Highway Shield Photo Completion Page(s)

[TBKS1]

I made this excel sheet about a year ago, mainly with data from a database I made, and data from Travel Mapping.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zDONaw5E3CaboOakPx9RyJKjLfKo3m5lmQia5EpJ-mY/edit?usp=sharing

The way this works is it basically just tracks the progress I've made with taking pictures of signed routes in certain highway systems over several years. It's very similar to travel mapping, except with sign pictures instead of routes traveled. Additional data pages are also included for state highways as well, and I try to update this as much as possible. Obviously what routes are included on the sheet may be debatable to some, including some auxiliary routes, but sometimes it can be more fun that way lol

I'm still working on making photo albums for each state since I now have a Flickr page, so it's kind of a work-in-progress for now. The only state I've fully completed so far is Arkansas, which I made a thread about when I finished it. I also briefly mentioned this project on that thread too

I'll probably be focusing a whole lot on this project in other states next year now that Arkansas is completed. I have no idea what my next finished state will be, or where to focus my attention to future travels for this project. My plan next year is to try and grind Louisiana and Texas as much as I can, although I know it'll likely take years to get even remotely close to completing either state.

That's all for now, I'll add on to the sheet later as I start making photo albums for each state's progress. In the mean time, I have all of my photos uploaded on my Flickr page with photo albums for each trip. https://www.flickr.com/photos/154936453@N06/

~ Ethan

[kurumi]

It looks like you're targeting each instance of an auxiliary interstates (e.g. all eight I-295's, instead of just any one of them to get the number). Good luck on your quest!

[paulthemapguy]

It looks like Arkansas was a much larger undertaking than I thought! 385 routes, only counting the state highways? Wow. Congratulations on completing that set! It must have taken a lot of effort.

I collect shield photos, too, and I try to complete the set, like you do. The difference between your approach and mine is that my sets are based on state boundaries rather than the type of route. In other words, I will try to photograph a route marker for every state, Interstate, and US highway that exists within the boundaries of a state. So, while your total for Illinois is 154 as you only count the state highways, my total for Illinois is 200 because I also include all Interstate and US Routes that are found within Illinois borders.

Congrats on getting your Flickr page started. I have Flickr albums showing cropped shield images and the context signage from which they were cropped. These are the only photos which, to my belief, require labeling and catalog efforts. But I try to label and catalog other photos too, because I spend way too much of my spare time on it. I am aware that I can't expect people to label and catalog all such photos. Generally, I love seeing others engage in route marker photography to create foolproof evidence that they have seen every route. The goal to me is exploration, and clinching gets a bit too repetitive. In route clinching, every intersection between two numbered routes is a point that you have to visit twice, which is a bit less exploratory. One picture for each route is enough investigation of each little area in a state, in my opinion. I am open to your thoughts, too.

If you see my general Flickr albums page, and you resize the window so you see 4 albums per row, it becomes much easier to navigate. The first two rows are national-scale stuff, and the next two rows are Illinois. After that, it's one row for each of Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin are all complete. I have barely gotten started on Minnesota, Missouri, and the Dakotas. The middle two albums in each row will show you the shield images and source photos I've been referencing.

You have some tougher states near you containing a plethora of routes, like Texas and Louisiana. Good luck!

[formulanone]

Florida: 364/387, 94%
There's 429 in TM, but 42 of those are the same types of route shields (seven parts to A1A and Truck Routes, for example). So there's 387 possible unique numbers including Alternates (examples: 559A, 9B, et al). There's also lots of former and decommissioned route signage still standing in Florida, as well as US Route errors.

Alabama: 216/230, 93%
There's 235 in TM, but excluding the Truck routes with similar shields (9), but including four routes which aren't yet in TM (there are four; 304, 306, 307, 308) brings it back up to 230 possibilities. There's also a handful of "easter egg" hidden route numbers for US Routes. I excluded those two that I have from my count and the US/SR error shields for 216.

US Routes: 189/212, 89%
Looks like 212 distinct route numbers/designations. I have 189 of them, excluding errors. (I also have a real-in-the-field US 66 shield which wasn't removed until recently, but I won't count it.)

Interstates: 195/237, 82%
TM shows 363 interstates; leave off the spurs, truck routes, duplicates, exclude the unposted Alaska and Puerto Rico interstates, the hidden (124, 296, 345, 444, 910), and that's 237 available designations, so that includes 35E, 35W, 69C-E-W. I have a photo of I-164, and one error sign, and excluded those from the count/percentages.

That's all I've tallied so far, would take a long time to catch up with every state.