Cheating US highways

[bugo]

There is a guideline that is not always adhered to that declares that US highways that are under 300 miles long must enter two or more states. Some US highways meet this guideline by cheating. US 223 is a good example. It is a de facto single state highway. It hops onto US 23 and crosses into Ohio, ending at the first interchange on the south side of the state line. US 400 is another cheater. U$ 195 was once a cheater but is no longer. Are there any other US highways that have useless overlaps that cross into other states and end?

[Scott5114]

US 166 does the same thing to US 400 that US 400 does to it.

US 177 is barely much better, but it doesn't have a concurrency at the end. It just goes into Kansas for a couple miles and ends.

[Flint1979]

US-131 is 269 miles long and only has about a half mile in Indiana ending at the Indiana Toll Road and continuing as IN-13. But other than that half mile in Indiana the entire route is in Michigan.

US-730 is another one only going between Boardman, Oregon and Wallula, Washington for a total of 42 miles.

US-266 is only in Oklahoma. US-211 is only in Virginia. US-311 only runs from Winston-Salem, NC to Danville, VA. US-197 is another Oregon-Washington example. US-138 in Colorado and Nebraska. US-113 in Maryland and Delaware. Of course there's US-46 only being in New Jersey. US-192 is only in Florida.

There are several U.S. highways that exist only in one state. And that policy of 300 or more miles or more than one state was written in 1991 so it doesn't surprise me that there are several U.S. highways that aren't 300 miles long or don't enter another state. So any new additions to the U.S. highway system has to serve more than one state.

[NE2]

And that policy of 300 or more miles or more than one state was written in 1991

Nope, it's existed since 1937. https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=10190

[Max Rockatansky]

There ought to have been some sort of exclusion to that 300 mile rule based off traffic counts.  You rarely hear people raise cane about US 92 which functions as a defacto surface alternate to I-4 and I-275 these days. 

[US71]

US 166 does the same thing to US 400 that US 400 does to it.

US 177 is barely much better, but it doesn't have a concurrency at the end. It just goes into Kansas for a couple miles and ends.

166 used to run to Springfield, MO until I-44 pretty much replaced it.

[hbelkins]

US 48 is not 300 miles long, and its 18 or so miles in Virginia consist of it being overlaid on existing VA 55.

[PHLBOS]

US 206, which runs mostly in NJ, barely makes the criteria due to a very short (less than 1/2 mile) segment in Milford, PA where it ends at US 209. 

Although two vintage button-copy BGS' (shown here) still give hint of US 206 once running concurrently w/US 209 northward to US 6.  Oct. 2018 GSVs still show those BGS'.  Even more odd, at least based on the info. listed in the usends.com site (per the above-link), is that US 206 was truncated to US 209 circa 1946 but those BGS' are 1960s/maybe very early 70s vintage.

[usends]

There ought to have been some sort of exclusion to that 300 mile rule based off traffic counts.  You rarely hear people raise cane about US 92 which functions as a defacto surface alternate to I-4 and I-275 these days.

If peninsular Florida is going to have an east-west US route, it's not going to reach 300 miles in length, so all one can ask is that it goes from shore to shore.  US 92 works, but US 192 is harder to defend. However...

When AASHO set forth the 300-mile guideline in 1937, 52 routes of lesser length were eliminated within the next few years (42 became part of longer routes, and 10 became state routes).  Then during the "Years of Decline" (1960s-1990s) another 20 intra-state US routes were deleted.  But many of those more recent deletions were initiated by state DOTs, not by AASHO/AASHTO.  From what I can tell, that organization hasn't made any effort to enforce the "300-mile rule" since 1970, so in effect the rule doesn't exist anymore, and I believe the 20 intra-state routes that survived both of those earlier purges are safe from AASHTO now.  Of course it's possible that some individual state DOT might have a reason to get rid of one of its intra-state routes, but in my opinion that will never be motivated by an edict from AASHTO.  They just don't care about that kind of stuff anymore.

[Max Rockatansky]

There ought to have been some sort of exclusion to that 300 mile rule based off traffic counts.  You rarely hear people raise cane about US 92 which functions as a defacto surface alternate to I-4 and I-275 these days.

If peninsular Florida is going to have an east-west US route, it's not going to reach 300 miles in length, so all one can ask is that it goes from shore to shore.  US 92 works, but US 192 is harder to defend. However...

