Roads signed by name only

[NE2]

I have not seen an F.D.R Drive shield in NYC come to think of it.  Even the Harlem River Drive, I believe to be shield-less as well.

They exist, but I can't remember where.

[briantroutman]

Another subset would be roads with no signed name or number. The Harrisburg Airport Connector would be one of these–just signed "Airport" in one direction and "Harrisburg/Lancaster" in the other.

[Takumi]

Regarding the query from "OracleUsr," I saw somewhere that the Access Road has a secret route number of 90004 (looks more like a ZIP Code).

It is. The Colonial Parkway is 90003, and the George Washington Parkway is 90005.

[cpzilliacus]

Any road or street in the District of Columbia, except (sometimes) I-295, I-395, I-695, I-66, U.S. 1, U.S. 29, U.S. 50 and D.C. 295. 

U.S. 1 Alternate is not signed at all in D.C. any longer.

[formulanone]

Lake Ponchatrain Causeway - tolls and 20+ miles without an exit. No shields nor special signage that I was aware of.

[cpzilliacus]

The federally-maintained parkways in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia never have route numbers, though the Maryland and Virginia DOT's have assigned them "secret" numbers.

George Washington Memorial Parkway (Va. and D.C.)
Spout Run Parkway (Va.)
Rock Creek Parkway (D.C.)
Beach Drive (D.C. - continues into Maryland)
Clara Barton Parkway (Md. and D.C.)
Baltimore-Washington Parkway (Md. - the state-maintained part is signed as Md. 295).
Suitland Parkway (Md.).

[Beeper1]

LaSalle Expresway near Niagara Falls. 

[ET21]

Elgin-O'Hare Expressway, Illinois ... no special shield.

Well, sort of.



Google street view example here.

There's only a few of these, but it's never really treated as a special shield, and is never seen on the expressway itself.  We'll see what happens after ISTHA takes over and widens the EOE.

Who doesn't treat them as a special shield?  Looks like a shield to me.
There are even advance JCT signs featuring the white square.
And they're found in at least the following locations:

Wright Blvd, both northbound and southbound approaches
Rodenburg Rd, both northbound and southbound approaches
Irving Park Rd (IL-19), both westbound and eastbound approaches
Springsguth Rd, both northbound and southbound approaches

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a shield.

I've always treated it as a shield as well, even if it is unofficial in some cases. Once the expansions done, that'll probably become more prominent across the board. Even the wiki for it has this sign as the shield.

[roadfro]

Summerlin Parkway in Las Vegas, NV - it's a city-maintained freeway and has no route number.

[bulldog1979]

The Capitol Loop in downtown Lansing, Michigan, is only signed by name with its distinctive marker. It does hav an internal MDOT designation of Connector 496, and it has appeared on some maps as "Capitol Loop I-496".

[sp_redelectric]

Many Oregon state highways, although as of 2002 all highways are supposed to officially have a route number, but few of them are actually signed.

Examples would be the Lafayette Highway (a.k.a. Lafayette-Hopewell Highway), Bellevue-Hopewell Highway, Hall Boulevard (a.k.a. Beaverton-Tualatin Highway), Jefferson Highway, Monmouth Highway.

If you're looking for a freeway example, look to Eugene - the Delta Highway, and until recently Belt Line Road had no number (it's now Oregon 569 and renamed the Randy Pape Beltline Highway).

[Pete from Boston]

The Connecticut Turnpike east of 395?  I don't think it has a public number.

[Jim]

You can see the 59 such examples across the US that are part of the CHM project:

http://cmap.m-plex.com/hb/newselecthwys.php?sys=usasf&rg=usa.all&gr=p&showint=60#r

This list is restricted to the freeway portions of routes without numbers that are over a certain length (which I don't recall).

[bugo]

LL Tisdale Parkway
Gilcrease Expressway

[english si]

This list is restricted to the freeway portions of routes without numbers that are over a certain length (which I don't recall).

Not quite.

Clark County 215 in Nevada is there, and the Garden State Parkway is there twice, as it leaves the Garden State...

