The CT, MA, RI and ME highway shield

[vtk]

Consider state routes in these states to be part of one unified system of state routes.  Numbers can be reused in multiple states, and this isn't a problem as long as the duplicate numbers either form continuous multi-state routes, or are nowhere near each other.

Ohio's I-270 marker looks very similar to Maryland's I-270 marker, and this is not a problem. Kentucky's I-275 marker looks very similar to Indiana's I-275 marker, and this is not a problem.  It's not too different with state routes in New England.

[hotdogPi]

Consider state routes in these states to be part of one unified system of state routes.  Numbers can be reused in multiple states, and this isn't a problem as long as the duplicate numbers either form continuous multi-state routes, or are nowhere near each other.

US 20 and CT 20 are fairly close. And US 20 is sometimes signed as MA 20 erroneously.

[bob7374]

Do New England states even have county maintained roads? There's no county anything in Connecticut, how about the other five states? NY strikes me as a place with too many government layers where you have various road authorities.

Technically MA doesn't even have actual counties anymore outside of just existing as paper entities.

Actually, not all Massachusetts county governments have been abolished, I live in one that still exists. From Wikipedia:
"Massachusetts has abolished eight of its fourteen county governments, leaving five counties with county-level local government (Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Norfolk, Plymouth) and one, Nantucket County, with combined county/city government."

Counties in Mass. were responsible for creating and maintaining highways early on in their history but over time, like most other functions of county government in the state, their responsibilities were taken over by a combination of the cities and towns or the state itself.

[Beeper1]

Do New England states even have county maintained roads?

Maine might, but Vermont does not.

Regarding the highway shields, it might be a relic of the old New England route marking system, which predates the US routes.

CT and RI have no county level government at all.  MA is a mix as described earlier, but even when it had functioning counties, they hadn't been responsible for roads since probably the 40s or 50s. 

Maine, NH, and VT all have county governments, but I don't think they are in charge of any roads or highways. Pretty sure that is all either and state or city/town responsibility up there.

[jp the roadgeek]

The only functions CT counties serve are for division of marshal services, setting of healthcare provisions, and for the National Weather Service.

[NE2]

Ohio's I-270 marker looks very similar to Maryland's I-270 marker, and this is not a problem. Kentucky's I-275 marker looks very similar to Indiana's I-275 marker, and this is not a problem.

Coincidentally, it's apparently a problem with I-291 in CT/MA.

[ixnay]

These four states have one thing in common - they all have a square/rectangle for their state highway shield. The problem is that these states are decently close to eachother (Maine being the exception since it's separated from Massachusetts by Vermont and New Hampshire), and I noticed that there are very... subtle differences on their shields that sometimes the general public wouldn't notice. How does this not induce confusion?

Well, I haven't lost sleep over this although I've been through the region enough times... 

For example, New Jersey and Delaware both use the standard circle marker.

Haven't had nightmares over this either and I've been in those states a lot more times than the New England states.

ixnay

[froggie]

Maine, NH, and VT all have county governments, but I don't think they are in charge of any roads or highways. Pretty sure that is all either and state or city/town responsibility up there.

Vermont does not have county roads.  I'm pretty sure New Hampshire doesn't either.  A quick web search suggests that there are enough unorganized areas in Maine (i.e. areas not in a town) to where some counties do have county roads.

[dgolub]

As others have mentioned, if you can't figure out what state you're in, you have bigger problems in life considering there is a huge sign at state borders plus your GPS will know. I've never once been unsure of what state I'm in. Are people really confused about what state they are traveling through just because the state route shields look similar?

Not necessarily.  When you cross between New York and Pennsylvania on US 6, there's no state line crossing signage in either direction.  Also, I've seen a lot of places where you cross a state line on a county route and the signage only tells you that you're entering a different county.

It also matters in that you sometimes have signage for one state's state route in another state (e.g. NJ 17 and NJ 23 in New York, NJ 90 in Pennsylvania, NY 120A in Connecticut).

[NE2]

Once I had a nightmare that I was in Penns Grove, NJ and drove right into the Delaware River looking for Hockessin.

[vtk]

Coincidentally, it's apparently a problem with I-291 in CT/MA.

Yet I doubt changing one to state route 291 would help.

[hotdogPi]

Coincidentally, it's apparently a problem with I-291 in CT/MA.

Yet I doubt changing one to state route 291 would help.

CT 218 maybe?

[NE2]

They had the chance to use 491 around Hartford, but assigned that instead to the never-finished southwest quadrant when the northwest quadrant was cancelled.

[jp the roadgeek]

Coincidentally, it's apparently a problem with I-291 in CT/MA.

Yet I doubt changing one to state route 291 would help.

CT 218 maybe?

Maybe change the CT one to I-284, or the MA one to I-491 or I-490, since the interstates connect (well, close enough on the MA one) to I-84 and I-90.

