I mean something like a rural, two-lane, one-way-stop intersection in the middle of nowhere on one end, and a mega-two-lane-flyover interchange on the other, going up to an eight lane expressway with two-lane-each-direction local lanes.
Okay, maybe not that extreme, but you get the idea.
For example, PA 63 ends at a two-lane, signalized, turning lane intersection in Green Lane at its western end. On its eastern end, however, it's a heavily traveled (kinda obsolete) trumpet with I-95 in Northeast Philly, with two-lane ramps for some movements.
Any other examples?
I-95.
US 1 begins in a fairly rural and very cold area in mainland Maine and ends in the ocean in Florida's keys.
QC 117 begins in the middle of Montreal and ends at the Ontario border up North in quite the remote area.
MA 128 has one end at a signalized intersection as a two-lane undivided road and its other at a junction of two interstate routes in a onetime-cloverleaf-now-trumpet interchange with one interstate traveling through ramps and the thru movements of the interchange involving changing route number as well as signed direction from north to south or vice versa, with a US route along for the ride as well, becoming involved in a wrong-way multiplex. If you count MA 128 as ending in Canton anyway.
U.S. 84 begins in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado east of Pagosa Springs at an altitude of over 7000 feet, and ends in the coastal plain of Georgia very near the Atlantic Ocean. I think a lot of long-distance routes have similar contrasts. Even on a state level, consider the contrasts on routes that enter Texas from New Mexico on the west and exit to Louisiana on the east.
US 60's east end is in an oceanfront area of a resort city and its west end is in the middle of nowhere.
Quote from: Takumi on October 31, 2012, 10:43:26 PM
US 60's east end is in an oceanfront area of a resort city and its west end is in the middle of nowhere.
US 58's east end is in an oceanfront area of a resort city and its west end is in the mountains. . .one quarter-mile from being in the same state.
US 70's east end is in a tiny oceanfront town and its west end is in the desert.
OK 152's western end is as a two-lane highway at the Texas state line in the plains of western Oklahoma. Its eastern end is a six-lane freeway carrying airport traffic into the state's capital.
The only good contrast that I can think of in Nebraska is Nebraska Highway 50, which begins at the Kansas border in a rural area and ends in suburban west Omaha.
My original point was more the road itself (i.e. size, lanes, etc.), but this works too. :P
NY 56 starts at a very rural intersection with NY 3 (it's 10 miles away from, well, anything) and ends at the NY 37 divided highway just outside Massena.
CA-94 starts as two blocks of city street in downtown San Diego before turning into a full freeway, and then peters out one third of the way through to continue for about 40 more miles as a rural two-laner, ending up at a ramp to I-8.
CA-39 has two segments, but assuming that N6 connects the two... one end is an urban arterial complete with strip malls and the like - and the other end is a mountain road that has been closed since 1976.
PA-65 has a meager Northern terminus in New Castle as a 2 lane road (it's very end has an extra lane at the signal for turning), but it ends as a 6-lane freeway on the "North Shore" of Pittsburgh @ I-279 & the Ft. Duquesne Bridge.
A mile away from there, PA-28 pretty much ends @ a massive conglomeration of I-279/I-579/9th St., as what will be a regional freeway (and currently mostly is); while it's northern end is as a 2-lane rd @ a traffic signal with US-219 in the quaint borough of Brockway.
And finally, I'll mention PA-66. It also ends (Northern Terminus) as a 2-lane road (though with a brief third right turn lane) at a traffic signal @ US-6 in Kane (with railroad tracks passing thru it right before the signal). It's south end (and this might be up for interpretation/debate) is as a short 6 lane freeway stretch that transitions into a toll road... On paper, and because they're maintained by 2 different agencies, PA-66 & PA TPK (Toll)-66 are 2 different routes... But the "66" number has 14 final miles as a toll road.
I-580 in Northern California. Starts out in the very rural San Joaquin County, passes over the Altamont through suburbs, multiplexes with I-80 as one of the busiest freeways in Northern California, and finally ends at a wide and heavily traveled stretch of US-101. A lot of contrast in only 75 miles.
Minnesota 65 used to have dramatic differences at its two ends, which are over 250 miles apart. It began as a freeway stub off I-35W in downtown Minneapolis that connected to a one-way street pair through the heart of downtown, then headed north out of the metropolitan area as a divided highway. At its far end, it was a dirt road through an Indian reservation that finally ended at U.S. 71 near International Falls. The comparison has been muddied a little by virtue of the state turning back the very south end to city control (the freeway stub is still part of the route, I think) and by paving the north end, but it's still a metropolitan to about as rural as you can get contrast.
