Weird State Route alignments

[Terry Shea]

M-43 now that it doesn't go through downtown Kalamazoo.

What exactly does it do now?  Reading the link below doesn't really help much, except to make me think that the City of Kalamazoo is run by a bunch of crazies!
http://www.michiganhighways.org/listings/M-043.html

[GaryV]

Instead of continuing sw from Richland into Kalamazoo, M-43 now turns nw following M-89 to Plainwell, then s on US-131, before rejoining the route w on West Main St toward South Haven. The portion of M-43 from Richland sw through Comstock was renumbered as M-343.

[DandyDan]

Routes that run a significant distance one set of cardinal directions, then flip to the other set (examples: MN 95, WIS 23)

You can add Iowa 136 to that list

[hbelkins]

WV 55. This route was originally only from Moorefield running east from US 220 to Wardensville, and then into Virginia as a continuation of VA 55. The road number designation has been extended westward along a bunch of concurrencies. Now, the only independent segments are the glorified exit ramp/access road from Corridor H (US 48) to US 220, and a short segment from Craigsville to US 19.

[MoiraPrime]

Am I the only one who's failing to see what's weird about the OP's example? It's just a concurrency, right? Maybe wrong-way signed(?), but still, not all that unusual. Am I missing something?

Others have pointed out the situation overall... it's a lot of weird things coming together.

Also, because each half uses a different state highway up until the concurrency, the concurrency ends up being a wrong-way concurrency.


Edit: Also, here's the relation on OpenStreetMap for each route so you can see it yourself.

MS 57: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1527073
MS 63: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1527071

[Bruce]

WA 96 takes a winding route instead of a more direct one (built later by the county): https://goo.gl/maps/9LAuD6BMzne7C22r5

WA 99's gap in Tukwila, created in 2004, which means that its northern segment just suddenly transitions into WA 599.

WA 509 between Fife and Des Moines, born of a few decades of not building a connection in between. Once the Puget Sound Gateway is complete, there will have to be some more realigning to prevent a long I-5 concurrency.

[Dirt Roads]

Am I the only one who's failing to see what's weird about the OP's example? It's just a concurrency, right? Maybe wrong-way signed(?), but still, not all that unusual. Am I missing something?

Others have pointed out the situation overall... it's a lot of weird things coming together.

Also, because each half uses a different state highway up until the concurrency, the concurrency ends up being a wrong-way concurrency.

Interesting take.  I presumed that the "weird alignment" was that the bypass had two separate route numbers heading towards each other until they met, then both routes exited onto a multiplex. 

[amroad17]

WV 62.  Before, WV 62 went from Charleston to Point Pleasant.  With the realignment of US 33, WV 62 was extended over the old US 33 routing and now ends near Ripley.  100 mile road to drive from end to end, approximately 35 miles between its termini.

[Mapmikey]

WV 62.  Before, WV 62 went from Charleston to Point Pleasant.  With the realignment of US 33, WV 62 was extended over the old US 33 routing and now ends near Ripley.  100 mile road to drive from end to end, approximately 35 miles between its termini.

WV 62 does have a weird history:

1922-30 Huntington to Point Pleasant to Mason
1931 Point Pleasant to Mason to Mt Alto
1932-37 Point Pleasant to Mason to Evans
1937-70 Point Pleasant to Mason
1970-2004 Charleston to Point Pleasant to Mason
since 2004 Charleston to Point Pleasant to Mason to Ripley

[wanderer2575]

M-96 and BL I-94 in Battle Creek.  They have a same-way concurrency on the east side of town and a separate wrong-way concurrency on the west side.

Routes that make a 180-degree turn and reverse the cardinal directions, like M-123 and M-22 in Michigan.  That makes for interesting signage:





(both posted previously)

[Flint1979]

M-96 and BL I-94 in Battle Creek.  They have a same-way concurrency on the east side of town and a separate wrong-way concurrency on the west side.

Routes that make a 180-degree turn and reverse the cardinal directions, like M-123 and M-22 in Michigan.  That makes for interesting signage:





(both posted previously)

The M-22 sign should at least have control cities on them so you know what city you are heading towards. If you saw a sign that said Traverse City and Empire you would know where you're going. But the route does head south either way you go.

[NWI_Irish96]

So there is a sign in between the two assemblies pictured that indicates you go straight for Traverse City and right for Frankfort.

[Flint1979]

So there is a sign in between the two assemblies pictured that indicates you go straight for Traverse City and right for Frankfort.

