The bit about road names borrowing from other places is true in the UK, but it has a function: London Road will, eventually, lead to London, as will most any road with another city for it's name. I imagine this couldn't be possible in the states due to the absolute vastness of it all, so unless New York Street grows four extra lanes and magically becomes an interstate, it's surely just named in homage to New York.
> I imagine this couldn't be possible in the states due to the absolute vastness of it all
No, this absolutely happens in the states too — just on a smaller scale. Roads often have the name of the next town they run through. (One mountain town I'm familiar with in North Carolina has only 4 roads leaving town, each named for the town you'll arrive in if you take that road).
The county that applies that to pretty much every road (or at least used to) is Italy. I have vivid memories of trying to navigate the Italian highway system pre-satnav when none of the signs used the highway names on my map; instead, they listed the next city the highway would hit — frequently one that I wasn't familiar with. (And no, apparently all roads do not lead to Rome)
