Couldn't help notice that TX SH 368 Loop in Alamo Heights has the banner of loop despite the route is straight. In fact this highway running along Austin Highway in AH, was once US 81 before I-35 was built.
Bottom line is it don't loop around anything, and if it should be bannered as a SPUR as it it ends at the Alamo Heights/ San Antonio Line at its south end. Asit spurs from I-410 and would be more appropriate as a spur route instead of a loop. Usually TexDOT assigns loops to a bypass around a city or an arterial suburban route that acts as a beltway like LOOP 12 in Dallas, and not to such roads that don't bypass of circle around anything.
Wikipedia says that in 2014, a portion of TX Loop 368 was proposed to be decommissioned, but they ultimately decided to retain it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Highway_Loop_368. There are articles in the References section about it, but they are paywalled.
Not seeing the issue, especially with how few signs there are for it in the field. Sort of makes a loop as it connects to I-35/US 281 to the south and I-35/I-410 to the north. Could be BL-35 and no one would bat an eye.
Quote from: roadman65 on August 05, 2025, 11:26:45 AMCouldn't help notice that TX SH 368 Loop in Alamo Heights has the banner of loop despite the route is straight. In fact this highway running along Austin Highway in AH, was once US 81 before I-35 was built.
Bottom line is it don't loop around anything, and if it should be bannered as a SPUR as it it ends at the Alamo Heights/ San Antonio Line at its south end. Asit spurs from I-410 and would be more appropriate as a spur route instead of a loop. Usually TexDOT assigns loops to a bypass around a city or an arterial suburban route that acts as a beltway like LOOP 12 in Dallas, and not to such roads that don't bypass of circle around anything.
because it loops back to I-35. Most loops are like business routes that just loop to the original road.
Quote from: texaskdog on August 05, 2025, 01:07:08 PMQuote from: roadman65 on August 05, 2025, 11:26:45 AMCouldn't help notice that TX SH 368 Loop in Alamo Heights has the banner of loop despite the route is straight. In fact this highway running along Austin Highway in AH, was once US 81 before I-35 was built.
Bottom line is it don't loop around anything, and if it should be bannered as a SPUR as it it ends at the Alamo Heights/ San Antonio Line at its south end. Asit spurs from I-410 and would be more appropriate as a spur route instead of a loop. Usually TexDOT assigns loops to a bypass around a city or an arterial suburban route that acts as a beltway like LOOP 12 in Dallas, and not to such roads that don't bypass of circle around anything.
because it loops back to I-35. Most loops are like business routes that just loop to the original road.
However there is no access to I-35 at the end your referring to.
https://www.dot.state.tx.us/tpp/hwy/SL/SL0368.htm
Quote from: roadman65 on August 05, 2025, 04:23:04 PMQuote from: texaskdog on August 05, 2025, 01:07:08 PMQuote from: roadman65 on August 05, 2025, 11:26:45 AMCouldn't help notice that TX SH 368 Loop in Alamo Heights has the banner of loop despite the route is straight. In fact this highway running along Austin Highway in AH, was once US 81 before I-35 was built.
Bottom line is it don't loop around anything, and if it should be bannered as a SPUR as it it ends at the Alamo Heights/ San Antonio Line at its south end. Asit spurs from I-410 and would be more appropriate as a spur route instead of a loop. Usually TexDOT assigns loops to a bypass around a city or an arterial suburban route that acts as a beltway like LOOP 12 in Dallas, and not to such roads that don't bypass of circle around anything.
because it loops back to I-35. Most loops are like business routes that just loop to the original road.
However there is no access to I-35 at the end your referring to.
https://www.dot.state.tx.us/tpp/hwy/SL/SL0368.htm
Close enough...
https://maps.app.goo.gl/v5t5fbgBvBykemUh6
https://maps.app.goo.gl/cnyFbVegsEs3YsNd6
Quote from: roadman65 on August 05, 2025, 11:26:45 AMCouldn't help notice that TX SH 368 Loop in Alamo Heights has the banner of loop despite the route is straight. In fact this highway running along Austin Highway in AH, was once US 81 before I-35 was built.
Lots of Texas state highway loops are straight, such as Loops 106, 107, 345, and 353 (all also in the SA metro).
QuoteBottom line is it don't loop around anything, and if it should be bannered as a SPUR as it it ends at the Alamo Heights/ San Antonio Line at its south end. As it spurs from I-410 and would be more appropriate as a spur route instead of a loop. Usually TexDOT assigns loops to a bypass around a city or an arterial suburban route that acts as a beltway like LOOP 12 in Dallas, and not to such roads that don't bypass of circle around anything.
Texas loops aren't necessarily only bypasses. A lot of times, they function like business routes. In fact, 20 of the 33 Texas SH loops that I have clinched are basically business loop routes that loop back to the road they are the business route for. In the case of TX Loop 368, that route is I-35, as others have mentioned.
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But if we're going to nominate roads part of the Texas loops system that probably shouldn't be, then I present to you Texas Loop 168:
https://travelmapping.net/hb/showroute.php?units=miles&u=null&r=tx.lp0168
I was just curious to why, but given the history of that particular route, it seems plausible. However, being it don't reconnect to I-35 at its southern end ( and from 2015-2022) really it was truncated to the border of San Antonio and Alamo Heights to make it more un loop like, it really doesn't appear as such of a loop. Not to mention at its north end it don't directly connect to I-35 as it stems from I-410 more so. Then no ramps at I-35 and I-37 makes it no branch of any freeway there.
Only the fact I-35 north of I-410 and that this route were once US 81, it's making sense it was applied when US 81 was truncated to Fort Worth as it then became the local route to the interstate freeway afterwards, engineers thought of it as a defacto business route of the interstate.
Nonetheless, it don't seem like a loop even though it has a common denominator at both ends.
However surprisingly during the truncation days between 2015 and 2022 Texas DOT didn't rebanner it as a SP highway designation as it really did lose its loop status.
Discontinued portions of rerouted US and SH routes gotta be retagged as something, especially when Business does not fit.Loop and spur are basically interusable terms. Loops tend to connect 2 state highways (or the same one twice) and spurs tend not to. Length has a lot to do with it. If it had been rural or small town, it likely would have been labeled FM or RM.