Diagonal Routes...North-South or East-West?

[formulanone]

Check out US 321 in eastern Tenessee.  It changes direction from north to south!

Wished I read this before I visited the Lenoir City area; this tripped me up at least once, although not as much as some of the non-labeled backroads did.

State Road 710 is as close to a pure diagonal route in Florida as possible, about 4-5 miles of it was east-west, but 90% of its length runs parallel to the railway line from Palm Beach to Okeechobee. I'll have to check some of my pics to see how it was labeled.

[NE2]

Lake County used to use diagonal directions for CR 450 and CR 450A (to the south), but they're now east-west.

[Sykotyk]

I know US 83 through the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas is signed east-west from Roma to the Mexican Border. Im not sure about the US 77 through the multiplex from Harlingen to Brownsville.

As is US-59, from Houston to Laredo.

I've been on 59 from Laredo to Houston many times and am quite certain it's signed N/S. US83 changes course from N/S to E/W, and I was in Brownsville and don't quite remember (although I think I would if it, too, changed) that US77 is labeled N/S on the multiplex with US83.

Also, US101 east of Port Angeles, WA is labeled E/W before changing to backward N/S to Olympia. Can't quite remember _where_ it changed at, but I did notice it when I was clinching counties last month.

[ctsignguy]

Here are the old Ohio tabs in question...






And from my last trip to Connecticut

[myosh_tino]

How about US 101? It clearly runs east-west in the San Fernando Valley to past Santa Barbara, but I think it's signed as north-south.

Caltrans has signed some FREEWAY ENTRANCE locations with "west" and "east" directions, but the actual reassurance markers on the freeway continue to state either "north" or "south."

That happened during the construction of CA-85 back in the 90's.  The De Anza Blvd on-ramps had Freeway Entrance assemblies that had CA-85 running east-west.  While that segment of the freeway ran northwest to southeast and the southern section runs essentially east-west, the freeway was and is signed as north-south.

Enough readers alerted Gary Richards (Mr. Roadshow, SJ Mercury News) that he notified Caltrans of the error which was corrected in about a week.

[hbelkins]

When US 62 was rebuilt between I-64 and Georgetown, Ky. a few years ago, contractors installed north-south signage. The road does run pretty much N-S in that location and indeed it is signed that way in New York, but in Kentucky it's signed as an E-W highway. The signage was later changed, I think by KYTC.

[Icodec]

If it's more N-S, then so it shall be marked and same with E-W.

[KEK Inc.]

CA-85 is signed as N-S, but it is pretty much exactly diagonal in retrospect.  It perpendicularly intersects CA-17 and CA-87, which are both N-S highways.

[vtk]

US 33 and US 35 are consistently signed E-W in Ohio, and I think that's probably the right choice, particularly with US 35.  (There's a car dealership in Marysville that advertises in the Columbus market, saying something like "just 9 minutes north of I-270 on US 33" -- they really should pay attention to the signs!)  US 42 is signed N-S, and I suppose that one could go either way.  US 62 really does go either way -- northeast of Columbus, I think it's mostly E-W but I doubt it's consistent; coupled with OH 3 it's always N-S; south of Washington CH I think it's a mix of N-S and E-W though it's mostly a N-S route geographically.  Considering US 62 goes from Mexico to Canada and hooks west at its "east" end, it probably should have been given an odd number to begin with.  US 68 is signed N-S, and rightfully so: in Ohio, it's not even diagonal! (Looking at its map on Wikipedia, US 68 looks more like 3 distinct routes glued together...)  I-71 and OH 3 are both signed N-S, though they really could just as well be E-W; it's probably good that ODOT has I-71, US 42, and OH 3 all signed in the same direction.  OH 37 is a pretty good NNW-SSE route from Findlay to just west of Dublin, but from there it can't seem to decide if it wants to go due south or due east.  I can't blame ODOT or its various districts if direction signing isn't consistent on that one.  Really, the various segments of OH 37 have no business pretending to be a single highway.  And then there's OH 104, a pretty solid N-S route along the west bank of the Scioto, until it hooks due east on the Frank-Refugee Expressway; signage on the latter is mixed between N-S and E-W.

[ctsignguy]

US 33 and US 35 are consistently signed E-W in Ohio, and I think that's probably the right choice, particularly with US 35.  (There's a car dealership in Marysville that advertises in the Columbus market, saying something like "just 9 minutes north of I-270 on US 33" -- they really should pay attention to the signs!)  US 42 is signed N-S, and I suppose that one could go either way.  US 62 really does go either way -- northeast of Columbus, I think it's mostly E-W but I doubt it's consistent; coupled with OH 3 it's always N-S; south of Washington CH I think it's a mix of N-S and E-W though it's mostly a N-S route geographically.  Considering US 62 goes from Mexico to Canada and hooks west at its "east" end, it probably should have been given an odd number to begin with.  US 68 is signed N-S, and rightfully so: in Ohio, it's not even diagonal! (Looking at its map on Wikipedia, US 68 looks more like 3 distinct routes glued together...)  I-71 and OH 3 are both signed N-S, though they really could just as well be E-W; it's probably good that ODOT has I-71, US 42, and OH 3 all signed in the same direction.  OH 37 is a pretty good NNW-SSE route from Findlay to just west of Dublin, but from there it can't seem to decide if it wants to go due south or due east.  I can't blame ODOT or its various districts if direction signing isn't consistent on that one.  Really, the various segments of OH 37 have no business pretending to be a single highway.  And then there's OH 104, a pretty solid N-S route along the west bank of the Scioto, until it hooks due east on the Frank-Refugee Expressway; signage on the latter is mixed between N-S and E-W.

