Most useless US Highway?

[Scott5114]

^This. You can't tell me that every one of the highways I listed needs a US route number or isn't necessary. just because its "distinct" 

I can. I did.

[kenarmy]

Every one of these useless routes everyone named are distinct  , but I guess Scott. Anyway,
- 73 and 159
- US 87. It's concurrent with interstates for over 750 (!) miles and it's not signed for a lot of the way. North of Billings it takes a rough route.The only important part is in Texas, but when I-27 eventually gets finished..

[Avalanchez71]

US 641, to me, is the textbook example.

I would agree even with the extension to US 64.  US 641 was truncated on the northern end and then decades later extended on the southern end.

[SkyPesos]

- US 59/69/71/73/75/77 and 159. 159 doesn't even do its job now. But those other routes are literally too close together! I get these mixed up so I can't even go into detail.

Some of those you mentioned have freeway sections:
US 59: TX, will probably get replaced by I-69/I-369 in the future. Also part of the fastest route from most places in the Midwest and Northeast to Houston.
US 69: OK and KS, not sure how used the freeway section south of the KC metro area is used in KS, but south of I-44 in OK, it's one of the two primary options for St. Louis-Dallas traffic (the other is I-30/US 67 via Little Rock).
US 75: TX and OK, specifically from Dallas to where it meets US 69
You also mentioned US 169 in another post: It's a freeway in KC and Minneapolis.

Side note: Why does US 69 in OK not have bypasses around the towns it pass through? If it was in MO, OH or most other states, a bypass would've been constructed since day 1 of the freeway upgrade. Seems dangerous going from freeway speed to a main downtown street. Seems like US 67 may be faster for STL-DFW in the future once the freeway section between Walnut Ridge and Poplar Bluff gets built.

[SEWIGuy]

All of the corridors you mentioned have distinct uses.

Even 159?

^This. You can't tell me that every one of the highways I listed needs a US route number or isn't necessary. just because its "distinct"  You could say 73 is distinct, but do we realllyy need it? Does it being distinct make it useful? Not really, especially when there's a faster route between it's terminuses.

Most people don't use highways to their terminuses.  That's a wrong way of looking at it.  The question is does the corridor deserve a state highway designation.  And if it does, a US Highway is simply a state highway with a common numbering scheme.

[kenarmy]

All of the corridors you mentioned have distinct uses.

Even 159?

^This. You can't tell me that every one of the highways I listed needs a US route number or isn't necessary. just because its "distinct"  You could say 73 is distinct, but do we realllyy need it? Does it being distinct make it useful? Not really, especially when there's a faster route between it's terminuses.

Most people don't use highways to their terminuses.  That's a wrong way of looking at it.  The question is does the corridor deserve a state highway designation.  And if it does, a US Highway is simply a state highway with a common numbering scheme.

True, but 73 is really short and rural.

[jp the roadgeek]

Didn't Alanland get started by putting it in the middle of a list of other countries?

How dare you mention that place by name?   Goat Jesus forbids and allows that.

None of them are useless.

Unless you're FritzOwl, then they're all useless.

[kphoger]

Goat Jesus forbids and allows that.

Close, but not quite accurate.

He forbids it where allowed but allows it to be forbidden where not forbidden to be allowed to be forbidden but.

[Scott5114]

You also mentioned US 169 in another post: It's a freeway in KC and Minneapolis.

And Tulsa.

US-77, which was also mentioned, is a major freeway in Oklahoma City, as well.

Side note: Why does US 69 in OK not have bypasses around the towns it pass through? If it was in MO, OH or most other states, a bypass would've been constructed since day 1 of the freeway upgrade. Seems dangerous going from freeway speed to a main downtown street. Seems like US 67 may be faster for STL-DFW in the future once the freeway section between Walnut Ridge and Poplar Bluff gets built.

Local opponents in the towns, who are convinced that without the traffic nobody will visit their businesses and the towns will die off. Basically the Breezewood effect. In most other states, this doesn't work because the DOT has the resources and political capital to wait them out. ODOT is chronically underfunded, so when opposition appears, they shrug and shift the funding to some town that actually wants it.

