Streets and highways with similar names confusingly close to each other

[agentsteel53]

according to an old GPS of mine, the frontage road to Pacific Highway in San Diego is Pacific Hwy.

good grief.

there's also two Morena Blvds, one of which is technically W. Morena Blvd, but it's signed as such with anything resembling consistency.  one is the bypass of the other - I believe both are 101 alignments from back in the day.

[NE2]

according to an old GPS of mine, the frontage road to Pacific Highway in San Diego is Pacific Hwy.

What's wrong with this? Frontage roads are often named the same as the main lanes, since an address isn't going to exist on both in the same place.

[mrsman]

Beverly Blvd is a main E-W thoroughfare in Los Angeles from the Downtown Area to Beverly Hills.  Beverly Drive is a N-S street through the heart of Beverly Hills and parts of Los Angeles.  Beverly Blvd ends about half a mile from Beverly Drive.

Another confusion is that there are two San Vicente Blvds in LA that are both major streets.  I beleive that they were connected long ago, but are now disjointed and might as well be separate streets, except that they share the same name.

Probably a worse confusion occurs in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles:  Normandie Avenue is a relatively important N-S street throughout Los Angeles.  North of Olympic, Irolo Street splits from Normandie on the west.  The major traffic follows Irolo, not Normandie.  Normandie is a relatively small street from Irolo until it ends at 7th Street, 4 blocks to the north.  Irolo then changes its name to Normandie just south of Wilshire.  So in other words, if you wanted to travel down the main N-S street between Vermont and Western, take Normandie.  But if you're traveling on 7th, 8th or 9th, don't take Normandie, take Irolo instead, which will then lead you to Normandie.

Crescent Heights Blvd does something similar (changing its name to Mc Carthy Vista and Carrillo between Olympic and Wilshire), but at least there is no parallel small Crescent Heights to further confuse the driving public.

[mrsman]

Another confusion I note in the DC area is Beach Drive.  This is essentially the northern extension of the Rock Creek Parkway.  Its a major thoroughfare to head north from Downtown DC.  It is very twisty and its only one lane in each direction, but because it has few lights, it is a popular commuter corridor.  It is also closed on weekends to autos, so I very rarely get a chance to drive it.  (I take Metro to work on weekdays.) 

Beach Drive is very poorly marked.  It seems easy to exit on a side street too early.

The most confusing thing about Beach Drive is at its north end approaching Maryland.  There is a fork in the road where you can go NW to continue on Beach Drive or go NE to continue on West Beach Drive.  Yes, West Beach Drive is east of Beach Drive.  For Silver Spring, take West Beach Drive to Kalmia to East Beach Drive to Portal Drive to 16th Street.  For Lyttonsville, take West Beach Drive to Primrose which become Grubb Lane.  For Kensington continue on Beach Drive.

At East-West Highway, Beach Drive becomes Jones Mill Rd.  Jones Mill intersects Jones Bridge.  Most of the traffic from Jones Mill turns on Jones Bridge, but if you want Beach Drive continue on Jones Mill.  Jones Mill changes its name to Stoneybrook just before crossing under the Beltway.  Continue north on Stoneybrook to reach the Mormon Temple or make a quick left after the Beltway to continue on Beach Drive towards Garrett Park.

Its almost as difficult as following Sheridan Road in Chicago.

[Eth]

The most confusing thing about Beach Drive is at its north end approaching Maryland.  There is a fork in the road where you can go NW to continue on Beach Drive or go NE to continue on West Beach Drive.  Yes, West Beach Drive is east of Beach Drive.

This reminds me of a situation in Atlanta: Peachtree Street (which has likely been mentioned earlier in this thread) is paralleled a block or so to the west by West Peachtree Street. Past 14th Street going north, Peachtree turns to the west, and West Peachtree is absorbed into it around 19th. A short while later, Peachtree turns west again, and another short segment of West Peachtree appears - to the east of Peachtree. Looking at a map, you can easily see that both segments are on the same north-south line, but it's a little less than intuitive.

[US71]

Springfield, MO has Grant and Grand.

