such as what Seabrook NH has.

[Max Rockatansky]

Broadway in Fresno used to a road befitting of that name as US 99.  Since US 99 was moved onto the Golden State Freeway the route on Broadway was butchered and gapped by; offices, parking lots and a baseball field.  The city does its best to try to convince everyone that Fulton Street was the real Main Street off the city when it really was just the street a block east of Broadway. 

[Bruce]

It's especially bad for streets named after the city they are in.

Seattle Street is just a short 1,500-foot residential street in West Seattle, and its grid equivalent is "Grand Street", which is just as pointless for a prominent name.

[Big John]

Or the state it is in.  Wisconsin Ave in Green Bay is a short dead-end street leading to the bayshore, and parallels other short state-named streets.

[GenExpwy]

I find it strange that the Genesee Streets in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica (none of which have the Genesee River) are among those cities' major thoroughfares – while Genesee Street in Rochester (where the Genesee River actually is) is a middling neighborhood street.

[GaryV]

Main Street is not the "main" street in Sturgis, MI.  I'm sure there may be other examples of the same thing.

[webny99]

I find it strange that the Genesee Streets in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica (none of which have the Genesee River) are among those cities' major thoroughfares – while Genesee Street in Rochester (where the Genesee River actually is) is a middling neighborhood street.

Interesting! Never thought of that before!

There seems to be a trend, too: Syracuse and Albany both have (at least somewhat) prominent Erie Blvd's, while Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie, has no such thing, just an Erie St that's hardly a mile long.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Main St. in Duluth is a short three-block road on the west side of town. The city's actual "Main Street" has the very fitting name of Superior Street.

[roadman65]

Radebaugh Way in Orlando, FL was wasted.  It was given to the part of Americana Blvd when it got ripped up west of John Young Parkway to build the Millenia Complex including the Mall.  Back when Americana was a two lane rural road it ended at I-4 where it turned 45 degrees to pass under the underpass of I-4 to end at Vineland Road.  So Tropical Trail was just a pavement under I-4 really and nothing else.  It used to confuse people in the pre GPS days as when looking for Americana Blvd they could not find it along Vineland Road.  So that was wasted and the fact that after Millenia Blvd. was constructed where it now ends at the east end of the underpass, the name Tropical Trail was not so wasted, but like NE 2 once said it was the nanme of the landowner that Radebaugh is so its obvious that some deal was made, though it would have been nice to see Tropical Trail be an actual non wasted name.

I have said it before, but Altamonte Springs, FL has SR 436 given the name Altamonte Drive considering the rest of the communities along SR 436 call the state highway "Semoran Blvd." in both counties SR 436 is designated.   First of all why use your own name to name a street when community names are usually used for roads outside the city, and mostly for roads leading to the namesake city (hence Hanover Rd. in Gettysburg, PA leading out of Gettysburg to Hanover, and Archer Road in Gainesville, FL heading to Archer etc).  It should be Semoran for continuity purposes there but Altamonte wants to be different and waste a name there.

Any road named after a person still alive and one politically motivated to do so as well as one named after a private citizen who has money to influence.  One road in Orlando which I will not say and  also a road that replaced Old Dixie Highway on CR 811 in Palm Beach County given its replacement name of a controversial politician.  This whole concept is not so good of naming after the living any type of road or building including Reagan National Airport by Bill Clinton when Ronald died in 2004 after Clinton left office.

[1995hoo]

North Arizona Street in Arlington, Virginia. It's only about 66 feet long–the road is named Meridian Street in Fairfax County and Falls Church, but Arlington's minuscule segment gets a different name to fit their street-naming system in which that location has to fall within the four-syllable alphabet. But North Arizona Street is the only one in the four-syllable alphabet, so you'd think it'd be logical just to make it Meridian Street (which is also four syllables).

[Rothman]

I find it strange that the Genesee Streets in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica (none of which have the Genesee River) are among those cities' major thoroughfares – while Genesee Street in Rochester (where the Genesee River actually is) is a middling neighborhood street.

Interesting! Never thought of that before!

There seems to be a trend, too: Syracuse and Albany both have (at least somewhat) prominent Erie Blvd's, while Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie, has no such thing, just an Erie St that's hardly a mile long.

Erie Blvd in Albany really isn't that prominent, either.

[US71]

Fort Smith has Ingersoll Ave, but Ingersoll-Rand left town years ago.

