Talk:U.S. Route 15 in New York

Why truncated?

Does anyone know why U.S. 15's northern terminus was moved to Painted Post from Rochester? Powers ^T 20:08, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

If I had to guess, I would say it was because US 15 really didn't end at a "highway of significance" (another U.S. Highway or an Interstate Highway) in Rochester. As for why it ended in Rochester in the first place, I'd say that US 15 probably originally ended at US 104 on paper. In 1935, US 104 came into downtown (see NY 104#History) and met NY 2, which at the time was considered by AASHO to be US 15 according to Robert Droz's site. By 1938, US 104 was routed out of downtown - why US 15 wasn't changed accordingly, I have no idea.

Now, there were a few "highways of significance" US 15 could have been truncated to, such as US 20 in East Avon, US 20A in Lakeville, or one of the bevy of (at the time proposed) junctions with I-390. However, they probably chose Painted Post over another endpoint along the way for a two-fold reason: 1) if it was cut back to 20 or 20A but otherwise left in tact, it would either overlap I-390 and NY 17 for a considerable distance or play "second-fiddle" to the expressways on modern NY 415 and 2) other than Rochester, Painted Post-Corning was the largest location along the portion of US 15 in NY. From that standpoint, endpoints in either East Avon or Lakeville - both very small hamlets - probably wouldn't make sense. But this is all speculation on my part; I'm not aware of any official reason. – TMF 10:27, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Well thanks for trying an answer. =) It'd be nice if we could find an official reason but I realize that's unlikely. Powers ^T 13:27, 26 July 2009 (UTC)