State Highway grids

[apeman33]

You can't really tell with Kansas. You can see a potential grid pattern if you go from east to west. But it's not entirely in order (K-3 west of K-7; K-14 between K-17 and K-19), some numbers aren't in said grid (K-21) and it would appear to have been created after the U.S. routes were planned because U.S. highways are in between state routes that themselves are consecutively numbered (U.S. 83 being in between K-23 and K-25).

There appears to be no sort of pattern in the east-west state routes. K-96, specifically, has nothing to do with a grid.

Actually, K-21 was in your grid... it was the original designation of US 283.

Also, remember that US 183 and US 281 were origionally designated as K-1 and K-8, respectively. Oh, and don't forget that K-99 and K-177 were originally K-11 and K-13

Then the historic grid would have went something like this (east to west):
K-7, K-3, K-6, K-11, K-13, K-15, K-17, K-14, K-8, K-19, K-1, K-21, K-23, K-25, K-27.

K-9 is an E-W route and I'm not sure where K-5 would be in the grid. I guess along the same line as K-3 as neither went border-to-border.

And I suppose one could have also included historic K-26, which would have been east of K-7.

[vdeane]

New York, again, has no real pattern to its signed routes, but the unsigned ones have a system. In this case, all unsigned "reference routes" are three digit numbers beginning with 9 followed by a letter. The tens digit is the region number (so, for instance, route 983D is in region 8).

According to wikipedia, NY's route numbers were assigned in clusters based on geographic location, though that's not followed today.

New York's original touring routes in 1924 had odd numbers for E-W routes and even numbers for N-S routes. E-W routes had a very loose progression from north to south...excluding NY 1, which by an odd mix of design and coincidence is now US 1. The rest, NY 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15, 17 were pretty much in order. 11 was oddball, being north of NY 5. Then you jump back a bit for 19, 21...23 is out of place...and then 25 and 27 which are still there on Long Island.

For N-S routes, you had NY 2 and 4, then from east to west you had NY 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18...20 was oddball...then jumping back to the east for 22, 24, then sorta-kinda in order into the 30's.

Whatever the system was, was pretty much obfuscated first by the addition of US highways in 1927, then by the 1930 re-numbering, then again by US highway changes in the mid-30s. Still, a surprising number of vestiges remain, most notably 12-14-16-[18*] (and the current 8 and 10 were later additions that fit into this pattern, whether by design or not).

*The original NY 18 was a N-S route at the west end of the state, from Buffalo south. Later it was extended up along the Niagara River, still in keeping with the system. Today, it's almost all E-W and lies north and east of its original course, but the N-S piece in Niagara County still holds true. It's actually pretty fascinating how that route has oozed continually along like a meandering river, never with any actual discontinuity from its former self!

UPDATE: I've uploaded a scan of the Automobile Blue Book map from 1925 showing NY's state routes of the time (the original system). This map was copyrighted in 1925 and to my knowledge the copyright has not been renewed, so here it is:

http://empirestateroads.com/maps/NY1925.jpg (full resolution, 11.2 Mb)
http://empirestateroads.com/maps/NY1925low.jpg (lower quality, same size, 2.7 Mb)

How long did the blue book routes stay in effect?  It seems the main point of the 1930s renumbering was to incorporate those routes into the state highway system.

[empirestate]

How long did the blue book routes stay in effect?  It seems the main point of the 1930s renumbering was to incorporate those routes into the state highway system.
[/quote]

Well, Blue Books were published from 1901 until at least 1927, but their route numbers had nothing to do with state highway numberings (to my knowledge). They referred to lists of directions within the book that you could follow and are shown on this map as the numerals inside the road casing.

State highway numbers are shown in boxes next to the road symbol, as are some of the named auto trails of the day. Note that when the first blue books came out, no state had numbered highways, and their eventual adoption may have led to the quick demise of the blue book, as detailed running directions were no longer needed.

I have the 1915 Blue Book as well, and it has much more detailed road maps than the one I've scanned. Just wish I knew which box it's in...

[OCGuy81]

I'm sure there is more too this state highway grid, but it appears Wisconsin assigns primary routes two digit designations, and "lesser" routes are all in the 100 series, with a few exceptions (WI-441, WI-794 for example).  It looks too like single digit routes aren't used, save US 2 and US 8.

Is this correct?  59 is a primary highway, while 159 would be a local or secondary highway?

It looks as though this might be true for county trunk highways as well.  N is primary.  NN is secondary.