The Capital and Baltimore Beltways, as circumferential highways, never end at all.
I-75 starts out as a ten-lane suburban freeway just northwest of Miami and ends as a two-lane bridge into Canada in Sault Ste. Marie, MI.
Quote from: PurdueBill on October 31, 2012, 10:20:10 PM
MA 128 has one end at a signalized intersection as a two-lane undivided road and its other at a junction of two interstate routes in a onetime-cloverleaf-now-trumpet interchange with one interstate traveling through ramps and the thru movements of the interchange involving changing route number as well as signed direction from north to south or vice versa, with a US route along for the ride as well, becoming involved in a wrong-way multiplex. If you count MA 128 as ending in Canton anyway.
Even if you accept MA 128 ending as a primary highway in Peabody where it joins I-95, it still qualifies as having differing ends. Two lane highway intersection in Gloucester to multi-lane semi-directional Interstate highway interchange in Peabody.
CA 118, starts out as a Street at CA 126 and ends at I-210 as a busy Freeway.
CA 14, starts out at I-5 with 5 lanes eachway plus a Carpool lane and a Truck Bypass as a heavily traveled commuter freeway, and ends at US 395 in Northern Kern County as a 2 lane eachway expressway with much loess traffic.
CA 60 starts in Los Angeles as a major freeway having atleast 4 lanes eachway sometimes 6 eachway, and ends in Beaumont at I-10 as a 2 lane eachway freeway after just being downgraded as an expressway with intersections.
US 50 being a freeway in California and an arterial( Causeway) in Maryland.
I-78 is a full freeway at one end and a surface (non interstate) street at the other.
NY is a full freeway at its west end and its east end (signed N-S) is full freeway as well, but it continues as NJ 17 where its true east terminus is on a city street in North Arlington, NJ.
I-10 has a tunnel at its western end in CA and has an interchange with I-95 at its east end in Florida.
I-70 starts at a trumpet interchange in Utah and ends at a park and ride lot in Maryland.
US 1 comes out of DC into MD as a 4 lane urban divided highway, and leaves MD as a 2 lane rural road.
NY 27 starts at Interstate 278 in Brooklyn at the Prospect Expressway and ends in the east in a loop at Montauk Point on the southern fork of Long Island (and a gorgeous view).
US 46 begins as a two lane road near a natural state boundary and ends as a two level 14 lane freeway directly over a natural state boundary.
K-96 begins in the west at the Colorado state line as a two-laner in the middle of nowhere, 15 miles from Tribune; it ends in the east as a four-lane freeway in Wichita.
US-59 starts in the south as a five-lane urban arterial in Laredo (pop. 236 000, metro 636 000) at an interchange with a six-lane freeway; it ends in the north as a lonely two-laner in the north woods of Minnesota.
Quote from: roadman on November 01, 2012, 02:53:18 PM
Quote from: PurdueBill on October 31, 2012, 10:20:10 PM
MA 128 has one end at a signalized intersection as a two-lane undivided road and its other at a junction of two interstate routes in a onetime-cloverleaf-now-trumpet interchange with one interstate traveling through ramps and the thru movements of the interchange involving changing route number as well as signed direction from north to south or vice versa, with a US route along for the ride as well, becoming involved in a wrong-way multiplex. If you count MA 128 as ending in Canton anyway.
Even if you accept MA 128 ending as a primary highway in Peabody where it joins I-95, it still qualifies as having differing ends. Two lane highway intersection in Gloucester to multi-lane semi-directional Interstate highway interchange in Peabody.
Sure--I just thought I'd stoke the 128 fire while it's still hot. :P
A few I can think off the top of my head...
-NJ 72. To the west, it ends at a traffic circle with NJ 70 in the middle of the Pine Barrens as a two-laner, while to the east, it ends in the middle of Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island as one way street pairs.
-MA 2. To the west, it ends at the New York state line as a two lane mountain road, while to the east, it ends as one way street pairs right in Boston.
-US 222. To the south, it ends as a rural two lane road at US 1 in Conowingo, MD. To the north, it ends as an expressway type road at I-78 near Allentown.
Here's some more that I know of.
