Highways with the same number near state lines

[ilpt4u]

WI-120 isn't far from IL-120.  WI-31, WI-50 and WI-20 are both not far from the Chicago area which is home to IL-50, IL-31 and US20.  But the 120's are far more bothersome.

Not too far apart are NW Indiana's IN 53 and IL 53 in Joliet, separated by about 40 miles along I-80

[jmd41280]

PA 88 and WV 88 are 26 miles away (as the crow flies) at their closest points.

[jp the roadgeek]

Clearly they're just indicating the route one takes to Church 20.

CT still has a thing for using the old style "Mass" on its signage rather than the preferred MA.  My mom still writes "Conn" instead of "CT" when she writes an address.  Another fine example of it is at I-84 Exit 74:  CT 171/Union/Holland Mass   However, I have yet to find a Dutch church off that exit.

[1995hoo]

Clearly they're just indicating the route one takes to Church 20.

CT still has a thing for using the old style "Mass" on its signage rather than the preferred MA.  My mom still writes "Conn" instead of "CT" when she writes an address.  Another fine example of it is at I-84 Exit 74:  CT 171/Union/Holland Mass   However, I have yet to find a Dutch church off that exit.

There are actually a fair number of contexts in which you find the old-fashioned abbreviations. The media use them, mainly because the Associated Press Stylebook calls for them (plus I assume the New York Times dislikes the two-letter abbreviations because of the Times' bizarre fetish for using periods, like "N.H.L."). Legal citation uses them as well. I've seen some traditionalists claiming that the two-letter ones are postal abbreviations that should only be used when addressing mail to be sent via the USPS. I tend to think that's a stupid position, especially as to the media–since, for example, the media's refusal to use the serial comma is due in part to a desire to save space, I don't understand how "Mass." is better than "MA" (and that's not getting into some of the more ambiguous ones, like some people using "O." for Ohio).

I would not be surprised if many people who grew up with the old abbreviations still use those either out of habit or out of not remembering the two-letter ones. I certainly understand why some people might struggle to keep track of AK v. AR v. AL. (AZ seems more obvious to me since none of the other three has a "Z" in its name.)

Edited to add: BTW, to make it more confusing, the "traditional" abbreviations may vary. The AP guidelines use "Calif." for California. The Bluebook (legal citation manual) uses "Cal." The AP doesn't abbreviate "Hawaii" or "Maine"; the Bluebook calls for "Haw." and "Me.," respectively. Then you have the weirdness of the Bluebook citing the Washington Reports, Second Series, as "Wash. 2d" ("Wash." being the traditional abbreviation for the state's name) but the state courts citing it as "Wn.2d" ("Wn." would probably baffle the casual reader unfamiliar with legal citation).

[dmuzika]

Both AB 48 and SK 48 used to lead to converge on Havre, Montana via MT 232 and MT 233 respectively; however both highways have since been renumbered where AB 48 is now AB 41 and SK 48 is now SK 21.

There's a couple highway changes at the Canadian provincial borders that are relatively close — AB 13 becomes SK 14, while 33 miles to the north, AB 14 becomes SK 40; the other being where SK 5 becomes MB 363, while 12 miles to the south SK 10 becomes MB 5. AB/SK 17 follows the provincial border through Lloydminster, and is cosigned with both highway shields.


Source: Corco Highways - http://corcohighways.org/?p=1802

[US 89]

US 30 and UT 30. US 30 meets WY 89 which heads west and becomes UT 30 in about 12 miles. Unlike the US/WY 89 example, US 30 and UT 30 do not come close to meeting to the west.

UT 30 actually has a pretty weird history. It was pieced together from nine existing routes when the northern Utah counties requested one route number to run across the state there. However, the state didn’t bother to change the legislative definitions of the old routes, so the old legislative numbers were marked on small plates below the shield.

The choice of “30” for a number was confusing in two ways: first, its east end was close to US 30, then US 30N. (UT actually requested WY to renumber the segment of WY 89 between UT 30 and US 30(N) as WY 30, but that never happened.) Second, UT 30 actually ran concurrent with US 30S for about 50 miles in northwest Utah.

Utah finally changed all the legislative designations to SR-30 in the 1977 renumbering. But the next year, Nevada renumbered its route 30 to 233.

If you ask me, if the concurrencies aren’t going to be signed, UT 30 should be split into three separate routes. Each of those segments has a totally different character and doesn’t really have anything to do with the others.