State-wide county road naming systems

[usends]

Not sure if this has been discussed: have you noticed South Dakota has a county road naming system that's consistent throughout the entire state?

The northern border of the state is defined by a line of latitude.  Any road along this line is called "100th St".  The next section-line road to the south is "101st St", and so on, all the way down to the southern border.  The western 3/4ths of the southern border is also a line of latitude, and this is "304th St".  The eastern quarter of the southern border is formed by the Missouri River, which dips further south.  The highest-numbered east-west road I see is "335th St", near the southeastern tip of the state.

There's a jog in the western border of the state: the line shared with Wyoming is almost a mile further west than the line shared with Montana.  But I don't see any numbered roads right along the border; the westernmost numbered road I've seen is "124th Av", roughly between Whitewood and Nisland.  But if you count section lines westward from there, it's clear that the western border was assumed to be "100th Av".  This increases to the east, and by the time you get to the eastern border, you get as high as "488th Av".

This system appears to be consistent throughout the state.  (Well, I see a few counties in the west that gave their roads names, instead of numbers, presumably because the terrain is such that the roads weren't surveyed along section lines.  But it appears all counties that number their roads do so in accordance with this statewide system.)  Are any other states organized in a statewide fashion like this?

[agentsteel53]

Iowa appears to have some kind of a grid, but I do not know the details.

[getemngo]

Michigan has county highways that start with a letter and end with a one or two digit number (e.g., A-2, B-72). This system started in 1970, and there are 8 lettered regions... A-F in the Lower Peninsula, G and H in the Upper Peninsula. Michigan Highways describes it better than I could.

But coverage has always varied a lot from area to area. There are only two "D" routes, and zero "E" routes. Some counties have left the program, and others have given up on signage, so the only markers for a route are the ones erected by MDOT at junctions with state trunklines. And Michigan's official map has mistakes, such as including the nonexistent H-16.

There was also an earlier system of three-digit county highways, forming a grid across the state. Most of the ones I've seen are numbered 400-699, so of course there are repeats. Only a dozen or so counties still use these. I know they're signed in Mackinac, Marquette, and Montcalm (alliteration not on purpose).

Iowa appears to have some kind of a grid, but I do not know the details.

Here you go.

[Zeffy]

New Jersey has a system like this. If I'm correct, any 5xx County Route is inter-county and their numbers are consistent throughout the counties. (Basically, these are state-wide roads) Any 1-digit, 2-digit, 6xx, 7xx or 8xx County Route is local to that county only.

[NE2]

The original question was about street names. But since all the replies are about route numbers:
A number of states use alphanumeric designations:
California
Idaho
Illinois
Iowa
Michigan
New Mexico?
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Others with statewide systems:
Florida (mostly former state roads in the grid)
New Jersey (5xx grid)

[Alps]

Iowa appears to have some kind of a grid, but I do not know the details.

I've posted about it, and it's on my US 52 page: "Iowa county routes are on a grid, so an "A" means you've encountered an east-west route at the top of the state. J's are at the bottom of the state, and then K through Z are north-south routes from west to east."

[getemngo]

The original question was about street names.

Wow, I misread the OP badly.

Doesn't Utah do something like this? (how it works) Almost every city uses it, but the cities' grids don't usually connect, so I'm not sure you could call it a "statewide" system.

[Big John]

The original question was about street names.

Doesn't Utah do something like this? (how it works) Almost every city uses it, but the cities' grids don't usually connect, so I'm not sure you could call it a "statewide" system.

And Indiana's system is similar to that.

[Mapmikey]

One of Virginia's secondary systems is a statewide system (school routes).

The normal secondary system is not statewide as such, but there WAS a definite pattern in how the entire system's roads were numbered in 1933.  I have not cobbled it all together but I have found enough that there must be a reproducible pattern.

Note that the frontage road system, also a statewide system, is technically part of the primary system (this is why there are no F-series routes off of secondary routes in Virginia.

Mapmikey

[vtk]

Indiana's is not a statewide system, so much as a coutywide system replicated in every county statewide.  They are all numbered by how many hundredths of a mile they are away (and in what direction) from a parallel road that passes through the county seat.  The resulting format looks like "County Road 550 North", but the direction word is usually written as an initial, making it look more like a route number than a name.

I don't recall what is done for roads on the exact meridian or parallel through the county seat.

[tdindy88]

The meridian street is sometimes called "Meridian Street," like in Indianapolis and I've seen Base Road used for west-east roads. It may feature something with the words division, center or middle too. Usually though the roads are typically U.S. or state highways so they are often refered to by their highway number. And if none of that applies then it can be called 0 N/S. But you are correct in that this is not a statewide system but countywide, and there are some counties that do not use it, normally they are either urban counties (Marion, Lake, St. Joseph, Allen) or counties with rough terrain (some southern counties.)

