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

[CapeCodder]

What states seem to go absolutely overboard with designations? This isn't region specific or fictional.

[TheArkansasRoadgeek]

What states seem to go absolutely overboard with designations? This isn't region specific or fictional.

California? Looking at it's history... yeah.

[CapeCodder]

What states seem to go absolutely overboard with designations? This isn't region specific or fictional.

California? Looking at it's history... yeah.

I would assume California too. Is the purpose of such numberings for revenue?

[Max Rockatansky]

California seems downright stingy with state routes compared to places I've lived and worked like New Mexico or Florida.  Florida is pretty hard core shout even making sure County Routes line with the state grid even if the route is insignificant.   New Mexico has a wild variation of build quality all the way from gravel to freeway.  Utah has a lot of odd hidden designations for Routes in state parks or on right-of-way grabbed up to block building of something else. 

[jp the roadgeek]

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

[hotdogPi]

New Hampshire and its suffixed routes. Just look at NH 9A in Chesterfield or NH 11D and 28A in Alton. (New York has crazier suffixes, but it also has much more land area.)

[Brandon]

What states seem to go absolutely overboard with designations? This isn't region specific or fictional.

Kentucky.  Everything that would be a county or township level road is a state highway of some sort.

[CapeCodder]

Here on the Cape, it seems every major road that goes from 6A on the north shore to 28 on the south shore has a number. 130, 149, 132, 134, 124, and finally 137 and 39 do as well.

39 and 151 go from 28 to 28.

[hotdogPi]

Here on the Cape, it seems every major road that goes from 6A on the north shore to 28 on the south shore has a number. 130, 149, 132, 134, 124, and finally 137 and 39 do as well.

39 and 151 go from 28 to 28.

Those are mostly roads that I would expect to have numbers. I don't think there are any extraneous designations.

[hbelkins]

What states seem to go absolutely overboard with designations? This isn't region specific or fictional.

Kentucky.  Everything that would be a county or township level road is a state highway of some sort.

Nope. We have plenty of county routes that may have an inventory number assigned internally, but they aren't posted.

You're thinking of West Virginia or Virginia, where there are no county-maintained routes and the state numbers (and posts) everything.

[vdeane]

Kentucky's system is FAR denser than other states would have.  Makes me wonder if the counties there maintain road that towns would here (and maybe the towns maintain people's driveways?  ).

[CapeCodder]

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

How does the fractional route system work? I've seen some county roads in Ohio with decimals.

[hotdogPi]

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

How does the fractional route system work? I've seen some county roads in Ohio with decimals.

They're not actually fractions; they're just two numbers separated by a horizontal line.

[TheStranger]

California seems downright stingy with state routes compared to places I've lived and worked like New Mexico or Florida.

I would even go as far as saying that California post-1998 has been more about relinquishments than creating any new signed surface routes, and that many surface corridors that were on proposed freeway routes have never been adopted/signed even if they have navigational value.  (Case in point: Route 93 in Richmond, along the current pathway of the municipally-maintained Richmond Parkway)

[sparker]

California seems downright stingy with state routes compared to places I've lived and worked like New Mexico or Florida.

I would even go as far as saying that California post-1998 has been more about relinquishments than creating any new signed surface routes, and that many surface corridors that were on proposed freeway routes have never been adopted/signed even if they have navigational value.  (Case in point: Route 93 in Richmond, along the current pathway of the municipally-maintained Richmond Parkway)

Up until the '64 renumbering, there were quite a few LRN's -- a lot of them in the Central Valley -- that had never been posted as SSR's in the field.  And these weren't latter-day additions; most dated from 1934, when signage efforts were in process.  Some were simply connections from signed routes into cities, like LRN 124 (present CA 233) from CA 152 through Chowchilla and on to (then) US 99; only about 6 miles long, it wasn't considered worth signing prior to the change of policy that came after '64.  Some longer cross-valley routes, most notably LRN 134 (current CA 137) provided both connectivity between Valley towns (Corcoran, Tulare, Lindsay) -- but were still deemed too sparsely traveled for signage.  And even after the renumbering, it still took the Division of Highways about 5 years to complete its signage efforts (some districts were more prompt than others in this regard). 

