In 2026, the Federal U.S. Highway Numbering System (I.e. US 31, US 90, US 41) turns 100 while the Interstate Highway System turns 70.
My year is bigger than yours.
Last year was equally big, since the US highways were 99 years old and the interstate highways were 69 years old. And they will be big in 2027 when they become 101 and 71 years old, respectively.
There really isn't anything special about the number 100 beyond us deciding there is. It's just another number.
I guess? We'll probably do something for November 11th in reference to the US Route System on our Facebook page. I'm honestly not sure how that is all that tangibly different from other US Route posts we do though.
Speaking for myself, now that I have the catalog for California State Highways fleshed out on Gribblenation most of my in-state focus has been on back roads. I don't anticipate that changing much in 2026. Can't really comment on what Adam, Doug or Dan might do.
ok and
Quote from: NE2 on January 09, 2026, 07:32:16 PMMy year is bigger than yours.
Weird way to find out someone is using the Hebrew calendar, but all right.
Quote from: Quillz on January 09, 2026, 07:49:24 PMThere really isn't anything special about the number 100 beyond us deciding there is. It's just another number.
Change that 1 to a 4 and this could be a quote from AASHTO.
Quote from: Scott5114 on January 09, 2026, 10:46:39 PMQuote from: NE2 on January 09, 2026, 07:32:16 PMMy year is bigger than yours.
Weird way to find out someone is using the Hebrew calendar, but all right.
Quote from: Quillz on January 09, 2026, 07:49:24 PMThere really isn't anything special about the number 100 beyond us deciding there is. It's just another number.
Change that 1 to a 4 and this could be a quote from AASHTO.
They're not wrong. No number is particularly special outside of cultural attitudes. It's like how 40 was a significant number in the Bible, a lot of ancient civilizations used 60 as an important number. Modern society likes 100 but there's nothing special about it beyond it just being a number.
This may or may not be an endorsement for US 400.
Quote from: Quillz on January 09, 2026, 11:46:13 PMQuote from: Scott5114 on January 09, 2026, 10:46:39 PMQuote from: NE2 on January 09, 2026, 07:32:16 PMMy year is bigger than yours.
Weird way to find out someone is using the Hebrew calendar, but all right.
Quote from: Quillz on January 09, 2026, 07:49:24 PMThere really isn't anything special about the number 100 beyond us deciding there is. It's just another number.
Change that 1 to a 4 and this could be a quote from AASHTO.
They're not wrong. No number is particularly special outside of cultural attitudes. It's like how 40 was a significant number in the Bible, a lot of ancient civilizations used 60 as an important number. Modern society likes 100 but there's nothing special about it beyond it just being a number.
This may or may not be an endorsement for US 400.
Special or not I usually pre-plan to have our best stuff release on significant dates. An example would be recently when I scheduled a Facebook post about The Slab along US 101 near Leggett to release at West Coast New Years. There wasn't a particular reason to tie it into a New Years post but it definitely got more attention that way.
The Arkansas state highway system will be celebrating its 100 year anniversary since its initial creation/numbering in April, so I guess 2026 is a pretty big year for the Arkansas roadgeeks too... for the very few of us out there.
Quote from: Scott5114 on January 09, 2026, 10:46:39 PMQuote from: NE2 on January 09, 2026, 07:32:16 PMMy year is bigger than yours.
Weird way to find out someone is using the Hebrew calendar, but all right.
I assumed he meant that he spent January 1 in UTC+14 and will be spending December 31 in UTC-11.
Quote from: Quillz on January 09, 2026, 07:49:24 PMLast year was equally big, since the US highways were 99 years old and the interstate highways were 69 years old. ...
So you're saying last year was a nice year for the Interstate system.
Related thread:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=24306.0 (created all the way back in 2019)
"What would a 2026 commemorative coin for the US highway system look like?"
In this thread, I proposed that the existing commemorative denominations of 50¢, $1, and $5 would have matching US route numbers of US 50, US 1, and US 5; I was immediately told that US 5 would have no interest, but the other two are well known enough that they could work.
Unfortunately, this didn't happen.
There's always someone spoiling someone else's fun because "it's just a number" which is ironic for a forum filled with grid fanatics who memorize route numbers all day. Or people who still get bent out of shape over I-238 and I-99, or that US 6N and US 57 exist.
