City streets that change names more than once

[golden eagle]

A couple of streets here do this. West Street starts in downtown Jackson. When it crosses Mayes Street, it changes to Northbrook Drive for about two miles. After crossing Northside Drive, it then becomes Hanging Moss Road until it reaches West County Line Road (where it becomes Madison County/city of Ridgeland). From there, it becomes Highland Colony Parkway until reaching MS 469 at Madison, when it becomes Bozeman Road. When Bozeman Rd. reaches the Gluckstadt community, it becomes Catlett Road. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Catlett changes name before finally ending at MS 22 west of Canton.

Terry Road also does this. Recently, the stretch of Terry Road between I-20 and the downtown/Jackson State University area was renamed University Blvd. Once University crosses Gallatin into downtown, it then becomes Pascagoula Street until it ends at I-55 just east of downtown.

[kendancy66]

Near where I live in Orange County CA, I consider these one continuous street route.

(From South to North) Street of the Golden Lantern -> Moulton Pkwy -> Irvine Center Dr -> Edinger Rd.

[Takumi]

In Petersburg, Young's Road heads south from US 1-460B and becomes Squirrel Level Road at VA 142. Squirrel Level then leaves to the west and the road becomes Wells Road. It then becomes Vaughan Road after it meets Halifax Road. It may also very briefly be Halifax, but if so it isn't signed. Vaughan Road also changes names twice (Duncan Road and Old Stage Road) in Dinwiddie County.

[kphoger]

Travel outside of the country, and you're likely to find streets that change names every few blocks.....

[WillWeaverRVA]

In Richmond...

- Old Osborne Turnpike (VA 5) enters from the east and becomes Main Street at Orleans Street about 500 feet inside the city limits (the segment between the city line and Orleans St is considered by the city to be Old Osborne Tnpk). It remains Main Street despite changing route numbers several times (from VA 5 to US 60/VA 5 to just US 60 to US 60/360 to US 60/TRUCK 360 to VA 147) all the way to Boulevard (VA 161), where it becomes Ellwood Avenue. Ellwood Avenue becomes discontinuous at Thompson Street but its orphaned segments are all Ellwood Avenue.

- River Road (VA 147) enters Richmond from the west and becomes Cary Street Road at Three Chopt Road (former VA 197). It becomes just Cary Street at Cameron Street, at the onramp to southbound I-195 and VA 76. It remains Cary Street all the way through Richmond clear up until it ends at Pear Street.

- Chamberlayne Road (US 1/301) enters Richmond from the north and becomes Chamberlayne Avenue. It becomes Belvidere Street when it crosses I-95, then becomes Cowardin Avenue when it crosses the James River. It becomes Jefferson Davis Highway a few blocks later.

[Takumi]

Another one from Petersburg: South Boulevard begins in a neighborhood next to I-95, going west past the 301 twins for a mile or two until it reaches Johnson Road, upon which it becomes the fun-to-drive Defense Road. It then becomes Fort Lee Road at VA 142.

Off the top of my head I can think of 1.5 in Colonial Heights. The first one is Stuart Ave -> Conduit Road -> Dunston Point Parkway. The other one is W. Roslyn Road -> Southpark Boulevard -> E. Roslyn Road. I guess that only counts for half.

[roadman65]

Osceola County, FL where US 192 goes from West to East as Bronson Hwy, then Vine Street, back to Bronson Hwy, then 13th Street and once again Bronson Hwy.

FL 436 goes from Semoran Boulevard to Altamonte Drive and back to Semoran Boulevard.  The only hold up is Altamonte Springs does not want to be consistent with the rest of the communities around it and named the road after itself!

Goldenrod Road at its northern terminus briefly changes names to Osceola Avenue cause of FDOT's change in alignment there when the road was widened they chose not to do Goldenrod Road at its end, but to shift the traffic over to a newer facility.

[1995hoo]

Charlottesville, Virginia, is notorious for this. For example:

Coming into town from the west on US-250 you're on Ivy Road. It becomes University Avenue when it crosses US-29 Business near UVA. A short distance later, after it's past the University, it becomes Main Street, then when it gets downtown it becomes Water Street.

Garth Road, also coming from the west, becomes Barracks Road, then Rugby Road, then Preston Avenue, then Market Street.

Going north Rugby Road becomes Hydraulic Road when you cross the bypass. Hydraulic later turns left and if you stay on the main route without turning left you're on Rio Road (pronounced with a long "I" like rye bread with an "o" on the end). Rio hooks back to the southeast and becomes Park Street.