But compared with today's Caltrans attitudes, those were certainly the "good old days"! 

[roadman65]

Do not forget about Georgia and their ridiculous state routes paired with the US routes and fully signed.

That maybe why GA cops are dicks due to the revenue needed to support the manufacturing and installation of those redundant signs.

[ipeters61]

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):

[hbelkins]

Kentucky's system is FAR denser than other states would have.  Makes me wonder if the counties there maintain road that towns would here (and maybe the towns maintain people's driveways?  ).

Kentucky doesn't have towns, at least not in the sense with which you're familiar. There are three levels of government -- state, county, and city/municipal. The state maintains all the numbered routes, the cities maintain streets within their corporate limits, and the counties maintain everything else. As far as driveways are concerned, that's West Virginia, again (the HARP roads.)

[Scott5114]

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

[Max Rockatansky]

California seems downright stingy with state routes compared to places I've lived and worked like New Mexico or Florida.

I would even go as far as saying that California post-1998 has been more about relinquishments than creating any new signed surface routes, and that many surface corridors that were on proposed freeway routes have never been adopted/signed even if they have navigational value.  (Case in point: Route 93 in Richmond, along the current pathway of the municipally-maintained Richmond Parkway)

Up until the '64 renumbering, there were quite a few LRN's -- a lot of them in the Central Valley -- that had never been posted as SSR's in the field.  And these weren't latter-day additions; most dated from 1934, when signage efforts were in process.  Some were simply connections from signed routes into cities, like LRN 124 (present CA 233) from CA 152 through Chowchilla and on to (then) US 99; only about 6 miles long, it wasn't considered worth signing prior to the change of policy that came after '64.  Some longer cross-valley routes, most notably LRN 134 (current CA 137) provided both connectivity between Valley towns (Corcoran, Tulare, Lindsay) -- but were still deemed too sparsely traveled for signage.  And even after the renumbering, it still took the Division of Highways about 5 years to complete its signage efforts (some districts were more prompt than others in this regard). 

But compared with today's Caltrans attitudes, those were certainly the "good old days"!

I'd say on the whole there aren't a ton of routes in California that simple go nowhere or are on nonsensical.  Granted there are a TON of routes with gaps that were never finished and may/may not have adopted connective alignments.  Compared to most states I think its fair to say that the overwhelming amount of highways at minimum have a purpose. 

[adventurernumber1]

Do not forget about Georgia and their ridiculous state routes paired with the US routes and fully signed.

In Georgia, not only are there the state routes that pretty much spend the entirety of their time concurrent with a US Highway(s), as you say, such as GA 3 and GA 7, but there are also the "secret" state routes that are concurrent with every interstate within the state (such as GA 401 being paired with I-75), even though they aren't signed.

[Roadsguy]

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.

[ipeters61]

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.

Especially true for Delaware.  I heard that DelDOT maintains something like 90% of the state's road network so if you look at Google Maps, you'll see tons of rural roads named things like "Road 535" without a name (because Google doesn't bother putting them in).  However, we don't really have that many signed routes, although some of their numbers I'd like to see changed (cough, cough DE-62).

I heard from one of my coworkers that up until about 15 years ago, the DelDOT road number was pretty much your street name, but then people living/working along those roads were given the option to give them an actual name.

[kurumi]

TJSANOATD, Interstate edition: http://malmeroads.net/ncfutints/index.html (scroll down for map)

[Brandon]

Do not forget about Georgia and their ridiculous state routes paired with the US routes and fully signed.

In Georgia, not only are there the state routes that pretty much spend the entirety of their time concurrent with a US Highway(s), as you say, such as GA 3 and GA 7, but there are also the "secret" state routes that are concurrent with every interstate within the state (such as GA 401 being paired with I-75), even though they aren't signed.

And marked on Google Maps for some odd reason.