[froggie]

Illinois

Only a few counties in Illinois use an alphanumeric.  Several counties are numeric-only for their county routes, but only a few actually sign county routes, period.

Although there is no statewide grid in Minnesota, there are several counties/parts-of-counties in and around the Twin Cities that follow the streetnaming convention of the adjacent county...usually with systems originating in downtown Minneapolis with the river (southern Hennepin, Carver east-west streets), East Hennepin Ave in Minneapolis (Northeast Minneapolis, Anoka County, eastern Sherburne County, Isanti County), or an east-west line through the Minnesota State Capitol (Scott, Dakota, Washington, Goodhue, Dodge, Chisago Counties and Rock Creek in far southern Pine County).

[Dougtone]

Michigan has county highways that start with a letter and end with a one or two digit number (e.g., A-2, B-72). This system started in 1970, and there are 8 lettered regions... A-F in the Lower Peninsula, G and H in the Upper Peninsula. Michigan Highways describes it better than I could.

But coverage has always varied a lot from area to area. There are only two "D" routes, and zero "E" routes. Some counties have left the program, and others have given up on signage, so the only markers for a route are the ones erected by MDOT at junctions with state trunklines. And Michigan's official map has mistakes, such as including the nonexistent H-16.

There was also an earlier system of three-digit county highways, forming a grid across the state. Most of the ones I've seen are numbered 400-699, so of course there are repeats. Only a dozen or so counties still use these. I know they're signed in Mackinac, Marquette, and Montcalm (alliteration not on purpose).

Iowa appears to have some kind of a grid, but I do not know the details.

Here you go.

From a recent trip into Michigan, I've noticed that Leelanau and Benzie Counties still sign numeric county routes.

[huskeroadgeek]

Nebraska has some kind of statewide county road numbering system, although only some counties use it. In this system N-S roads are labeled as Avenues and E-W roads are labeled as roads. Just like mile markers, numbers increase as you move eastward and northward. The numbers start at 702 at the Kansas border and at 310 at the Colorado border(no panhandle counties use the system, so that's as far west as it goes). Why the numbers start at that point, I can't figure out.

[jp the roadgeek]

CT does not have a county route system, but they do maintain a system of Secret State Routes/State Service Roads. None are signed (with extreme rare exception), but sometimes appear on Google Maps or in Rand McNally.  They all have higher numbers than signed state routes, and some categories are based on region.  The categories:

400 series: Service roads near public facilities (ie roads that serve airports or state parks)
500 series: Roads in Hartford and Tolland Counties
600 series: Roads in New London and Windham Counties
700 series: Roads in New Haven and Middlesex Counties
800 series: Roads in Fairfield and Litchfield Counties
900 series: Connector roads less than 1 mile in length that connect two signed routes.

[Brandon]

Illinois has no statewide numbering system as such.  Most counties have a system that has each mile as equal to 1,000.  Hence, there is a 0 line, and the next mile north is 1000, then 2000, and so on.  A few counties around Chicago use State Street and Madison Street in the Loop as their baselines.  These counties are Cook (obviously), DuPage, Kane, and Will.

Cook and Will use the straight address for their addressing system in unincorporated areas (and a fair number of municipalities).  Hence, they will have 9601 West 159th Street (aka US-6) just west of 96th Avenue (aka LaGrange Road aka US-45).  The streets go up one block every eighth of a mile (with the exception of Madison to Roosevelt - 12, Roosevelt to Cermak/22nd - 10, and 22nd to 31st - 9) such that the next mile street will be 8 more than the last mile street, i.e. 80th Avenue, 88th Avenue, 96th Avenue; 135th Street, 143rd Street, 151st Street, and so on.

DuPage and Kane use a slightly different numbering system also based off State and Madison.  They will use the numbered streets (75th Street and the like), but they have a system that is based on the miles west of State and north or south of Madison.  The system is as such: 9W326, 5N453, 2S006, and so on.  The mile is noted in the first digit, the direction in the letter, and then the address number.  Google, Bing, Mapquest, et.al. have a hell of a time trying to figure out unincorporated addresses there due to the system.

[Big John]

DuPage and Kane use a slightly different numbering system also based off State and Madison.  They will use the numbered streets (75th Street and the like), but they have a system that is based on the miles west of State and north or south of Madison.  The system is as such: 9W326, 5N453, 2S006, and so on.  The mile is noted in the first digit, the direction in the letter, and then the address number.  Google, Bing, Mapquest, et.al. have a hell of a time trying to figure out unincorporated addresses there due to the system.

