Major cities with least amount of state highways

[Bruce]

Just wondering, since Seattle has a definite lack of state routes (a grand total of 10 when counting ferry routes, 7 without). There's plenty of corridors (expressways and freeways, even) that could have state designations, and plenty that had them in the past, but the city prefers to maintain its own roads for understandable reasons.

[iBallasticwolf2]

Indianapolis comes to mind immediately for not having a lot of state highways. Pittsburgh doesn't have a lot of state highways either. Mainly just the important routes. Knoxville comes to mind too.

[hobsini2]

Chicago only has IL 19 (Irving Park Rd), IL 64 (North Ave), IL 50 (Cicero Ave), IL 43 (Harlem Ave), IL 72 (Higgins Rd), IL 171 (Cumberland Ave) and IL 1 (Halsted St). So that's 7 state highways within the city limits.

[TheStranger]

San Francisco has Route 1, 35 (1934-1964 Route 5), and a one-mile snippet of Route 82.  (in the past: Route 480, and what is now I-280 east of US 101 was planned as the north portion of a never-built Route 87 extension; unconstructed Route 230 through Hunters Point is a vestige of that extension plan.  For a few years, the canceled I-80 extension west of the Central Freeway was downgraded to Route 231 before completely being deleted)

Sacramento has Route 160, Route 99, unsigned Route 51, and unsigned Route 244.  Route 16 in city limits is being relinquished this year.  In the past, Route 70 followed 99 to downtown Sacramento, and unbuilt routes 143 and 148 would enter city limits if they existed.

Oakland has a bit more: Route 13, Route 24, Route 61 (including unsigned Route 260), Route 185 and the stub of Route 77.  Previously, the Nimitz Freeway was Route 17 (until 1984).

San Jose has Route 17, Route 82, Route 85, Route 87, Route 130, and Route 237.  (Route 238 used to extend south of Fremont from 1964-1968 or so, and part of 85 and 237 corridors was Route 9 pre-1964)

[Brandon]

Chicago only has IL 19 (Irving Park Rd), IL 64 (North Ave), IL 50 (Cicero Ave), IL 43 (Harlem Ave), IL 72 (Higgins Rd), IL 171 (Cumberland Ave) and IL 1 (Halsted St). So that's 7 state highways within the city limits.

Many have also been decommissioned over the years.  However, the state routes within Chicago city limits seem to be maintained by the City, not the State.

[Rothman]

NYC doesn't have that many for its size:

US 1
US 9
NY 9A
NY 22
NY 24
NY 25
NY 25A
NY 25B
NY 27
NY 440
NY 495
NY 878

Probably others that I missed.

[hotdogPi]

Washington, D. C. only has one.

[cl94]

Indianapolis comes to mind immediately for not having a lot of state highways. Pittsburgh doesn't have a lot of state highways either. Mainly just the important routes. Knoxville comes to mind too.

No cities in Indiana have many because the mileage cap forces INDOT to throw everything on a freeway bypass when one is built.

[US71]

Just wondering, since Seattle has a definite lack of state routes (a grand total of 10 when counting ferry routes, 7 without). There's plenty of corridors (expressways and freeways, even) that could have state designations, and plenty that had them in the past, but the city prefers to maintain its own roads for understandable reasons.

How "major"?

[iBallasticwolf2]

Indianapolis comes to mind immediately for not having a lot of state highways. Pittsburgh doesn't have a lot of state highways either. Mainly just the important routes. Knoxville comes to mind too.

No cities in Indiana have many because the mileage cap forces INDOT to throw everything on a freeway bypass when one is built.

At the very least Ft. Wayne gets IN 920 probably because that is an intra-city route and Evansville retains all of its state routes, the 2 in the city that exist unless you count US 41 which would make it 3.

[SD Mapman]

Just wondering, since Seattle has a definite lack of state routes (a grand total of 10 when counting ferry routes, 7 without). There's plenty of corridors (expressways and freeways, even) that could have state designations, and plenty that had them in the past, but the city prefers to maintain its own roads for understandable reasons.

How "major"?

Yeah, is it relative?

[mcdonaat]

How major are we talking? Is there a population limit, or does a city have to be the county seat? I know of cities that are 50,000+ people in Louisiana that aren't the parish seat, and parish seats that aren't even cities, just a town.