Just speculation from a road atlas.

[Alps]

New Jersey 5xx county routes are in a  N-S grid more or less with 502 in the north to 540 in the south.  But above 540 is random.

There seems to be some clustering 20s around Newark ( 20 21 22 23 24 28),  30s radiating out of Trenton and in Monmouth and Ocean Counties( 31 32 33 34 35 36 37). 40s radiate out of Camden.. (40( now 70) 41 42 44 45 47)

But any grid to state highways seems to have been abandoned.

NJ has two systems, neither strictly a grid.

State: 1-10 north/east of Newark, 11-20 a ring around that, 21-30 a strip of Central Jersey, 31-40 a strip of northern South Jersey, 41-50 and 51-60 further strips on the way south. But there has been a lot of renumbering in the interim.

County: Evens increase, as you say, from 502 to 540. 542 on up are all in South Jersey, with a strange leap to 560 before ending the even numbers. Odds increase from east to west, 501 to 543, and then start reflecting back across the state to 549. 551-561 are all in the southern part of the state. It gets more random after that.

[sandiaman]

Possibly the best example  of a true east-west = even number routes and  north-south =odd number routes  would be South Dakota.  Maybe  because  of it easy shape  and sparse  population.  Other  states   that have  the  same  formula  but  less obvious  would be:  Washington,  Oregon,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Indiana,  Kentucky    and Delaware.

[kphoger]

I've always like Iowa's county highway grid system.  Seems to work great.  If a statewide system of county roads can be developed, then one for state roads should be a breeze.

East-West roads:  A## in the northern part of the state to J## in the southern part of the state.
North-South roads:  K## in the western part of the state to Z## in the eastern part of the state.
Low numbers in the western and northern parts, High numbers in the eastern and southern parts.
I, O, Q, and U are not used to avoid confusion.
Diagonal routes use L#L designations instead of L##.
Gaps are allowed, which probably wouldn't be a good idea for a state highway system.

Examples:
A16 and A18 run east-west in northern Iowa.
H34 and J40 run east-west in southern Iowa.
K12 and L26 run north-south in western Iowa.
V64 and W40 run north-south in eastern Iowa.
F8W runs diagonally in the same region as F## and W## highways.

[bassoon1986]

Louisiana has a grid for the lower numbers but because the shape of the state is so strange you almost can't tell. The horizontal even numbers are seen easier.

Vertically/Odd
LA 1 - actually begins in the most northwesterly corner at the TX/AR/LA corners and heads south to the Gulf, although diagonally
LA 3 - very short north to south route just a parish east of LA 1
LA 5 - this one is an oddball and doesn't quite fit. It really goes more E-W below Shreveport
LA 7 - Now US 371, runs North South and is east of LA 3
LA 9 - North South and is east of LA 7 (US 371)
LA 11 - does not exist bc of US 11
LA 13 - runs north south but is in South LA
LA 15 - fits nicely with the northern odd highways, North to South for a large distance from the state line, to near Natchez MS and further south
LA 17 - finishes off the odds in North LA, situated in Northeast LA

*Now whats funny is the odds continue further east, but now in the "boot" of the state, east of the MS River near Baton Rouge!
LA 19 - runs North South up from baton Rouge thru Zachary
LA 21- really should be switched with LA 25 to make sense, they criss cross in Covington
LA 23 is below Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans south to Venice
LA 25 - runs northwest of Covington rather than northeast

Horizontally/ Even  (these show up nicely on an LA map and many of them travel nearly from West to East state lines
LA 2- from Texas State line near Vivian to Lake Providence in Northeast LA
LA 4 - from US 71 south of Bossier City to St Joseph at the MS River
LA 6 - much shorter, but it flows from the TX state line at Toledo Bend to just east of Natchitoches
LA 8 - from TX state line near Leesville mostly across the central part of LA then up to Sicily Island at US 425
LA 10 - from Fort Polk near DeRidder across the entire southern boot of LA to cross MS state line past Bogalusa
LA 12 - just a short highway below LA 10 from TX state line to Ragley at US 190
LA 14 - from Lake Charles east to New Iberia

With the exception of LA 22,  LA 20-26 run east west in the boot section of LA, east of the MS River


Many of the higher groups of numbers, mostly in 10's are clustered throughout the state.
Ex: 130's in NE LA near Rayville,
120's - mostly central LA
110's - western-central LA around Kisatchie Nat'l Forest