- I-275 west of Detroit. It starts out with four lanes at a modified trumpet interchange with I-75 in rural Monroe County and ends in a concurrency with I-96 in the midst of a massive interchange also involving M-5 and I-696, in between passing by Detroit Metro Airport and through Detroit's fast-growing far western suburbs.
- U.S. 12. It begins at U.S. 101 as one-way pairs in the southern Olympic Peninsula town of Aberdeen, WA and ends as a six-lane road (with a left turn lane) deep in downtown Detroit, basically starting out lined with small one-story stores and ending lined with large skyscrapers.
- OH 2. It starts out at the Indiana state line northeast of Fort Wayne, IN as a rural two-lane road and ends in Cleveland's far eastern suburbs at U.S. 20 as a four-lane freeway, in between running diagonally through the western Ohio countryside, then through Toledo and then along the southern shore of Lake Erie.
NJ:
NJ 7: 2-lane road at a county line at one end, 4-lane freeway (pending new bridge construction) at the other
US 9: Ferry at one end, 14-lane 2-level bridge at the other
NJ/NY/PA 17: Freeway at one end, 2-lane town road at the other (note: This works equally well for just plain NJ 17)
NJ 29: 4-lane freeway at one end, town-maintained 2-lane with a stop sign at the other
US 46: 2-lane road ending at a state highway at one end, 14-lane 2-level toll freeway bridge ending at the state line at the other
NJ 55: 2-lane road running straight into a different state highway at one end, 4-lane suburban freeway with a directional interchange at the other
NJ 72: 2-lane rural pine barrens road at one end, 6-lane one-way pair in a shore town at the other
I-76: Continues as a 4-lane divided rural US highway at one end; 8/10 lane four-carriageway highway continuing as a 8-lane state urban freeway at the other (note, I also included this under Same Character, just because I can do these things)
I-78: Rural 4-lane Interstate interchange at one end, VERY urban tunnel entrances at the other in NYC
NJ-NY 94: One end is a toll bridge with a grade-separated interchange, the other is a signalized intersection with a yellow yield just beyond.
I-95: One end is an urban merge with a US highway, the other turns into a rural divided highway in a different country
NJ 120: One end is a 6-lane freeway interchange with another freeway in the swamp, the other is a 4-lane street interchanging with a signalized arterial in a suburb
NJ 129: Two lane barely traveled road in the backwater at one end, four-lane expressway at a freeway interchange at the other
NJ 147: 2-lane rural route on one end, multi-lane city street at the other
NJ 167: One end is a dead-end, the other end isn't. What more do you want?
NJ 171: One end is an expressway interchange with multiple lanes on all approaches, the other is along a 2-lane city street at a county-maintained road with.
NJ 172: Short as it is, one end is a four-lane divided road with an interchange at a state freeway, the other end is a 2-lane city street at a signalized intersection with other city streets
NJ 173: One end is a multilane merge with a US highway in a fairly rural area. The other is a 2-lane road ending awkwardly above a state highway that's only divided to show off within that particular interchange in a developed town.
US 202 (NJ): One end is a rural 4-lane freeway with a toll bridge, the other is a suburban 2-lane street near a train station.
I-278: One end is a lightly used stub, the other is one of the most trafficked interchanges in the nation. For an Interstate, it's hard to get more different than that.
FL 528 ends at an interchange with an interstate at one end, and ends at another interchange at the other with a state route that is non freeway and had been concurrent with (its east end used to be an intersection).
FL 826 ends as a freeway signed as N-S at one end, and the other end as arterial signed E-W.
US 192 ends at a trumpet interchange on one end and at an at grade intersection at the other.
FL 44 ends at a US Route (actually two routes concurrent) and at its other end at no route numbers.
FL 19 ends at a route that is a one way pair of streets and at the other a route that is on a two way divided highway.
FL 80 ends at a partial interchange with US 41 while its other end is at a traffic circle with FL A1A.
I-4 begins at a three digit interstate and ends at a two digit interstate.
FL 435 has an interchange at one end and an at grade intersection at the other.
FL 536 ends at a major at grade intersection and a property line (WDW) at its other end.
FL 40 ends in a small city at one end and a large one at the other.
U.S. 30 - western end a sleepy Astoria, Oregon; the eastern end the casino town of Atlantic City
U.S. 20 - western end in small town Newport, Oregon; the eastern end Boston, Massachusetts.
U.S. 93 - on the U.S./Canadian border in Montana, a heavily forested, rural, remote area at the north; in the high desert of suburban Maricopa County, Arizona to the south.