Cycling in Waterloo Region

[tomh009]

That must have been envisioned as a major artery at some time in the long-distant past?

Yes.  As is the case for most of the overly wide roads in town.

Answering my own question, albeit with speculation: it looks like the intent was for an artery formed by Montgomery, Dixon and Shelley, reaching from Sheldon to Courtland, and probably planned in the late 50s. (The houses on Dixon are mostly from the 60s.) However, once the Expressway plan was formed in the early 1960s, connecting those streets no longer made sense -- or was necessary -- but Dixon had already been built by the time the Expressway construction was approved.