States with best county road systems

[peterj920]

I like Wisconsin's county road system the best because I think using letters instead of numbers makes it easier to distinguish between state and county roads.  The county roads are also better signed than most states, (county roads in the south and eastern parts of the state are usually maintained better than the north and western parts, but the signing is very good statewide) and most counties do a pretty good job of maintaining them.  It may also be because the state doesn't maintain as many roads as a lot of states that have supplemental state routes (Missouri supplemental, Texas FM roads as prime examples)  Minnesota also seems to have very good county roads, but that could be because the state has a designated fund to fund some county roads.  They are also generally marked well, but there are some signing inconsistencies since they like to interchange between the blue pentagon and a black on white square.  Most other states that I've been to don't mark their county roads as well.

Any thoughts if you prefer the letters instead of numbers for county roads and if there are other states that generally have good county road systems or counties in states that do a good job with their county roads?

[dgolub]

In New York, it depends on the county.  For example, Suffolk and Rockland counties have very nice county route systems.  I believe that Dutchess County does as well.  Others are a total mess.  I'm talking about you, Westchester!  (Although, fortunately their county routes are all unsigned.)

New Jersey has its 500 series routes, which are numbered on a statewide basis but maintained by the counties, and then 600 series routes are numbered by each county.  It's a neat system, although again, the quality of the signage and numbering scheme varies depending on the county.

[peterj920]

In New York, it depends on the county.  For example, Suffolk and Rockland counties have very nice county route systems.  I believe that Dutchess County does as well.  Others are a total mess.  I'm talking about you, Westchester!  (Although, fortunately their county routes are all unsigned.)

New Jersey has its 500 series routes, which are numbered on a statewide basis but maintained by the counties, and then 600 series routes are numbered by each county.  It's a neat system, although again, the quality of the signage and numbering scheme varies depending on the county.

How well does NYDOT sign county roads at intersections?  WISDOT signs the state road intersections with county roads extremely well.  Here are pictures of a Wisconsin county road intersection with a 4 lane road with the Junction and intersection signs.  Along 2 lane state highways, the signs are 24"x24", but in this picture, they're 36"x36".  I haven't seen any county road signs that are 36"x36" that isn't on a BGS outside of Wisconsin. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5682878,-88.0266317,3a,75y,269.8h,73.45t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCuCiqJSqUI5USHdpBG9nrg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5683048,-88.0285248,3a,75y,258.74h,70.1t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9rG_MwkhBm_j7JFHzgkTug!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5683166,-88.0301953,3a,75y,265.36h,68.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJaM87WWT-h4yBptqUCfL9A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

All 3 pictures are signs for the same county road intersection.  Could maybe call it overkill, but I wanted to show how far WISDOT goes to signs some county highways and that I haven't seen this outside of Wisconsin

[SD Mapman]

Definitely not SD or WY. MY county doesn't even have county road signs.

[Rothman]

The signage of county routes in NY definitely changes with county as mentioned previously and I think that's the rule of thumb no matter who's signing the route (NYSDOT or whoever else).  My feeling is that Albany County's one of the better ones, though, although vdeane may disagree with me on that fact.

[oscar]

The three Hawaii counties that have numbered county routes (Honolulu and Kalawao don't) generally sign their routes exactly the same as the state routes. On Maui island (but not the rest of Maui County), there are some oddball variants here and there, but they're only a minority of the county route markers. Usually only an "End State Maintenance" sign indicates a switch from state to county, including where the state and county segments have the same route number.

This confuses people who want to demand maintenance or other highway improvements. I suspect that is exactly how the state and county DOTs like it.

[Zeffy]

New Jersey county roads form most of the missing links from town to town where there are no state, U.S. or Interstate highways. It's also a pretty well maintained system, and the major county roads (500 series) generally are very well signed, whereas the minor (600/700 series) are sporadically signed in some counties (like Mercer).

[OCGuy81]

I always found Wisconsin's system to be unique and very well signed, like you said. 

[OCGuy81]

This could be a topic on itself, I suppose, but rather than start a new one, I'll ask here.

Are any county maintained highways, like letter highways in Wisconsin, freeways??  Do we have County H hitching a ride on an Interstate, even for a short duration?

[vdeane]

The signage of county routes in NY definitely changes with county as mentioned previously and I think that's the rule of thumb no matter who's signing the route (NYSDOT or whoever else).  My feeling is that Albany County's one of the better ones, though, although vdeane may disagree with me on that fact.

