Numbered highways in the United States
History
In 1918,
Interstate Highways
The Interstate Highway System is a federally funded and administered but state-maintained system of
U.S. Highways
The United States Numbered Highway System is an older system consisting mostly of surface-level trunk roads, coordinated by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and maintained by state and local governments. U.S. Highways have been relegated to regional and intrastate traffic, as they have been largely supplanted by the Interstate system for long-distance travel except in areas (especially in the west) where the Interstate system is absent or underdeveloped. This has led to the decommissioning and truncation of U.S. Highways that were formerly vital long-haul routes, such as U.S. Route 21 and U.S. Route 66.
State highways
Each state also has a state highway system. State highways are of varying standards, capacity, and quality. Some state highways become so heavily traveled they are built to Interstate Highway standards. Others are more lightly traveled and have low capacity.
Many state highway markers are designed to suggest the geographic shape of the state or some other state symbol such as its flag. Most of the others are generically rectangular or some other neutral shape. The default design for state highway markers is the
Federal district and territory highways
There are also numbered highways in the
Secondary highways
Some states may include a secondary highway system to supplement the main one, usually for a specific purpose. For example, Texas established a system of farm-to-market roads to specifically improve access to rural areas. Nebraska has Connecting Link, Spur, and Recreation Highways to provide access to small towns and state parks. The Missouri supplemental route system was designed to provide access to most farm houses, schools, churches, cemeteries, and stores within the state.
County highways
The final administrative level in some states is the county highway. As the name suggests, this type of road is maintained by a
Other systems
Other highway systems include:
- U.S. National Foreststo the existing state highway systems, and thus provide improved access to recreational and logging areas.
- Indian route: Highways found in several Indian reservations.
- U.S. Bicycle Route: Part of the national cycling route network in the U.S., consisting of interstate long-distance cycling routes that use multiple types of bicycling infrastructure, including off-road paths, bicycle lanes, and low-traffic roads.
- Local highways: City and local governments may have their own highways, such as the Red, Yellow, and Blue Routes in Branson, Missouri; Charlotte Route 4 in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Allegheny County Belt System in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the Inner Loop in Rochester, New York.
- Some townships also maintain Township Routes.
See also
- National Highway System
- New England road marking system
- Numbered highways in Canada
- Road signs in the United States
References
- OCLC 9975013.
- ^ Weingroff, Richard F. (November 18, 2015). "From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System". Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
- ^ Federal Highway Administration (2009). "Section 2D.11 Design of Route Signs". Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (2009 2nd revised ed.). Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration.
Guidance: State Route signs...should be rectangular and should be approximately the same size as the U.S. Route sign....The shape of the white area should be circular in the absence of any determination to the contrary by the individual State concerned.
- ^ "County Roads". Hampshire Council of Governments. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
External links
- Full list of state route markers
- Old Trails - US and Canadian Roads in the 20th Century (includes drawings and photos of old signs)