Years ago, when the N-East, N-West et al tabs were dropped from use, a chap from ODOT told me the method they used to mark the weird routes like US 33 and US 62.....they would lay out the route on a map of Ohio and determine if the path was more E-W or more N-S through the state, and use those tabs accordingly.  Hence, US 33 and 35 are more E-W...and US 42 was more N-S  I think 62 was a toss-up, which is why the confusion in how it is marked, even in the same town or city...

[sandwalk]

US 33 and US 35 are consistently signed E-W in Ohio, and I think that's probably the right choice, particularly with US 35.  (There's a car dealership in Marysville that advertises in the Columbus market, saying something like "just 9 minutes north of I-270 on US 33" -- they really should pay attention to the signs!)  US 42 is signed N-S, and I suppose that one could go either way.  US 62 really does go either way -- northeast of Columbus, I think it's mostly E-W but I doubt it's consistent; coupled with OH 3 it's always N-S; south of Washington CH I think it's a mix of N-S and E-W though it's mostly a N-S route geographically.  Considering US 62 goes from Mexico to Canada and hooks west at its "east" end, it probably should have been given an odd number to begin with.  US 68 is signed N-S, and rightfully so: in Ohio, it's not even diagonal! (Looking at its map on Wikipedia, US 68 looks more like 3 distinct routes glued together...)  I-71 and OH 3 are both signed N-S, though they really could just as well be E-W; it's probably good that ODOT has I-71, US 42, and OH 3 all signed in the same direction.  OH 37 is a pretty good NNW-SSE route from Findlay to just west of Dublin, but from there it can't seem to decide if it wants to go due south or due east.  I can't blame ODOT or its various districts if direction signing isn't consistent on that one.  Really, the various segments of OH 37 have no business pretending to be a single highway.  And then there's OH 104, a pretty solid N-S route along the west bank of the Scioto, until it hooks due east on the Frank-Refugee Expressway; signage on the latter is mixed between N-S and E-W.

Years ago, when the N-East, N-West et al tabs were dropped from use, a chap from ODOT told me the method they used to mark the weird routes like US 33 and US 62.....they would lay out the route on a map of Ohio and determine if the path was more E-W or more N-S through the state, and use those tabs accordingly.  Hence, US 33 and 35 are more E-W...and US 42 was more N-S  I think 62 was a toss-up, which is why the confusion in how it is marked, even in the same town or city...

US 250 is another route that is diagonal.  In Ohio and Virginia it is signed East-West, but in West Virginia it is a North-South route I believe.  However, if you look at a map of Ohio, US 250 appears to be more of a north-south route.  The only true east-west portion IMO is from Ashland to Beach City.  It is more north-south in the Sandusky/Norwalk area as well as the New Philadelphia area, Bridgeport/Cadiz area.  Who knows!

[myosh_tino]

CA-85 is signed as N-S, but it is pretty much exactly diagonal in retrospect.  It perpendicularly intersects CA-17 and CA-87, which are both N-S highways.

While that's true now that CA-85 is complete, the original section of CA-85 from Stevens Creek Blvd to US 101 in Mountain View is north-south.

[TheStranger]

CA-85 is signed as N-S, but it is pretty much exactly diagonal in retrospect.  It perpendicularly intersects CA-17 and CA-87, which are both N-S highways.

While that's true now that CA-85 is complete, the original section of CA-85 from Stevens Creek Blvd to US 101 in Mountain View is north-south.

Not to mention the older surface street routing from Route 9 to I-280 (a segment of former Route 9 when that road ran up through Milpitas/Fremont to Hayward) was very definitively north-south.

For that matter, 85 as is has both ends on a north-south road (US 101), serving as a north-south bypass for through traffic - thus the directional choice works pretty well.

[Chicagosuburban]

The only ones in the Chicago area that I can really think of are IL-7 (signed north-south), IL-62 (signed east-west), and IL-71 (signed east-west)...the majority of Chicagoland's diagonal roads are U.S. highways (US-12, US-14, US-20, US-52, etc.)

[WolfGuy100]

What about I-26 that runs through TN, NC and SC? Even the tab over I-26 shield said EAST or WEST, it seem to be more like north and south because the way it set up.

[vtk]

What about I-26 that runs through TN, NC and SC? Even the tab over I-26 shield said EAST or WEST, it seem to be more like north and south because the way it set up.

I thought the TN portion should have been designated as N-S.  That way they could have re-used I-181's mileage and exit numbers.  And before the Interstate Grid Patrol objects, I'll point out that mainline Interstates changing signed directions isn't without precedent - look at I-69 in Michigan.  Sometimes it makes more sense to break a rule than to follow it.

[Brandon]

The only ones in the Chicago area that I can really think of are IL-7 (signed north-south), IL-62 (signed east-west), and IL-71 (signed east-west)...the majority of Chicagoland's diagonal roads are U.S. highways (US-12, US-14, US-20, US-52, etc.)

I-55 and I-90 come to mind.

[iowahighways]

In Iowa, diagonal state highways are signed in its general direction. For example, hwy 130 is e-w and (as far as I know) hwy 60 is n-s. I'm pretty sure hwy 163 is e-w, but I'm not sure about hwy 330.

IA 330 is signed north-south, as is US 151. IA 163 is indeed east-west.

Then there's IA 16, which is usually signed east-west, but the first reassurance marker south of US 34 reads "SOUTH" IA 16. That was placed there after a new four-lane segment of US 34 opened east of Ottumwa in 2006. Once you cross the old US 34, an "EAST" IA 16 marker is present.

[ftballfan]

In Michigan:
M-1: N-S
M-26: E-W?
M-40 (north of Allegan): N-S
M-47: N-S
M-50: E-W
M-71: E-W
M-88: N-S
M-89 (east of Allegan): E-W
M-106: E-W?
M-115: E-W
M-120: N-S
US-223: E-W