Most pretensious highway designations

[roadman]

(not counting any and all memorials to politicians or sports figures)

My nominee (which I just saw for the first time yesterday afternoon):  Greater Hazelton Chamber Of Commerce Beltway, which now adorns the signs on I-81 for Exit 141 in Hazelton, PA.  And the signs are in Clearview, which makes a bad idea even worse.

[agentsteel53]

Danielle Van Dam memorial interchange.

[Brandon]

(not counting any and all memorials to politicians or sports figures)

Damnit.  That knocks most every pretentious highway name in Illinois out of the running.

[Scott5114]

I usually consider memorial highway designations obnoxious, since they tend to not be used by any actual person and the signs just serve to clutter the roadside with meaningless information. Most of the time the figures so named are so obscure that nearly nobody passing by will know who they are. On freeways it means the state gets to pay for two BGSes that impart exactly zero relevant information to the public.

I also don't care that much for highways named after state troopers. Yes, it's sad when someone dies while serving the public, but they are not otherwise significant figures, and wouldn't have had a road named after them if they had served until age 65 and retired with full honors.

A couple of specific examples from I-35 in Oklahoma, and both of them have to do with politicians, despite the thread. One of them is something along the lines of "Dr. James M. and Representative Mena D. Hibdon Memorial Highway"–sure, okay, stick the state rep up there, whatever, but why are we mentioning her husband too? Was he that good of a doctor? Another one is "Helen Cole Memorial Highway", sure, supposedly it's because she was some sort of state legislator, but it probably has a lot more to do with the fact that her son is the current US Representative.

3-Trails Crossing Memorial Highway in Kansas City, MO is obnoxious in a few ways. One, it's not a "memorial highway", because it doesn't memorialize anything, since the "3-Trails" are I-49, I-435, and I-470, and even if they weren't extant trails, can you really have a memorial to something nonliving? Two, it's not a "highway" at all, but an interchange. Three, what's with the hyphen in "3-Trails"??

The only good thing about memorial highways is that ODOT publishes more historic information about them than non-memorial highways, so that's useful, at least.

[NE2]

God damn. I was going to mention the "3-Trails Crossing Memorial Highway". What the fuck is that?

[Scott5114]

If I had to guess, I'd say some sort of out-of-touch bloviation emanating from Jeff City.

[Alps]

How is Bud Shuster naming I-99 after himself not the most pretentious?

[kkt]

"Appian Way" for any highway that is not in Italy.

[briantroutman]

Greater Hazelton Chamber Of Commerce Beltway

When I saw the subject line, this was the first thing that came to my mind. How much you want to bet they had a big ribbon cutting photo op and a luncheon at the Best Western?

What about a gratuitous re-dedication of something well known by another time-tested name–like the Gladys Noon Spellman Baltimore Washington Parkway?

[ChoralScholar]

"Appian Way" for any highway that is not in Italy.

Appianway (called Happianway by the locals) in Little Rock is a little piece of shit road that's in about 10 different 1-3 block segments throughout midtown.

[ChoralScholar]

I always disliked 'President Clinton Ave.' in downtown Little Rock.
Name it William J Clinton Ave or Bill Clinton Ave.

We KNOW he was president.  We dont' drive up President JFK Blvd. or out on President(s) Roosevelt Rd.

[Thing 342]

A section of US 301 in Maryland south of Waldorf is called the 'Religous Freedom Byway'

[1995hoo]

When I think of pretentious designations, I think of roads with absurdly overdone names that try to make them seem more important than they are. Two that readily come to mind are "The Parkway" in Fairfax County, Virginia (a residential street with nothing parklike or parkway-like about it), and "Boulevard" in Richmond. In both cases I find the naming pretentious for the additional reason that it implies either that these are the only roads worthy of "parkway" or "boulevard" status or, alternatively, that these are THE "parkway of parkways" or whatever (that is, all other roads called "parkways" are lesser).

Edited to add: Here's a Street View of one of the blade signs for The Parkway: http://goo.gl/maps/OyzCE  Notice how "Parkway" isn't in smaller type the way the street name normally is (pan the image to the left, for example, and you can see a blade across the intersection for "S Kings Hwy" with "Hwy" in much smaller print).

[hbelkins]

How is Bud Shuster naming I-99 after himself not the most pretentious?

Did he seriously name it after himself?



A lot of people around here mistakenly believe that Congressman Harold Rogers (R-KY) renamed the Daniel Boone Parkway as the Hal Rogers Parkway after himself, but that's not true. Former Gov. Paul Patton (D-KY) was responsible for that name change. Rogers was taken totally by surprised when the sign was unveiled at a ceremony to note the removal of the tolls from the Daniel Boone Parkway. Rogers had secured a federal appropriation to pay off the bonds on the toll roads and he drove a bulldozer to knock down a toll booth at that ceremony. Then the state officials surprised him by announcing that the road was renamed for him.

