Hierarchy of US Highways in your State

[3467]

I will add to lyons Illinois list His top ones (67,34,20,30,50 and 51) all have some 4 lane study . He missed US 136 not one of the big ones but above the  parallel ones
BTW Illinois 116 used to be US 124 hardly a major . For some reason Illinois was not big on 3 digit US routes

[SSOWorld]

Here's WI's analysis high to low:
41 (at least until it's Interstate buddy comes online)
10
53
2
151
141
8
63
14
61
18
45
12 (about half alongside freeway)
51 (nearly all alongside an Interstate south of Wausau)

[apeman33]

I think it would be hard to judge the importance of Kansas' U.S. routes. U.S. 40, 50 and 81 have had their importance diminished in part by interstates. The interstates link Wichita to both Topeka and Kansas City. Before I-35 and I-335 existed, no one U.S. highway did that and the ones that did were fairly indirect.

50 and 54 would be the most important in my mind. Then 69. Beyond that, I don't know if any one is more important than any other.

[cl94]

New York:

9 — Important in Westchester, surprisingly less so in the mid-Hudson Valley, big in the Capital District on up. GW Bridge.
11 — Major local route all along I-81, plus across the northern tier.
1 — Heavy local traffic on the Westchester shore, not to mention the GW Bridge.
20 — Vast extent, but avoids cities between Albany and Buffalo. Several redundant routes, including NY 5 for local traffic.
9W — Perhaps more important than 9 through the lower Hudson Valley, but spans less of the state overall.
6 — Local traffic in populous exurban areas, and the Bear Mountain Bridge.
15 — Part of an important corridor from Rochester/Buffalo to the interior mid-Atlantic.
202 — Similar to 6, but with a little less reach.
62 — Substantial between Buffalo and Niagara, a bit superfluous elsewhere.
219 — Not without merit, but feels kind of like a road to nowhere.
44 — A little aimless, but does have an important Hudson River crossing.
4 — Of some importance along the mid-upper Hudson, more so locally in Renssalaer County.
209 — Important, but to a very specific corridor.
20A — A road I actually like quite well, but it's largely remote.
2 — A way into Vermont; a crossing of Lake Champlain.
220 — Uhh...yeah.

I could be convinced to re-order this somewhat. BUS routes (62, 219) are excluded.

At this point, I'd knock US 15 to the bottom as most signage pertaining to it in New York has been replaced with I-99 shields. I agree with the top 4 and the order is really a matter of preference. US 4 is pretty important north of NY 149, as it is the main connection between Vermont and the non-New England states. You'd be surprised at how much usage that short stretch of roadway gets. 62 is pretty redundant (and, for most purposes, bypassed), so I'd knock it down a bit. 44 spends most of its time with NY 55, possibly meriting a demotion.

2 and 220 are barely in the state long enough to warrant a mention, but 2 is the more important of them. 20A should be a state route at this point to discourage the truck traffic.

[Quillz]

US-101
US-395
US-50

Historically,

US-99 was arguably more important than US-101.

[national highway 1]

US-101
US-395
US-50

Historically,

US-99 was arguably more important than US-101.

What about US 6, US 97, US 199 and US 95?

[empirestate]

At this point, I'd knock US 15 to the bottom as most signage pertaining to it in New York has been replaced with I-99 shields. I agree with the top 4 and the order is really a matter of preference. US 4 is pretty important north of NY 149, as it is the main connection between Vermont and the non-New England states. You'd be surprised at how much usage that short stretch of roadway gets. 62 is pretty redundant (and, for most purposes, bypassed), so I'd knock it down a bit. 44 spends most of its time with NY 55, possibly meriting a demotion.

2 and 220 are barely in the state long enough to warrant a mention, but 2 is the more important of them. 20A should be a state route at this point to discourage the truck traffic.

But you'd knock 15 even below them? Or did you only mean toward the bottom?

Regardless of which, it looks like you've given a little more weight than I to the routes' prominence, as exemplified, perhaps by signage. As long as US 15 still exists on the corridor, I rank it the same, whether it's mostly overshadowed by I-99 or not. Similarly, NY 17 is still a tremendously important route, even though quite a lot of it is co-signed with I-86. When it gets truncated, then it will stop being such an important route, but for now, it's still designated for over 400 miles. In fact, you may say that the addition of I-86 (or I-99) to the corridor adds to the route's importance rather than diminishes it–and perhaps the same can be said for US 44: it's obviously an important enough corridor that not only was US 44 assigned to it, but NY 55 as well.

But yeah, I could definitely see US 4 being higher and 62 a little lower. As for 20A, the fact that there is so much commercial traffic suggests maybe I've ranked it too low...

