Interstate Highways[edit]
Main article: Interstate
Highway System
Interstate Highway shields
Standard
Interstate
Standard
Interstate, wide
California-
and Iowa-style Interstate
Business
Loop
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 U.S., with millions of Americans relying on it for commutes,
long-distance travel, and freight transport daily. 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[edit]
Main articles: United
States Numbered Highway System and Special route
U.S. Highway shields
Standard
U.S. Highway
Standard
U.S. Highway, wide
California-style
U.S. Highway
1961-era
U.S. Highway
1948-era
U.S. Highway
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 Officialsand
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[edit]
Main article: State highway
State highway shields
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 circular highway
shield, which is how state highways are designated on most maps.
Currently, five states—Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, and New Jersey—use the circular shield for road
signage on their state highways.[1]
Federal district and
territory highways[edit]
Federal district and territory highway shields
Puerto RicoPrimary
There are also numbered highways in the District of Columbia and
the five territories.
Likewise, they may also vary in standards and quality.
Secondary highways[edit]
Secondary state highway shields
Arizona
Loop
Missouri Supp.
Montana Sec.
Neb.Link
Neb.Rec.Road
Neb.Spur
Penn.Quadrant Route
Tenn.Sec.
Texas
Beltway
Texas FMRoad
Texas
Loop
Texas
NASA Road
Texas
Park Road
Texas RMRoad
Texas Rec.Road
Texas
Spur
Vermont
Town Highway
Virginia Sec.
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[edit]
Main article: County highway
County highway shields
Standard
County
Square
variant
Clark
County, Nev., variant
West
Virginia variant
Wisc.variant
Scioto County, Ohio,
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.[2]
Other systems[edit]
Other systems
Forest
Highway
Indian
Route
Bicycle
Route
Standard
Ohio Township Route sign, Harmony
TownshipRoute 92
Charlotte, NC,
City Route
Inner Loop, Rochester, NY
Other highway systems include:
·
Forest Highway: Highways connecting U.S. National
Forests to 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 Charlotte Route 4 in Charlotte, North
Carolina and the Inner Loop in Rochester, New York.
·
Some townships also maintain Township Routes.
History[edit]
In 1918, Wisconsin became
the first state to number its highways in the field.[3] 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 rational network of federal highways.[4]
See also[edit]
·
New England
road marking system
·
Road signs
in the United States
·
United
States Bicycle Route System
References[edit]
1.
^ 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.
2.
^ "County Roads". Hampshire Council of Governments.
Retrieved August 16, 2017.
3.
^ "The Yellowstone Trail". South Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. Archived from the
original on June 8, 2005. Retrieved June 8, 2007.
4.
^ 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.