There's perfectly sane and justifiable reasons for taking Hwys out of small towns, safety not least amongst them. Unfortunately, the immediate effect is usually the virtual death of that town, few anywhere have survived a bypass.
It sends yet more people into cities, becoming yet another vector in the de-ruralisation of our population, the emptying of the countryside.
When you stop to think about it, that process began a hundred years ago, it's only now when the final remnants are fading away that we've really noticed, or cared really.
Yes, it's sad for any individual town and it's people, but there really isn't any answer to the march of so-called " progress".
Che sera etc.

Is Mis, that would depend on how many shires are passed through, not towns.