[bzakharin]

The most confusing thing about Beach Drive is at its north end approaching Maryland.  There is a fork in the road where you can go NW to continue on Beach Drive or go NE to continue on West Beach Drive.  Yes, West Beach Drive is east of Beach Drive.

This reminds me of a situation in Atlanta: Peachtree Street (which has likely been mentioned earlier in this thread) is paralleled a block or so to the west by West Peachtree Street. Past 14th Street going north, Peachtree turns to the west, and West Peachtree is absorbed into it around 19th. A short while later, Peachtree turns west again, and another short segment of West Peachtree appears - to the east of Peachtree. Looking at a map, you can easily see that both segments are on the same north-south line, but it's a little less than intuitive.

Having discontinuous segments of the same street on either side of continues streets is fairly common in cities with grid systems, although most of them are not named similarly. And sometimes continuous streets change their names very unintuitively to accommodate curves within the grid. In Philadelphia, Spruce Street becomes South street as you enter Center City from the West, while another Spruce Street appears north of it.

Even worse is 34th Street which, if you follow it from south to north manages to become 38th Street (there is a short portion in between under a different name) with another 34th Street eventually appearing 4 blocks away (the two intersect, but neither of them is 34th street at the point of intersection, so it's not like you would know to turn onto it).

[jbnv]

Lafayette, LA:

* College Rd. and Coolidge Blvd., which intersect at an obtuse angle, making for an interesting street sign placement.

* Evangeline Thruway (a major road) and Evangeline St. (a minor neighborhood road).

* Plenty of cases of multiple cardinal directions, with duplicated address numbers, for the same road. University Avenue has East, West and North segments.

* A Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., and an arterial road that was designated the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Parkway because racial politics.

The I-12 exit for LA 59 has trailblazers pointing the way to Interstate 59, which is several miles to the east.

On I-10 in Vidor, TX, near the exit for FM 105, there is an advance sign for TX-105, which is 10 miles further to the west.

[TheStranger]

At the start of Point Lobos Avenue in San Francisco, there's a portion of road parallel to Geary Boulevard that should logically be part of Point Lobos, but is instead marked as part of Geary (alongside the main alignment)!

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Point+Lobos+Avenue,+San+Francisco&hl=en&ll=37.779549,-122.502462&spn=0.001518,0.002004&sll=37.269174,-119.306607&sspn=12.440158,16.413574&hnear=Point+Lobos+Ave,+San+Francisco&t=m&z=19

[Road Hog]

Plano, TX has three major east-west thoroughfares in order from north to south: Park, Parker, and Plano Parkway.

And there is the often-mentioned FM 121 that crosses US 75 just a few miles north of SH 121.

[MikeTheActuary]

From my neighborhood

Note the name of the non-freeway portion of CT 20 and the arterial street to the south.

[bing101]

Alta Arden Expressway and Arden in Sacramento sound similar.

[kurumi]

From my neighborhood

Note the name of the non-freeway portion of CT 20 and the arterial street to the south.

(Derail: what's the deal with the roundabouts not at intersections? Saw one on [southern] Rainbow Road and International Drive.)

[agentsteel53]

according to an old GPS of mine, the frontage road to Pacific Highway in San Diego is Pacific Hwy.

What's wrong with this? Frontage roads are often named the same as the main lanes, since an address isn't going to exist on both in the same place.

innately, nothing.  except the GPS was fussy, and attempting to search on Pacific Highway failed - one had to know that the GPS accepted Hwy, and only Hwy.

I think officially the frontage road is named "Pacific Highway Frontage Road".  in any case, the GPS failed gracelessly for sure.

[MikeTheActuary]

From my neighborhood

Note the name of the non-freeway portion of CT 20 and the arterial street to the south.

(Derail: what's the deal with the roundabouts not at intersections? Saw one on [southern] Rainbow Road and International Drive.)

I think of them as "horizontal speed bumps". 

