"They'll just slap a number on anything these days"

[txstateends]

How has nobody mentioned Texas yet? They have so many routes that they have to have multiple route systems.

But amazingly enough, not every road in TX is numbered.  Dallas N. Tollway, Hardy Toll Road, and OSR are a few examples.  There may be a few county roads around that don't have some kind of CR numbering but I'm not sure what those would be.

[RobbieL2415]

New York will:
Suffix signed routes, sometimes multiple times
Continue Interstates as numbered SRs
Duplicate interstate and numbered highways

[TheArkansasRoadgeek]

I would say Arkansas, but we don't have the money! Well, we did just get 612.

[mrcmc888]

Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia all make county routes part of their state route system, so they will slap at least a four digit route number on every single back road it's possible to do.

Have they all been dipping into the 'shine together, or what?

[hotdogPi]

Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia all make county routes part of their state route system, so they will slap at least a four digit route number on every single back road it's possible to do.

Have they all been dipping into the 'shine together, or what?

Kentucky and West Virginia used to be part of Virginia.

[TEG24601]

Any state with county highway.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia all make county routes part of their state route system...

Wrong. Kentucky will sometimes adopt a county road into the state network but it's usually a trade-off. The county will take over maintenance of a former state route.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Any state with county highway.

To be fair, a lot of MN county roads are better than other people's state highways.

[Max Rockatansky]

Any state with county highway.

To be fair, a lot of MN county roads are better than other people's state highways.

Florida's County Routes generally are up to a pretty high standard overall.  The Signed County Routes in California vary in quality but generally are important corridors.

[freebrickproductions]

Here in Alabama, most counties will either sign every road that isn't state or city maintained as a county route, or not use/sign county routes at all. There are a few exceptions (like Colbert County), but it's generally not the norm.

Florida is pretty hard core shout even making sure County Routes line with the state grid even if the route is insignificant.

I think that's because most signed county routes in Florida were originally state routes, hence why many of them feature suffixes.

[cjk374]

Louisiana has a dense highway system. Here we have 4 digit routes & hyphenated routes....and 4 digit hyphenated routes.

But the parishes maintain their own system of roads, which usually includes the streets of the smaller towns. Parishes will either name or number their roads...or both:

CVOC Rd. Very ugly pentagon. by Jess Kilgore, on Flickr

[DJ Particle]

To be fair, a lot of MN county roads are better than other people's state highways.

The multi-county CSAH 42 needs a state number...

[Road Hog]

I feel like Maryland goes pretty nuts on designations and then they have random roads with pieces of the same designation (I'm looking at you MD-7).

Likewise, why have two Route 68s?  Two Route 70s?  Then you end up with situations like this (photo from Wikimedia user MPD01605):

I like how clear and direct this sign is. A version of this sign in Texas would be perfect for southbound US 75 to resolve the SH 121/FM 121 differentiation.

[index]

Assuming secondary routes count, a lot of states do this. With NC, our secondary routes are 4 digits, and almost every road is one. They also reset at county lines. Even the drop off loop at my school has one, SR 1383. Even not counting secondary routes, NC uses most numbers 1-999. We also have a numbering scheme, but it isn't really used anymore and hasn't been used for a while, AFAIK.

[Doctor Whom]

Pennsylvania and all its little 4 digit SR designations.

I think this thread is more for signed designations. PennDOT's SR designations aren't meant to be signed. They just own a lot of roads around the state and have to have some kind of reference system.

At least in the parts of Pennsylvania that I have occasion to visit, they're signed.

[Bitmapped]

West Virginia and its fraction routes.  Pennsylvania and all its little 4 digit SR designations.

The routes have to be inventoried somehow. This isn't any different than county and township road numbers used in plenty of other states.

[Bitmapped]

Pennsylvania and all its little 4 digit SR designations.

I think this thread is more for signed designations. PennDOT's SR designations aren't meant to be signed. They just own a lot of roads around the state and have to have some kind of reference system.

At least in the parts of Pennsylvania that I have occasion to visit, they're signed.

The 4-digit SRs in Pennsylvania don't get shields like with a regular state (traffic) route. The signs that exist are normally just for PennDOT inventory purposes with section numbers.

[thefraze_1020]

To me, I feel that Washington state is the opposite of this concept. I almost wish there were more numbered routes in the state, and especially wish we used numbered county routes here. There are several county roads I can think of that are significant enough to be numbered county routes.

[wanderer2575]

Most of the newer interstates annoy me (I-2; I-11; I-14; I-41; I-73, I-74, and I-87 in NC; I-99), even though some are longer than the older ones.  I really can't give a rational explanation, but it's along the lines of a feeling that the older designations were decided by merit (passing over the issue of whether one agrees said merit is warranted) and in line with an overall national plan, whereas the newer designations feel like the clubhouse door is wide open for anyone who pays off the right people.

[ipeters61]

Most of the newer interstates annoy me (I-2; I-11; I-14; I-41; I-73, I-74, and I-87 in NC; I-99), even though some are longer than the older ones.  I really can't give a rational explanation, but it's along the lines of a feeling that the older designations were decided by merit (passing over the issue of whether one agrees said merit is warranted) and in line with an overall national plan, whereas the newer designations feel like the clubhouse door is wide open for anyone who pays off the right people.

I get that feeling too.  Also, seriously, why did they choose I-87 for NC?  I'd think it's too close to I-87 in NY....

Speaking of that, I feel slightly annoyed by 3dis which are assigned to routes under, say, 5 miles (e.g. I-395 in Baltimore, I-381 in Bristol VA, I-579 in Pittsburgh, I-705 in Tacoma, etc).  I get that they're supposed to "promote connection to the interstate highway system," but it just seems excessive.  Likewise, why bother assigning I-595 to US-50/US-301 in Maryland?  They don't even bother signing it!