Albany is very good with it.  Many counties just slap a reassurance shield down after major junctions and leave it at that (Oneida and Warren come to mind), while others don't sign the system at all (such as Monroe).  St. Lawrence is an interesting one... it has very good junction signs that include the shield and a control city at all of its junctions between county routes, but NOT at any state route junctions.  Finding St. Lawrence county routes from state highways is very hard to do if you only know the number; in Albany County, it's easy.

[Kacie Jane]

This could be a topic on itself, I suppose, but rather than start a new one, I'll ask here.

Are any county maintained highways, like letter highways in Wisconsin, freeways??  Do we have County H hitching a ride on an Interstate, even for a short duration?

Off the top of my head...

• One of the 500-series routes in New Jersey has a brief multiplex with I-295.
• 215 around Las Vegas is a Clark County highway on the half where it isn't an interstate
• This is just an educated guess, but from what I know about California's system, I wouldn't be surprised if they have one.  (I know there are county route expressways, but I'm not certain on freeways.  There's a legal distinction between the two in California.)  Similarly Florida, but I'd be less confident in my guess.

[Big John]

This could be a topic on itself, I suppose, but rather than start a new one, I'll ask here.

Are any county maintained highways, like letter highways in Wisconsin, freeways??  Do we have County H hitching a ride on an Interstate, even for a short duration?

Not an Interstate, but there is a County K that attaches to a freeway section of US 10/WI 22,49,54 for a couple interchanges in Waupaca. It is not signed on the freeway portion though.

[hbelkins]

Some of Iowa's county routes are of better quality than a lot of state routes in a lot of states.

[triplemultiplex]

This could be a topic on itself, I suppose, but rather than start a new one, I'll ask here.

Are any county maintained highways, like letter highways in Wisconsin, freeways??  Do we have County H hitching a ride on an Interstate, even for a short duration?

No freeways are exclusively county roads.  But there are a couple of places where one does hitch a ride on a freeway.  Signage, however, is usually such that it looks like the county road has a gap in it.
Big John mentioned Waupaca.
In Chippewa Falls, CTH X ostensibly rides a freeway portion of WI 29 on the east side of town.
There used to another on WI 29 east of Wittenberg where CTH Q rode the start of the bypass to the US 45 s/Bus WI 29 interchange.  CTH Q was moved onto a new frontage road some years ago though.

In a state known well for its concurrencies, county roads are rarely co-signed with state & US highways when they technically are.  Instead one only notices at the intersection that the county route letter is either a turn or one can continue straight.  After the intersection, there is usually only reassurance markers for the state or US highway.  Concurrencies between county roads are also usually poorly signed.  Most of the time, only the "thru" route is signed on the concurrency.  Might have something to due with the frequent use of two-letter county roads in some areas.

[peterj920]

This could be a topic on itself, I suppose, but rather than start a new one, I'll ask here.

Are any county maintained highways, like letter highways in Wisconsin, freeways??  Do we have County H hitching a ride on an Interstate, even for a short duration?

Not an Interstate, but there is a County K that attaches to a freeway section of US 10/WI 22,49,54 for a couple interchanges in Waupaca. It is not signed on the freeway portion though.

About 12 miles west of there County B also attaches itself to the US 10 freeway bypass of Amherst.  An eastern bypass of County B was built and was rerouted onto US 10 to complete the full bypass for County B.  It is unusual to build a county highway bypass for a town, since county roads usually are routed along local roads.  Portage County does spend more on county roads than a lot of communities, as evidenced by many 4 lane roads in the Stevens Point area that are county roads.  That stretch of County K is also fairly new.  It used to go through Waupaca, but then was rerouted to bypass Waupaca VIA US 10 and WIS 22/54 when that bypass was built.  That was a cheap reroute so Waupaca County could revert maintenance solely to the City of Waupaca.  Aside from County K, that stretch of freeway on US 10 also has 3 state routes that run along with it for a total of 5 routes (US 10/WIS 22/WIS 49/WIS 54/CTH K).  County K isn't on the reassurance signs, but the other 3 are and the signs are pretty long.  Along WIS 22/WIS 54, there is also a reassurance sign for County K.  The BGSs on US 10 list the direction and the routes at each interchange.  Here's what the one looks like at the County K South interchange

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.329595,-89.0438807,3a,75y,113.49h,91.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sIAseWYLgPSE56KUwfQebVw!2e0!7i3328!8i1664?hl=en

When County roads share a concurrency with a state highway, usually there's just arrows that points straight to show the concurrency at the intersection without reassurance signs like this.
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.4281692,-88.0693284,3a,36.9y,48.38h,78.38t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4ryaaDSqeoYrWviPYz3flQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en 

There are exceptions.  Along Wis 96 between Wrightstown and Denmark, Wis 96 shares 2 concurrencies with county highways (PP and G), and there are reassurance signs for both of them along with Wis 96. 