In all seriousness, International Drive is host to an industrial park that has a lot of truck traffic.  Before the roundabouts went in, there were many 18 wheelers traveling the southern Rainbow Rd. between Hamilton Rd. and International to access the south side of the industrial district.  East of the Rainbow Rd. roundabout, Rainbow becomes a residential arterial, with poor sightlines in places, no sidewalks or bike lanes, and quite a bit of pedestrian and bike traffic during daylight hours.  Speed limit is posted as 30; semis were blowing through at 45+, and even folks who don't have NIMBY knee-jerk syndrome (e.g., me -- I have a blind driveway on Rainbow) knew it was a tragedy waiting to happen.

The roundabouts were put in as part of a traffic-calming strategy, to create a barrier of a sort to suggest to truckers that Route 20 would be more appropriate to use.   The traffic calming by itself didn't really work (as evidenced by the number of tire tracks going through the roundabout centers, until posts and vegetation were installed), but it does seem to have tripped something in the logic of major nav systems; at least my GPS apps quit wanting to route down the residential arterial after the roundabout was picked up in updated maps.

I'm not positive, but I believe that the roundabout on International Drive, although framed as a traffic-calming item, has an additional purpose: the neighboring Town of East Granby required it as a condition to not fighting rezoning for one of the parcels in the industrial park.

If they were merely decorative or intended as speed-control obstructions, the roundabouts would be pretty annoying.  However, as devices to divert long-distance trucks away from residential streets, they seem to make sense and mostly work, and they were less intrusive or obnoxious and easier to implement than some of the alternatives my neighbors suggested.

[wisvishr0]

Not only does DC have a Quadrant system with repeating streets, but it also has repeating streets within quadrants. For example, Macomb St. NW connects MacArthur Blvd with Potomac Avenue (NW), but it also has an unrelated section that connects Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenues, both in NW. It also has a section in the middle.

Actually, they seem to be related: if you see the map, the  Macombs have Cathedrals and Klingles below them, which are indeed "extensions" of the other over creeks or streams. I tried connecting the streets as though they were continuous with the dots.



But they are a source of confusion.

[PHLBOS]

In both Peabody & Lynn, MA; there are two different roads both named Lynnfield St.; one of which crosses into Lynn and becomes Salem St.  Which, coincidentally, intersects with the other Lynnfield St. (MA 129) at Goodwin's Circle.

[1995hoo]

Not only does DC have a Quadrant system with repeating streets, but it also has repeating streets within quadrants. For example, Macomb St. NW connects MacArthur Blvd with Potomac Avenue (NW), but it also has an unrelated section that connects Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenues, both in NW. It also has a section in the middle.

Actually, they seem to be related: if you see the map, the  Macombs have Cathedrals and Klingles below them, which are indeed "extensions" of the other over creeks or streams. I tried connecting the streets as though they were continuous with the dots.

(image removed)

But they are a source of confusion.

Arlington County, Virginia, is similar. It doesn't use the quadrants but does have a "North" or "South" designator depending on which side of US-50 you're on. East—west streets are numbered, with the numbering ascending as you move away from Route 50 (so First Street North is close to Route 50). However, the numbered streets are often not thru streets and the same number will pick up again some distance away in order to maintain the same grid. However, sometimes an additional number is needed and they then re-use the same number as a "Road" (and then, if yet another is needed, as a "Place"). For example, Alex Ovechkin used to live on 16th Street North. The next block north of his old house is 16th Road North, and then after that you hit 17th Street North. Then you have the north—south streets. Those start at the Potomac and work west in alphabetical order–except for each letter of the alphabet there are only a very few names authorized per "alphabet," and the "alphabets" consist of one-syllable, two-syllable, three-syllable, and four-syllable words in sequence (although Arizona Street is the only four-syllable name and it's so microscopic it doesn't show up on most maps because the City of Falls Church, which surrounds Arlington on either side there, calls it Meridian Street–Google Maps won't recognize the name Arizona Street, for example). The use of minimal names per "alphabet" leads to confusing situations where there can be five or six different streets scattered around the county with the same name–I think I worked out once that there are six different Buchanan Streets and none of them connect to each other. This was a real problem prior to sat-navs and mapping software if you forgot to ask "which Buchanan Street" the hot girl in your dorm lived on.....

