Routes with random ends

[GaryV]

M-185 completely circles Mackinac Island, so it really has no end.  They arbitrarily picked its "end" (both of them?) to be at the State Park Commission building.

[WillWeaverRVA]

M-185 completely circles Mackinac Island, so it really has no end.  They arbitrarily picked its "end" (both of them?) to be at the State Park Commission building.

Given that Mackinac Island is a state park, having the zero milepost for M-185 be there makes sense.

[The High Plains Traveler]

NM 9's east end is at the Doña Ana County line. Not that random, though, even though it might look that way -- maybe NMDOT tried to fob off onto the counties all of NM 9 east of NM 11, but only Doña Ana County agreed. Other NM state routes also end at county lines.

NM-9 used to end at NM-11 in Columbus. The road was improved east to the highway to the (then) new Santa Teresa border crossing west of El Paso. So, I'm assuming the state bore most of the cost of the project, but I'm at a loss as to why Doña Ana County's portion stayed a county road, while Luna County got the state highway.

As far as New Mexico routes that end strangely, a good example is NM-29. It begins on the east side of Chama, and goes for only about two miles to what the state describes only as "end of route". The road itself used to be a connector to roads into Colorado.

[noelbotevera]

Some more:

US 29 near I-70 in Elicott City, Maryland. It just continues uselessly to MD 99 rather than ending at I-70.

MD 144 just begins in piecemeal segments all over the place.

MD 26 ends about a good ten or so blocks from US 1. It ends at Reisterstown Road in the Baltimore city limits. MD 140 instead continues to US 1.

MD 396, MD 500, MD 191, MD 190, etc. all end at the D.C. city limits.

VA 267 uselessly continues to I-66. Really, you can just exit onto I-495 and exit at I-66 there.

[jeffandnicole]

Some more:

US 29 near I-70 in Elicott City, Maryland. It just continues uselessly to MD 99 rather than ending at I-70.

MD 144 just begins in piecemeal segments all over the place.

MD 26 ends about a good ten or so blocks from US 1. It ends at Reisterstown Road in the Baltimore city limits. MD 140 instead continues to US 1.

MD 396, MD 500, MD 191, MD 190, etc. all end at the D.C. city limits.

VA 267 uselessly continues to I-66. Really, you can just exit onto I-495 and exit at I-66 there.

This is good stuff.  Really, really good stuff.

[odditude]

US 29 near I-70 in Elicott City, Maryland. It just continues uselessly to MD 99 rather than ending at I-70.

ends at a state highway. also, the interchange with I-70 was built later.

MD 144 just begins in piecemeal segments all over the place.

MD 144 consists of the former alignment of US 40, and all local termini are on a state or US highway.

MD 26 ends about a good ten or so blocks from US 1. It ends at Reisterstown Road in the Baltimore city limits. MD 140 instead continues to US 1.

ends at a state highway.

MD 396, MD 500, MD 191, MD 190, etc. all end at the D.C. city limits.

all end at the state line and continue on as a major thoroughfare on the other side.

VA 267 uselessly continues to I-66. Really, you can just exit onto I-495 and exit at I-66 there.

er, what exactly is useless about this? the last thing any commuter wants to do is spend more time on I-495 or I-66. this is similar to saying I-283 shouldn't exist, since I-83 crosses the PA Turnpike anyway.

i'm not trying to pick on you, but you seem to be completely missing the point of this thread:

These routes don't end at other routes, state lines, bodies of water, or other even quasi-logical points like stubby freeway/expressway ends. It's pretty random.

[Zeffy]

Some more:

US 29 near I-70 in Elicott City, Maryland. It just continues uselessly to MD 99 rather than ending at I-70.

MD 144 just begins in piecemeal segments all over the place.

MD 26 ends about a good ten or so blocks from US 1. It ends at Reisterstown Road in the Baltimore city limits. MD 140 instead continues to US 1.

MD 396, MD 500, MD 191, MD 190, etc. all end at the D.C. city limits.

