New use of county route shields in California

[pderocco]

I've been up in NE California sightseeing. Today, I noticed in both Lassen and Modoc county several new blue and yellow pentagonal county route shields that are not part of the County Sign Route program. They just have 3-digit numbers on them. Modoc doesn't even participate in that program. For all I know,  there are lots of them in other places too. I'm wondering if there is now a move to sign lots more county routes, since so many counties have their own numbered routes having nothing to do with the County Sign Route program.

[Max Rockatansky]

It's probably more a case of that there really isn't anyone left on the state level maintaining the Lettered County Route program to care.  I've also seen similar County Route shields in Sierra County which have nothing to do with the letter route program. 

Some participating counties seem to be doing their own thing with the Letter County Route program.  Monterey County is putting up replacement county shields which omit the letter.  Tulare County pulled all their letter county route  shields aside J37 for reasons unknown. 

[ClassicHasClass]

Very interesting, because Lassen used to use their own shields for that ( example in Doyle: http://www.floodgap.com/roadgap/395/u15/#img_30 ) and Modoc didn't sign them at all, just putting them on street sign blades ( http://www.floodgap.com/roadgap/395/u17/#img_1 ).

[Max Rockatansky]

I grabbed pictures of quite a few of the Modoc County Route shields in this album for CA 139:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/151828809@N08/o1PTsvP83v

[DTComposer]

It's probably more a case of that there really isn't anyone left on the state level maintaining the Lettered County Route program to care.  I've also seen similar County Route shields in Sierra County which have nothing to do with the letter route program. 

Some participating counties seem to be doing their own thing with the Letter County Route program.  Monterey County is putting up replacement county shields which omit the letter.  Tulare County pulled all their letter county route  shields aside J37 for reasons unknown. 

I'm guessing it's the county, not the state, but in the last couple of years I've noticed a marked increase in new county route shields in Santa Clara County, especially along G2 (Lawrence Expressway), G10 (Blossom Hill Road), and G8 (Almaden Expressway/McKean Road). For decades, the signage was deprecating, if it still existed at all.

Of particular note is the G2 shield being featured on new BGS's at the Lawrence/Stevens Creek/I-280 interchange - not on I-280 itself, but on off-ramps and along the surface routes:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3204,-121.9940372,3a,75y,333.95h,67.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shijBhZfWb_J9H1JVgqsRdQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[Max Rockatansky]

It's probably more a case of that there really isn't anyone left on the state level maintaining the Lettered County Route program to care.  I've also seen similar County Route shields in Sierra County which have nothing to do with the letter route program. 

Some participating counties seem to be doing their own thing with the Letter County Route program.  Monterey County is putting up replacement county shields which omit the letter.  Tulare County pulled all their letter county route  shields aside J37 for reasons unknown. 

I'm guessing it's the county, not the state, but in the last couple of years I've noticed a marked increase in new county route shields in Santa Clara County, especially along G2 (Lawrence Expressway), G10 (Blossom Hill Road), and G8 (Almaden Expressway/McKean Road). For decades, the signage was deprecating, if it still existed at all.

The background the Letter County Route program IMO is unnecessarily complicated:

https://www.cahighways.org/cnty13.html

The counties IMO should have autonomy regarding adding/deleting Sign County Routes.  I suspect in the case of Modoc County they opted to do their own thing rather than participate in the Letter County Route program.  Program points 7-9 alone made the Letter County Route a victim of apathy in modern times.

[ClassicHasClass]

I grabbed pictures of quite a few of the Modoc County Route shields in this album for CA 139:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/151828809@N08/o1PTsvP83v

I'm wondering if the ones you picked up were anomalies. There are a lot of county roads in Modoc, almost all of them with a number, but I only counted two discrete routes in your photos (unless you know there were more).

[Max Rockatansky]

I grabbed pictures of quite a few of the Modoc County Route shields in this album for CA 139:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/151828809@N08/o1PTsvP83v

I'm wondering if the ones you picked up were anomalies. There are a lot of county roads in Modoc, almost all of them with a number, but I only counted two discrete routes in your photos (unless you know there were more).

There was at least four that I saw scanning through the blog I did on CA 139.  The trouble I have is getting solid county route shields pictures at speed unless lightning conditions are nearly perfect.  Daniel witnessed the same thing when he was coming back from Klamath Falls a couple years ago. 

https://www.gribblenation.org/2021/09/oregon-route-39-and-california-state.html?m=1

[bootmii]

It's probably more a case of that there really isn't anyone left on the state level maintaining the Lettered County Route program to care.  I've also seen similar County Route shields in Sierra County which have nothing to do with the letter route program. 

Some participating counties seem to be doing their own thing with the Letter County Route program.  Monterey County is putting up replacement county shields which omit the letter.  Tulare County pulled all their letter county route  shields aside J37 for reasons unknown.

In your opinion, is San Mateo a G county, J county, or E county?

[skluth]

I don't think Riverside County even has county routes. OTOH, San Diego and Imperial Counties share a decent county route in S22 which goes through Borrego Springs.

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

Riverside is in the R range.  CA 243 used to be Riverside County R1 as an example.  R2 (Kaiser Road) and R3 (former CA 83) both are still on the books as being defined but I've never seen signage.

It's probably more a case of that there really isn't anyone left on the state level maintaining the Lettered County Route program to care.  I've also seen similar County Route shields in Sierra County which have nothing to do with the letter route program. 

Some participating counties seem to be doing their own thing with the Letter County Route program.  Monterey County is putting up replacement county shields which omit the letter.  Tulare County pulled all their letter county route  shields aside J37 for reasons unknown.

In your opinion, is San Mateo a G county, J county, or E county?

G since San Mateo is the Central Coast grouping.

[ClassicHasClass]

R3 is signed: http://www.floodgap.com/roadgap/371/#sec_50

Riverside is the only county in zone R, which may explain the poor signage, since there's no interjurisdictional need. At one time there was supposed to be a continuation of SDCo S16 but I don't know if that was ever signed.

[Max Rockatansky]

R3 is signed: http://www.floodgap.com/roadgap/371/#sec_50

Riverside is the only county in zone R, which may explain the poor signage, since there's no interjurisdictional need. At one time there was supposed to be a continuation of SDCo S16 but I don't know if that was ever signed.

That R3 from CA 79 was gone when I drove the corridor in 2019.  Regarding R2 I don't recall it being signed when I drove it in 2011, but I was more focused on Eagle Mountain and ghost towns versus highway signage at the time.

[cl94]

"New" is relative. I've seen some other 3 digit shields in that part of the state that are faded. See this shield in Boca, Nevada County. Lassen County historically used white on green squares for CRs, but they've been moving to pentagons.

[ClassicHasClass]

Lassen used to have both (pentagons for zoned routes and squares for, I guess, secondary routes). Some of the secondary routes even had names. I suppose they're just switching everything over now.