[SP Cook]

The federal parkways:  Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive, Natchez Trace Parkway, Colonial Parkway.

In Canada, the QEW, which also has the rare distinction of not being signed directionally either.

[Thing 342]

The Ronald Reagan and Sugarloaf Parkways in Gwinnett County, GA.
The Puncheon Run Connector between US-13 and DE-1 in Dover has no signed name or number. It's just To US 13 or To DE 1.

[agentsteel53]

There's only a few of these, but it's never really treated as a special shield, and is never seen on the expressway itself.  We'll see what happens after ISTHA takes over and widens the EOE.

given the lack of complexity of Illinois state route markers... that Elgin definitely counts as a shield to me.

[agentsteel53]

I have not seen an F.D.R Drive shield in NYC come to think of it.  Even the Harlem River Drive, I believe to be shield-less as well.

from NYCRoads:



I believe somewhere I've seen a 1930s sign referencing "East River Drive" which was similar to some other shields NYC used at the time.

[woodpusher]

Thanks to all who answered my GIS project question.

As promised, I've got an answer to this...for the Southern USA anyway.

Let's see....there are quite a few mistakes in TIGER (Capital Beltway, for instance.  In fact, I believe all the S1100 roads by name only are mistakes.) 

Your Dulles Access Road though is a S1200 - this classification carries a wide range of road quality.  Blue Ridge Parkway, Natchez Trace Parkway, and George Washington Memorial Parkway (although someone pointed out that GWMP has a secret number.)  For some reason, only a small section of Skyline Drive is S1200 - the rest is S1400 or worse.

Kentucky's Parkways were up there, and Oklahoma's turnpikes were high on the list too.

[TEG24601]

Similar to O'Hare, SeaTac has a mini-expressway that connects to SR-518 and SR-99, that has no name or number other than "Sea-Tac Access Road".

There used to be tons of unsigned highways in Oregon, which were in the State Highway System, but not in the Oregon Route System.  They had names and numbers, but were usually only known by name.  Most of those have now been absorbed into the Oregon Route System, using the same numbers as the State Highways designations (when they can).  They are signing them now, but it has been a long process for the last 10+ years.

[ChoralScholar]

Kentucky Parkways are mostly name signed except for where the I-69 is now designated.

And they all have unposted numbers in the 9000-series.

Also, Oklahoma's turnpikes.

I believe at least some of Oklahoma's Turnpikes are co-signed.  I'm reasonably sure that the Cherokee and Cimarron Turnpikes are co-signed as US-412. Turner Turnpike is I-44, and the Muskogee Turnpike is US-69.  That's all I can remember off the top of my head.

[lordsutch]

The Ronald Reagan and Sugarloaf Parkways in Gwinnett County, GA.

As far as freeways go, Chatham County has both Truman Parkway and Veterans Parkway.

In Houston and Peach counties, the mostly-expressway grade Richard B. Russell Parkway doesn't have a current state number designation even though it (like the four examples above) was mostly built by GDOT to state highway standards.

(GDOT does internally designate these routes with high route numbers, usually in the 900+ range, while they're under construction but they don't get signed, although they sometimes appear on county maps.  Occasionally they leak into TIGER and thus eventually into OSM and Google Maps too.)

[Scott5114]

Kentucky Parkways are mostly name signed except for where the I-69 is now designated.

And they all have unposted numbers in the 9000-series.

Also, Oklahoma's turnpikes.

I believe at least some of Oklahoma's Turnpikes are co-signed.  I'm reasonably sure that the Cherokee and Cimarron Turnpikes are co-signed as US-412. Turner Turnpike is I-44, and the Muskogee Turnpike is US-69.  That's all I can remember off the top of my head.

You're right on US-412. US-69 is west of the Muskogee. It has a brief free section signed as OK-165 though.

I-44 also follows the Will Rogers and HE Bailey turnpikes.

Everything else is signed with a shield like this one:

[US71]

You're right on US-412. US-69 is west of the Muskogee. It has a brief free section signed as OK-165 though.

Actually, 69 crosses the Muskogee Turnpike.