Is there still a need for Business Routes?

[deathtopumpkins]

I like how Virginia (and similarly N.C.) handles it. Business Routes are the old alignment of new freeways. Period. We don't use interstate business loops or short loops off of freeways that were designated solely to serve a town.
For instance, when the Great Bridge Bypass / Chesapeake Expy / Oak Grove Connector was completed in Chesapeake a little while back, all of VA-168 moved onto the new freeway and all of the old road became VA-168 BUS, even though it crosses the new route numerous times and is a rural 2-lane road for quite a ways.
Same goes for US-17 in Gloucester and Chesapeake, and US-58 through Emporia, Franklin, Courtland, Suffolk, etc.

Now most of the other types of bannered routes we use (Alternate and Truck) are mostly pointless. The Alternate US-460 and VA-337 in Norfolk and Portsmouth are long, complicated, poorly-signed routes that use one tunnel instead of another, and Truck VA-143 in Hampton seems rather pointless. It is very poorly signed (though includes a few examples of odd vertically-squashed VA route shields) and serves no easily discernible purpose.

[roadfro]

I like the way Arkansas handles business routes.  They simply add a B to the number.  US 71 Business = US 71B.  

271 in Hugo, OK is posted the same way

If adding a "B" to the number makes it a business route, then putting a business plate over the route number with a "B" like in the picture is simply redundant

...unless its a business route of the business route

[leifvanderwall]

Judging from the picture, Hugo, OK is not much bigger than those "last chance for gas" towns in Nevada.

[roadfro]

Judging from the picture, Hugo, OK is not much bigger than those "last chance for gas" towns in Nevada.

The picture of US 271B showing a multi-lane road, instead of just two lanes, is enough evidence to suggest that Hugo, OK is far bigger than any "last chance for gas" town in Nevada.

[hbelkins]

I like the way Arkansas handles business routes.  They simply add a B to the number.  US 71 Business = US 71B. 

271 in Hugo, OK is posted the same way

I've seen this done in other places in Arkansas.

[bugo]

Continuing to state-maintain the old alignment through town makes sense. What I hate, though, is the use of "BUS" as an abbreviation for the banner. It isn't a route for buses! Using "BUSN" instead would solve this problem nicely.

How about "BIZ" ??

No, that would make me sing "Just a Friend" every time I saw one of those banners.

[bugo]

I like the way Arkansas handles business routes.  They simply add a B to the number.  US 71 Business = US 71B. 

271 in Hugo, OK is posted the same way

That's fairly rare in Oklahoma, in fact that's the only one I've seen.  Now there are xB state routes, but most of them are just spurs.

[SSOWorld]

From the Department of redundancy department

[Bickendan]

I like how Virginia (and similarly N.C.) handles it. Business Routes are the old alignment of new freeways. Period. We don't use interstate business loops or short loops off of freeways that were designated solely to serve a town

Or Oregon, for that matter. The original highway serves as the business loop (US 30, OR 99) while the freeway serves as the mainline (I-5, I-84). Exceptions for OR 99E Bus in Salem, where OR 99E stays on the freeway.

[agentsteel53]

I like how Virginia (and similarly N.C.) handles it. Business Routes are the old alignment of new freeways. Period.

I do not like that, because when I drive a business loop I want to see actual business, as opposed to being swept by them at freeway speeds.  I-85 and I-40 in the Carolinas, and I-80 in Sacramento - those three are all abuses and clearly not within the parameters of what a business loop is.

[deathtopumpkins]

...which is why I said I liked how we don't use interstate business loops in Virginia. 

[MDRoads]

Perhaps the old "City" designation would be better for some of these routes. Not sure if AASHTO would go for this...I read that they really only favor business, bypass, alternate and temporary banners nowadays.

Unless a bypass has access controls (zoning restrictions), eventually the new road has more business than the through-town "Business" route. "City" would be a less ambiguous term than "Alternate", and doesn't imply any level of commercial activity therein.  Activity which tries to push out of town to the bypass as soon as it's built.  What business that's left in town is usually of the smaller scale mom-and-pop type.

[rickmastfan67]

...which is why I said I liked how we don't use interstate business loops in Virginia. 

I still think there should be one.  Well, at least a Interstate Business Spur in Bristol.  There wasn't one needed until VA-381 became hidden.  Now I think it would be wise to sign the road as Business Spur I-381 from the end of the Interstate to US-11/11E/11W/19/421.

[agentsteel53]

we don't use interstate business loops in Virginia. 

there was an I-95 in Emporia as late as 1984.

[deathtopumpkins]

Well, last time I was out that way there wasn't, and Google Maps doesn't show one (not that thats really a good indication anyway).