[bassoon1986]

Here's my stab at Louisiana. I'd welcome some feedback. Certain ones I could move up and down the list depending on our views of importance. Especially the ones that parallel interstates. (80,61,51,11)

90 - Busiest corridor whether between Lafayette and New Iberia or the Westbank and it's being turned into freeway. Major hurricane evac route
190 - Opelousas to Baton Rouge is heavily traveled, it is the back up route for I-10 swamp bridge. Also BR and suburbs and Northshore region heavily uses 190
61 - It's paralleled by interstate, but it is a major highway in BR and NO and is still used heavily as an I-10 secondary route and for refineries
165 - Largely traveled between SW-NE corridor. Now that it is mostly 4 laned it serves that traffic better.
167 - Similar to 165 in that is is mostly 4 laned and stretches north-south across the state, but from Alexandria to Lafayette it is largely covered by I-49
425 - Bad number, but fairly important corridor. From Monroe northward it's the way to AR and Little Rock. South, it's the way to Baton Rouge via Natchez, MS
171 - North South connector for Western LA, connects mostly smaller cities, but reaches into Shreveport and Lake Charles. Also serves Fort Polk
84 - Mainly connects smaller towns through the center of Louisiana. Crosses into TX and MS. I'd think Mansfield, Winnfield, and Ferriday/Vidalia use it most
71 - Has lost a lot of significance since I-49, although it serves towns on the east side of Red River. Still a major highway in Alexandria and Shreveport/Bossier
80 - A very important historical highway largely in I-20's shadow. Still a busy street in parts of Bossier City, Monroe/West Monroe, and smaller cities
79 - THE way from Shreveport to Houston and serves a lot of truck traffic from I-20 to TX state line. Less traveled from Minden northeast to El Dorado and AR
51 - Largely shadowed by I-55 but important to Hammond and Ponchatoula region
65 - I'd put this lightly traveled highway further down, but many from central LA use it as the fastest way to I-20 traveling to Mississippi or Memphis
371 - a convoluted route, esp. from Coushatta back to I-49, but also the highway as a whole does not serve much purpose. There are many alternatives to US 71
11 - shortest of US routes in Louisiana, shadowed by I-59 and I-10, but a useful street for Slidell
63 - Completely duplexed with US 167 and useless to Louisiana.

[Quillz]

US-101
US-395
US-50

Historically,

US-99 was arguably more important than US-101.

What about US 6, US 97, US 199 and US 95?

Where would I rank them in importance?

Presently, probably would do something like: 95, 97, 6, 199. Historically, probably put 6 ahead of 95, as well as 91, 80, 70, 60 and 40.

[kkt]

Historically, US-99 was arguably more important than US-101.

I don't think it's even arguable than US-99 was more important...

[JakeFromNewEngland]

For Connecticut:

US 1: Follows the I-95 corridor and passes through most of the largest cities.
US 6: Follows the I-84 corridor and is important in Danbury and Hartford.
US 5: Follows the I-91 corridor and is important in New Haven and Hartford.
US 44: Is mostly by itself throughout the state, is important in the Hartford area.
US 7: Connects Norwalk and southern CT to Danbury and the small towns north of there. It's mostly a rural road except for the section between Norwalk and New Milford.
US 202: Mostly a rural road and is usually cosigned with another route for most of it's length.

[sandiaman]

Here 's  a stab  at New Mexico's US Highways hierarchy:
1. US 550  heavily traveled  route between  the Four Corners and  the big cities in NM
2. US 84/285, Santa Fe' connection  to Los Alamos  & the North
3. US 70, four lane most of the way across southern NM
4. US 54, El Paso  connector  to the Texas Panhandle & the Midwest
5. US  491, aka the devils highway  old US 666
6. US 285  major north - south connector  for the east side of the state
7.  US 64/87,  now four lane  all the way  to the Texas border, used mostly  as a route from  Dallas to Denver, seldom see any NM  cars on this  highway
8.  US 62/180,  used  by the oil  trucks  mostly
9.  US 60, pre-interstate  route to Phoenix
10.  US  380
11.  US 180
12.  US 56/412
  And, that's the way  I see it.  Questions, disputes?

[Rover_0]

Here's the list for Utah:

US-89
US-6
US-40
US-191
US-91
US-50
US-189
US-89A

[xotoxi]

Maine:

1) US 1
2) US 1
3) US 1
4) US 202
5) US 2
6) US 302
7) US 201 (only useful when travelling to Quebec City)

[hotdogPi]

Maine:

1) US 1
2) US 1
3) US 1
4) US 202
5) US 2
6) US 302
7) US 201 (only useful when travelling to Quebec City)

2 goes above 202. (202 is almost always overlapped with something else.)