VA 267 uselessly continues to I-66. Really, you can just exit onto I-495 and exit at I-66 there.

Err, what's wrong with US 29 having a four way interchange instead of a three way? Ending at MD 99 provides another way to access US 29/I-70, which isn't a random end at all. Come to think about it, ending at another primary state highway is one of the least random places to end.

VA 267 / Dulles Toll Road allows motorists to directly access I-66 instead of having to use I-495 to do so. Would you really take I-495 just to exit at I-66 when you can just directly access it by continuing on VA 267?

P.S. Is OSM changing colors for anyone else when they zoom in/out, as if the colors were updated but not fully yet?

[CNGL-Leudimin]

M-185 completely circles Mackinac Island, so it really has no end.  They arbitrarily picked its "end" (both of them?) to be at the State Park Commission building.

Leudimin's note: I didn't 'fix' the number because officially is correct. According to my way of referring to state routes, it would be MI 185

And by extension, any beltway. For example, both M-30 and M-40 around Madrid have their respective zero kmposts at their interchanges with A-1, while Z-40 (not to be confused with the Mexican drug lord) around Zaragoza has its zero kmpost at the start of the oldest section, built in the 70s as part of then A-2 (now AP-2). Since it was built long before it was decided to close the beltway, it uses current A-2's kmposts rather than Z-40 ones.

[hbelkins]

Can't say I'm crazy about a US route ending at a state route if it's not someplace like on the coast. To me, US 29 should end at I-70, and the stub that continues on should be a state route marked To US 29/To I-70.

[Roadgeek Adam]

TX RM 2424 (the northern continuation of Texas 118) just drops dead at Jones-Kent Road, for no apparent reason in rural Culberson County. It ends just after a junction with Foster Road, which would be at least a semi-reasonable terminus, but nope. Jones-Kent ends up going all the way to FM 2185.

[oscar]

VA 267 uselessly continues to I-66. Really, you can just exit onto I-495 and exit at I-66 there.

Uh, there are no ramps between I-495 SB and I-66 EB, or I-66 WB and I-495 NB. Not even after the major recent rebuild of that interchange to among other things make room for the I-495 HO/T lanes, since it saved a lot of money to let VA 267 continue handling that connection. To make that connection without using VA 267 inside I-495, you'd need to use stoplight-infested VA 7 or other non-freeway roads.

You could argue that the VA 267 designation inside the Beltway is unneeded. Indeed, until the last few years it was poorly signed. But calling the connector road by name rather than number could get awkward and confusing (the name was unsigned and not widely known, and "Dulles Airport Access Road" does not roll easily off the tongue in any case). It's more convenient to have a signed route number (which might as well be VA 267, if you're not going to make it an Interstate) for the major freeway connector between I-66, the Dulles Toll Road and free Dulles Airport road, and I-495 north of the DTR.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Forgot to mention these since we're talking about Virginia routes at the moment and I happened to be up in Manassas last week:

- VA 294 (Prince William Parkway) replaced SR 3000. However, part of the route exists in the City of Manassas, which, like all other independent cities, has no numbered secondary routes. A very short segment - consisting mainly of an intersection with Liberia Avenue and Wellington Road - is in the City of Manassas, and due to the former definition of SR 3000, it isn't now part of VA 294, and VA 294 is not signed at the intersection. Therefore, VA 294 begins at VA 234 south of Manassas, ends, then begins again outside the city limits.

- VA 213's entire existence is random. It begins at VA 28 in Manassas Park and snakes through a residential area before ending at an intersection with neighborhood streets. (VA 213 is pointless - you can't even say it's meant to run by Manassas Park City Hall because the portion of Manassas Drive that does isn't part of VA 213)

[getemngo]

Someone mentioned US 12 near the beginning of the thread. In fact, very few termini in downtown Detroit make any sense. Note that everything in grey has been decommissioned since 2000. M-1 made a bit more sense when it stubbed at Grand River (former US 16), but its current terminus of Adams is meaningless.