I get that it has to do with the massive amount of federal highway dollars that are granted to states which are only given for interstate projects, but still...I feel like an interstate should be a major route with some length to it (speaking of, honest question here, does anybody know of extremely short 3 digit US routes?).

[hotdogPi]

(speaking of, honest question here, does anybody know of extremely short 3 digit US routes?).

Former US 630.

Extremely short US routes are still required to be in more than one state.

[1995hoo]

I feel like Maryland goes pretty nuts on designations and then they have random roads with pieces of the same designation (I'm looking at you MD-7).

Likewise, why have two Route 68s?  Two Route 70s?  Then you end up with situations like this (photo from Wikimedia user MPD01605):

I like how clear and direct this sign is. A version of this sign in Texas would be perfect for southbound US 75 to resolve the SH 121/FM 121 differentiation.

I like the sign in principle but in practice I think it ought to be better worded. Instead of the useless "National Freeway" reference, it ought to say something like "to Cumberland and Morgantown" or "to Cumberland and Points West" or some such. Cumberland is a no-brainer as the only significant population center in Maryland on that highway. The rest of it would depend on what Maryland wants to promote. There are other signs elsewhere noting I-68 as a route to Ohio and points west, so I have in mind some variation on that.

There are two reasons why I feel that way about the sign. The first is that nobody calls I-68 the "National Freeway." Everybody calls it I-68 or plain old 68. Referring to where the road goes would be more useful than a silly name nobody uses. The second is that I think underscoring where it goes would help people whose directions don't distinguish between types of roads, which is something I think is fairly common. That is, if I gave you directions to Rocky Gap State Park I'd tell you to take I-70 west to Hancock, then I-68 west towards Cumberland, and then look for the brown sign for the park, but a lot of people would simply tell you to take "70 to 68." Those are the people for whom the BGS seen in the photo above is important, but it doesn't necessarily help them if they weren't told to look for Interstate 68. It always surprises me how some people will e-mail directions that use just numbers without saying "US" or "I-" or whatever.



Regarding the original topic, Virginia has those ubiquitous white rectangular signs for almost every road in the VDOT System ("almost" denoting I'm sure there are exceptions), even down to some streets an outsider might expect to be locally or privately maintained. For example, my parents' house out near Fairfax City is on a T-intersection where one street is a court that ends in two cul-de-sacs (is that the correct plural form?). That court has a VDOT route number posted. If it were in my neighborhood about 15 minutes away, both streets would probably be HOA-owned and -maintained. In this case it's primarily a function of when our neighborhoods were built (VDOT rules on proffers and such changed over time), but it makes the larger point that there are plenty of streets here that would not even qualify for county route numbers in most states but have VDOT state secondary route numbers.

[hbelkins]

^^^

I'd change the sign to read, "If you're too stupid to recognize the difference between an interstate route marker and a state route marker, you're too stupid to be driving."

Maryland duplicates state and interstate route numbers, but I suppose this is the only location where one might get confused. But still... Wonder if anyone has ever entered Maryland from the west on I-68 and then gotten off at MD 495, expecting to enter the Beltway?

There's a similar dynamic at work in West Virginia, where except for an exit near Morgantown, they refuse to sign US 19 on southbound I-79 exits, with the thinking being that someone who plans to use Corridor L to get to Beckley would exit too soon. Surely, people aren't that dumb.

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

I'd change the sign to read, "If you're too stupid to recognize the difference between an interstate route marker and a state route marker, you're too stupid to be driving."

Maryland duplicates state and interstate route numbers, but I suppose this is the only location where one might get confused. But still... Wonder if anyone has ever entered Maryland from the west on I-68 and then gotten off at MD 495, expecting to enter the Beltway?

There's a similar dynamic at work in West Virginia, where except for an exit near Morgantown, they refuse to sign US 19 on southbound I-79 exits, with the thinking being that someone who plans to use Corridor L to get to Beckley would exit too soon. Surely, people aren't that dumb.

Arizona has done route duplications and I've never heard anything about it being an issue before. US 95 and AZ 95 even meet in Quartzite, signage is generally good enough to allow anyone who can properly read to figure out where they need to go.  Even AZ 89 and AZ 89A are signed clearly enough for drivers to understand which highway they want.   

[hotdogPi]

^^^

I'd change the sign to read, "If you're too stupid to recognize the difference between an interstate route marker and a state route marker, you're too stupid to be driving."

Maryland duplicates state and interstate route numbers, but I suppose this is the only location where one might get confused. But still... Wonder if anyone has ever entered Maryland from the west on I-68 and then gotten off at MD 495, expecting to enter the Beltway?

There's a similar dynamic at work in West Virginia, where except for an exit near Morgantown, they refuse to sign US 19 on southbound I-79 exits, with the thinking being that someone who plans to use Corridor L to get to Beckley would exit too soon. Surely, people aren't that dumb.

Arizona has done route duplications and I've never heard anything about it being an issue before. US 95 and AZ 95 even meet in Quartzite, signage is generally good enough to allow anyone who can properly read to figure out where they need to go.  Even AZ 89 and AZ 89A are signed clearly enough for drivers to understand which highway they want.

The problem is greater for regions that use just the number when mentioning routes. Here, it's "Route 2" for single digits (or possibly single syllables; I don't live near anything numbered 7, 10, or 12) and just the number ("495") for the rest. Places that use different terms for Interstates and/or US routes in common usage would have less confusion.