Plano, Tx: The land of decomissioned state highways.

[Brian556]

All state highways in Plano have been decomissioned, with the exeption of US 75, which is a freeway.
This includes:
SH 5 (Old US 75)
FM 544
FM 3514
FM 1378
FM 3193

Nearby Allen is getting in on this too.
Portions of SH 5 (old US 75), FM 2170, and FM 2786 have been decomissioned, the latest portion in 2007.

I noticed that the hghway designation files state that FM 544 was decomissioned in 1988, and FM 3193 was decomissioned in 1991; leaving it "orphaned" for a few years. Does anybody remember anything about this road?

[agentsteel53]

any surviving shields on the old roads?

[Brian556]

I have not driven most of these roads. Interestingly, there are alot of route markers on the former FM 544. they all appear to have been installed by the city , however. Many of the street name signs on these roads have the state designation on them even though they are no longer on the state system. Most of these signs appear to have been installed after 1988 when FM 544 was decomissioned in the area.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=plano,tx&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.426353,56.337891&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Plano,+Collin,+Texas&ll=33.014026,-96.655011&spn=0,0.043774&z=15&layer=c&cbll=33.014058,-96.655199&panoid=jdDQb7lH9u1cLAtU8GnVaQ&cbp=12,208.69,,0,5

[agentsteel53]

I'm actually surprised Texas decommissioned the routes.  they tend to keep so much in the system - downgrading to farm road as necessary, but not getting rid of it entirely.

[Brian556]

Yeah, Texas really tends to keep former routes on system as lesser highways.
Examples:  TX 5 (Old US 75) , TX 56 ( OLD US 82) and so on.
On the other hand, Oklahoma seems to always decomission former routes.

I thing there are a few reasons the state roads in Plano were decomissioned.

#1: TxDOT is extremely slow to improve roads in developing areas. They leave then two lane forever, which results in horrible congestion. I think the cities have figured out that if they want these roads upgraded in a timely manner, thay will have to take them over and do it themselves.

#2. TxDOT maintenace is not as good as a suburban city's. The cities want these roads to be well maintained, mowed and striped. TxDOT is not very good at these.

I think it's good that these were decomissioned. The purpose of the FM system was to " get the farmers out of the mud". ( to provide good local roads in rural areas because the counties didn't). Since this area isn't rural anymore and the local government now has the ability to provide better raods than the state, they should maintain them.

I think Texas has way too many FM roads on the system. They cost alot to maintain and take up money that should be spent on relieving congestion and/ or improving safety on major highways that are important and affect alot of people.

[texaskdog]

I really hate to bump an old post over 4 years old but I found it by accident and I think it begs some interesting questions.  There are so many FMs and RRs that really would be more fitting as county roads.  It doesn't seem like a lot of thought was put into the creation of the Texas state highway system like in most other states.  It's almost as FMs and RRs were meant to be treated as county roads.  But then we have Texas 360 & Loop 360.  If your numbers go to 9999 why does there have to be duplication?

I guess in my spare time I'll attempt to create a new Texas highway system.

[wxfree]

The FM/RM (hereinafter called "FM") system was meant to provide good roads for farmers and ranchers where the local government didn't.  There are some examples of FM roads in a more rural county that end right at the county line, where the road continues into the more developed county as a county road.  The state assisted the more rural county that needed the help.  As examples, three FM roads end at the southern Tarrant County line, one Hill County FM road ends at the Johnson County line and one Bosque County FM road ends at the Erath County line.  Johnson County both provides a county road to receive FM 2488 and has two FM roads that end at the more developed Tarrant County, so it's both a more developed county and a less developed county that needed help.

For the most part, each individual project seems warranted.  They connect agricultural land to towns or other highways, or connect to some important feature such as an old oil site.  But it does lead to a seemingly overdeveloped system.  We could probably decommission a lot of them in urban counties and nearby counties that have paved county road systems.  In my area, near Fort Worth, I think we could do without a lot of the FMs in Parker, Hood, Somervell, and Johnson Counties, each of which has a good county road system.  We could retain the more important inter-local connections, such as FMs 4 and 51, and eliminate a lot of the short and dead-end roads.  The state already assists with county road bridges, so there's no reason for a whole FM designation just to have a bridge over the Brazos.

There are a lot of places where county road systems are poor and the highway system is thin, where FMs provide important links for general travel.  But overall, I think a lot of the dead-end and redundant roads should maybe be eliminated, especially where counties now provide paved road systems.

[texaskdog]

Learn something new every day!

RR 2222 that goes from 620 to I-35 in Austin. Is there even one ranch on it?

[jbnv]

The FM/RM (hereinafter called "FM") system was meant to provide good roads for farmers and ranchers where the local government didn't. 

Either Louisiana took inspiration from Texas or vice-versa. We have so many state highways that serve the middle of nowhere, or useless state roads in urban areas, and essentially no parish highway systems whatsoever.

[US71]

The FM/RM (hereinafter called "FM") system was meant to provide good roads for farmers and ranchers where the local government didn't. 

Either Louisiana took inspiration from Texas or vice-versa. We have so many state highways that serve the middle of nowhere, or useless state roads in urban areas, and essentially no parish highway systems whatsoever.

We have a few in Arkansas, as well. Half mile roads that serve as state-maintained factory entrances (399), roads that suddenly revert to county roads (AR 60 near Booneville, AR 60 near Rudy, AR 221 in Carroll County). I'm not sure any state has an exclusive.  MO 76 becomes a county road when you cross into Oklahoma.

[NE2]

A lot of states greatly expanded their systems in the 1930s and early 1940s for obvious reasons. This is when secondary systems like Texas's farm-to-market roads and Missouri's supplemental routes were created, as well as the large-scale county road takeover in many Mid-Atlantic states. Arkansas's big expansion came later, starting in July 1957.

[bugo]

Does this really need to be a state highway?

http://www.oocities.org/watuzi/ar370.html