Besides, I've never had any trouble finding random businesses off an interstate exit when traveling before, so I don't think having business routes for that purpose is a big deal anyway.

[Ian]

I like the way Arkansas handles business routes.  They simply add a B to the number.  US 71 Business = US 71B. 

271 in Hugo, OK is posted the same way

I've seen this done in other places in Arkansas.

There is one sign for US 1 Business in Damariscotta, Maine that does the same practice...

[treichard]

AASHTO's guidelines
http://cms.transportation.org/sites/route/docs/USRN_Checklist_Dec2009.pdf
only list BUSINESS, ALTERNATE, BYPASS, and TEMPORARY as the "special route definitions."  Probably TRUCK is just an alias for a BYPASS and SCENIC for ALTERNATE in situations where those are preferred.  The guidelines also mention RELIEF as an alias for BYPASS.

BUSINESS is supposed to run "principally through the corporate limits of a city" and "[pass] through the business part of the city."  So a CITY designation (as proposed above) would be the same as the intended BUSINESS route, even if many BUSINESS routes don't follow the guidelines.

There's also a clause about ALTERNATE routes that forbids them from being equivalent to an "OLD" route.

=========

Isn't the B suffix in combination with a BUSINESS banner redundant?  Since the AASHTO guidelines don't mention the use of a suffix to mark a "special" route but instead demand the banner, perhaps this is the compromise.

[dave19]

There's also a clause about ALTERNATE routes that forbids them from being equivalent to an "OLD" route.

Wonder why they approved ALT US 220 in PA, then...

[florida]

I like bannered routes, and they do serve a purpose...though, not down here because most of our state and US routes still go through downtown areas. Our last bannered state route was decommissioned a few years ago.

What about FL-44 Bus?  Or Truck FL-14?  Both are still posted as far as I can tell via StreetView.

I was thinking of FL 60 Business in Bartow when writing this

FL 44 Business is only signed at the FL 44 mainline, but it has been absorbed under FL 44 in the data. Truck FL 14 isn't acknowledged in any data either (unless they're in the GIS files).

[MDRoads]

AASHTO's guidelines
http://cms.transportation.org/sites/route/docs/USRN_Checklist_Dec2009.pdf
only list BUSINESS, ALTERNATE, BYPASS, and TEMPORARY as the "special route definitions."  Probably TRUCK is just an alias for a BYPASS and SCENIC for ALTERNATE in situations where those are preferred.  The guidelines also mention RELIEF as an alias for BYPASS.

I can only use MDSHA as an example, but in their route logs, TRUCK isn't used in route inventories. Even Scenic (40) makes an appearance.  Most Truck bannered routes are 'overlays' on other routes, and those numbers are used, e.g. Erdman Ave is referenced as MD 151, even though it's also Truck US 40.

BUSINESS is supposed to run "principally through the corporate limits of a city" and "[pass] through the business part of the city."  So a CITY designation (as proposed above) would be the same as the intended BUSINESS route, even if many BUSINESS routes don't follow the guidelines.

There's been more and more of a decoupling of those two areas.  The 'business part' might not be within the corporate limits.

[Alps]

I can only use MDSHA as an example, but in their route logs, TRUCK isn't used in route inventories. Even Scenic (40) makes an appearance.  Most Truck bannered routes are 'overlays' on other routes, and those numbers are used, e.g. Erdman Ave is referenced as MD 151, even though it's also Truck US 40.

What about Truck 1/Truck 40 in the same city?  They're not overlays on any other route.  If memory serves, Truck 1 would have to be an official route but Truck 40 may be able to get away without it?

[US71]

Minden, LA has Truck US 79 and Truck US 80 that are separate routings from the main highway.

Fort Smith, AR has Truck 255 which is the same as AR 255

[flowmotion]

The use of business routes is so inconsistent that, as a practical matter, they are probably completely useless to the average traveler.

Various business routes I've taken include:
- Routes that are never signed once you leave the freeway
- Routes through empty rural areas miles outside of town
- Routes through industrial districts that bypass the downtown
- Residential streets with a handful of old motels
- A freeway through central Sacramento

Which is all interesting roadgeeking, but sucks if you're actually looking for a place to eat or stay. In the rare case there is an actually useful business route, you would never know it, because they are signed just like all the rest.

I would like to see Business Routes removed say 10 years after the bypass is built, as matter of policy. They then can be signed as "Old Highway XX" or "Historic Route XX", rather than confusing travelers.

[vdeane]

I agree.  Service signs are much more useful for finding businesses, and if people want to go into the city, they don't need a business route to do so.

[Scott5114]

Another problem with business routes from a roadgeek perspective is that it keeps an old alignment of the highway on the state highway system, making it less likely for old signs to be forgotten.