County Line vs Entering a County

[Scott5114]

I think some states too (can't recall which ones....Wisconsin comes to mind) just use "_______ Co."

New York does this.  Connecticut doesn't sign county lines at all.

Ditto for Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Not true for Oklahoma. County lines are not usually signed at state lines, but we do have small one-line signs reading, e.g. "ADAIR CO." on surface roads and two-line "Cleveland/County" signs on freeways (unlike the Georgia example above, "County" appears in the same font size and capitalization as the county name). OTA sometimes omits county lines on its highways, which is frustrating.

Kansas uses the same "Chase/COUNTY LINE" style as TX and CA.

Missouri uses "ENTERING/Greene/COUNTY". (Missouri also has the unusual convention of placing "CITY LIMITS" above the city name; "CITY LIMITS/Springfield".)

[roadfro]

Nevada's typical county border signage on NDOT-maintained roadways (white-on-green rectangle):

Clark
COUNTY LINE

Town/City limit signs are similarly styled, but list elevation instead of denoting a town/city line.

Las Vegas
ELEV 2165

The one consistent exception is Carson City, which is a consolidated city-county. Carson City is signed as a county, and lists "State Capital" instead of "County Line", and does not indicate elevation, even near the actual city.

I've noticed a few states where you don't see any mention of a county at the state line.

Examples:
I-15 entering Nevada. No mention of Clark County.

County line signs are usually posted below or next to the state welcome sign. The sign was probably just missing sign when you happened to go through. Street view shows the county line sign on I-15 north at Primm/CA line in July 2016 and I-15 south at Mesquite/AZ line in Dec 2016 (albeit non-standard in design, with a bonus uncommon "Nevada state line" sign similarly styled but surprisingly in Clearview font ).

[roadman65]

Florida uses ENTERING followed by Mixed Case County name and then all caps COUNTY..

[cl94]

NYSDOT just uses the county name like Georgia, except all mixed-case nowadays. As far as local jurisdictions, some counties sign it the same way (i.e. Warren County, others use the "entering" sign (i.e. Washington County. In several places, I have seen the Vermont-style sign parallel to the road in lieu of or in addition to other signage. "Leaving -" signage is rare, but Warren County does post it on roads they maintain.

Vermont visibly signs county lines on expressways, putting the county name under the town name similar to Maine. Surface roads get the typical "parallel sign" treatment.

[Roadgeekteen]

Massachusetts (with rare exceptions) does not do either. County lines are not even signed.

Do counties even matter in Massachusetts?

[PurdueBill]

Ohio uses the same type of county line signage as Virginia:
ENTER
<county or city name>
LEAVE
<county or city  name>

On non-freeways, that is the standard for ODOT.  On freeway-grade roads (including expressway type ones like US 30 or OH 11 dual carriageways), they use

ENTERING
Summit
County

With the ENTERING in small caps.

The Ohio Turnpike has fallen into line with the ODOT standard in the past decade, but before that, the Turnpike county line signs were in a format of

Summit
CO LINE

The old-style Turnpike median crossover signage changed around the same time as well, to the No U-Turn/Authorized and Emergency Vehicles Only combo.  It was a larger rectangular sign with a yellow background before. 

[Flint1979]

This is what a county line sign looks like along a Michigan Interstate highway:

[Flint1979]

This is the normal sign on a Michigan State Highway and U.S Highway:

[LM117]

A lot of NC counties seem to supplement the standard sign with a non-MUTCD "welcome to blah, blah blah".   I assume these are put up by the county and not the state.

Yes and no. IIRC, a county can usually request/design a county sign, but the design has to be submitted to NCDOT, who has the final say-so. If NCDOT goes along with it, they will install the sign and get reimbursed by the county. If the county does not request a custom sign, NCDOT will just put up signs with nothing but the name of the county on them, such as those found on I-795 at the Wayne/Wilson county line.

[LM117]

Virginia seems to prefer
ENTER
<county or city name>
LEAVE
<county or city  name>

North Carolina has a few of those as well. Three spots that I know of is the Wayne/Johnston County line on US-70 (in addition to the big signs), the Wayne/Wilson county line on US-117, and the Caswell/Orange county line on NC-86. There may be others, but those are the only ones I paid any attention to.