[X99]

I'll add my own entry: Rapid Street in Rapid City, South Dakota is about a thousand feet long. Box Elder Road in Box Elder is a service road providing driveway and business access on the north side of the overly-wide former routing of US 14 and 16. (And for nearly its entire length, it's labeled as West Box Elder Road, but there is no sign of an East Box Elder Road anywhere in the area.)

Fort Smith has Ingersoll Ave, but Ingersoll-Rand left town years ago.

That's different. That road used to have a purpose. The rest of the roads in this thread never did.

[vdeane]

I find it strange that the Genesee Streets in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica (none of which have the Genesee River) are among those cities' major thoroughfares – while Genesee Street in Rochester (where the Genesee River actually is) is a middling neighborhood street.

Interesting! Never thought of that before!

There seems to be a trend, too: Syracuse and Albany both have (at least somewhat) prominent Erie Blvd's, while Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie, has no such thing, just an Erie St that's hardly a mile long.

Erie Blvd in Albany really isn't that prominent, either.

I'd go so far as to say that Albany's Erie Blvd has more in common with Rochester's Genesee St than Syracuse's Erie Blvd.

Meanwhile, Main St in Troy is only a couple blocks long and traverses an industrial area on the outskirts of the city leading up to the jail.

[roadman65]

How about subdivision entranceways that have a street name for it that is only less than 100 feet long and directly across an intersection from another named street.  Battles Boulevard in Orlando directly across from Deerfield Blvd at John Young Parkway.  It might as well be called Deerfield Boulevard as no businesses or homes are on Battles Boulevard which is very short and a connector really.

Then Stable Drive is not even a street as its just some name given to allow a traffic signal there to use a name instead of the word shopping center on the signal's street blade.

How about apartment complexes that give out a name for mailing address where no such road is even there that use an actual street name.  Why not use the apartment number and name of complex instead of using a fake street?  Even with Westgate Lakes Timeshare Resort in Orlando has names that owner David Seigel came up with to give an address for his different buildings instead of just using 10, 000 Turkey Lake Road which is what the previous owner Sonesta Villa Resort used for the entire resort. 

[GenExpwy]

I find it strange that the Genesee Streets in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica (none of which have the Genesee River) are among those cities' major thoroughfares – while Genesee Street in Rochester (where the Genesee River actually is) is a middling neighborhood street.

Interesting! Never thought of that before!

There seems to be a trend, too: Syracuse and Albany both have (at least somewhat) prominent Erie Blvd's, while Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie, has no such thing, just an Erie St that's hardly a mile long.

I suspect Erie Blvd. in Syracuse might be named for the canal, not (directly) for the lake.

[DandyDan]

Main Street is not the "main" street in Sturgis, MI.  I'm sure there may be other examples of the same thing.

Main Street in Bellevue, NE is mostly a residential street perpendicular to Mission Avenue, which is the main street through downtown Bellevue.

Or the state it is in.  Wisconsin Ave in Green Bay is a short dead-end street leading to the bayshore, and parallels other short state-named streets.

Iowa Avenue here in Mason City is way out on the east edge of town and has a farm and a business on it. It should be said that from Federal Avenue eastward, the streets are the states in increasing order of admission to the union, and since Iowa is later, that's how that happened.

[Rothman]

I find it strange that the Genesee Streets in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica (none of which have the Genesee River) are among those cities' major thoroughfares – while Genesee Street in Rochester (where the Genesee River actually is) is a middling neighborhood street.

Interesting! Never thought of that before!

There seems to be a trend, too: Syracuse and Albany both have (at least somewhat) prominent Erie Blvd's, while Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie, has no such thing, just an Erie St that's hardly a mile long.

I suspect Erie Blvd. in Syracuse might be named for the canal, not (directly) for the lake.

That is true for many streets named Erie in Upstate NY.  In fact, some of the streets are on top of the fill of older sections of the canal (I believe portions of Schenectady's Erie fits this bill).

[formulanone]

Radebaugh Way in Orlando, FL was wasted...

I think you missed the point of the thread; it's about when what might seem to be an important road name is used on a minor road or residential street. There's going to be short roads and routes everywhere, just as often as you have to bite your tongue, while telling us all "hey, I'm biting my tongue".

Not sure how many visitors are wondering who "Radebaugh" is (and it's probably a really low number for those who don't have the same surname), but probably wondering why there isn't a major "Florida Boulevard" or "Orlando Street". Frankly, those two would be pointless names in a large enough metro area, but wouldn't seem out of place in a city of say...30,000 people.