[1995hoo]

The one thing that prevents this from being so much of an issue is that most motorists don't even realize that different states use different shapes.  Do you know how many people get off the Long Island Expressway (I-495) at exit 56 for NY 111 when they really want exit 70 for Suffolk CR 111?  It causes lots of people to get lost when trying to go to Montauk.  As far as I'm concerned, if two routes in different systems are in close proximity to each other, then one should be renumbered, since otherwise non-roadgeeks will get lost.

By the way, the same situation exists with New Jersey and Delaware, which also border on each other, albeit with a river in between.

Some people even have trouble with the Interstate shield. This sign in Maryland has shown up on this forum from time to time....

[dgolub]

Some people even have trouble with the Interstate shield. This sign in Maryland has shown up on this forum from time to time....

Not surprising.  This reminds me a bit of the signage on the New York Thruway (I-87) northbound at exit 21A for the Berkshires Section, which is signed as TO I-90 EAST.  There are signs telling people to stay on I-87 north for a few more exits for I-90 west toward Buffalo.  Similarly, in the opposite direction, there are signs at exit 24 where the two interstates actually cross telling people to continue to exit 21A for the Mass Pike.

[Zeffy]

Some people even have trouble with the Interstate shield. This sign in Maryland has shown up on this forum from time to time....

Number duplication is something that I would always avoid for this reason - the general public really only knows the number, not the actual type of route it is. Sure, the Interstate shield should be something more people know about, but they really don't, which is shocking.

[PHLBOS]

Some people even have trouble with the Interstate shield. This sign in Maryland has shown up on this forum from time to time....

Personally, I'm still suprised that when I-68 first came about that Maryland didn't renumber just MD 68 to MD x68 or some other number; especially given its relatively close proximity the then-newly designated Interstate.

[Brandon]

These four states have one thing in common - they all have a square/rectangle for their state highway shield. The problem is that these states are decently close to eachother (Maine being the exception since it's separated from Massachusetts by Vermont and New Hampshire), and I noticed that there are very... subtle differences on their shields that sometimes the general public wouldn't notice.

For that matter, you might as well add in Illinois which shares a very long border with Indiana.  Both use squares, and the only difference is "ILLINOIS" or "INDIANA" at the top of the shield.

[dgolub]

Number duplication is something that I would always avoid for this reason - the general public really only knows the number, not the actual type of route it is. Sure, the Interstate shield should be something more people know about, but they really don't, which is shocking.

I couldn't agree more.  Also, in certain areas like New York City and its close-in suburbs such as Nassau County, a lot of people don't even know the numbers and just go by street names.  For example, people will generally talk about Jericho Turnpike, Northern Boulevard, Hillside Avenue, and Sunrise Highway, not NY 25, NY 25A, NY 25B, and NY 27.  In these types of areas, they really need to put both the names and the numbers on the signs, even if it violates MUTCD.

[KEVIN_224]

Makes me glad that Connecticut doesn't duplicate! I still remember the CT Route 291 days.

[ixnay]

Personally, I'm still suprised that when I-68 first came about that Maryland didn't renumber just MD 68 to MD x68 or some other number; especially given its relatively close proximity the then-newly designated Interstate.

Sixty-eight is not the only route number used by MD on a state-numbered road as well as an interstate.  I-97 comes within +/- 22 miles of MD 97 as the crow flies.

ixnay

[cl94]

Another thing is that numbers often carry over at state lines in this part of the country. Think NY/MA 2, VT/NH 9, NY/VT 22A (there is no VT 22), etc. It's the same number, so the shield really doesn't matter.

And about the comment with NY's many layers of government, it's more apparent in some areas than it is in others. Erie County has a bunch of bureaucracy, but in Warren County, everything except police (only Glens Falls has its own) and a very small road network is left to the towns, including most services, rendering it not very different from nearby Vermont.

[Duke87]

I've always wondered if CT would go back to the original shields with the state outline.

Those shields are not "original", they were mostly put up in the 1970s and were only ever used on and in the vicinity of the Merritt Parkway. The old style from the rest of the state and from that area before then was a state named square (with "CONN" in it).

All six New England states historically used a square for their state highway markers, a practice which arose from signage for the now long-defunct "New England interstate" system. NH switched to the old man of the mountain shield a while back and VT switched from squares to circles before creating their current shield in the 1990s, but examples of old square shields still exist in the wild in both states.

[JakeFromNewEngland]

I've always wondered if CT would go back to the original shields with the state outline.

Those shields are not "original", they were mostly put up in the 1970s and were only ever used on and in the vicinity of the Merritt Parkway. The old style from the rest of the state and from that area before then was a state named square (with "CONN" in it).

All six New England states historically used a square for their state highway markers, a practice which arose from signage for the now long-defunct "New England interstate" system. NH switched to the old man of the mountain shield a while back and VT switched from squares to circles before creating their current shield in the 1990s, but examples of old square shields still exist in the wild in both states.

Ah, I didn't know that about the CT shields. I remember one sign up into maybe the early 2000s on the Merritt Parkway that still had the outline shield.