Nobody is proclaiming route rapture is going to occur and tolls lifted for the year, so just roll with it, mkay?
Quote from: Quillz on January 09, 2026, 07:49:24 PMLast year was equally big, since the US highways were 99 years old and the interstate highways were 69 years old. And they will be big in 2027 when they become 101 and 71 years old, respectively.
There really isn't anything special about the number 100 beyond us deciding there is. It's just another number.
"Us deciding there is" is how everything special is determined.
That is, I'm not sure why you're shitting on this. If you don't want to recognize the centennial, you don't have to. There's a good chance that, even on this board, no one would notice.
Quote from: CtrlAltDel on January 10, 2026, 12:10:34 PMQuote from: Quillz on January 09, 2026, 07:49:24 PMLast year was equally big, since the US highways were 99 years old and the interstate highways were 69 years old. And they will be big in 2027 when they become 101 and 71 years old, respectively.
There really isn't anything special about the number 100 beyond us deciding there is. It's just another number.
"Us deciding there is" is how everything special is determined.
That is, I'm not sure why you're shitting on this. If you don't want to recognize the centennial, you don't have to. There's a good chance that, even on this board, no one would notice.
I do recognize it. I'm just not expecting much to happen in regards to it.
Quote from: Quillz on January 10, 2026, 02:14:24 PMQuote from: CtrlAltDel on January 10, 2026, 12:10:34 PMQuote from: Quillz on January 09, 2026, 07:49:24 PMLast year was equally big, since the US highways were 99 years old and the interstate highways were 69 years old. And they will be big in 2027 when they become 101 and 71 years old, respectively.
There really isn't anything special about the number 100 beyond us deciding there is. It's just another number.
"Us deciding there is" is how everything special is determined.
That is, I'm not sure why you're shitting on this. If you don't want to recognize the centennial, you don't have to. There's a good chance that, even on this board, no one would notice.
I do recognize it. I'm just not expecting much to happen in regards to it.
I wouldn't expect much of AASHTO. They seem to be pretty oblivious to the mountain of documents and information they are sitting on. Their social media page on Facebook is about the most bland thing I've ever seen. They rarely hit on anything about the US Route System:
https://www.facebook.com/AASHTOspeaks?mibextid=wwXIfr
Quote from: formulanone on January 10, 2026, 12:04:36 PMThere's always someone spoiling someone else's fun because "it's just a number" which is ironic for a forum filled with grid fanatics who memorize route numbers all day.
To me, it's reached the point where the "I don't care about numbering systems" posts get on my nerves more than the people who complain when numbering systems aren't followed. At least "this is an X county number but it's in Y county, I wonder why" is something to talk about, whereas "Oh, it's all random" is something you learn early on and then never mention again because it isn't even interesting.
Quote from: Scott5114 on January 10, 2026, 08:05:18 PMQuote from: formulanone on January 10, 2026, 12:04:36 PMThere's always someone spoiling someone else's fun because "it's just a number" which is ironic for a forum filled with grid fanatics who memorize route numbers all day.
To me, it's reached the point where the "I don't care about numbering systems" posts get on my nerves more than the people who complain when numbering systems aren't followed. At least "this is an X county number but it's in Y county, I wonder why" is something to talk about, whereas "Oh, it's all random" is something you learn early on and then never mention again because it isn't even interesting.
None of it gets on my nerves per se. Both tend to be something I often don't find that consistently interesting anymore. It is pretty rare nowadays when someone has a new angle or lore piece to bring to the table.
I think at this point the AASHTO database has been mostly farmed out. That was really driving my interest in the US Route system for several years.
Quote from: Scott5114 on January 10, 2026, 08:05:18 PMQuote from: formulanone on January 10, 2026, 12:04:36 PMThere's always someone spoiling someone else's fun because "it's just a number" which is ironic for a forum filled with grid fanatics who memorize route numbers all day.
To me, it's reached the point where the "I don't care about numbering systems" posts get on my nerves more than the people who complain when numbering systems aren't followed.