[cl94]

Buffalo, NY has 3 French Roads, all of which intersect NY 78/ Transit Rd within a 15 mile stretch. There's one in southern Cheektowaga, one in nkrthern Cheektowaga and Depew, and then there's (North) French Road in Amherst. Two of them have an almost identical assortment of stores at or near the intersection, adding to the confusion. There's also a William Street in Buffalo/Cheektowaga and one in Lancaster.

[right_said_ted]

I humbly submit the corner of McMicken and McMillan in Cincinnati

http://goo.gl/maps/Ca6rq

They're both "West", and if that weren't confusing enough, at this corner they're both marked as Streets, even though McMicken is really an Avenue

Oh and I almost forgot, this intersection isn't too far from Central Avenue and Central Parkway, which run parallel about a block apart from each other

[BakoCondors]

A couple here in Bakersfield, CA:

Olive Drive and Olive Street. Olive Dr is a major E-W thoroughfare in northwest Bakersfield (CA-99 exit 28) that originated as a county road; Olive Street is a quaint little N-S drive () in the downtown "tree" streets. Many of Bakersfield's oldest and most historic homes are located there.

Panama Lane and Panama Road: Panama Lane is another major city thoroughfare, running E-W through south and southwest Bako (CA-99 exit 18). Running parallel to and two miles south of Panama Lane is Panama Road. West of Union Avenue (old US-99), it's CA-119 Taft Highway (formerly US-399) so there's no conflict in the city but east of Union, the two Panama's coexist to confuse unsuspecting farm workers and truck drivers new to the area.

Stine Road and New Stine Road: City arterial Stine Road runs N-S then splits. New Stine is a sort-of 1960's western bypass of Stine, Stine becoming residential while New Stine continues Stine's arterial character. The kicker is, the arterial road changes from Stine to New Stine at a minor intersection and the residential remainder of Stine is discontinuous from the arterial.

[Bruce]

The exit numbering of I-5 and street grid of Shoreline nearly align at exits 175/176, the latter being NE 175th Street. Exit signs can be confusing at first glance

[mrsman]

Not only does DC have a Quadrant system with repeating streets, but it also has repeating streets within quadrants. For example, Macomb St. NW connects MacArthur Blvd with Potomac Avenue (NW), but it also has an unrelated section that connects Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenues, both in NW. It also has a section in the middle.

Actually, they seem to be related: if you see the map, the  Macombs have Cathedrals and Klingles below them, which are indeed "extensions" of the other over creeks or streams. I tried connecting the streets as though they were continuous with the dots.



But they are a source of confusion.

It might be confusing for some people, but I don't consider it confusing, because there are many cities that have streets that start and stop, yet retain their same name throughout.  Chicago and Los Angeles come to mind immediately having many similar examples.  You're right though that if someone were driving Macomb Street, they might not find their address without having to detour off the street and coming back on because of the breaks in the street.  But the fact that DC streets are alphabetical is very helpful.

[doorknob60]

In the Nampa/Caldwell area, there are three North-South arterials within about 2 miles with these genius names (from West to East): Midway Rd, Middleton Rd, and Midland Blvd. It's like they were trying to confuse people. Take a look for yourself:


In Bend, when they built the Bend Parkway (current US-97), the parts of the former route (now Business US-97) that aren't considered 3rd St. are legally called "Highway 97". For example, the address of the Fred Meyer is "61535 S Hwy 97", even though it is not on the mainline US-97 at all. The two roads parallel each other within a half mile of each other the entire way through Bend. Also, long time Bend residents tend to call the old section "Highway 97" and the new section "The Parkway", while newer residents will call anything along Business 97 "3rd St." even if it's not technically 3rd St. in the grid. If you hear the phrase "Highway 97" in Bend, you have no idea what they're talking about without additional clarification or context clues.

[Duke87]

This thread has gone surprisingly long without someone mentioning this infamous example.

60th Street, 60th Place, 60th Lane, 60th Avenue, 60th Road, 60th Drive, and 60th Court. Each intersects at least one of the others. "The corner of 60th and 60th" could mean any of nine different intersections.

This is Queens street numbering at its finest.