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Numbered highways in the United States

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Highways are split into at least four different types of systems in the United States: Interstate Highways, U.S. Highways, state highways, and county highways. Highways are generally organized by a route number or letter. These designations are generally displayed along the route by means of a highway shield. Each system has its own unique shield design that will allow quick identification to which system the route belongs.

History

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In 1918, Wisconsin became the first state to number its highways in the field followed by Michigan the following year.[1] In 1926 the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) established and numbered interstate routes (United States Numbered Highways), selecting the best roads in each state that could be connected to provide a national network of federal highways.[2]

Interstate Highways

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Interstate 90 route marker
Standard Interstate
Interstate 476 route marker
Standard Interstate (wide)
Interstate 80 (Iowa) route marker
Interstate with State name
Business Loop 76 route marker
Interstate Business Loop
Business Spur 96 route marker
Interstate Business Spur

The Interstate Highway System is a federally funded and administered but state-maintained system of freeways that forms the transportation backbone of the United States, with millions of Americans relying on it for commutes, long-distance travel, and freight transport daily, among other things. Interstate highways are all constructed to precise standards, designed to maximize high-speed travel safety and efficiency. Interstate Highways also contain auxiliary routes, which are normally assigned a three-digit route number. All Interstate Highways are part of the National Highway System, a network of highways deemed essential to the defense, economy, and mobility of the country.

U.S. Highways

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U.S. Highway 20 route marker
Standard U.S. Highway
U.S. Highway 287 route marker
Standard U.S. Highway (wide)
U.S. Highway 6 route marker
California-style U.S. Highway
U.S. Highway 61 historic route marker
1961-era U.S. Highway
U.S. Highway 27 historic route marker
1948-era U.S. Highway
U.S. Highway 66 historic route marker
1926-era U.S. Highway

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

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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 may get upgraded 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 circular highway shield, which is how state highways are indicated on most maps and atlases. Currently, five states—Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, and New Jersey—use the circular shield for road signage on their state highways.[3]

Federal district and territory highways

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Federal district and territory highway shields

There are also numbered highways in the District of Columbia and territories. Likewise, they may also vary in standards and quality.

Secondary highways

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Arizona loop route marker
Arizona Loop
Missouri secondary route marker
Missouri Supp.
Montana secondary route marker
Montana Secondary
Nebraska connecting link route marker
Nebraska Link
Nebraska recreation route marker
Nebraska Rec. Road
Nebraska spur route marker
Nebraska Spur
Pennsylvania quadrant route marker
Penn. Quadrant Route
Tennessee secondary route marker
Tennessee Secondary
Vermont town route marker
Vermont Town Highway
Virginia secondary route marker
Virginia Secondary
Texas secondary state
highway markers
Texas beltway route marker
Beltway
Texas farm to market road route marker
FM Road
Texas loop route marker
Loop
Texas NASA road marker
NASA Road
Texas park road marker
Park Road
Texas principal arterial marker
PA Road
Texas ranch to market road route marker
RM Road
Texas recreational road marker
Rec. Road
Texas spur route marker
Spur

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

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Baldwin County Road 64 route marker
Standard County
St. Louis County Road 7 route marker
Square variant
Clark County (NV) Route 215 route marker
Clark Co., Nevada variant
West Virginia County Road 9/1 route marker
West Virginia variant
Wisconsin County Truck Highway Z route marker
Wisconsin variant

The final administrative level in some states is the county highway. As the name suggests, this type of road is maintained by a county. County roads vary widely from well-traveled multilane highways to dirt roads into remote parts of the county. In Louisiana, parish roads exist in place of county highways, as counties in that state are called parishes. Alaska also has no counties, and all roads are maintained at the national, state or municipal level. In some states, such as Massachusetts, county roads are now administered by regional entities,[4] and both Connecticut and Rhode Island have no county government and therefore no county highways. In New York and Ohio, each county has its own style of marker for its system of county roads, creating a wide variety of county road markers across those states. In some Minnesota counties, the square sign is used to denote regular county funded highways, while the standard pentagon denotes a county state aid highway, which is partially funded and maintained by the state.

Other systems

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Bicycle route marker
Bicycle Route
Branson city route marker
Branson, Missouri, Route
Charlotte (North Carolina) route marker
Charlotte, N.C., City Route
Forest Highway route marker
Forest Highway
Indian route marker
Indian Route
Harmony Township 92
Ohio Twp. road sign (Standard)
Monday Creek Township, Perry County, Ohio, route marker
Monday Creek Twp., Ohio, variant
Allegheny County belt system marker
Allegheny Co., Penn., Belt system
Inner Loop (Rochester) route marker
Rochester, N.Y., Inner Loop

Other highway systems include:


See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Michigan May Do Well Following Wisconsin's Road Marking System". The Grand Rapids Press. September 20, 1919. p. 10. OCLC 9975013.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ "County Roads". Hampshire Council of Governments. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
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