I've often been the sort-of "fun killer" on a few of these threads previously for this very reason. I will say I honestly just got used to the very random aspect of a lot of states' highway systems and how incredibly complicated they are, also kinda adds to the challenge of memorizing them in my opinion. I'm mostly just here because I enjoy taking pictures of highway shields and clinching new highway mileage, and learning about highway systems in general regardless if they fall under any sort of ordering scheme.
I do tend to think as a hobby we tend to be overly centric on numbered highways. There are so many cool and interesting roads out there that often get overlooked because they don't have a highway shield assigned to them.
If anything over the years I've found that things tend to build upon each other. There is often a trackable history from trails and stage roads which leads into the numbered highway stuff. So much of that doesn't get captured all that often.
PA I-99 signed between I-180 and NY border.
2026 also marks the 75th anniversary of the Washington State Ferries system, and there's some celebrations planned. The whole point of milestone anniversaries is to celebrate and bring new publicity and energy to a thing you like. I would hope that we can celebrate the 100th anniversary of the USNH system and bring some attention and love to it rather than being spoilsports who bicker about stuff.
Quote from: Bruce on January 10, 2026, 10:28:29 PM2026 also marks the 75th anniversary of the Washington State Ferries system, and there's some celebrations planned. The whole point of milestone anniversaries is to celebrate and bring new publicity and energy to a thing you like. I would hope that we can celebrate the 100th anniversary of the USNH system and bring some attention and love to it rather than being spoilsports who bicker about stuff.
Celebrating it here or just in private road groups doesn't really doesn't accomplish that goal of bringing the US Route System wider attention. So far Dale Sanderson's USends page has been the only mainstream hobby page I've seen hitting on commemorative dates consistently.
Considering that this forum is a refuge for people who are highly interested in road systems and road maps, it will never cease to amaze me how frequently we see people write posts mocking and diminishing the interests in differing subsets expressed by other users. Some of you joined this forum because you wanted to seek refuge among other like-minded people, to avoid ridicule for having your specific interests, just to come here and ridicule others for their interest in a different subset within this hobby? Different people on the forum have different sub-interests. The act of mocking someone else for getting excited about a specific thing within the realm of roads and road maps is not only wildly hypocritical; it's defeatist, socially inept, hurtful, dismissive, and potentially destructive to people's passions that bring them to this forum in the first place. If you don't care about a particular thing said on the forum, go find something else that does pique your interest. You're not a better person than someone else because you don't care about something while the other person does care. And you're not adding anything by saying you don't care; rather, the dismissal of others' sub-interests is reductive, and it makes the forum a worse place.
I think that I'm missing what is being taken as mocking? I don't think that anything I said conveys that I don't care about the history of US Route System.
Anyways, here is an example of what I was talking about with Dale's USends page hitting commemorative dates with the US Route System. Today's post was about the planned terminus of US 30 switching from Salt Lake City to Astoria.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid025rUbgUYLKNdeQFtX2itE7QaVNoym3ekePt3g92NXGkycsA7Ybr3tG5BxBGpf2uVel&id=100063566439769&mibextid=wwXIfr
If I was going to offer a thought on something I was planning on Gribblenation I might just pull the list of original US Routes for a couple west coast states. We have a stronger following out west than we do in the rest of the country.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 11, 2026, 12:17:42 AMI think that I'm missing what is being taken as mocking? I don't think that anything I said conveys that I don't care about the history of US Route System.
Perhaps it was my pointing out that I don't see a centennial as any more special than recognizing something as 99 years old, or 101 years old. Right now I'm seeing Disneyland ads celebrating 70 years. I wonder if they did ads about 65 years? But my original post wasn't intended to "shit" or mock anyone. It was just my thoughts.
I guess as an aside, I just kind of find the specific interest our society has with 100 as interesting. I remember Snope did an article about the famous Lincoln-Kennedy connections, and how so many of them were based on things happening 100 years apart. But as they pointed out, it ignores all the things they didn't have in common, and it ignored all the things that didn't happen 100 years apart. Their point was we get very obsessed with "clean" numbers and specific milestones, when there in truth isn't anything special about 100 years compared to 97 years or 112 years. Which was kind of my larger point, that I don't see AASHTO doing anything special for the century milestone because in of itself, I don't think it's any more or less significant than any other year.
I think there's also a difference between finding meaning in numbers within a particular system, and recognizing that the actual age of that system isn't as significant.
