"Highways" that are actually city streets

[golden eagle]

There's a street in my subdivision called Kings Highway, but you would be very disappointed if you were looking for this street and thought it was a highway because of its name.

[Bickendan]

Portland: SW Capitol Hwy. The eastern most extant *is* OR 10, but by and large, it's a city artery.

[iwishiwascanadian]

Baltimore has Pulaski Highway on the Eastside.  It's not a highway but it's an artery in and out of the city from points east and it carries US-40. 

[jp the roadgeek]

There's a 2 Rod Highway in my area.  Residential street with a couple of 4 way stop signs.  Not what you'd expect of a highway.  Also, a section of US 1 in Fairfield, CT is called King's Highway, yet the real highway in the area is I-95.

[NE2]

holy crap Interstate 99 isn't interstate

[Brandon]

holy crap Interstate 99 isn't interstate

Are you drunk or something?    The OP was looking for streets marked as "highway" that really are not.  Sort of like seeing small residential streets marked as "boulevard" when they obviously are nothing of the sort.

[NE2]

I'm always drunk. ON WEED

[1995hoo]

Richmond Highway (US-1) in Northern Virginia is primarily an arterial surface route, with a few segments (mainly through Fort Belvoir) that have very few lights. Lee—Jackson Memorial Highway (US-50) in Fairfax County is another that is primarily an arterial but has one or two short segments that approach what the MUTCD calls "expressway" status. Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington County is similar for the portion that's designated US-1; the northern segment that's numbered VA-110 is more in the nature of a high-speed "highway" but nobody ever calls it "Jefferson Davis Highway" (everyone calls it "110").

Kings Highway in Brooklyn, New York, is a major arterial route that's more like an avenue. The portions of the Sunrise Highway (NY-27) I've travelled are like something more than an avenue but less than an MUTCD "expressway." I haven't been on that road in several years, so I'm not sure how I'd characterize it other than to say "very damned busy."

To the extent this poll includes other roads with names that might imply "highway" status, Little River Turnpike (VA-236) in Fairfax County, Virginia, is likewise an arterial. Rockaway Freeway in Queens runs under the elevated "A" train and isn't a "freeway" in any sense other than that people often drive way too fast on there. Jericho Turnpike in Nassau County is like an avenue.

[NE2]

Per Merriam-Webster: "a public way; especially: a main direct road". Obviously all these examples fit the first part, and most also fit the second, since they are a main direct road, if not necessarily the most main direct road.

I assume we all know the history of 19th century turnpikes.

[US71]

I'm always drunk. ON WEED

That would explain a lot.

[1995hoo]

Per Merriam-Webster: "a public way; especially: a main direct road". Obviously all these examples fit the first part, and most also fit the second, since they are a main direct road, if not necessarily the most main direct road.

I assume we all know the history of 19th century turnpikes.

I think the OP's point is that in many places (certainly here in the DC area) the word "highway" is usually interpreted as referring to what the MUTCD calls a "freeway," such that someone not familiar with the area might hear "Richmond Highway" and picture a higher-speed road than it really is.

[vdeane]

There's a street in my subdivision called Kings Highway, but you would be very disappointed if you were looking for this street and thought it was a highway because of its name.

Rochester has one too; most of it is in a park.

Per Merriam-Webster: "a public way; especially: a main direct road". Obviously all these examples fit the first part, and most also fit the second, since they are a main direct road, if not necessarily the most main direct road.

I assume we all know the history of 19th century turnpikes.

I think the OP's point is that in many places (certainly here in the DC area) the word "highway" is usually interpreted as referring to what the MUTCD calls a "freeway," such that someone not familiar with the area might hear "Richmond Highway" and picture a higher-speed road than it really is.

It's also often interpreted to mean rural driving on two lane roads.

[A.J. Bertin]

Whenever I think of "highways", I generally think they imply roads that go between cities/towns of any significant distance - not city streets. Isn't that how most of us define that term? Webster's definition doesn't seem complete. And don't most people consider highways to be roads that allow for a higher speed (regardless of the design of the road - 2-lane, expressway, or freeway)?

Anyway, one "highway" that came to mind for me is in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's called Kings Highway and is basically a local street that happens to carry the I-94 business loop for its length. It's only part of the business loop and I don't consider it to be a "highway" at all. A "road" yes, but not a "highway".

I have two examples from Oakland County, Michigan (Detroit suburbs): Coolidge Highway and Stephenson Highway. Those roads are only designated as such for a few miles long. They're either county or city roads (not sure which) and don't really connect cities/towns of distance at all. Kinda silly to be called "highways" in my opinion.