[Eth]

Are any county maintained highways, like letter highways in Wisconsin, freeways??  Do we have County H hitching a ride on an Interstate, even for a short duration?

Georgia has a few, though our state's county roads don't have any (prominently) signed numbers/letters. Ronald Reagan Pkwy in Gwinnett County is a freeway, as is the newest portion of Sugarloaf Pkwy bypassing Lawrenceville (also in Gwinnett). Also, in Savannah (Chatham County), we have Truman Pkwy and Veterans Pkwy. I don't believe there are any outside of Chatham and Gwinnett counties.

[GaryV]

This could be a topic on itself, I suppose, but rather than start a new one, I'll ask here.

Are any county maintained highways, like letter highways in Wisconsin, freeways??  Do we have County H hitching a ride on an Interstate, even for a short duration?

The Davison Freeway in Detroit and Highland Park was built as a Wayne County road.  It became M-8 and was rebuilt.

[dgolub]

This could be a topic on itself, I suppose, but rather than start a new one, I'll ask here.

Are any county maintained highways, like letter highways in Wisconsin, freeways??  Do we have County H hitching a ride on an Interstate, even for a short duration?

Yes, there are some in New York.  Nicolls Road (Suffolk CR 97) and Cross River Drive (Suffolk CR 105) are freeways for portions of their lengths.  The Central Westchester Parkway (Westchester CR 150) is a freeway for its entire length, although Westchester doesn't sign its county routes.  The portion of the Bronx Parkway in Westchester County is also county-maintained, although it doesn't have a CR number.

[The High Plains Traveler]

Minnesota's county roads are often very good. The existence of a statutory funding scheme for priority county highways (the County State-Aid System) ensures that counties have access to gas tax money. All counties have numbering schemes, so you can follow one or more routes as long as you know which way you're going. Downside is that each county's numbering scheme is independent, so oftentimes a route changes number at the county line.

[hubcity]

• One of the 500-series routes in New Jersey has a brief multiplex with I-295.

I'll do you one better in (and around) NJ: CR 501 multiplexes with SR 440 going into the Outerbridge Crossing (and is signed on its approach), and then is multiplexed with SR 440 coming out of the Bayonne Bridge, before continuing up toward Bergen County. NJDOT counts its mileage as including the Staten Island portion - 53.07 miles total, including 12.73 miles in Staten Island.

NJDOT also counts that 12.73 miles in its reckoning of NJ 440, meaning that it regards CR 501 as multiplexed with SR 440 (a limited access highway, multiplexed with I-278 for a portion of its length) in New York State.

[empirestate]

The portion of the Bronx Parkway in Westchester County is also county-maintained, although it doesn't have a CR number.

It does, but it's secret. (That is, secreter than the already-unsigned normal CRs.) I think it's 9998 or something zany like that.

[Charles2]

Mad props to my home state of Alabama--sort of.

Some counties have excellent county roads that are well maintained and well-signed, including trailblazing signs and cardinal directions on routes.  Others are poorly maintained, poorly signed, poorly everything.

In recent years as exit signs have been replaced on interstate highways, county road markers have begun to be included on some but not all signs.

[hbelkins]

This could be a topic on itself, I suppose, but rather than start a new one, I'll ask here.

Are any county maintained highways, like letter highways in Wisconsin, freeways??  Do we have County H hitching a ride on an Interstate, even for a short duration?

Who maintains the Tisdale Parkway in Tulsa?

[Bruce]

WA is excluded, since most systems aren't signed or numbered.

[kphoger]

Minnesota's county roads are often very good. The existence of a statutory funding scheme for priority county highways (the County State-Aid System) ensures that counties have access to gas tax money. All counties have numbering schemes, so you can follow one or more routes as long as you know which way you're going. Downside is that each county's numbering scheme is independent, so oftentimes a route changes number at the county line.

I am always impressed by Minnesota's county highways. Seriously, where else are you as likely to find hard paved shoulders on a country road as in Minnesota? Much of my Minnesota travel makes extensive use of county highways, and I often find myself preferring them over state and US trunk highways when planning routes.

The only constant annoyance is the widespread practice of combining advance junction signage with arrows ... JCT [37] --> ... It's one or the other!