Quote from: Quillz on January 12, 2026, 04:09:24 AMPerhaps it was my pointing out that I don't see a centennial as any more special than recognizing something as 99 years old, or 101 years old. Right now I'm seeing Disneyland ads celebrating 70 years. I wonder if they did ads about 65 years? But my original post wasn't intended to "shit" or mock anyone. It was just my thoughts.
I guess as an aside, I just kind of find the specific interest our society has with 100 as interesting. I remember Snope did an article about the famous Lincoln-Kennedy connections, and how so many of them were based on things happening 100 years apart. But as they pointed out, it ignores all the things they didn't have in common, and it ignored all the things that didn't happen 100 years apart. Their point was we get very obsessed with "clean" numbers and specific milestones, when there in truth isn't anything special about 100 years compared to 97 years or 112 years. Which was kind of my larger point, that I don't see AASHTO doing anything special for the century milestone because in of itself, I don't think it's any more or less significant than any other year.
People naturally want to commemorate things with celebrations, often annually like birthdays. But some things aren't significant enough to celebrate every year, so they get celebrated less often. We represent numbers in base ten, ultimately because we have ten fingers, so all powers of ten are significant to us in that they are our "roundest" numbers, making them easy to remember. (Powers of a thousand, even more, as in kilometers, megawatts, gigabytes, teraflops.) That doesn't mean they have some magical meaning outside of the number system. But if you want a series of numbers that are spread apart, in order to celebrate something less often than every year, it makes sense to pick multiples of some power of ten.
So if AASHTO isn't celebrating the centennial of the US highway system, it's not because there's nothing special about 100 years, it's because they don't think that's anything worth celebrating at all.
Quote from: pderocco on January 12, 2026, 04:37:31 AMSo if AASHTO isn't celebrating the centennial of the US highway system, it's not because there's nothing special about 100 years, it's because they don't think that's anything worth celebrating at all.
This is where I'd probably agree with them. I don't think there's a lot to celebrate. I think the interstate system might be worth celebrating a centennial if only because it has specific design standards, it was championed by Eisenhower, is one of the largest public works projects in history, and had a huge impact on the transportation. By contrast, the US highways are just standard roads for the most part, and even state highways have supplanted them in many cases.
Considering the AASHTO Facebook account seems to be going out of their way to not mention American roadways I'm guessing they don't think the US Route System is worth celebrating. You can see such jems though such ocean liners being launched in Italy though:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0pbL3V645iheS2hiGKay3oAsRzjC5MYNZobJG46ckSsT42zHmvvNcVAhGKTg1yXG5l&id=100064604687317&mibextid=wwXIfr
I guess the Centennial Thing just shows that something spanned a few generations, so for some people, it's a chance to look back with any personal introspection. We're still allowed to do that? Not just buy stuff endlessly and bullshit each other to feed others' ideals?
In the case of the U.S. Numbered Route system, it was for a standardization of (mostly) inter-state routes to facilitate travel for agriculture, goods, services, and later, tourism. There were auto routes before that but usually by committees which had more local representation.
Looking back, we see that it wasn't always a perfect ideal; lots of politics, string-pulling, backscratching (and perhaps some light backstabbing). The were comparatively limited standards at the time but somehow it seemed to work out so as long as map publishing and a few signs let the public know where to go hither and dither.
This eventually led to the Interstate system which has more support and yet more flaws, a sometimes ignominious past, but is somewhere between a massive shiny example to the world or exposes and feeds the worst of all our habits. For us, it's a big launching point into our hobbies, even if our scope is vast and varied, and find interest in the deep obscurity as well as the publicly obvious.
So while we look at these things frequently, there's the scope of the greater public which doesn't think about these things (if much at all after passing their state's driving exam), letting such trivia lay transparent and dwell into the unconscious. But that expands the pool of roadgeekery in some small way, even if it doesn't quite match the initial tireless effort to get that route system prepared in the first place.
That's why it's okay to have celebrations, however muted or attenuated. These celebrations are the epitome of culture; it does not come from a box nor an application but comes from the environment, the shared joy and awe that we get from these kinds of mammoth works which cause us to tremble with amazement, impel us to behold the great works, and spur us to think of our own future deeds.
Quote from: akt85 on January 09, 2026, 07:01:03 PMthe Federal U.S. Highway Numbering System (i.e. US 31, US 90, US 41)
Only those three?
