IS US 44 a numbering violation?

[hotdogPi]

Is US 44 a numbering violation? It seems to be too far north to be normal. It's between US 20 and US 30. (US 6 is a bit nonstandard too, so we shouldn't really be comparing it to US 6.)

[Alps]

US 44 and US 46 were both numbered after the original series was laid out. By that time, there were lower numbers available, but they were chosen for whatever reason. US 6 has really never made sense, even in its abbreviated eastern form. 6 and 44 are by far not the farthest-apart US highways to meet - for a historical example, US 66 crossed US 6 outside Chicago.

[NE2]

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1925us.jpg
US 20 is the original violator, going northeast from Cleveland (rather than e.g. 10 going Chicago-Cleveland-Boston). US 6, in the 1925 plan, went only from Provincetown to Brewster, which was south of 4 and north of 22. All the even numbers below 44, except 8 (which was assigned in 1926), were taken, so there was no easy way to send an x0 to Boston and keep 6 in the grid.
(36 and 38 should have been swapped, however.)

[cpzilliacus]

Is US 44 a numbering violation? It seems to be too far north to be normal. It's between US 20 and US 30. (US 6 is a bit nonstandard too, so we shouldn't really be comparing it to US 6.)

The (new) U.S. 48 (most of which is  Appalachian Development Highway System Corridor H in West Virginia) is parallel to (and south of) U.S. 50 in Virginia and West Virginia.

The previous U.S. 48 (ADHS Corridor E in Maryland and West Virginia, now signed I-68) was multiplexed with or south of U.S. 40 and north  of U.S. 50.

Then there's the matter of U.S. 52, which goes its own way and does not worry about numbering  schemes.

[roadman65]

What about US 62 going from the Mexican Border to the Canadian Border being a complete east-west route?  Mexico is south and Canada is north, so this not only is a numbering violation in that sense and that it crosses almost every number from what was 80 to 6 in its path, but counterlogical for an East-West route to go between our north and south neighbors.

[cpzilliacus]

What about US 62 going from the Mexican Border to the Canadian Border being a complete east-west route?  Mexico is south and Canada is north, so this not only is a numbering violation in that sense and that it crosses almost every number from what was 80 to 6 in its path, but counterlogical for an East-West route to go between our north and south neighbors.

Yeah, that is almost a  reverse of U.S. 52.

[roadman65]

Yeah, I never thought of that one too!  Its ironic, too, because the place that both US 52 and US 62 intersect, there is a wrong way concurrency as well.  Opposites have opposite meetings, could not be more strange.

[NE2]

PS: US 52 is worse than I-74.

[roadman65]

PS: US 52 is worse than I-74.

It gets even worse in SC now that the Palmetto State has signed US 52 East and West instead of North and South like the route really runs in their state.

[hotdogPi]

Long diagonal routes will always be numbering violations no matter what.

[roadman65]

Unless all roads are straight and run true east to west or north to south, you cannot have a perfect system.  We need diagonal routes as well, so something has to give.  I am baffled to the fact that US 46 got picked as a two digit route number instead of a three digit route number as it should have been.

[Henry]

Unless all roads are straight and run true east to west or north to south, you cannot have a perfect system.  We need diagonal routes as well, so something has to give.  I am baffled to the fact that US 46 got picked as a two digit route number instead of a three digit route number as it should have been.

Which could explain why US 44, US 46 and most of US 42 all lie north of US 40. Half of US 52 lies north of US 50 and the other half south of it, and even US 66 went north of US 60 and south of US 70 as well.

[ctsignguy]

If i remember correctly, when the original grid was laid out in the mid-20s, several route numbers were 'held back' to see if additional traffic patterns would call for their use, or decommissioning.  This is why US 55 was decommissioned after a decade or service, yet US 35 was a late-comer as an x5 route

[NE2]

More like some numbers were unused because there were less than 50 routes in each direction.

[texaskdog]

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1925us.jpg
US 20 is the original violator, going northeast from Cleveland (rather than e.g. 10 going Chicago-Cleveland-Boston). US 6, in the 1925 plan, went only from Provincetown to Brewster, which was south of 4 and north of 22. All the even numbers below 44, except 8 (which was assigned in 1926), were taken, so there was no easy way to send an x0 to Boston and keep 6 in the grid.
(36 and 38 should have been swapped, however.)

Yeah for those of you x0/x5 "though shalt not violate" people, 6 should have been 10 so you'd think!!!

[texaskdog]

Unless all roads are straight and run true east to west or north to south, you cannot have a perfect system.  We need diagonal routes as well, so something has to give.  I am baffled to the fact that US 46 got picked as a two digit route number instead of a three digit route number as it should have been.

11,22,33,44,55,66,77,88,99

[roadman65]

In the pre interstate days my dad was telling me the way between NYC and Cleveland was from New York to use US 46 West to US 611 North to US 6 West.

US 46 should have been another x06 routing that would have been concurrent with US 611 out of Scranton.