[empirestate]

Maine:

1) US 1
2) US 1
3) US 1
4) US 202
5) US 2
6) US 302
7) US 201 (only useful when travelling to Quebec City)

2 goes above 202. (202 is almost always overlapped with something else.)

I'm still of the mindset that overlapping indicates greater importance, not lesser. If the highway is so unimportant, why is it followed by so many routes? (The GW Bridge is overlapped by I-95, US 1 and US 9, all of which are pretty darn important.)

[xotoxi]

Maine:

1) US 1
2) US 1
3) US 1
4) US 202
5) US 2
6) US 302
7) US 201 (only useful when travelling to Quebec City)

2 goes above 202. (202 is almost always overlapped with something else.)

Good point...however I was more thinking of these in terms of amount of travel on them.

And if you went by density of travel, I think 302 would move up to the second place after 1.

[Desert Man]

I can think of 6 US highways in CA, a state more known for its interstates and CA route freeways (some were former US routes 40, 66, 60, 70, 80, 91 and 99, along with pikes 299, 399 and 466).

1. US 101 (most famous, predominantly a freeway, ends in L.A.)
2. US 50 (goes to Sacramento VA and Carson City NV, state capitals).
3. US 6 (a small part, enters NV).
4. US 395 (eastern Sierras, 2 parts in CA, NV in between-Reno).
5. US 95 (along the Colorado River, AZ stateline).
and 6. US 97 (from non-freeway 101 to the OR border).

[tcorlandoinsavannah]

Florida:
1.  US 301 (Provides a direct, fairly fast route from Jacksonville to the Tampa Bay area, bypassing Orlando.)
2.  US 27 (An important trucking route right down the center of the peninsula to Miami.)
3.  US 1 (This was once the king of US highways.  It's still a major thoroughfare for all coastal towns from Jax to Key West.)
4.  US 441 (Another key interior highway.  A major street through the Orlando area and south Florida.)
5.  US 41 (From Tampa to Naples, this is the west coast equivalent of US 1.  Also serves as the most enjoyable route across the Everglades.)
6.  US 17 (Serves many cities and towns in the interior of the peninsula.  Bonus points for several scenic stretches.)
7.  US 98 (If I'm not mistaken this is the longest highway in the state.  Provides lovely scenery along the Panhandle.  Eventually slashes across the state to its terminus in WPB.)
8.  US 90 (Connects Jax to Pensacola.  Sure it's largely paralleled by I-10, but it is Main Street for many cities and towns.)
9.  US 231 (Panama City is the largest FL city without an interstate.  US 231 serves as its lifeline to points north.)
10. US 19 (Is largely multiplexed with others mentioned above, but from Spring Hill south, it is a major road.  Plus it was the original Sunshine Skyway.)

Honorable Mention: US 92 (Sure it parallels I-4 for most of its length and is multiplexed with 17 for over 80 miles, but it's a major route in Daytona, Orlando, and Tampa Bay.)

Man, do I miss those colored signs!

[hotdogPi]

New Hampshire:

3, 302, 202, 4, 1, 2

Rationale mostly based on what they serve and importance to longer distance travel (for trucking, hence why 302 and 202 as high as they are). 2 is barely there, despite carrying a lot of traffic between Vermont and Maine.

Bumped this because the subject was mentioned in another thread.  Based on your rationale, I'd add 101, if only for the Manchester to Hampton portion.

The lists are for US routes only. NH 101 isn't a US route.

[kkt]

There's not very many in Washington.

2
101
395
195
97
197
730

[epzik8]

Maryland:

50
301
1
13
40
29
219
113
15
340
220
222
11
522

[texaskdog]

In Texas, it's something like the following:

59
75
290
281
183
287
83
84
90
80
77
67
87
380
377
54

The rest are markedly less important.

57 lol
181!

[RobbieL2415]

I've ranked these based on the degree of utilization by thru traffic, not necessarily passive traffic using them after exiting an interstate to get to a local business.

CT:
6
44
7
5
1
202

MA:
20
1
3
6
7
5
44

RI:
1/6/44 (a three-way tie)
202

[hotdogPi]

I've ranked these based on the degree of utilization by thru traffic, not necessarily passive traffic using them after exiting an interstate to get to a local business.

CT:
6
44
7
5
1
202

MA:
20
1
3
6
7
5
44

RI:
1/6/44 (a three-way tie)
202

US 202 goes through Massachusetts. On the other hand, it does NOT go through Rhode Island.