[Brandon]

How is Bud Shuster naming I-99 after himself not the most pretentious?

It is, but the OP did specifically exclude politicians.

[Henry]

When I was a little kid, I always wondered who Dan Ryan was. This answered it for me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Ryan,_Jr.

Daniel B. Ryan, Jr (1894—1961) was a Chicago insurance broker and served as President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners from 1954 to his death. Ryan was a Democrat.[1] The Dan Ryan Expressway was named in his memory.

Ryan attended De La Salle Institute and Kent College of Law. When his father, Dan Ryan, Sr. died in 1923, Ryan, Jr. was elected to fill out his term on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. With the exception of 1926-1930, he sat on the board until his death and served as the Board President for the final years of his life.

Ryan was a promoter of superhighways for the Chicago area, but financing was difficult before creation of the Interstate Highway System, and in 1955 Ryan engineered an ambitious bond issue program to jump-start construction of expressways in Cook County.[2] Dan Ryan Senior hailed from Dundrum in Co. Tipperary, where his family were known as the Ryan Larrys (In Tipperary there were so many Ryans that they had to assume second names to differentiate the different families)

[Brandon]

^^ Ryan is not the only local politician to have an expressway named after him in the Chicago area.  There's Robert Kingery, Adlai Stevenson, and William Edens.  Kingery actually got two roads named after him - I-80/94 (Calumet Expy to Indiana) and IL-83 in DuPage County.  Then there's Mel Amstutz, superintendent of highways in Lake County.

Let's not forget Richard Ogilvie who has a rail station named after him.  There's many more names around the area on buildings and parks.  Then we have several Downstate as well.  Sections of I-39 are named after them as well.

However, as the OP said before, politicians are excluded from this.

(not counting any and all memorials to politicians or sports figures)

[motorway]

(not counting any and all memorials to politicians or sports figures)

My nominee (which I just saw for the first time yesterday afternoon):  Greater Hazelton Chamber Of Commerce Beltway, which now adorns the signs on I-81 for Exit 141 in Hazelton, PA.  And the signs are in Clearview, which makes a bad idea even worse.

To make matters worse, the GHCOCB is not even remotely considerable as a beltway. It extends fairly straight east/west from I-81 to PA 93, and to my knowledge the "beltway" designation ends there rather than continuing on existing streets like a ring road. Maybe someday it will be [probably unnecessarily, like so many road projects probably meant to spark enthusiasm in Appalachia] expanded to be big enough for its britches?

[kkt]

Avenue of the Americas.  Come on, what's wrong with 6th Ave.?

[roadman65]

Avenue of the Americas.  Come on, what's wrong with 6th Ave.?

It is 6th Avenue.  It is called by most New Yorkers as such even though the street signs say otherwise.

[1995hoo]

Avenue of the Americas.  Come on, what's wrong with 6th Ave.?

It is 6th Avenue.  It is called by most New Yorkers as such even though the street signs say otherwise.

Another in that vein is the street in Brooklyn whose street signs (and subway stop) all say "Bay Ridge Av" but is universally called 69 Street (pronounced "69th," for those unfamiliar with New York's omission of the ordinal designation on street signs).

[theline]

I always disliked 'President Clinton Ave.' in downtown Little Rock.
Name it William J Clinton Ave or Bill Clinton Ave.

We KNOW he was president.  We dont' drive up President JFK Blvd. or out on President(s) Roosevelt Rd.

Source: GSV

[theline]

David Letterman Bypass 

[jwolfer]

Most of the superfluous names for roads get shortened in everyday speech anyway.  Here in Jacksonville we have SR 202 which is now on BGS as "Butler Blvd"   Before the I-95 widening in 1998 the exit said "J. Turner Butler Blvd" which became JTB now the signs give no reason for the JT, I am sure new residents get confused by 'JTB'

Now we have "Cecil Commerce Center Parkway"  aka SR 23 but why not name it "Cecil Parkway"

Florida has the annoying program of giving existing roads/highways/streets legislative names.. In north Jacksonville US1/23 is called "New Kings Rd"  but there are brown signs announcing that the state legislature designated it "Johnny Mae Chappel Boulevard"  she was an African American lady who was killed back in the 1960s by racists. So I can understand the reason for the memorial.

On the same note we have bridges named for people that no one uses the official name.  The "Main St Bridge" is officially the "John T Alsop Bridge"  and the "Dames Point Bridge" is officially the "Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge" no one calls them their official names

[thefro]

David Letterman Bypass 

We do have this on I-65 through Indianapolis.