Yep so there isn't any confusion, M-22 heads south in both directions from this interchange so the signs are right as well.

[amroad17]

^Similar to the way US 321 is signed SOUTH both ways from Elizabethtown, TN--except at the point where the switchover occurs.  Probably to avoid "motorist confusion".

Another one is OH 211 in Dover.  The alignment itself is not weird--it is the cardinal directions.  Here SOUTH is north and NORTH is south.  The "southern" terminus is north of its "northern" terminus.  I believe that this is a holdover of when OH 211 used to be routed down current OH 39 west of Dover and New Philadelphia.  This iteration of OH 211 is the second one that Ohio DOT decided to use for a state maintained road in Dover and kept the same cardinal directions.  Of course, the DOT could have changed the cardinal directions around or even used EAST-WEST, just like the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet did with KY 1017 (Turfway Road in Florence, KY).  When KY 1017 was rerouted from Turfway onto the new Aero Parkway, which runs from near Turfway Park to KY 18 between Florence and Burlington, the cardinal directions were changed from NORTH-SOUTH to WEST-EAST.

[paulthemapguy]

New York Route 28 has a weird "C"-shape.  It starts heading west and northwest, then north, then northeast, then southeast.  It always struck me as weird that this is one contiguous route designation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Route_28

[Avalanchez71]

TN SR 99
This route runs E-W, N-S, E-W, N-S, E-W.  This thing winds around for almost no apparent reason.

[Flint1979]

TN SR 99
This route runs E-W, N-S, E-W, N-S, E-W.  This thing winds around for almost no apparent reason.

Is it strange that one end of this highway is at US-64 and the other end is at SR-64?

[Bitmapped]

WV 62.  Before, WV 62 went from Charleston to Point Pleasant.  With the realignment of US 33, WV 62 was extended over the old US 33 routing and now ends near Ripley.  100 mile road to drive from end to end, approximately 35 miles between its termini.

WV 62 does have a weird history:

1922-30 Huntington to Point Pleasant to Mason
1931 Point Pleasant to Mason to Mt Alto
1932-37 Point Pleasant to Mason to Evans
1937-70 Point Pleasant to Mason
1970-2004 Charleston to Point Pleasant to Mason
since 2004 Charleston to Point Pleasant to Mason to Ripley

That last extension was poorly planned. WV 62 is signed as north/south, which makes sense on its pre-2004 alignment. The problem is now that the first 29 miles of "southbound" WV 62 heading out from Ripley actually go northwest. It would have made more sense if WVDOH followed ODOT's lead and numbered old US 33 as WV 833, leaving WV 62 as it was.

[Bitmapped]

PA 53, PA 153, and PA 253 have weird alignments around Houtzdale, PA. PA 53 is the main road. It takes a longer but more heavily traveled alignment between Van Ormer and Houtzdale, which sort of makes sense. PA 253 also travels between these two points.

The strange bit is the relationship between PA 153 and PA 253. PA 253's northern end is at PA 53 two blocks from PA 153 in Houtzdale. It heads southwest out of town, picking up PA 453 for a 5-mile multiplex. Near the end of the multiplex, it intersects PA 153's southern end after that route took a more direct route south out of Houtzdale. PA 253 then breaks off to head southwest to its end at PA 53.

It seems like a more reasonable routing would be to cut PA 253 back so it just goes from PA 53 at Houtzdale to PA 453 at Ramey, unwinding the PA 453 multiplex. You can extend PA 153 south over PA 253's old alignment to PA 53.

[Bruce]

New York Route 28 has a weird "C"-shape.  It starts heading west and northwest, then north, then northeast, then southeast.  It always struck me as weird that this is one contiguous route designation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Route_28

Similarly, WA 28 is like a stretched-out "W" that could easily be chopped up into several shorter routes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Route_28

[Bitmapped]

I'd suggest adding WV 92 to this list. From 1933 to the about 1950, this road has a fairly reasonable alignment - WV 7 at Reedsville to US 250 at Belington.

Around 1950, the pointless extensions began. First, it was multiplexed north along WV 7 into Morgantown, then across the Star City Bridge, up what is now US 19 to WV 100 (then US 19) just short of the PA line. This was eventually cut back to a pointless multiplex into downtown Morgantown, and in the 1980s, it was reverted to its 1933 endpoint at WV 7 in Reedsville.

On the southern end of things, in 1970, WV 92 gained a 55-mile multiplex with US 250 from Belington to Bartow, then a 33-mile multiplex with WV 28 from Bartow to WV 39 at Minnehaha Springs, followed by a 4-mile WV 39 multiplex, before heading south on its own for 31 miles to US 60 at White Sulphur Springs.