When AASHO set forth the 300-mile guideline in 1937, 52 routes of lesser length were eliminated within the next few years (42 became part of longer routes, and 10 became state routes).  Then during the "Years of Decline" (1960s-1990s) another 20 intra-state US routes were deleted.  But those more recent deletions were initiated by state DOTs, not by AASHO/AASHTO.  That organization hasn't made any effort to enforce the "300-mile rule" in the past 60-70 years, so in effect the rule doesn't exist anymore, and I believe the 20 intra-state routes that survived both of those earlier purges are safe from AASHTO now.  Of course it's possible that some individual state DOT might have a reason to get rid of one of its intra-state routes, but in my opinion that will never be motivated by an edict from AASHTO.  They just don't care about that kind of stuff anymore.

Interestingly if I recall correctly there once a push by FDOT get a US Route corridor on all of FL 50.  Considering how many US Route connections that route would have had I think it was a pretty solid reasoning behind it.  US 192 is hanging around probably has more to do with it being a pretty high end surface highway at this point, really the one I tend to question more is the need to have US 441 beyond Okeechobee anymore.  Florida did have some interesting intra-State US Routes like US 94 and US 541 but those are long lost to time. 

[Flint1979]

And that policy of 300 or more miles or more than one state was written in 1991

Nope, it's existed since 1937. https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=10190

That's what I meant to say I didn't realize it said 1991. Don't know how that got there.

[fillup420]

US 264. Only 215 miles long entirely in NC. Also, the westernmost 16 miles are concurrent with US 64.

[oscar]

US 264. Only 215 miles long entirely in NC. Also, the westernmost 16 miles are concurrent with US 64.

US 117 is much shorter, and also entirely in NC.

[jp the roadgeek]

US 46 is certainly a cheater now.  Historically, it wasn't as it crossed the Portland-Columbia toll bridge to end at then US 611, similar to the US 206 situation that still exists.

US 130 is certainly a violator.  83.46 miles long, and all in NJ 

[debragga]

US 175 is only 111 miles and it's all in Texas

[Beltway]

US-211 in Virginia started out as only in Virginia, was extended into D.C., and then later truncated a couple times, last time back to Warrenton.

[Henry]

US 425 is too far west to have met its supposed parent, US 25. And we still don't know where the hell US 0 is...

[Mapmikey]

US 264. Only 215 miles long entirely in NC. Also, the westernmost 16 miles are concurrent with US 64.

US 117 is much shorter, and also entirely in NC.

Current US 117 did start out as a two state route as it was also in South Carolina 1932-34...

[Max Rockatansky]

Has anyone brought up US 163?   Really it is a very short route that happens to be in two states and is far truncated from its original size.  The number is much akin to US 400, 412 and 425. 

[ilpt4u]

Did US 220 used to connect to US 20 in NY?

US 641 never intersects US 41 nor any x41 siblings, but it used to hit US 41 in Evansville, IN

I did lay out an idea on the Fictional board to extend US 641 into IL by basically taking over IL 1 to reach Chicagoland and find its way to US 41 there: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=22867.0

[MikieTimT]

Has anyone brought up US 163?   Really it is a very short route that happens to be in two states and is far truncated from its original size.  The number is much akin to US 400, 412 and 425.

US 412 actually isn't a short route and goes through or at least slightly touches 6 states.  I think the entire 400 series of U.S. highways were intended to be an eye-gouge to pendantic folks like us to push those in power to make them into freeways.  US-412 from Tulsa eastward to Nashville is a high-priority corridor (HPC 8) that will at least make spotty progress towards freeway upgrades in our lifetimes, but who knows if that means upgraded portions are replaced with an interstate designation eventually.  It's already at least 4 lanes from Tulsa to Huntsville, AR, but I don't see much appetite for pushing through the mountains to Alpena, AR anytime soon.  And I definitely don't see any push past Harrison for a couple of decades.

[kphoger]

Its number may have derived from the fact that it originally did connect with its "sibling", US 120.

[Flint1979]

US-20 never met up with US-120 either.

[Flint1979]

US-412 also overlaps with US-43, US-56, US-60, US-62, US-63, US-64, US-65, and U.S. 270 and runs parallel to US-62 and US-64 in various places and intersects US-70. It's ridiculous that it can't have a spur number from anyone of those US highways.

[MikieTimT]

US-412 also overlaps with US-43, US-56, US-60, US-62, US-63, US-64, US-65, and U.S. 270 and runs parallel to US-62 and US-64 in various places and intersects US-70. It's ridiculous that it can't have a spur number from anyone of those US highways.

Given that it's an E/W running highway, it wouldn't make sense to use any of the odd-numbered roads you mentioned.  It probably runs concurrently with US-62 more than any other US highway, so I could buy into a US-462.  Only changes one numeral that way.  It's probably going to become an interstate between Tulsa and Lowell anyway if they bypass Siloam Springs and take care of at-grade intersections; there aren't very many in that stretch.