Routes That Change Cardinal Direction

[Laura]

MD 23 is east/west between MD 165 and US 1 and north/south between MD 165 and the PA line.

[TheStranger]

In California, Route 70 changes from north-south to east-west around the vicinity of Route 191.

Route 18 and 138 of course have their convoluted paths through the Big Bear area.  Beyond that, can't think of too many true examples of direction shifting...US 101 along the Ventura Freeway somewhat counts, but not to the degree of the other routes listed here.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

US 321 - Changes directions at Elizabethton, TN; north/south switches.

Already said:

US 321 . It's signed North-South all the way, but does a 'U-turn' at Elizabethton TN. It should have been signed East-West in TN.

[golden eagle]

I-240 in Memphis does this. When approaching from I-55, you can either go east towards Nashville, or north to Little Rock.

[Henry]

US 52 can be a very confusing route, being N-S in some states and E-W in others.

[amroad17]

NY 3 is signed east/west except for the portion between Palermo, NY (at the junction of NY 3 and NY 264) and the Oswego/Jefferson county line, which is signed north/south.

[Zzonkmiles]

How is I-75 signed in Florida when it enters Alligator Alley?

[cl94]

There's a New York state route that makes a big loop and changes directions. I can't think of its number offhand. 28? 30? 32?

How is it signed?

It's 28. not 366
I'm not sure how it's signed.

However, there are some routes that form a big loop but are still signed the same way throughout the whole route. Two examples are MA 27 and I-495.

Starting from the south, it's E/W until around it's southern concurrency with NY 30, N/S between there and somewhere in the Adirondacks, then E/W again until it ends at US 9. If you drive the entire thing as I described, you'll be on NY 28 signed in every direction except south. As it heads north for quite a distance from its "northern" terminus, it would be really awkward to sign it all in one direction.

NY 7 does change,  I think north of Binghamton. US 4 changes in/near Whitehall. Pretty sure NY 3 also flip-flops at some point.

[Kacie Jane]

How is I-75 signed in Florida when it enters Alligator Alley?

Used to be East/West, but it's North/South like the rest of the route now.

[SSOWorld]

US 52 can be a very confusing route, being N-S in some states and E-W in others.

it's a diagonal route. One can expect such.  MN And IA have north-south. IL and ND east-west. Not sure of the rest

WIS 23 is N-S up to the Dells (US 12/WIS 13 Jct) where the directions change.

[hbelkins]

At one time, KY 160 changed. It was signed east-west in Harlan County (entering Kentucky from Virginia as VA 160) and dropping down into the valley at Cumberland, then back up Pine Mountain. It was signed north-south in Knott County and on the KY 15 concurrency in Knott and Letcher counties. (It should be noted that Harlan County is in District 11 and Knott and Letcher are in District 12, so that would have helped explain the differences in directional signage). Since the route is more of a north-south route than an east-west one, it is now signed N-S in its entirety.

I think Virginia signs 160 as a north-south route but I'd need to go check old photos to make sure.

[WashuOtaku]

US 321 - Changes directions at Elizabethton, TN; north/south switches.

Already said:

US 321 . It's signed North-South all the way, but does a 'U-turn' at Elizabethton TN. It should have been signed East-West in TN.

Sorry, I missed that earlier share.  So here's two more, both US 178 and US 276 are east-west in South Carolina and north-south in North Carolina.

[dgolub]

I-287 is north/south in New Jersey and east/west in New York.  NY 17 is east/west from the Pennsylvania border to Harriman and north/south from Harriman to the New Jersey border.  The east/west portion will probably get decommissioned, though, once I-86 is completed.

[dgolub]

Also, the Baltimore Beltway (I-695) is circular, so it changes direction four times.

[Mapmikey]

I think Virginia signs 160 as a north-south route but I'd need to go check old photos to make sure.

VA 160 is signed E-W

[logan230]

US 33 is N-S in Indiana and E-W in Ohio, WV, and Virginia.

[TEG24601]

US 24 is N- S in Michigan, and E-W in IN and OH.

[WNYroadgeek]

NY 364 is signed N/S from Canandaigua to Middlesex and E/W from Middlesex to Penn Yan.

[DandyDan]

The one odd one near me is I-680 in Omaha.  It's N-S up to mile marker 8.2 and E-W from there to Iowa.  The odd thing is the direction changes between exits.  I'd make it all E-W, since it goes into Iowa, where I-680 is unambiguously E-W.

[vtk]

I think most of these have been covered, but the following US routes in Ohio don't fit the even/odd rule: 33, 35, 42, 62*, 68, and apparently 250.
*(62 is mostly signed east/west, but north/south in a few spots here and there, and without any direction in a lot of places.)

I've read that OH 37 changes from north-south to east-west somewhere between Findlay and Delaware; it zigzags so much south of Granville that I wouldn't be surprised to find some north/south signs there too.

OH 104 is mostly north/south, but about half the signage has it as east/west on its last few miles between I-71 and US 33.

[kinupanda]

US 87 is signed west—east in New Mexico, which makes sense given (a) it does primarily run that direction and (b) most of it is concurrent with US 64.

[CrystalWalrein]

NJ 36 is signed east-west from Eatontown to Long Branch, and north-south from there. It takes a horseshoe-shaped route through Monmouth County.

[mrsman]

I-405 in southern California runs north and south from the San Fernando Valley to just south of LAX, where it bends more east and west until it meets California 22, then north/south once more to the "El Toro Y" in southern Orange County.

I'd think this is different from some of the other examples listed.  While it's true that the roadway is largely east-west between Torrance and CA-22, the highway designation is always North-South.  So you'd still see I-405 North (or South) on shields and highway  signs, even in the east-west portion.

For the Ventura Fwy portion of US 101, it's a little different still.  On Caltrans signs and shields, the highway is referred to as US 101 North/South.  Yet, there are some signs (made by City of Los Angeles and others) that indicate (incorrectly) US 101 East/West.  There are still other signs that say Ventura Fwy (East/West) without referring to the highway shield.

CA-2 is chiefly East-West along Angeles Crest Highway as well as the (now decommissioned) section between Santa Monica and Alvarado Street (along Santa Monica Blvd and the US 101 freeway), but it is signed north/south along the Glendale Freeway.

[Takumi]

VA 30 is east-west from US 1 to West Point, then north-south from West Point to its south/east end.

[OCGuy81]

A few that come to mind, and apologies if these have been previously mentioned, though I didn't see them as I read through these.

Wisconsin seems to like to change the cardinal directions of their highways.  I've counted three of them.

- WI 100 (to be fair, this could be argued as a beltway of sorts).  Ryan Rd. is E-W, then it turns N-S around Hales Corners, and reverts to E-W after multiplexing with US 45.

- WI 22 (not sure where it changes)

- WI 23 is signed as East-West when it intersects I-39, but in WI Dells, it's signed as N-S.  Not sure where the change is.

US 41, at least last time I was in Miami circa 99, was signed as East-West.  I imagine that changes south of Ft. Myers when it follows the Tamiami Trail?

The last on my list is US 62.  Never driven all of it, but looking at the routing, I imagine it must change directions at least once?  Can anybody verify?