Unusual Highway Networks

[D-Dey65]

New York's Parkway System

Saw Mill River Parkway
Palisades Interstate Parkway
Grand Central Parkway
Bear Mountain Parkway
Bronx River Parkway
Sprain Brook Parkway
Belt Parkway
Jackie Robinson Parkway
Moloshu Parkway
Henry Hudson Parkway
Meadowbrook Parkway
Sagtikos Parkway
Hutchinson River Parkway
Cross County Parkway
Southern State Parkway
Wantagh State Parkway
FDR Drive

(Edited to include the rest of them)

A lot of those don't have the same shields. Palisades Interstate Parkway isn't really part of the same system.

[JayhawkCO]

[CardInLex]

Someone beat me to mentioning Kentucky's parkways.

If you want graphics of the route markers, which are in their second (and in some cases, third) iterations, you could probably contact KYTC's Office of Public Affairs.

Graphics from the original toll roads can be found on some of the historic road maps from the late 1960s and early 1970s, which had parkway strip maps on the back side.

Don't forget there are also routes like the Great River Road, Kentucky Scenic Byways, the named and numbered bicycle routes (USBR 76 and MRT run through Kentucky, and now we have USBR 21 signed as well), the Lincoln Heritage Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway, and others. West Virginia has the signed Highland Scenic Highway that runs along state routes and a series of Byways and Backways that are signed.

You can pull the Kentucky Parkway shields from their Wikipedia pages. They are listed as fair use, public domain. Although the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Expressway still shows it's Parkway-era shield, but this may be a moot point anyway given that it is being redesignated I-365.

[vdeane]

New York's Parkway System

Saw Mill River Parkway
Palisades Interstate Parkway
Grand Central Parkway
Bear Mountain Parkway
Bronx River Parkway
Sprain Brook Parkway
Belt Parkway
Jackie Robinson Parkway
Moloshu Parkway
Henry Hudson Parkway
Meadowbrook Parkway
Sagtikos Parkway
Hutchinson River Parkway
Cross County Parkway
Southern State Parkway
Wantagh State Parkway
FDR Drive

(Edited to include the rest of them)

A lot of those don't have the same shields. Palisades Interstate Parkway isn't really part of the same system.

Lots of the parkways have their own shields.  The LI parkways have one style.  The NYC parkways each have a unique shield emulating the LI style.  The LOSP has its own.  The NSP has one that's now shared with the LaSalle Expressway.  And yes, the PIP has one (that's shared with at least one other road in the area; I believe Seven Lakes Drive is the one that's actually signed), but in terms of highway data, it's inventoried the same as the other parkways in terms of reference routes - it's not treated as its own thing.

Speaking of New York, there's the Inner Loop as well.  And up north in Ontario (hopefully Canadian shields will eventually make an appearance on this style), 407 ETR has its own shield, and the tolled routes ON 407, ON 412, and ON 418 have a different style shield from other provincial routes in Ontario.

On a more general subject, it would probably be a good idea to nail down what counts as a "route".  A lot of the examples on this thread strike me as being more like scenic byways or trails.  And the AHDS is showing up even in states that don't sign the corridor letters or even refer to them at all.

[ilpt4u]

Lincoln Heritage Trail shield...I've seen it in IL and IN. An example here from Southern IL. Photo credit to billburmaster.com

[ilpt4u]

Avenue of the Saints banner, out in the wild in Northern Missouri, along MO 27:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.3694153,-91.5881139,3a,75y,13.93h,84.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdlMr-F96njKzvJA9JOkyhg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

And along IA 27, crediting outsidethewalls.com

[1995hoo]

...

On a more general subject, it would probably be a good idea to nail down what counts as a "route".  A lot of the examples on this thread strike me as being more like scenic byways or trails.  And the AHDS is showing up even in states that don't sign the corridor letters or even refer to them at all.

To be fair, the OP did say the following:

...

We're creating a list of Unusual Highway Networks so that we can label and shield them on the map. Please comment here if you can think of any shielded, signposted routes that are not the traditional Interstate, US, State, County numbered varieties. These could be anything from named parkways and turnpikes, to more obscure named trails and such.

...

I note the one I posted is a set of trails.