[Mapmikey]

Virginia seems to prefer
ENTER
<county or city name>
LEAVE
<county or city  name>

North Carolina has a few of those as well. Three spots that I know of is the Wayne/Johnston County line on US-70 (in addition to the big signs), the Wayne/Wilson county line on US-117, and the Caswell/Orange county line on NC-86. There may be others, but those are the only ones I paid any attention to.

North Carolina is full of this style county line sign.  Pretty much any 2-lane primary route has them.  Divided Highways, Expressways, etc. tend to go with the single county name signs (US 264 freeway east of Wilson has the dual signage, though).  Secondary routes tend to have the single county name sign.

[txstateends]

Texas changed its boundary styles to

Nameofcounty
County Line

Similar to city limits, except the new city limit signs no longer show population.

There are a few exceptions, mainly like

ENTERING
XXXXXX (the name is usually in bigger letters)
COUNTY

but are more often seen lately as what Road Hog described.  At least TX doesn't have the triangular-obelisk style black-on-whites (or the later 'flattened' version) anymore that weren't exactly the easiest to read.

[US 89]

In Utah, it's usually just "XXX County". The older signs (pre-2007 or so) are all caps, the newer ones are mixed case.

County lines are almost always signed on state highways including interstates, but not always at the state line.

[JJBers]

While counties aren't signed, towns are signed like this


___________
|                    |
| Farmington   |
| Town Line       |
|___________|
|Next 3 Exits      |
|                    |
|___________|
|___________|
||                 ||
||                 ||
||                 ||
Not good, but it's worth a try

[brycecordry]

In Indiana, INDOT puts up signs on their roads.  Interstates just have signs naming the county you are entering.  US and State highways have signs that say Enter XXX Co  Leave YYY Co.  It's up to the counties as to whether or not they sign county roads.

Though they don't anymore. County lines are not signed on the new I-69, and several signs on US 24 and I-94 have been missing for years and have never been replaced. When I reported those signs being missing (along with the Central/Eastern Time Zone sign on I-94 at the MI line), they informed me that they have indeed discontinued that sort of signage due to safety and cost, as many people nowadays use their cell phones to determine what county they are in, what city they are passing through, or what time it is.

[paulthemapguy]

Illinois just uses a simple sign showing the new county name.  Because of the shift in MUTCD standards, they have recently switched from all-caps to mixed case.  IDOT puts them up whenever one of their roads crosses a county line.  Pretty standard.  Ohio uses "ENTERING/LEAVING" signs which are neat.

[lepidopteran]

There was a 1974 movie titled "Macon County Line".  Not sure if that reflected the real-life Georgia signage, though.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071788/

[Scott5114]

In Indiana, INDOT puts up signs on their roads.  Interstates just have signs naming the county you are entering.  US and State highways have signs that say Enter XXX Co  Leave YYY Co.  It's up to the counties as to whether or not they sign county roads.

Though they don't anymore. County lines are not signed on the new I-69, and several signs on US 24 and I-94 have been missing for years and have never been replaced. When I reported those signs being missing (along with the Central/Eastern Time Zone sign on I-94 at the MI line), they informed me that they have indeed discontinued that sort of signage due to safety and cost, as many people nowadays use their cell phones to determine what county they are in, what city they are passing through, or what time it is.

How cheap can you get???

[Life in Paradise]

In Indiana, INDOT puts up signs on their roads.  Interstates just have signs naming the county you are entering.  US and State highways have signs that say Enter XXX Co  Leave YYY Co.  It's up to the counties as to whether or not they sign county roads.

Though they don't anymore. County lines are not signed on the new I-69, and several signs on US 24 and I-94 have been missing for years and have never been replaced. When I reported those signs being missing (along with the Central/Eastern Time Zone sign on I-94 at the MI line), they informed me that they have indeed discontinued that sort of signage due to safety and cost, as many people nowadays use their cell phones to determine what county they are in, what city they are passing through, or what time it is.

How cheap can you get???