Visit the Muskogee bypass thread in the Central States forum to watch the forum react in real time to the most latest instance of this.

[silverback1065]

us 730

[Tom958]

US 311. 

[kenarmy]

in before these get dismissed for being "distinct":
US 340. what's the purpose of this? It parallels US 11 and I-81 until Maryland. no literally what is it..

US 16. US 14 and I-90 make this route look pretty worthless. It could easily be a rerouted 14, 14 alt, or even a branch of 14.

US 212. US 12 and I-94 are both faster than this route from Minnie to Billings and it doesn't really serve anything between these points. I guess you could say a billings- Yellowstone route is important but still.

US 411. I said this route was underrated, but does it really serve that much function? It's like 11 wanted a longer E-W split, but it was rejected, so it gave birth to 411. 

US 223. Surprised this is still around

[SkyPesos]

US 223. Surprised this is still around

Remember a while ago when this was proposed as part of I-73 in MI?

[TheHighwayMan3561]

US 212. US 12 and I-94 are both faster than this route from Minnie to Billings and it doesn't really serve anything between these points. I guess you could say a billings- Yellowstone route is important but still.

It is, however, faster than I-90 between Rapid and Billings.

[D-Dey65]

in before these get dismissed for being "distinct":
US 340. what's the purpose of this? It parallels US 11 and I-81 until Maryland. no literally what is it..

Still a spur of US 40, much to my surprise.

[cjk374]

US 425.

[US 89]

US 425.

US 425 is the fastest way between Little Rock and Baton Rouge. It may have a bizarre number but as far as the route itself, goes I don't think it's all that useless.

[SkyPesos]

US 425.

US 425 is the fastest way between Little Rock and Baton Rouge. It may have a bizarre number but as far as the route itself, goes I don't think it's all that useless.

Going into fictional a bit, have anyone thought of that US 425 would have a better number as a US 63 reroute south of Pine Bluff? Between Pine Bluff and El Dorado, US 79 to 167 is faster than 63, and the path of the latter can be demoted to a state route. As with US 412, I think it deserves US 68 more than the current one, which looks like a good US 162 to me.

[Takumi]

US 311. 

Before the extension to Virginia, I somewhat agreed. Now I just think it's fine as a US route but would be better combined with US 360.

[Bickendan]

Eh. US 1. The Overseas Highway portion.

[paulthemapguy]

US138 is basically just BL76.

To add, US266 is basically just BL 40.

US 311. 

Before the extension to Virginia, I somewhat agreed. Now I just think it’s fine as a US route but would be better combined with US 360.

Nobody is driving US311 as a continuous corridor from central NC to Danville, VA.  For this reason, there's no reason for the US311 designation to exist.

There are multiple interpretations of what it means for a US Route to be "useless."  Is the designation useless?  Or is the road itself useless?  Which idea of uselessness are we discussing here?

[I-39]

Any route under 500 miles is pointless.

[Bickendan]

Any route under 500 miles is pointless.

Oof, bad news for the entire Northwest Territories system then.
Yeah, yeah, I know this thread is about US Highways, and you intended your comment as such, but I'm just taking the 'route' definition to its logical extreme

[TheGrassGuy]

To me, US 138 is the US Highway equivalent of an elderly almost-forgotten man who lost his parents when he was a toddler (US 38 of course), and has no memory of them.  He  only has a tattered old roadside photo of a US 38 sign in the field to remind him of who his birth parents were.  His foster parents (US 6) never adopted him, so he lived almost all of his life feeling like an orphan.  His useful working life was even cut short by I-80S/I-76, so he lives out his days as a lonely old man.

I started a thread like that

[roadman65]

US138 is basically just BL76.

To add, US266 is basically just BL 40.

US 311. 

Before the extension to Virginia, I somewhat agreed. Now I just think it's fine as a US route but would be better combined with US 360.

Nobody is driving US311 as a continuous corridor from central NC to Danville, VA.  For this reason, there's no reason for the US311 designation to exist.

There are multiple interpretations of what it means for a US Route to be "useless."  Is the designation useless?  Or is the road itself useless?  Which idea of uselessness are we discussing here?

Should become US 220 into Bedford, PA.