[Mr_Northside]

I'm sure there are a multitude of places where the "Lincoln Highway" is a simple two-lane "city" street.
(If we're loosely using the term "city" to include smaller towns and villages as well.)

[1995hoo]

I think the OP's point is that in many places (certainly here in the DC area) the word "highway" is usually interpreted as referring to what the MUTCD calls a "freeway," such that someone not familiar with the area might hear "Richmond Highway" and picture a higher-speed road than it really is.

It's also often interpreted to mean rural driving on two lane roads.

In many ways it boils down to the same discussion as in the other thread about whether it's appropriate to call a toll road a "freeway." I think words like "highway," when taken in isolation, are used in different ways in different parts of the country, much like "expressway" and "freeway" have different meanings. Here in the DC area, for example, people don't normally use the word "highway" in conjunction with a road number like "Highway 9" or "Highway 31," but in other parts of the country that's routine. (If the road's name contains "Highway," on the other hand, then people use it unless they normally use the route number instead. As I type this it occurs to me that there's a road called Kings Highway less than two miles from my house; the part closest to my neighborhood is a two-lane suburban road designated as a secondary route in Virginia's numbering scheme. Everyone calls it "Kings Highway," never "Route 633." But Richmond Highway is normally referred to as "Route 1.")

[Brandon]

I'm sure there are a multitude of places where the "Lincoln Highway" is a simple two-lane "city" street.
(If we're loosely using the term "city" to include smaller towns and villages as well.)

I'm not so sure we should count roads that once were "highways" but are no longer the main route.  At one time, the Lincoln Highway was a highway between and through cities and towns.  Now, it's been supplanted by I-95, I-76, and I-80.

[cpzilliacus]

Baltimore has Pulaski Highway on the Eastside.  It's not a highway but it's an artery in and out of the city from points east and it carries US-40.

Also un-numbered Key Highway on the south side of downtown Baltimore City.

And on the east side of Baltimore, there's un-numbered Edison Highway.

[national highway 1]

Hereward Hwy, Blacktown, NSW
http://goo.gl/maps/2GrRN

[Alps]

OK, let's go back to the original post: Kings Highway is a little subdivision street, not serving any sort of through traffic. That's what we're looking for here. Lincoln Highway, even if it's a city street, is generally a major through road. Certainly Pulaski Highway is as well. Examples fitting this thread would be those that are a few blocks long, dead ends, etc.

[DTComposer]

Whitnall Highway in the San Fernando Valley:

http://goo.gl/maps/icp1d

Was originally going to be much more:

http://cahighways.org/257-264.html#258

[empirestate]

The meaning of "highway" that's germane here is that of a thoroughfare open to the public, usually one that is built and maintained for that purpose by a public authority. A king's highway would be one that was built under a monarch's authority and/or whose right-of-way is crown property. ("El Camino Real" is the same thing in Spanish.) Granted, many if not most roads currently named "King's Highway" or similar are so named for reasons of romance or nostalgia, but a few remain that have a true royal pedigree.

Two branches of meaning have since derived from this: 1) a relatively long-distance, high-traffic way, which is the type that would most often have been built by monarchs or governments, and 2) any public way as it relates to its governing authority. In the second sense, if you consider a township or municipal highway department, the highways under its charge are likely to be very small pieces of road (or other ways or paths). Although cities, as a type of municipality, rarely seem to call their roads "highways", towns and townships frequently do, so it wouldn't be at all surprising to find many highways that resemble, or are actually, city streets.

[cpzilliacus]

OK, let's go back to the original post: Kings Highway is a little subdivision street, not serving any sort of through traffic. That's what we're looking for here. Lincoln Highway, even if it's a city street, is generally a major through road. Certainly Pulaski Highway is as well. Examples fitting this thread would be those that are a few blocks long, dead ends, etc.

Sections of Mulholland Highway (not the Drive, but the Highway within the corporate limits of Los Angeles) would seem to qualify by the above definition. 

Here is a nice view of the Hollywood sign from the 6200 block of that "highway."

And another from the 6000 block of Mulholland Highway, where it dead-ends (according to Google Maps, it continues, but is pretty obviously not open to motorized traffic).

[mgk920]

There is a street here in the Appleton area that is named 'Highway Dr'.  It is a frontage road for a much more major street (Northland Ave - County 'OO' and the 1939-1960 routing of US 41).

Mike

[national highway 1]

Rockaway 'Freeway' in Queens - nothing more than a divided Super-Two expressway
http://goo.gl/maps/yMc2o

[MBHockey13]

I'm always drunk. ON WEED

You would think you'd be nicer if that was the case...