Routes and regions in older games are fundamentally different in design than in Gen V+. Gen V+ tends to use
SETTLEMENT > ROUTE > SETTLEMENT > ROUTE
with occasionally a dungeon following a route. Gen I-IV are more likely to use multiple routes and maybe a dungeon between settlements, like Pewter City has Route 3, Mt. Moon, and Route 4 between it and Cerulean City. Even Route 23 is only part of a sequence that takes you from New Bark Town > Route 27 > Tohjo Falls > Route 26 > Victory Road > Route 23 > Pokémon League.
In comparison, there's Kalos with Vaniville Town > Route 1 > Aquacorde Town. It's common for there to only be one route between the first and second town, but it's typically a bit more complex in earlier games with grass, ledges, NPCs, and a fetch quest.
>>59060743In Japanese, land routes are called NUMBERばんどうろ (ie. 101ばんどうろ, 101-ban douro), which means #101 Road/Path/Route/Highway, though we would naturally format it with the number second in English. Water routes are called NUMBERばんすいどう (ie. 129ばんすいどう, 129-ban suidou), which means #129 Water Path/Route.
In kanji
NUMBER番道路
NUMBER番水道
where 番 (ban) is equivalent to #, 道路 is Path/Way + Lane/Passage, and 水道 is Water + Lane/Passage.
