U.S. Bike Route Signage

[74/171FAN]

Split from here: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?msg=3043542

I see all the changes and addition to the BR's -- National Bike Routes.  I guess I live in an area with none of these types of routes.

My question is, do they keep these BRs well-signed in the areas where they are, like other I- and US- highways?  And are they regularly used by longer-range/regional cyclists?

I've seen a few when vacationing or traveling in other areas, but I don't recall much consistency in signage placement.

[Molandfreak]

Minnesota only signs the Mississippi River Trail, which has a similar design to the green variant of the USBR signs with the letters MRT instead of USBR 45. I have seen a USBR 41 sign manufactured, but it was only used at an event related to the Gitchi-Gami State Trail and isn't regularly signed anywhere. I wonder what the point of these designations is if nobody is doing the bare minimum amount of effort to promote them.

[Mapmikey]

Virginia has been posting theirs since the 1980s...

[Max Rockatansky]

The only place I've seen out west where the USBRs are signed well is in southern Utah. They kind of strike me as being redundant with other signed highways.

[ClassicHasClass]

I've seen a few in Carson City, though I couldn't say how well signed they are in the rest of Nevada (I suspect not well).

[TBKS1]

There are three in Arkansas that I know of that are signed. MRT, USBR 51 (which mostly parallels US 71), and USBR 80 (which begins at the Big Dam Bridge and heads east towards Memphis.)

[kphoger]

I think it's kind of silly that they think cyclists preparing for a cross-country trip aren't just plotting their own routes based on a host of factors anyway.

[Scott5114]

I think it's kind of silly that they think cyclists preparing for a cross-country trip aren't just plotting their own routes based on a host of factors anyway.

The idea is that the numbered bike routes are supposed to be plotted according to the host of factors most cyclists would be using, such as gentle terrain, lack of traffic, and use of dedicated cycle facilities.

Of course, most of the roads those ideal bike routes would follow would be owned and maintained by the sorts of governments which don't have money for bike route signs...

[Rothman]

I think it's kind of silly that they think cyclists preparing for a cross-country trip aren't just plotting their own routes based on a host of factors anyway.

Or that few cyclists in their right minds would bike down KY 122 or across Buckingham Mountain in Floyd County, KY (USBR 76).  I thought USBRs had shoulder requirements...

[kphoger]

The idea is that the numbered bike routes are supposed to be plotted according to the host of factors most cyclists would be using, such as gentle terrain, lack of traffic, and use of dedicated cycle facilities.

My dad used to do long-distance, multi-day cycling trips.  Growing up, we'd see a cross-country cyclist on the highway, and we'd stop and offer them a place to stay for the night at our house.  In my experience, those are not the factors that go into plotting their routes.  It's more about scenery, sites and sights along the way, prevailing winds, etc.  And hard shoulders.

I thought USBRs had shoulder requirements...

If they don't, then they should.  Hard shoulders might be THE most important factor in cycling.

[hbelkins]

I think it's kind of silly that they think cyclists preparing for a cross-country trip aren't just plotting their own routes based on a host of factors anyway.

Or that few cyclists in their right minds would bike down KY 122 or across Buckingham Mountain in Floyd County, KY (USBR 76).  I thought USBRs had shoulder requirements...

I'd say traffic volumes come into play here. Kentucky has moved large segments of USBR 76 from state roads onto county roads in the central part of the state. When USBR 21 was signed, quite a few segments of it were placed on county roads.

One of my goals is to clinch USBR 76 in Kentucky by car. I have all of the route from the Virginia state line to the Kirksville area in Madison County. If portions of USBR 76 get moved to non-roadway facilities, then my hopes of that clinch are gone.

Unless Virginia has changed the way it signs USBR 76, there are some differences in the way Kentucky and Virginia sign the route, and that was true even before Kentucky adopted the green-and-white signage in lieu of black-and-white signs. The KY and VA versions of the USBR 76 signage were not identical.

[kphoger]

If portions of USBR 76 get moved to non-roadway facilities, then my hopes of that clinch are gone.

You could get a bike...

[74/171FAN]

If portions of USBR 76 get moved to non-roadway facilities, then my hopes of that clinch are gone.

You could get a bike...