Others:

• M-150 used to end at Rochester city limits, but since 1935 its northern terminus (which has changed repeatedly) has been an arbitrary intersection.
• M-152 ends at a county line, 2 miles short of reaching M-140.
• M-154's southern terminus is at the intersection of a minor side street in the middle of a curve.
• M-188's southern terminus is a (former) railroad crossing.
• M-221 ends at a random point just before it reaches Brimley State Park (and its short east-west portion is unsigned, meaning it appears to end even further from the park).

There was also an M-125 (unrelated to today's route) from 1938 to 1957 that ran 3 miles from then-US 23 to a random rural intersection.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MN 169 abruptly turns into a county road a few miles east of Ely. There are numerous routes that end in the center of a small town with their other end at a more important route, but this is one of the only two I know of that dead-ends outside of a town.

US 75 dead-ends in Noyes, since the Canadians closed their former border crossing there over a decade ago and Minnesota/North Dakota have yet to submit a reroute proposal connecting 75 to I-29 to AASHTO, if they have any interest in doing so.

MN 11 ends at a resort east of International Falls.

[noelbotevera]

US 75 dead-ends in Noyes, since the Canadians closed their former border crossing there over a decade ago and Minnesota/North Dakota have yet to submit a reroute proposal connecting 75 to I-29 to AASHTO, if they have any interest in doing so.

Signs there tell you to use the I-29 crossing in Emerson, North Dakota. Just before the Noyes crossing, you're directed on MN 175 west to US 81, then turn on I-29 north. However, US 75 is still signed to Noyes.

[oscar]

Signs there tell you to use the I-29 crossing in Emerson, North Dakota. Just before the Noyes crossing, you're directed on MN 175 west to US 81, then turn on I-29 north. However, US 75 is still signed to Noyes.

Yes.  And no "End" sign telling you that US 75 stops short of the barricade at the border, so the route may indeed end at the border even though you can't continue into Emerson MB.

[shadyjay]

I-691/CT 66 may seem like they randomly end/begin, but the signage is more random than anything.

Officially, I-691's eastern terminus is at I-91.  However, I-691 East shields on the onramps morph into CT 66 East shields starting at Exit 8, about 1 1/2 miles east of I-91.  The last reassurance shield is (or was?) just before Exit 8.  No reassurance shields appear east of Exit 8, though there are CT 66 East pullthroughs starting 1/2 mile east of Exit 8. 

Westbound, the last WB CT 66 reassurance shield is just west of the CT 147 intersection.  About 1/2 mile to the west, the expressway starts and we see an overhead "WEST I-691" pullthrough, about a mile east of I-91, where I-691 technically begins, WB.  Interestingly, there are no "TO I-691" shields anywhere on the non-expressway portion.  There are, however, a couple "TO I-91" shields, coming out of CT 147. 

So given existing onramp/guide signs, a motorist would believe I-691 West begins where the expressway begins, and that CT 66 East begins at Exit 8.  In reality, CT 66 morphs into I-691 and I-691 magically becomes CT 66.  Maybe one day, CDOT will put up a "I-691 ENDS / CT 66 BEGINS" sign.  I still remember the sign that said "NOTICE- CT 66 IS NOW I-691" by the Exit 12 onramp.  Must've been the mid 80s, the same time the expressway was finished to I-84.

[cappicard]

M-185 completely circles Mackinac Island, so it really has no end.  They arbitrarily picked its "end" (both of them?) to be at the State Park Commission building.

Leudimin's note: I didn't 'fix' the number because officially is correct. According to my way of referring to state routes, it would be MI 185

And by extension, any beltway. For example, both M-30 and M-40 around Madrid have their respective zero kmposts at their interchanges with A-1, while Z-40 (not to be confused with the Mexican drug lord) around Zaragoza has its zero kmpost at the start of the oldest section, built in the 70s as part of then A-2 (now AP-2). Since it was built long before it was decided to close the beltway, it uses current A-2's kmposts rather than Z-40 ones.

