Street names that suggest greater aspirations?

[Quillz]

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.

[hotdogPi]

There's the Circumferential Highway in Nashua NH, which is a 1.5-mile straight line.

[Max Rockatansky]

Main Street in Fresno exists as a connecting driveway from O Street to the parking facility for the Robert E Coyle Federal Building. 

[Scott5114]

Gary Freeway in Clinton OK is not a freeway and was never planned to be one. It's just a four-lane street.

[tigerwings]

Lenawee County Michigan calls all their north-south county roads highways, east-west are roads.

[SectorZ]

There's the Circumferential Highway in Nashua NH, which is a 1.5-mile straight line.

The locals call it Circumcision Highway.

[fillup420]

Northern Durham Parkway 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.

[1995hoo]

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

[dantheman]

Bicentennial Highway 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.

[JMoses24]

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.

[tmoore952]

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.

[MATraveler128]

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?

[hotdogPi]

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.

[Big John]

Bridge St in Green Bay - narrow 2-block industrial road with no bridges on it.

[tallfull]

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).

[Bruce]

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.

[GaryV]

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.

[wanderer2575]

Metro Detroit has Coolidge Highway, which is just another undivided arterial road.

[Mapmikey]

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.

[KCRoadFan]

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.

[Bitmapped]

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.

[tmoore952]

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.

[Techknow]

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

[CapeCodder]

Metro Detroit has Coolidge Highway, which is just another undivided arterial road.

Vernor Hwy as well

[Quillz]

I've always liked "International Road" by LAX. Despite the name, it does not lead you to either Canada or Mexico.