You should then see what several Milwaukee suburbs do.  First they do an extension of the Milwaukee numbering system (1600 to a mile E/W and 800/mile N/S from the baseline in downtown Milwaukee.) to establish the grid numbers.

Then they put in grid format:  direction letter of direction the road is not going in relation of the baseline, then block number in grid of direction the road is not going (15600 west would start off as W156 in the grid) then the direction on the road as it relates to the baseline, then finally the actual address number. (if actual address was 7200 north of the baseline on a N/S road, the 2nd part of the grid would be N7200) for a complete address of both parts together being W156N7200 Roadway Name.

[WichitaRoads]

I've never really understood the pattern to Kansas's county routes. For example, Cowley County has 1,3, 8, etc. McPherson County has 4 digit routes, some counties have none at all.

Then there's Harvey County. They number the routes, but the shields have the number written small on the bottom, with the county assigned road name written large... it seems odd. Example: http://goo.gl/maps/RfHZf

ICTRds

[DTComposer]

The original question was about street names. But since all the replies are about route numbers:
A number of states use alphanumeric designations:
California...

California's alphanumeric runs very roughly north-south from A to S, but I think only about half the letters are used. Some counties have quite a few routes (Santa Clara) while others have none at all (San Mateo). I would venture to say that signage of county routes is sporadic at best.

[roadman65]

A Statewide numbering grid for numbered streets  like SD would be a great idea everyplace.  In Florida its county wide, although like NE 2 pointed out  the roads in the Sunshine State about route numbers being a statewide grid, each county has its own numbering grid with street names.  It would be great if all of the state (or any state) could adapt a grid system of some sort.   Think about how easy it would be to find places, however we would be numbers instead of names again.

[english si]

It would be great if all of the state (or any state) could adapt a grid system of some sort.

It works in Plains states because of the section lines geography. It may work in swamp state. It won't work in states where there's not a grid, for whatever reason.

Think about how easy it would be to find places, however we would be numbers instead of names again.

Does depend on the scale - a mix is best really. County grids and County names is going to trump "7684210 2845th St, Florida" Working as an address.

And it's soulless and boring.

[Scott5114]

I've never really understood the pattern to Kansas's county routes. For example, Cowley County has 1,3, 8, etc. McPherson County has 4 digit routes, some counties have none at all.

Then there's Harvey County. They number the routes, but the shields have the number written small on the bottom, with the county assigned road name written large... it seems odd. Example: http://goo.gl/maps/RfHZf

ICTRds

I found Lyon County to be particularly interesting...north—south county roads are lettered, and somehow it worked out perfectly that the west border is County Road A and the east border is County Road Z! (Any roads between letters get the letter+a number suffix, such as County Road R1, which is between County Road R and County Road S.)

[agentsteel53]

New Mexico?

New Mexico is a bit of a cluster.  (what else is new.)  a lot of places have county route numbers like A003 and B019.  others have, well...

[DRMan]

Wisconsin's county roads are alphabetic. I haven't spent enough time there to figure out whether they use any kind of a grid system, but some of the roads have rather clever designations: http://www.wisconsinhighways.org/highway_system.html (scroll down to the bottom of the page)

[mukade]

The meridian street is sometimes called "Meridian Street," like in Indianapolis and I've seen Base Road used for west-east roads. It may feature something with the words division, center or middle too. Usually though the roads are typically U.S. or state highways so they are often refered to by their highway number. And if none of that applies then it can be called 0 N/S. But you are correct in that this is not a statewide system but countywide, and there are some counties that do not use it, normally they are either urban counties (Marion, Lake, St. Joseph, Allen) or counties with rough terrain (some southern counties.)

Meridian Rd. is usually the N-S divider. Common names for E-W dividers are Division Rd or Base/Baseline Rd. You also see 00NS and 00EW.

To set the record straight, the base roads generally go through (roughly) the middle of the county, and the county seat (the courthouse) may or may not be close to the exact center of a county.

If a county is 27 miles wide, the north-south roads may go from 1300W to 1400E. You would never see a range of 1350W to 1350E.

A county line is either "County Line Rd" or more commonly, one side of the road is marked as the name for one county, and the other for the other county. For example, Howard County CR 1400E is also Grant County CR 1000W.

If a base road is also a state highway, INDOT would mark it "SR xx" or "US xx" on traffic lights, but the county might put up a street sign showing the county number. Other counties would have street signs saying "SR xx" or "US xx".