Fifth Street becomes Ridge Street and then McIntire Road.

Maury Road becomes Alderman Road and then changes to Copeley Road.


I recall a few name changes like that in Durham as well. Cameron Boulevard changes to Academy Road, so everyone called it NC-751. Duke University Road becomes Chapel Hill Street (talk about incongruous if you take rivalries seriously). Meanwhile, University Drive becomes Duke Street at one end and Old Chapel Hill Road at the other. I know there were others but I'm not inclined to look them up. One of the big things I recall is that people always said Durham needed to learn that you can use names other than "Duke," "University," and "Chapel" or names containing those words.

The ones I mentioned in Durham generally changed names again, as I recall, but off the top of my head I don't recall to what except for University Drive.

[DTComposer]

In the L.A. area there's also:
Helberta Avenue - Camino Real - Sepulveda Boulevard* - Willow Street - Katella Avenue - Villa Park Road - Santiago Canyon Road
*this portion of Sepulveda is disconnected from the better-known portion to the north.

Near San Jose is:
Main Street - Los Gatos Boulevard - Bascom Avenue - Washington Street* - Lafayette Street - Gold Street
*Washington does continue, but Lafayette is the "thru" route at that intersection.

[huskeroadgeek]

We have a few of these in Lincoln-one of the main ones is Normal Blvd./Capitol Pkwy./K & L Streets(one-way pair)/Rosa Parks Way.
I have a friend from college who is from Nashville, and he has pointed out to me before that there are a lot of these there. One is the TN 155 loop which is Briley Pkwy., Thompson Ln., Woodmont Blvd. and White Bridge Rd.(actually Woodmont Blvd. is not part of TN 155, but it connects the two ends). Old Hickory Blvd. is also part of a number of name changes as the road runs as mostly a loop around the city(except for the area around Percy Priest Lake and the absence of a bridge across the Cumberland River on the west end), but it makes a number of turns off the "main road" and the "main road" continues under a different name. Because of this it is very difficult and makes little sense geographically to follow the road from beginning to end as separate sections of the road are connected much easier and faster by other roads.

[TheStranger]

In Sacramento...

Pocket Road becomes Meadowview Road, which then becomes Mack Road, and then Elsie Avenue, before ending as Cottonwood Lane.  However, Meadowview and Mack were not connected as one street until the early 1980s.

[6a]

Charlotte is great for this.  You have Idlewild/Rama/Sardis/Fairview/Tyvola, and my favorite Charlottean quirk, Mulberry Church/Billy Graham/Woodlawn/Runnymede/Sharon/Wendover/Eastway

[bsmart]

In Frederick MD  4th Street changes to Dill Ave a couple blocks west of Market street.  After a couple more blocks it changes to Rosemont Ave. A mile or so later after passing the edge of Fort Detrick it changes to Yellow Springs Rd.

[Duke87]

A quite long chain that takes you through Manhattan, The Bronx, and New Rochelle, NY:

West 207th Street - West Fordham Road - East Fordham Road - (Bronx and) Pelham Parkway - Shore Road - Pelham Road - Echo Avenue - River Street

If you stretch the definition of "straight" out of the rotary at the end of River Street, you can also tack Memorial Highway on there.

[Bickendan]

Ahem, London.
From west (Hanworth) to east (London):
Bear Rd
A314 Hounslow Rd
A314 Hanworth Rd
A315 High St
A315 London Rd
A315 High St
A315 North Circular Rd
A315 Chiswick High Rd
A315 King St
A315 Hammersmith Rd
A315 Kensington High Rd
A315 Kensington Rd
A315 Knightsbridge
A4 Knightsbridge
A4 Piccadilly
A401 Shaftesbury Ave
Shaftesbury Ave

[vtk]

Starting in Bexley, Ohio:
Ashbourne Rd becomes Clifton Ave [enters Columbus] becomes Greenway Ave S becomes Greenway Ave becomes Mt Vernon Ave becomes Martin Luther King Jr Blvd becomes Spring St becomes Dublin Rd [enters Grandview Heights] [enters Columbus again] becomes Riverside Dr [enters Upper Arlington] [enters Columbus again] [enters Dublin] [leaves Dublin] (becomes unnamed SR 257 maybe?) becomes Klondike Rd.
Klondike Rd finally ends at US 36 between Ostrander and Delaware.

That's 10 names in about 30 miles – and 9 of them can be found in the urban, easternmost ~10 miles.  At least 6 names can be found in a contiguous stretch contained entirely in and maintained by the City of Columbus.