When I moved to Huntsville, I thought it was odd that Heart of Huntsville Drive went though the heart of...well, nothing at all. As it turned out, there was a mall of the same name which was open for about 40 years, but demolished in 2007, with the site entirely vacant until a hotel was built two years ago. Seemed like a wasted name to me until I'd learned of its history.

Or the state it is in.  Wisconsin Ave in Green Bay is a short dead-end street leading to the bayshore, and parallels other short state-named streets.

Yeah, I typically imagine that [State Street/Avenue] in [Town of Same State] would at least lead to something a traveler might need to find, but usually winds up in a residential neighborhood or minor side street sandwiched between many others.

Or the major road/route isn't named for what you think it might be; one example is Florida Boulevard in Baton Rouge, Louisiana which carries US 190. You'd figure that it would be called "Louisiana Boulevard", but it might be a nod to the former Republic of West Florida, since few other state names appear on parallel or nearby streets.

[vdeane]

I find it strange that the Genesee Streets in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica (none of which have the Genesee River) are among those cities' major thoroughfares – while Genesee Street in Rochester (where the Genesee River actually is) is a middling neighborhood street.

Interesting! Never thought of that before!

There seems to be a trend, too: Syracuse and Albany both have (at least somewhat) prominent Erie Blvd's, while Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie, has no such thing, just an Erie St that's hardly a mile long.

I suspect Erie Blvd. in Syracuse might be named for the canal, not (directly) for the lake.

That is true for many streets named Erie in Upstate NY.  In fact, some of the streets are on top of the fill of older sections of the canal (I believe portions of Schenectady's Erie fits this bill).

I think the Syracuse one is over the old canal; they're building the Empire State Trail right down the median of it.  Now that you mention the Schenectady one, I wonder if that's the one webny99 was thinking of when he said "Albany".

[US 89]

Salt Lake City does have a "Utah Street", but it is a small, short residential road on the west side of the city.

[Rothman]

I find it strange that the Genesee Streets in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica (none of which have the Genesee River) are among those cities' major thoroughfares – while Genesee Street in Rochester (where the Genesee River actually is) is a middling neighborhood street.

Interesting! Never thought of that before!

There seems to be a trend, too: Syracuse and Albany both have (at least somewhat) prominent Erie Blvd's, while Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie, has no such thing, just an Erie St that's hardly a mile long.

I suspect Erie Blvd. in Syracuse might be named for the canal, not (directly) for the lake.

That is true for many streets named Erie in Upstate NY.  In fact, some of the streets are on top of the fill of older sections of the canal (I believe portions of Schenectady's Erie fits this bill).

I think the Syracuse one is over the old canal; they're building the Empire State Trail right down the median of it.  Now that you mention the Schenectady one, I wonder if that's the one webny99 was thinking of when he said "Albany".

Then again, the Erie Blvd in Schenectady is kind of prominent, too.

[webny99]

I find it strange that the Genesee Streets in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica (none of which have the Genesee River) are among those cities' major thoroughfares – while Genesee Street in Rochester (where the Genesee River actually is) is a middling neighborhood street.

Interesting! Never thought of that before!

There seems to be a trend, too: Syracuse and Albany both have (at least somewhat) prominent Erie Blvd's, while Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie, has no such thing, just an Erie St that's hardly a mile long.

I suspect Erie Blvd. in Syracuse might be named for the canal, not (directly) for the lake.

That is true for many streets named Erie in Upstate NY.  In fact, some of the streets are on top of the fill of older sections of the canal (I believe portions of Schenectady's Erie fits this bill).

I think the Syracuse one is over the old canal; they're building the Empire State Trail right down the median of it.  Now that you mention the Schenectady one, I wonder if that's the one webny99 was thinking of when he said "Albany".

I actually completely forgot about the Erie Canal in this regard. I just started thinking about major lakes/rivers and remembered that Syracuse has a major Erie Blvd., while Buffalo lacks one.

As a double check, I typed "Erie Blvd" in to Google Maps. "Erie Blvd - Albany" came up as the second after Syracuse, so I tossed it into my post without even looking to see how prominent it was - bad idea! 

(I was not even aware until now that Schenectady has an Erie Blvd, but it is among the first options to come up in a search.)

[bulldog1979]

Main Street in Marquette, Michigan, is only three blocks long. It parallels what is the true main street of downtown, Washington Street, and what was originally intended to be the primary street, Baraga Avenue.