Skip to main content

California State Route 217

By
This past month I drove the entirety of California State Route 217 which is a short freeway located in Santa Barbara County.   CA 217 has a strange western terminus as a Super-Two at the gate of University of California Santa Barbara.


The origins of CA 217 date back to 1955 when the route was added to the State Highway system between Santa Barbara and UC Santa Barbara in Goleta as Legislative Route 236 according to CAhighways.org.  LRN 236 first appears on the 1956 State Highway Map as an un-constructed State Highway.


It appears that by 1963 a functional LRN 236 had been constructed between US 101 in Santa Barbara and UC Santa Barbara.  The completed route of LRN 236 can be seen on the 1963 State Highway Map.


According to CAhighways.org the route of LRN 236 was swapped to CA 217 during the 1964 California State Highway Renumbering and declared Clarence Ward Memorial Boulevard.   The change from LRN 236 to CA 217 can be observed on the 1964 State Highway Map.


According to CAhighways.org the route of CA 217 was legislatively extended to loop back to US 101 west of Goleta in 1965.   The planned extension of CA 217 can be first seen on the 1966 State Highway Map but was ultimately never constructed.


The present route of CA 217 is only 2 miles in length.


My approach to CA 217 was from US 101/CA 1 northbound in Goleta.  I approached CA 217 west from US 101 Exit 104B.






CA 217 is still signed as Clarence Ward Memorial Boulevard despite entire route being a freeway.


CA 217 west Exit 2 accesses Hollister Avenue.




Santa Barbara Airport and Goleta Beach Park are signed as accessible via CA 217 west Exit 1 by way of Sandspit Road.  Traffic is also advised that the freeway grade of CA 217 ends west of Exit 1.








CA 217 west becomes a Super-Two Freeway approaching the gate to UC Santa Barbara.  CA 217 ends just west of the gate of UC Santa Barbara as a roundabout at Post Mile SB 0.464.







The west terminus of CA 217 being a roundabout leads to an oddity where traffic can reverse course onto CA 217 east and resume speeds of 65 MPH.



CA 217 east reverses course to US 101/CA 1southbound.  CA 217 east does have access Exit 3 which is signed to direct traffic onto US 101/CA 1 north.











Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

By
  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...
Post a Comment
Read more

2018 Mojave Road Trip Part 2; The deadly desert highway (California State Route 127 and Nevada State Route 373)

By
After leaving Barstow via Old Highway 58 my next destination was in Death Valley.  To access Death Valley from rural San Bernardino County required a trek on north on Interstate 15 to California State Route 127 which becomes Nevada State Route 373 at the state line. Along I-15 I encountered the road sign oddity that is Zzyzx Road about eight miles south of Baker.   Zzyzx Road is a four mile road that used to go to the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa.   The spa was founded in the 1940s and the owner made up the name "Zzyzx" to claim it was the last word in the English Language.  The spa has been shut down since the 1970s and is now part of a Desert Studies Center for California State University. The southern terminus of CA 127 in Baker is located at I-15 exit 246.  CA 127 is a 91 mile north/south highway which runs to the Nevada State Line in Inyo County.  CA 127 is called Death Valley Road from I-15 northward.  South of CA 127 ...
4 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more