[english si]

Ahem, London.
From west (Hanworth) to east (London):
Bear Rd
A314 Hounslow Rd
A314 Hanworth Rd
A315 High St

No, not a direct continuation at all... If you had Staines Road, then you'd be making a point.

A315 London Rd

We're still not in London yet... This is London Road, Hounslow.

A315 High St

We're still not in London's road naming area - that comes at Hammersmith. This is Brentford...

A315 North Circular Rd

Your map is very very wrong - not only is it not the North Circular, but the South Circular bit is (A205) Chiswick High Road. Perhaps you mean Kew Bridge Road.

A315 Chiswick High Rd
A315 King St

King Street is our first genuine London road! Original layout in Hammersmith means that it's only a rough continuation of the road from the west (the original Roman line obliterated by the village centre).

A315 Hammersmith Rd
A315 Kensington High Rd
A315 Kensington Rd
A315 Knightsbridge
A4 Knightsbridge
A4 Piccadilly

Obviously the road goes through the ancient town of Kensington. The two 'Knightsbridge's you list obviously have the same road name.

A401 Shaftesbury Ave
Shaftesbury Ave

Historically seperated by layout at Piccadilly Circus. Also, same road name.

What you have done is
1)taken several roads (in the American sense of routes through several communities if there's some vague sort of straight line, not just the British sense), through several places - London, Chiswick, Brentford, Hounslow.
2)imposed a history of London that makes it look as if it's Los Angeles or something in that there are not lots of very old towns and villages that were subsumed by the urban area and when the London street name reform came about, it was to remove duplicates in the county of London, not waste money removing the history of London by giving main routes one long road name that people wouldn't use. Most of those street names are organic, not planned.
3)imposed a US view of road naming on the UK

[WillWeaverRVA]

I can't believe I forgot this one; while it's not in a city, it's on the same right-of-way:

In Henrico County, Horsepen Road turns onto itself and the mainline continues as Glenside Drive. Glenside Drive becomes Hilliard Road at US 33, and it remains Hilliard Road until it ends at US 1.

[Coelacanth]

Just a few off the top of my head

In Edina and Minneapolis Gleason Rd becomse Vernon Ave becomes West 50th St.

The road marked for much of its length as MN-120 is, at various points, Century Ave, Geneva Ave, Division St and County Line Road. Several of these overlap (ie the signs on one side of the road are different than those on the other side).

[cpzilliacus]

[emphasis added in your quoted words below]

What you have done is
1)taken several roads (in the American sense of routes through several communities if there's some vague sort of straight line, not just the British sense), through several places - London, Chiswick, Brentford, Hounslow.
2)imposed a history of London that makes it look as if it's Los Angeles or something in that there are not lots of very old towns and villages that were subsumed by the urban area and when the London street name reform came about, it was to remove duplicates in the county of London, not waste money removing the history of London by giving main routes one long road name that people wouldn't use. Most of those street names are organic, not planned.
3)imposed a US view of road naming on the UK

English, you are so correct. 

One of the charms of Greater London (at least to me, and  I have not dared to drive there, so I have only gotten around on foot or by transit bus or the Tube) is that the street network is so very "confusing," since the urban area grew up (for the most part) without a master plan of some sort (compare and contrast with Washington, D.C., for example, which still manages to have some very confusing aspects of its street network).

[Mark68]

In the Denver area, there are quite a few. Basically, whenever a road curves, it's given a new name to fit within the street grid.

Starting in NW Denver, Irving St heads S, then SE as Speer Blvd thru downtown, then E as 1st Ave thru Cherry Creek, then S for two blocks as Steele St, then SE for 2 blocks as Cherry Creek Dr N, then east as Alameda Ave into Aurora, then Alameda Pkwy, then S as Tower Rd, SE then S as Reservoir Rd into Centennial, S then SE as Himalaya St, then W as Orchard Rd, ending at Parker Rd (SR 83), which it crossed further north as Alameda.

Total Length: 27.71 miles
Total Amount of Street Names: 11

[cpzilliacus]

Another one that has not been mentioned is U.S. 29 in Northern Virginia.  Headed South (and west) from the Key Bridge, it starts out in Virginia as N. Fort Myer Drive (southbound) and N. Lynn Street (northbound). Then it quickly becomes Lee Highway after a turn to the west.   But U.S. 29 becomes "separated" from Lee Highway for several blocks (U.S. 29 is Old Dominion Drive), then regains Lee Highway.  When U.S. 29 arrives at the City of Falls Church, it becomes Washington Street, but  when it leaves Falls Church and enters Fairfax County, it again becomes Lee Highway.  When U.S. 29 leaves Fairfax County and enters the City of Fairfax, it is usually called Fairfax Boulevard, but when  it leaves the City of Fairfax and re-enters Fairfax County it again regains the  name of Lee Highway.