[mgk920]

Wisconsin has five scenic byways.

https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/travel/road/scenic-ways/default.aspx

Also the Rustic Roads program

https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/travel/road/rustic-roads/default.aspx

Also in Wisconsn the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive (Elkhart Lake to the Whitewater area via West Bend and the Waukesha County Lake district area) as well as the Wisconsin section of the early 20th century 'auto Trail' called the Yellowstone Trail ( http://www.yelowstonetrail.org ).  The KMSD is well marked with olive-green signs showing the profile of an acorn (and with the words "KETTLE MORAINE SCENIC DRIVE" while a number of the munis along the way have the historic routing of the Yellowstone Trail marked on their streets.
Mike

[andrepoiy]

To add to Ontario's

Allen Road:



Loyalist Parkway:

and Waterfront Trail (which is not a road route but cycling route):

[skluth]

There is also Nevada's Extraterrestrial Highway, though finding a clean sign may be difficult

[NE2]

Greetings! The OpenStreetMap Community needs your help!

Are you sure about that?

[vdeane]

There is also Nevada's Extraterrestrial Highway, though finding a clean sign may be difficult

That's not a shield.  The shield is just a regular NV 375 marker.  That sign is just like any other named highway (particularly honorary names), albeit with a weird font and lots of stickers/graffiti.

[Bickendan]

The Lewis & Clark trail should also be added.
The trail overview is here:
https://www.nps.gov/lecl/index.htm

Locally it follows Highway 94 where I live

The Oregon Trail and Applegate Trail also have shields here in Oregon. I'll see if I-205 still has an Oregon Trail shield up somewhere... (and this is ORH 6 of I-84/US 30 being Old Oregon Trail notwithstanding).

[Great Lakes Roads]

I'll add one from Indiana: The Cline Avenue Bridge.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5723491,-87.4419895,3a,37.5y,150.52h,98.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdpSgbUnbqQsgmjmgJy3MtA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6541401,-87.4785885,3a,15y,147.32h,94.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sEg9X3OyUJQg2EXz4JoODDQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[D-Dey65]

Lots of the parkways have their own shields.  The LI parkways have one style.  The NYC parkways each have a unique shield emulating the LI style.  The LOSP has its own.  The NSP has one that's now shared with the LaSalle Expressway.  And yes, the PIP has one (that's shared with at least one other road in the area; I believe Seven Lakes Drive is the one that's actually signed), but in terms of highway data, it's inventoried the same as the other parkways in terms of reference routes - it's not treated as its own thing.

Yes, and with the separate shields, they all show their heritage as being part of separate systems of the past. The Long Island Parkway System, the East Hudson Parkway Authority and their predecessors, and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (which still exists and still controls the Palisades Interstate Parkway).

[rickmastfan67]

Pittsburgh's colored highways are the first to come up to my mind for unusual.

For sure! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_County_belt_system

We also have "Washington's Trail" signage in PA.  Here's one in particular on PA-528 just north of it's intersection with PA-488 in Prospect, PA. https://goo.gl/maps/5xVxN5cRFWwbBZdb9

[kphoger]

Branson's colored routes have "shields".

https://goo.gl/maps/SEDwRjSNLBi7W1jM6
https://goo.gl/maps/Qb2iaA3qWGPqpbmo6





Monterrey (Mexico) has a local network of signed routes (Eje Metropolitano), but I can't seem to dig up a webpage about them.

https://goo.gl/maps/EhTAKMceDYa2reti9
https://goo.gl/maps/YobpC1ehVBRvKU329

[NWI_Irish96]

Michigan Road and Lincoln Highway and Lincoln Historic Trail have signage in Indiana.

[Ned Weasel]

Kansas has the Scenic Byways.

https://goo.gl/maps/HTQKsCmukvCqkaGT9
https://goo.gl/maps/fbMezuEjdR5ZqzLt8
https://goo.gl/maps/eDbr8TmXjGfEvfmr9
https://www.travelks.com/things-to-do/byways-and-highways/byways/
(Where the hell is the official map?  I shouldn't have to spend a ton of time finding it if these things are important enough to put on road signs.)

I guess Kansas really needs these things, considering it is officially the least beautiful state: https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/most-beautiful-states-in-america

[Flint1979]

There are routes that circumnavigate most of the Great Lakes. I don't know about the Canadian side, but Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior all have coastline routes in the US. I've seen the Lake Michigan Route signs in Wisconsin. Don't know about other states.


The Wikipedia images are better but huge. You can find those at the link in the first line.

Michigan has one for the four Great Lakes that are within the state. It follows the state highway that is closest to the lakeshore. So like from Port Huron to Bay City M-25 is the Lake Huron Circle Tour, then it's M-13 and US-23 north of there to the Mackinac Bridge. The Lake Huron Circle Tour even goes onto M-134 on Drummond Island.