Roads veering around in downtown areas are usually more due to property lines than geographic necessity. Powerful individuals could and did fight attempts to run roads through their properties. For instance, in a city near me, the original interstate highway that runs through downtown has a sharp curving bridge, off of which many vehicles have flown over the decades until it was revamped a decade or two ago. Such accidents seemed to be a weekly feature on the local evening news, I recall one poor lady whose car was hanging by the rear tires on the guardrail, freaking out, stuck there for hours with news cameras rolling. That curve was there due to the influence of a prominent doctor.
I don't believe that for a second. Safe, public transportation facilities is one of the clear purposes for the existence of the public condemnation process to acquire private property. Accompanied by just compensation, of course.