Later, WV 28 was relocated between Dunmore and WV 39 cutting the WV 28/WV 92 multiplex back to 15 miles. US 250 and US 33 were relocated onto a partial bypass of Elkins in 2001, leaving WV 92 on its own for 4 miles on the west side of town. Basically, you have 9-mile multiplex, a 4-mile independent segment, then 56 miles of multiplexes before striking out on its own for 53 miles.

Personally, I'd cut WV 92 back to the 1933 routing between Reedsville and Belington. Move US 33 and US 250 back to their former alignment coming into Elkins since the bypass is of little benefit to their traffic, eliminating this standalone segment of WV 92. You could move WV 28 onto WV 92's routing south of Dunmore and renumber the portion of WV 28 between Dunmore and Huntersville something like WV 428.

[Avalanchez71]

TN SR 99
This route runs E-W, N-S, E-W, N-S, E-W.  This thing winds around for almost no apparent reason.

Is it strange that one end of this highway is at US-64 and the other end is at SR-64?

That is correct. I am sure there are a whole lot of folks that want to travel from Waynesboro to unincorporated Bradyville.  It looks like the designation was slapped on a bunch of local roads to be added to the State Road system.

[Flint1979]

TN SR 99
This route runs E-W, N-S, E-W, N-S, E-W.  This thing winds around for almost no apparent reason.

Is it strange that one end of this highway is at US-64 and the other end is at SR-64?

That is correct. I am sure there are a whole lot of folks that want to travel from Waynesboro to unincorporated Bradyville.  It looks like the designation was slapped on a bunch of local roads to be added to the State Road system.

Even if there was I wouldn't take TN-99 to get between the two.

[hbelkins]

I'd suggest adding WV 92 to this list. From 1933 to the about 1950, this road has a fairly reasonable alignment - WV 7 at Reedsville to US 250 at Belington.

Around 1950, the pointless extensions began. First, it was multiplexed north along WV 7 into Morgantown, then across the Star City Bridge, up what is now US 19 to WV 100 (then US 19) just short of the PA line. This was eventually cut back to a pointless multiplex into downtown Morgantown, and in the 1980s, it was reverted to its 1933 endpoint at WV 7 in Reedsville.

On the southern end of things, in 1970, WV 92 gained a 55-mile multiplex with US 250 from Belington to Bartow, then a 33-mile multiplex with WV 28 from Bartow to WV 39 at Minnehaha Springs, followed by a 4-mile WV 39 multiplex, before heading south on its own for 31 miles to US 60 at White Sulphur Springs.

Later, WV 28 was relocated between Dunmore and WV 39 cutting the WV 28/WV 92 multiplex back to 15 miles. US 250 and US 33 were relocated onto a partial bypass of Elkins in 2001, leaving WV 92 on its own for 4 miles on the west side of town. Basically, you have 9-mile multiplex, a 4-mile independent segment, then 56 miles of multiplexes before striking out on its own for 53 miles.

Personally, I'd cut WV 92 back to the 1933 routing between Reedsville and Belington. Move US 33 and US 250 back to their former alignment coming into Elkins since the bypass is of little benefit to their traffic, eliminating this standalone segment of WV 92. You could move WV 28 onto WV 92's routing south of Dunmore and renumber the portion of WV 28 between Dunmore and Huntersville something like WV 428.

I have an old WV map from around 1972 or so that shows the segment of WV 28 running from WV 92 down to WV 39 as a county road. The concurrency with WV 92 came later. At the time of that map, WV 92 was a solo route from US 250 down to White Sulphur Springs (not including the short WV 39 concurrency).

[Bitmapped]

I have an old WV map from around 1972 or so that shows the segment of WV 28 running from WV 92 down to WV 39 as a county road. The concurrency with WV 92 came later. At the time of that map, WV 92 was a solo route from US 250 down to White Sulphur Springs (not including the short WV 39 concurrency).

I don't believe WV 92 was ever by itself between US 250 at Bartow and Dunmore. This route was WV 28 before WV 92 got extended and the WVDOH maps I have from 1970-1976 show both routes multiplexed to WV 39 at Minnehaha Springs, where WV 28 then ended.

The 1980 WVDOH map shows WV 28 moved onto what had been CR 11 between Dunmore and WV 39 near Huntersville. WV 92 stayed on WV 28's prior alignment through Minnehaha Springs.