If I have a chance, I'll take a photo of an area of I-69 where you see the sign for Warrick County, and then about 100' away a sign for Vanderburgh County, where the road is in Vanderburgh, then clips Warrick, and back to Vanderburgh again.  The other side of the road doesn't change.  This is also the stretch of road where we have two ditches that are signed.  Indiana did need to drop some of these signing requirements, but perhaps not all.

[US 89]

In Indiana, INDOT puts up signs on their roads.  Interstates just have signs naming the county you are entering.  US and State highways have signs that say Enter XXX Co  Leave YYY Co.  It's up to the counties as to whether or not they sign county roads.

Though they don't anymore. County lines are not signed on the new I-69, and several signs on US 24 and I-94 have been missing for years and have never been replaced. When I reported those signs being missing (along with the Central/Eastern Time Zone sign on I-94 at the MI line), they informed me that they have indeed discontinued that sort of signage due to safety and cost, as many people nowadays use their cell phones to determine what county they are in, what city they are passing through, or what time it is.

I agree. I think that's stupid, especially because Google maps doesn't even show county lines. Or time zones. Also, what if you're driving by yourself? Surely they don't want you to look at your phone while driving...

[roadman65]

PTC used to use blue on white small rectangular signs for the PA Turnpike county lines while PennDOT on the interstates would use traditional white on green all using the phrase "COUNTY LINE."

I believe local roads signed like the Turnpike.

Virginia always use to have both entering and leaving and if a city was involved it would say Entering City of X or leaving City of X. 

[bzakharin]

In Indiana, INDOT puts up signs on their roads.  Interstates just have signs naming the county you are entering.  US and State highways have signs that say Enter XXX Co  Leave YYY Co.  It's up to the counties as to whether or not they sign county roads.

Though they don't anymore. County lines are not signed on the new I-69, and several signs on US 24 and I-94 have been missing for years and have never been replaced. When I reported those signs being missing (along with the Central/Eastern Time Zone sign on I-94 at the MI line), they informed me that they have indeed discontinued that sort of signage due to safety and cost, as many people nowadays use their cell phones to determine what county they are in, what city they are passing through, or what time it is.

How cheap can you get???

Honestly, county lines are not that important in most places. Certainly outside of a few places people don't know or care which county a city is in. For that matter, on a freeway, it's beside the point what city you're in unless it's a big one with multiple exits. Otherwise, just signing them on exit BGS's should be enough. State lines are the only things a freeway should really sign on the roadway itself.

[paulthemapguy]

Illinois just uses a simple sign showing the new county name.  Because of the shift in MUTCD standards, they have recently switched from all-caps to mixed case.  IDOT puts them up whenever one of their roads crosses a county line.  Pretty standard.  Ohio uses "ENTERING/LEAVING" signs which are neat.

A fine Ohio example


IMG_0825 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

[RobbieL2415]

Massachusetts (with rare exceptions) does not do either. County lines are not even signed.

Do counties even matter in Massachusetts?

Some counties still have sheriffs and some still have county governments.

[Scott5114]

In Indiana, INDOT puts up signs on their roads.  Interstates just have signs naming the county you are entering.  US and State highways have signs that say Enter XXX Co  Leave YYY Co.  It's up to the counties as to whether or not they sign county roads.

Though they don't anymore. County lines are not signed on the new I-69, and several signs on US 24 and I-94 have been missing for years and have never been replaced. When I reported those signs being missing (along with the Central/Eastern Time Zone sign on I-94 at the MI line), they informed me that they have indeed discontinued that sort of signage due to safety and cost, as many people nowadays use their cell phones to determine what county they are in, what city they are passing through, or what time it is.

How cheap can you get???

Honestly, county lines are not that important in most places. Certainly outside of a few places people don't know or care which county a city is in. For that matter, on a freeway, it's beside the point what city you're in unless it's a big one with multiple exits. Otherwise, just signing them on exit BGS's should be enough. State lines are the only things a freeway should really sign on the roadway itself.

Neither are the names of rivers, mountain passes, milemarkers, or "Spc. Maj. Gen. Lt. Sgt. Adm. Trooper Stopp N. de Nameodelaw Memorial Highway", and yet there's some degree of utility for all of them to the point that the MUTCD includes them (well, maybe not the last one). Road signs are not posted to get an ROI. Not posting county lines is just being cheap.