Quote from: Quillz on January 09, 2026, 11:46:13 PMNo number is particularly special outside of cultural attitudes. It's like how 40 was a significant number in the Bible, a lot of ancient civilizations used 60 as an important number. Modern society likes 100 but there's nothing special about it beyond it just being a number.
I'd argue that some numbers are objectively special, whereas others are only culturally special, and that the distinction comes down to math.
I think it stands to reason that so many civilizations—particularly the Babylonians and Sumerians—used base-60 because it's so incredibly useful for doing math. It has twelve factors, including all numbers from 1 through 6, which means it's great for conducting business in an ancient context. The smallest number that has factors including all of 1 through 5 is...also 60. The smallest number that has factors including all of 1 through 4 is the number 12, which is also a special number in many cultures (for example, it's the cutoff point for our own language's list of unique number names before we just start adding -teen to the end of things).
When I'm at the gym, I almost always do reps on either 12, 16, or 24, because it's easy for me to know how far through the set I am at any given point. If I'm doing a set of 24, then...
4: one-sixth of the way done
6: one-quarter of the way done
8: one-third of the way done
12: halfway done
16: one-third left to go
18: one-quarter left to go
20: one-sixth left to go
Sure, I could do sets of 23 instead, but 23 is less special of a number in this regard. (Of course, its being a prime number makes it special in its own way instead.)
Quote from: kphoger on January 12, 2026, 10:30:30 AMQuote from: akt85 on January 09, 2026, 07:01:03 PMthe Federal U.S. Highway Numbering System (i.e. US 31, US 90, US 41)
Only those three?
Yes, says the Floribamian. I'll give 27 some consideration but US 47 can get lost.
Quote from: kphoger on January 12, 2026, 11:02:04 AMWhen I'm at the gym, I almost always do reps on either 12, 16, or 24, because it's easy for me to know how far through the set I am at any given point. If I'm doing a set of 24, then...
4: one-sixth of the way done
6: one-quarter of the way done
8: one-third of the way done
12: halfway done
16: one-third left to go
18: one-quarter left to go
20: one-sixth left to go
Don't worry, we'll get you the best doctors.
Are there any official plans for the 100th anniversary of Route 66? That is probably the most popular of the U.S. Federal Highways amongst the general public and that highway has been decommissioned for over 40 years.
Quote from: akt85 on January 12, 2026, 08:29:41 PMAre there any official plans for the 100th anniversary of Route 66? That is probably the most popular of the U.S. Federal Highways amongst the general public and that highway has been decommissioned for over 40 years.
(https://i.imgflip.com/ah7f6x.jpg)
^^^
Yeah, I was going to say something about that but figured someone else would hit on "Federal Highways."
Quote from: akt85 on January 12, 2026, 08:29:41 PMAre there any official plans for the 100th anniversary of Route 66? That is probably the most popular of the U.S. Federal Highways amongst the general public and that highway has been decommissioned for over 40 years.
You'd probably have to go look up some US 66 fandom groups or societies for that. Be warned, they are more about catering Americana/nostalgia than actual history.
Quote from: akt85 on January 12, 2026, 08:29:41 PMU.S. Federal Highways
Hello viatologists! :awesomeface:
Off topic, but while on the subject of numbers, is 6 7 still a big deal on social media or has that died down with the new year?
Quote from: akt85 on January 13, 2026, 09:44:28 PMOff topic, but while on the subject of numbers, is 6 7 still a big deal on social media or has that died down with the new year?
Here you go:
https://www.facebook.com/100063655972258/posts/pfbid03dW4N41xs4Xptw1vGJEVaGk8LNRKM5guMu2tr6Phz3kvcFbUVocPybd44VLGLF5Fl/?mibextid=wwXIfr
We do themed posts but don't expect things like Skibidi toilet and other things like that. I just happened to have a photo of a shield that was perfect for 6-7.
Quote from: akt85 on January 13, 2026, 09:44:28 PMOff topic, but while on the subject of numbers, is 6 7 still a big deal on social media or has that died down with the new year?
That was banished for misuse, overuse and general uselessness (https://www.lssu.edu/resources/about-lssu/traditions/banishedwords/) this year.