Your State's "Main Street"

[bing101]

CA-1 should also be nominated for California's main street though given the coastal scenic routes though that people ideally think of the Golden State.

[Max Rockatansky]

CA-1 should also be nominated for California's main street though given the coastal scenic routes though that people ideally think of the Golden State.

See the trouble is with 1 is that it isn't a viable transportation corridor generally for commerce.  Typically I would associate Calfornia not only with the Coast but he Gold Rush Country in the Sierras hence part of the reason I leaned more towards 99 since it is literally the middle ground of everything. 

[bing101]

CA-1 should also be nominated for California's main street though given the coastal scenic routes though that people ideally think of the Golden State.

See the trouble is with 1 is that it isn't a viable transportation corridor generally for commerce.  Typically I would associate Calfornia not only with the Coast but he Gold Rush Country in the Sierras hence part of the reason I leaned more towards 99 since it is literally the middle ground of everything.

True though

[bassoon1986]

Louisiana is a tough one, too, due to its shape. Arguments could be made for I-10 or US 90 for hitting the largest cities (outside of Shreveport) and being the most traveled.

My vote goes to LA 1. Longest route in Louisiana by far. It runs from the northwestern border (a tripoint) to one of the most southern points in the gulf. It serves north, central, and southern Louisiana, it just doesn't cross the Mississippi River. It doesn't quite get to Baton Rouge, but you can see the State Capitol, bridges, and LSU stadium.

The old Jefferson Highway May also be a good argument here. With that you get the entire state including NO, BR and Shreveport.


iPhone

[Ga293]

Historically, US 41 would have been the obvious choice for Georgia, but outside of local traffic it's been completely supplanted by I-75. As for today...I don't think I can come up with a single clear winner. Arguments could probably be made for US 19, US 80, US 23, US 27, maybe even US 129.

I'll go with US 80, the east-west route crossing the state at its widest point linking Columbus, Macon, and Savannah. Even the Macon-to-Savannah portion is reasonably independent of I-16.

If you're going to go with an east-west route, I think State Route 520 is the choice. Like US 80, it connects Columbus all the way to the beaches of the Atlantic, and its traffic hasn't been supplanted by interstates or state routes like US 80 has.

[roadfro]

Nevada is difficult to answer, given the way the population and travel patterns are spread out.

You could give it to US 40 historically. It literally was the main street for many northern Nevada towns until replaced by I-80 (the I-80 business route in many of these towns is historic US 40).

In a similar historical fashion, you could consider US 395 in western Nevada (which is mostly freeway alignment now and overlaps with I-580) and US 91 in southern Nevada (Las Vegas Blvd in the Las Vegas area, with the highway corridor being supplanted by I-15), but both of these only clip corners of the state.

If you consider only non-Interstates/Interstate-parallel routes and non-freeways, I think I'd have to give it to US 50 (the 4-ish miles overlapped on I-580 in Carson City not withstanding). It reaches across the state and is a main street in every town it traverses.

[TheArkansasRoadgeek]

Arkansas: State Highway 7 for sure.

AR 10 - in Greenwood is fastly becoming the strip of the city in the near future.

[kkt]

In CA it would most likely be the original alignment of US 99 from Los Angeles to at least Manteca, where the "Main St." concept would split west (on CA 120 and the final US 50 alignment to Oakland/San Francisco), or north on US 99 to Sacramento.  Today, of course, that's I-5 up to Wheeler Ridge and CA 99 to Manteca, with a CA 120/I-205/I-580/I-80 routing on the west branch to S.F., and CA 99 continuing north to Sacramento.  I suppose some might argue that once I-5 was completed in the Valley, the "main street" concept should be shifted there.  My counterargument is that CA 99 continues to be the primary connector between the various metro areas strung out along its length, serving a significantly larger population base than the Westside/I-5 alignment.  Maybe CA 99 could be considered the "main street", while I-5 is the corresponding metro bypass! 

I'll second 99 for California.  US 99 had such an impact on the state that it literally refused to die and lives on the longest non-Interstate Freeway.  I-5 definitely bypasses way too many important cities in Central California to take the title away.  I'd argue US 101 is even more of a Main Street than I-5. 