I-435's mileage resets at around mile 82.4 in the middle of the southern interchange with I-35. There is no Zero milepost that I can see. Then again, we're in the midst of the infamous JoCO Gateway project.

[roadman65]

What about Boston where US 20 randomly ends instead of connecting to US 1.  Of course that is due to highway alignments being changed over the years, but nonetheless it ends at Kennett Square near the infamous Citgo sign.

Of course US 3 transitions into MA 3 someplace in Cambridge instead of at US 1 or even I-93 for that matter.  Some may say that MA 3 should be US 3 all the way as its changeover from US to state road makes no sense other than to keep US 3 west of US 1.  However US 6 is south of US 20 in MA and US 44 is between US 20 and US 6 making the grid more out of wack, so I doubt that one very much.

[noelbotevera]

What about Boston where US 20 randomly ends instead of connecting to US 1.  Of course that is due to highway alignments being changed over the years, but nonetheless it ends at Kennett Square near the infamous Citgo sign.

Of course US 3 transitions into MA 3 someplace in Cambridge instead of at US 1 or even I-93 for that matter.  Some may say that MA 3 should be US 3 all the way as its changeover from US to state road makes no sense other than to keep US 3 west of US 1.  However US 6 is south of US 20 in MA and US 44 is between US 20 and US 6 making the grid more out of wack, so I doubt that one very much.

US 20 ends at MA 2 and Brookline Avenue at a four way intersection. US 20 and MA 2 EB is Commonwealth Avenue, MA 2 WB is Beacon Street, and Brookline Avenue is nothing.

US 3 ends at the Harvard Bridge. Before Massachusetts Avenue on Memorial Drive, you come to a fork. Trucks have to exit right (US 3) and the exit ends at MA 2A, Massachusetts Avenue. MA 3 heads left past Massachusetts. The reason why it makes sense is because the Harvard is the way towards MIT and the 4th last bridge to cross the Charles River.

[Rothman]

The reason why it makes sense is because the Harvard is the way towards MIT and the 4th last bridge to cross the Charles River.

If that makes sense, then I choose to remain confused.

[PHLBOS]

What about Boston where US 20 randomly ends instead of connecting to US 1.  Of course that is due to highway alignments being changed over the years, but nonetheless it ends at Kennett Square near the infamous Citgo sign.

You must've had Chester County, PA on your mind ; you obviously meant Kenmore square. 

US 20 ends at MA 2 and Brookline Avenue at a four way intersection. US 20 and MA 2 EB is Commonwealth Avenue, MA 2 WB is Beacon Street, and Brookline Avenue is nothing.

Correct.

[thenetwork]

Colorado is noteworthy for some of their random "ends". , with a lot of them not marked with an END blade.

In this case, however, the end of CO-97 is double-marked at the edge of town, literally.  Pan around and you'll see what I mean:

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.2714295,-108.5458598,3a,75y,7.86h,85.47t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sWVhQKSxumVJoNDiPPp57dw!2e0!7i3328!8i1664!6m1!1e1

[WillWeaverRVA]

Another one of Richmond's random ends: VA 150 doesn't end at a primary route - it ends at an intersection where southbound North Parham Road turns onto itself to access River Road. (Both of these roads are in Henrico County, which doesn't have numbered secondary routes.)

The terminus is just two miles shy of VA 6, which makes more sense as an endpoint. Of course, Parham Road as a whole should be primary (only a short segment of it between US 1 and I-95 is, as VA 73), but that's just me...

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5724235,-77.5759483,3a,75y,35.6h,85.64t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRwNdDSQ6BhIZJTwpOMt65g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[roadman]

What about Boston where US 20 randomly ends instead of connecting to US 1.  Of course that is due to highway alignments being changed over the years, but nonetheless it ends at Kenmore Square near the infamous Citgo sign.

Fixed it for you.