Getting From Your County to the Rest of the Country

[bing101]

Sacramento County, CA since it has I-80, US-50 and I-5 it can reach the rest of the country.


Some of this was covered on the Cook County and Hamilton County parts of the thread for US-50 and I-80.

[US 89]

I've been having fun filling in maps trying to find the counties with the most connectivity.

Dallas, TX - 331 total counties
Marion, IN (Indianapolis) - 377
St. Louis, MO (county, not the city) - 403
Cook, IL (Chicago) - 710!!

Are there any that can go greater than Cook County? It had so many cross country east-west routes.


iPhone

Cook gets even higher if you start counting decommissioned US routes. You'd get a few in California with the historic extent of US 6, and a handful in northern Utah with old US 30S.

[SkyPesos]

Cook gets even higher if you start counting decommissioned US routes. You'd get a few in California with the historic extent of US 6, and a handful in northern Utah with old US 30S.

US 66 will also add a lot to Cook County's total, particularly everything west of St Louis on its route.

[NWI_Irish96]

Seems unlikely that any county can touch Cook in this category.  Lake County, IN would have an impressive showing since many of the same east-west routes pass through there.  But it wouldn't hit quite as hard with the north-south corridors.
You'd gain I-65 and US 231, but lose I-55, I-57 and US 45.  Probably not enough to make up the difference even before the drop off from not having I-88, US 14, US 34, and that dumb CKC multistater.

Any county with one of those long, angling US highways coming through is at an advantage since they lock in well over a hundred counties each.  US 52 and US 62, specifically.  For this reason, it be worth looking at Hamilton County, Ohio.  US 52, US 50 and I-75 alone should be enough to breach 300 counties.

Newton County would get a lot for a county that is so sparsely populated. US 24, 41 and 52, and I-65. Probably not many counties < 15k population would do better.

[jaehak]

I've been having fun filling in maps trying to find the counties with the most connectivity.

Dallas, TX - 331 total counties
Marion, IN (Indianapolis) - 377
St. Louis, MO (county, not the city) - 403
Cook, IL (Chicago) - 710!!

Are there any that can go greater than Cook County? It had so many cross country east-west routes.


iPhone

Cook gets even higher if you start counting decommissioned US routes. You'd get a few in California with the historic extent of US 6, and a handful in northern Utah with old US 30S.

US 54 used to go into downtown Chicago, so that could bring in counties in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.

[Great Lakes Roads]

La Porte County (IN) would be good at E-W highways but it would suffer from a lack of N-S routes.

I just did the mapping of La Porte County, and it comes out to... 536 total counties!

[NWI_Irish96]

La Porte County (IN) would be good at E-W highways but it would suffer from a lack of N-S routes.

I just did the mapping of La Porte County, and it comes out to... 536 total counties!

I'm not surprised. Two coast to coast interstates, two cross-country US highways, and yes, two N-S US Highways.

[SkyPesos]

I'll attempt Wood County, OH in a bit. Have all the interstates and US routes of neighboring Lucas County (Toledo), thought trading out US 24 for US 6, which should place it above Lucas. Both I-75 and US 23 in Georgia should add a good amount of counties, with Georgia counties being tiny.

[clong]

427 for Jackson Co MO (Kansas City)
US69 misses one county to the West and one county to the North or there would be an additional 27 counties.

I did find it interesting that Ray Co MO (which borders Jackson Co MO in the NE) is not connected as there is not a Missouri River crossing and all other routes terminate or pass through Clay Co MO (directly north of Jackson Co MO).

[SkyPesos]

I'll attempt Wood County, OH in a bit. Have all the interstates and US routes of neighboring Lucas County (Toledo), thought trading out US 24 for US 6, which should place it above Lucas. Both I-75 and US 23 in Georgia should add a good amount of counties, with Georgia counties being tiny.

Here it is:
445 counties, 472 including US 25. Not having US 24 compared to the Toledo metro area map lost 53 unique counties.

[Konza]

Cochise County, Arizona:

I-10 to Los Angeles and Jacksonville.  US 191 to the Canadian border.  One other county in Arizona (Santa Cruz) via AZ 82 and 83.

A bunch more if US 80 had not been decommissioned.