If it's the seat of government, Columbia LA only has US 165 and LA 2, both of which run concurrent the entire length through town. If it's 50,000 people or more, Lake Charles has LA 14/384/385/1138/3020, with US 90, I-10 and I-210, for 8 state highways, 5 of which are non-US and non-Interstate.

[hbelkins]

Charleston, WV, the state capitol, has only a handful. I know WV 61 and WV 114 are within the city limits. Not sure if WV 25, WV 601 or the unsigned portion of WV 214 near the Southridge area make it into Charleston's city limits or not.

How many state routes enter the corporate limits of Cincinnati? OH 3 and OH 264, for sure.

[iBallasticwolf2]

How many state routes enter the corporate limits of Cincinnati? OH 3 and OH 264, for sure.

Assuming Google's vectors for the city limits are correct. OH 3, OH 264, OH 4, OH 562, OH 561, OH 32, OH 125, and OH 126 all enter the city limits at one point. A decent handful there.

[pianocello]

Davenport has IA 22 and IA 130, both of which end on the outskirts of town. There's also IA 461, which exists only on paper. That's only 2, not counting the 3 US highways and the 3 interstates that enter city limits.

Granted, since "major" is relative, it's possible Davenport (pop. 99K and change as of 2010) doesn't make the cut for many of you.

[NWI_Irish96]

Indianapolis comes to mind immediately for not having a lot of state highways. Pittsburgh doesn't have a lot of state highways either. Mainly just the important routes. Knoxville comes to mind too.

No cities in Indiana have many because the mileage cap forces INDOT to throw everything on a freeway bypass when one is built.

The mileage cap isn't the reason that was done.  In any case, the city limits of Indy extend beyond I-465 so all those state highways do enter the city limits.

[TravelingBethelite]

Dover has probably been mentioned, but it "only"(?) has DE 1, 8, 15, and possibly 10 in the city limits.

[Big John]

Not sure if Madison WI is consider major, but the only state highways entering the city are 30 and 113

[jeffandnicole]

I think I remember looking this up for another thread, but Camden, NJ only has 1 state route (NJ 168) which is only in the city for a matter of a few hundred feet...and that's because of an odd bumpout of an otherwise straight boundary line that allows 168 to enter the city.

[roadman65]

Newark, NJ only has NJ 21 and NJ 27.  It once had more, but NJ 58 became I-280, and NJ 10 and NJ 24 both were truncated years ago.

BTW NJ 27 is barely signed anymore, except on overhead signal street blades.

[TEG24601]

Indianapolis comes to mind immediately for not having a lot of state highways. Pittsburgh doesn't have a lot of state highways either. Mainly just the important routes. Knoxville comes to mind too.

No cities in Indiana have many because the mileage cap forces INDOT to throw everything on a freeway bypass when one is built.

The mileage cap isn't the reason that was done.  In any case, the city limits of Indy extend beyond I-465 so all those state highways do enter the city limits.

Regardless of why they do it, that INDOT does it is stupid and causes so much confusion.


If one were to count Flint, MI, it technically only has 2 State Highways, M-21 and M-54.


I could also say the same for Spokane, WA, which has only two SR-290 and SR-291, unless you count US 195, 395, and 2.

[Bruce]

Just wondering, since Seattle has a definite lack of state routes (a grand total of 10 when counting ferry routes, 7 without). There's plenty of corridors (expressways and freeways, even) that could have state designations, and plenty that had them in the past, but the city prefers to maintain its own roads for understandable reasons.

How "major"?

Yeah, is it relative?

I'd say the anchor of a metro area with at least 250,000 people would be a good enough minimum.

[NE2]

A more interesting question: how common are state-maintained surface streets?

[corco]

Tucson! Pretty much just I-10 and SR 210, with a couple miles each of SRs 77, 86, and I-19 along the edges of city limits.

[GaryV]

If one were to count Flint, MI, it technically only has 2 State Highways, M-21 and M-54.

Other Michigan cities have low counts as well:  Lansing and Kalamazoo each have 2 (both including M-43).  Ann Arbor* and Jackson (ok, that's pushing it for major) only have 1 each.

* Just M-14.  M-17 ends at the US-23 interchange, and the city limits bend around the interchange.