I wouldn't quibble with 99, but here's my case for US-101 (in both cases, I'm considering their "glory days" when they both ran border to border):

-US-101 approximates the route of the El Camino Real, which (for better or worse) precipitated Western settlement of the state via the Spanish missions;
-US-101 directly connects the two most historically significant (and best known) cities in the state - Los Angeles and San Francisco;
-US-101 directly connects the two industries most identified with California - Hollywood and Silicon Valley;
-At its peak, US-99 connected San Bernardino, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento, and Redding. At its peak, US-101 connected San Diego, Anaheim/Santa Ana, Long Beach (via US-101A), Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland (via US-101E or Alt), and Eureka. I'd argue the second list of cities carries more historical and cultural significance than the first list.
-When thinking of the physical features of California, US-101 has the Southern California beaches, spitting distance to the Big Sur coast, the Wine Country and the Redwoods. US-99 has the Mojave Desert, the Central Valley, and the Cascades (including Mt. Shasta). I'd argue the US-101 list is more "iconic" in this regard.

Again, I would be fine with 99, but if the stripped down argument is 101 hits San Diego and San Francisco, and 99 hits Sacramento, then I'll take 101.

I would support 101 over 99 as well.  99 is important, but 101 hits (and historically hit) more important cities.  A lot of what made 99 important was long-distance travel, especially trucking, which isn't really the main street's function.

[csw]

I think anything paralleled by an interstate can qualify historically, but not currently.

Any particular reason why?

We've established that one feature of a main street is that it is, well, an actual street, with at grade intersections and adjacent businesses and such.

Another feature of a main street is that it's busy/heavily used. Any roadway paralleled by an interstate probably met that criteria once upon a time (pre-interstate), but no longer does, due to all the traffic using the interstate. US 11 is a good example, as is US 20 west of Buffalo.

Those two features make picking one in Indiana difficult.  The three best candidates are the Old Michigan Road from Madison to Michigan City, the Old National Road from Richmond to Terre Haute, and US 31 from Jeffersonville to South Bend.  However, all three have had at least part of them paralleled by an interstate.

One that hasn't is the Lincoln Highway from Fort Wayne to Dyer, but it's hard to think of the Main Street of Indiana not passing through Indianapolis.

Indiana is tough. Any one of US 30, 40, or 50 are reasonable for an east-west road. North-south, US 31 or 41. As far as state routes go, I would pick IN 37 or 67. It's difficult because just about every US or state highway that connects major cities in Indiana has been made obsolete by an interstate.

[SD Mapman]

For South Dakota it used to be US 16, but now that doesn't hit the boring part of the state. Now maybe US 14? I don't even know if we have a "Main Street" anymore since everyone uses I-90 and I-29 to get anywhere.

[20160805]

For Wisconsin I'd go with US 41 - freeway for much of its length, and a very busy one at that.  It connects "up north" and cities like Green Bay and Appleton with Milwaukee and, past the border, Chicago and points farther south, intersects many other important highways of note, and doesn't seem to truly have a section where traffic is never an issue.

[roadman65]

Florida it is technically Florida's Turnpike.  However, though for the Atlantic Coastal Region from Miami to Jacksonville its I-95.  Then through SW Florida its I-75 serving Naples, Fort Myers, Punta Gorda, and Sarasota.  Central Florida its I-4.

In NJ it would be the Turnpike for through N-S Eastern Seaboard Traffic, but locally its the Parkway serving the North Jersey metro area and the shore regions.  For businesses its I-287 as from its southern terminus to Parsippany- Troy Hills the roadway has many corporate business parks along the freeway being homes to many large and regional corporations including companies like AT & T and others that make it a commuter highway for thousands of employees.

[mrsman]

I don't think anyone has mentioned MD yet:

US 40 is the clear winner.  It follows the main routing from Baltimore to Philadelphia that I-95 now parallels.  Old sections of old US 40 are known as Philadelphia Rd - MD 7.  It passes through Aberdeen, Perryville, and Elkton, which are bigger than the cities US 1 passes through.  US 40 is generally 4 lanes, while US 1 is generally 2 lanes.

To the west of Baltimore, it also forms part of the National Road and passes through the entire length of the state to western Maryland.  Frederick, Hagerstown, Cumberland are all along the way here.  I-70 basically parallels the route, and some portions they are routed together.  The old sections are MD 144.