Pennsylvania I-80S

[Alps]

that makes sense.  looks like Penn DOT's priority was fastidious adherence to regulation, as opposed to the resulting driver confusion ... "wait, weren't there 876 shields here?" "nah, you're thinking of 479"

why not go 479 to 476, then?  476 wasn't in use then (it was still Penna 9, the Scranton Extension)  and all PA would've had to do was print up a bunch of single-digit patches.

Probably because the Blue Route was already planned - I'm guessing it was given the number 476 even before it was built enough to be signed.

[PAHighways]

maybe have both the active and defunct on one page?  the page is long enough; having it be 20 screens vs 30 won't make a difference ... at the top you can add icons to page-jump links to each route so they can be reached with one click.  Maybe color-code the active and defunct routes?  Seems like gray is a fairly standard color for defunct routes across many roadgeek pages.

The reason they are off on their own page is to not confuse the general public as are the decommissioned US routes.  As for a color-coding system, there is already one in place with "old paper" background and original shields used to denote decommissioned routes.

the site search is pretty unintuitive to find - it's at the bottom of the first page, well past other bits of information, on a somewhat-too-cute "blue informational sign" (with incorrect fonts, alas).  In the case of smaller browser windows, it requires at least one page-down key to get it to show fully.

The site is formatted for 1024x768 as the logs indicate that most traffic comes from people using that resolution.  As for the font on the sign, it ended up looking like that when I resized the image.

You did mention that the search is google-indexed, so maybe put a nice big GOOGLE logo at the top of the page?  That will easily draw people's eyes.  I think they've spent about 8 bazillion dollars optimizing their logo and saturating the market with it.  May as well be the beneficiary of their research!  

Google has the option to allow people to co-brand the search page and put the website logo at the top or side.  

[PAHighways]

No idea how it actually happened, but here's a theory:

You have 76 into the city (now 376), 79 into the city (now 279), and 479 connecting the two.  79 then moves out of the city and swaps with 279.  479 would now run from 279 to 76.  "479" would therefore be a spur off a spur, whereas 876 would at least be a spur off the main route.  One year later, now 76 moves out, COMBINED with the fact that now the interchange is on indefinite hold between 876 and what is now 376.  Since the Interstate really only connects at one end (to 279), it ends up having to be an x79 after all.

Give that man a cigar.

The reason for the 79/279 swap was due to the Parkway North being shelved until the late 80s and wanting to keep I-79 a continuous route, much like on the other end of the state 76 and 676 were swapped due to the then incomplete state of the Vine Street Expressway.

[TheStranger]

The reason for the 79/279 swap was due to the Parkway North being shelved until the late 80s and wanting to keep I-79 a continuous route, much like on the other end of the state 76 and 676 were swapped due to the then incomplete state of the Vine Street Expressway.

What's interesting about that:

- in the I-79 case, this ended up keeping the logical through route on one corridor, though I guess the similar concept of the 2di/main route entering a city well away from the direct path existed in Detroit with 75/275 (the bypass never being completed to its full extent!).

- in I-76's case, had it remained on the Vine Street Expressway as completed, it would have ended up having that stoplight at Ben Franklin Square, while the Schuylkill is at least a rudimentary full limited-access route.

California had something similar occur in the early 1970s when I-15 was shifted from the then-complete, but not fully-limited access ex-US 395 route in Riverside/San Bernardino (part of which had been finished and signed as I-15 in the 1960s) to the then-mostly incomplete Route 71/Route 31 corridor, IIRC in order to get interstate funding for the Ontario Freeway.  As it turned out, what became I-15E at the time and is now I-215 would not become fully limited access south of Route 60 until the early 90s - something that makes me wonder if it would've been completed faster if it had remained the mainline interstate, instead of a 3di post-1982.