By that logic, I probably have 90% of PA Bike Route Y clinched because so much of it follows US 6.

[Mapmikey]

I think it's kind of silly that they think cyclists preparing for a cross-country trip aren't just plotting their own routes based on a host of factors anyway.

Or that few cyclists in their right minds would bike down KY 122 or across Buckingham Mountain in Floyd County, KY (USBR 76).  I thought USBRs had shoulder requirements...

The vast majority of USBRs in Virginia are on secondary roads, of which the vast majority have no shoulder and a fair amount have no lane striping either.

[Molandfreak]

I would certainly prefer to bike on a road with very little traffic or shoulders than one with a large amount of both.

[kphoger]

I would certainly prefer to bike on a road with very little traffic or shoulders than one with a large amount of both.

It can depend a lot on the traffic that does exist.  I grew up a block away from K-25, and my dad would regularly ride his bike ten miles or so to the south and the back again.  It's a highway with no shoulders and little traffic.  The 2024 AADT is only 1110, which is fairly low.  But it's a very agricultural area, and about one-third of that AADT is large trucks—and not all truck drivers like to leave a cyclist more than a couple feet of extra room.  I'd much rather have a wide shoulder and four times the overall traffic than deal with the wind forces that come from close-passing trucks.

[vdeane]

I have gotten asked for printed maps of state bike routes 5 and 9 before, so people do use them.

[Max Rockatansky]

I have gotten asked for printed maps of state bike routes 5 and 9 before, so people do use them.

I'm honestly surprised that nobody in the hobby has really seriously tried to document clinches of USBR segments.  Most of the time you really don't even need to have a bike to complete them.

[Rothman]

I think it's kind of silly that they think cyclists preparing for a cross-country trip aren't just plotting their own routes based on a host of factors anyway.

Or that few cyclists in their right minds would bike down KY 122 or across Buckingham Mountain in Floyd County, KY (USBR 76).  I thought USBRs had shoulder requirements...

I'd say traffic volumes come into play here. Kentucky has moved large segments of USBR 76 from state roads onto county roads in the central part of the state. When USBR 21 was signed, quite a few segments of it were placed on county roads.

One of my goals is to clinch USBR 76 in Kentucky by car. I have all of the route from the Virginia state line to the Kirksville area in Madison County. If portions of USBR 76 get moved to non-roadway facilities, then my hopes of that clinch are gone.

Unless Virginia has changed the way it signs USBR 76, there are some differences in the way Kentucky and Virginia sign the route, and that was true even before Kentucky adopted the green-and-white signage in lieu of black-and-white signs. The KY and VA versions of the USBR 76 signage were not identical.

I know the old mines have shut down along KY 122 (hence the ripped up train line), but meeting coal trucks around those curves, or a speedy local, perhaps on some sort of substance, is a legendary experience...

[Molandfreak]

I have gotten asked for printed maps of state bike routes 5 and 9 before, so people do use them.

I'm honestly surprised that nobody in the hobby has really seriously tried to document clinches of USBR segments.  Most of the time you really don't even need to have a bike to complete them.

It would be a lot more fun outside of the northeast if more states got the ball rolling on connecting segments. There is a USBR 30 in Wisconsin that hasn't had a connecting link established in Minnesota yet, despite there already being a USBR and existing trails which could make that connection until the western end of the Luce Line State Trail.

[vdeane]

I have gotten asked for printed maps of state bike routes 5 and 9 before, so people do use them.

I'm honestly surprised that nobody in the hobby has really seriously tried to document clinches of USBR segments.  Most of the time you really don't even need to have a bike to complete them.

Maybe a future TM site, alongside the existing road and rail?  I can think of a few sections of bike route in NY that can't be done by car - notably the Empire State Trail (the majority of which is off road but signed like a numbered route), and bike routes 5 and 9, which currently take a side path of the Dunn Memorial Bridge (I guess you can clinch it by car with some sight clinch fudging, especially with the reroute after the original Albany end of the path was demolished, but it would require making multiple passes through the area because the bike route turns in directions that cars can't) but will eventually take the side path on the new Livingston Ave Bridge (which, contrary to the name, is actually a railroad bridge).

[Flint1979]

Michigan does a really good job signing these.