Another similar Northern Virginia road is Va. 123.  Also moving south from the Potomac River, it  starts out as Chain Bridge Road headed away from the Potomac River.   But in Langley it becomes Dolley Madison Boulevard, only to re-gain the name Chain Bridge Road in McLean near Tysons Corner.  But when Va. 123 reaches the  Town of Vienna it becomes Maple Avenue, and once out of Vienna, it regains the name Chain Bridge Road.  The road continues to the City of Fairfax as Chain Bridge Road, but after passing through the city, it becomes Ox Road.  It keeps the Ox Road name until it reaches the Occoquan River and enters Prince William County, at which point it becomes Gordon Boulevard.

[NWI_Irish96]

In Indianapolis, Michigan Rd becomes MLK Street which becomes West Street which becomes Bluff Rd. 

[1995hoo]

Another one that has not been mentioned is U.S. 29 in Northern Virginia.  Headed South (and west) from the Key Bridge, it starts out in Virginia as N. Fort Myer Drive (southbound) and N. Lynn Street (northbound). Then it quickly becomes Lee Highway after a turn to the west.   But U.S. 29 becomes "separated" from Lee Highway for several blocks (U.S. 29 is Old Dominion Drive), then regains Lee Highway.  When U.S. 29 arrives at the City of Falls Church, it becomes Washington Street, but  when it leaves Falls Church and enters Fairfax County, it again becomes Lee Highway.  When U.S. 29 leaves Fairfax County and enters the City of Fairfax, it is usually called Fairfax Boulevard, but when  it leaves the City of Fairfax and re-enters Fairfax County it again regains the  name of Lee Highway.

....

The big distinction between that road and the scenario posed in the OP is that US-29 in Northern Virginia crosses jurisdictional lines. The City of Falls Church and the City of Fairfax are independent from the surrounding counties. I don't think it's all that unusual for streets to change names when they cross jurisdictional lines; consider, for example, that here in Northern Virginia VA-7 changes from Leesburg Pike to King Street when it enters the City of Alexandria and from Leesburg Pike to Broad Street when it enters Falls Church. VA-236 is Duke Street in Alexandria and Main Street in Fairfax City.

In a similar vein, sticking with the US-29 example, in Albemarle County US-29 is Seminole Trail, but when it enters the City of Charlottesville it becomes Emmet Street; the business route later becomes Jefferson Park Avenue when Emmet Street ends at the triangular intersection and then shortly after that the business route becomes Fontaine Avenue when JPA turns left.

I don't think the change from Fort Myer Drive/Lynn Street to/from Lee Highway is all that notable simply because the "route" (US-29) turns 90 degrees at that point from one "road" to another." I understood this thread to be addressing the scenario where you drive straight ahead and the road changes names (in that respect, the JPA/Fontaine example is a situation where the "road" keeps the same "name" even though the "name" continues past that point).

I've always thought the 123 example with Dolley Madison Boulevard was odd and I assume Chain Bridge Road existed prior to the VA-123 designation. Dolley Madison Boulevard is almost like a bypass of sorts. I'd guess maybe that's also the situation with the short segment of Lee Highway you mention in Arlington (I can picture where you mean, near Lorcom Lane). I'm too lazy to go look it up.

[english si]

One of the charms of Greater London (at least to me, and  I have not dared to drive there, so I have only gotten around on foot or by transit bus or the Tube) is that the street network is so very "confusing," since the urban area grew up (for the most part) without a master plan of some sort (compare and contrast with Washington, D.C., for example, which still manages to have some very confusing aspects of its street network).

I'm glad you put "confusing" in quotes - it's not confusing, just different from the planned grids in newer countries. On main roads outside the centre, it's easy 90% of the time. Hammersmith Road is the road to Hammersmith (unless you've just been there), High Street 'x' is the main road through 'x', and so on. The road names are about navigation, just a different sort to that of, say, Manhattan's grid.

I'll end by saying that the UK is not a museum, and while you didn't use that horrid word 'quaint', the word to use in this case is 'interesting'. I believe that was the sentiment you were expressing, though 'charms' being in bold text makes me worry.