United States Numbered Highway System

The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these highways were coordinated among the states, they are sometimes called Federal Highways, but the roadways were built and have always been maintained by state or local governments since their initial designation in 1926.

The route numbers and locations are coordinated by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).[4] The only federal involvement in AASHTO is a nonvoting seat for the United States Department of Transportation. Generally, most north-to-south highways are odd-numbered, with the lowest numbers in the east and the highest in the west, while east-to-west highways are typically even-numbered, with the lowest numbers in the north, and the highest in the south, though the grid guidelines are not rigidly followed, and many exceptions exist. Major north–south routes generally have numbers ending in "1", while major east–west routes usually have numbers ending in "0".[1] Three-digit numbered highways are generally spur routes of parent highways; for example, U.S. Route 264 (US 264) is a spur off US 64. Some divided routes, such as US 19E and US 19W, exist to provide two alignments for one route. Special routes, which can be labeled as alternate, bypass or business, depending on the intended use, provide a parallel routing to the mainline U.S. Highway. Before the U.S. Routes were designated, auto trails designated by auto trail associations were the main means of marking roads through the United States. These were private organizations, and the system of road marking at the time was haphazard and not uniform. In 1925, the Joint Board on Interstate Highways, recommended by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), worked to form a national numbering system to rationalize the roads. After several meetings, a final report was approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in November 1925. After getting feedback from the states, they made several modifications; the U.S. Highway System was approved on November 11, 1926. Expansion of the U.S. Highway System continued until 1956, when the Interstate Highway System was laid out and began construction under the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. After the national implementation of the Interstate Highway System, many U.S. Routes that had been bypassed or overlaid with Interstate Highways were decommissioned and removed from the system. In other places, the U.S. Routes remain alongside the Interstates and serve as a means for interstate travelers to access local services and as secondary feeder roads or as important major arteries in their own right. In other places, where there are no nearby Interstate Highways, the U.S. Routes often remain as the most well-developed roads for long-distance travel. While the system's growth has slowed in recent decades, the U.S. Highway System remains in place to this day and new routes are occasionally added to the system.

System details
In general, U.S. Routes do not have a minimum design standard, unlike the later Interstate Highways, and are not usually built to freeway standards. Some stretches of U.S. Routes do meet those standards. Many are designated using the main streets of the cities and towns through which they run. New additions to the system, however, must "substantially meet the current AASHTO design standards".[4] As of 1989, the United States Numbered Highways system had a total length of 157,724 miles (253,832 km).

Except for toll bridges and tunnels, very few U.S. Routes are toll roads. AASHTO policy says that a toll road may only be included as a special route, and that "a toll-free routing between the same termini shall continue to be retained and marked as a part of the U.S. Numbered System."[4] U.S. Route 3 (US 3) meets this obligation; in New Hampshire, it does not follow tolled portions of the Everett Turnpike. But US Routes in the system do use parts of five toll roads:


 * US 51 uses part of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway in Illinois; the old road is Illinois Route 251.
 * US 278 uses the tolled Cross Island Parkway in South Carolina; the old road is US 278 Business. Toll removed in July 2021.
 * US 301 is a toll road through Delaware; the former routing is a free road and uses several Delaware state routes.
 * US 412 uses the Cimarron Turnpike in Oklahoma; the old road is US 64.
 * US 412 also uses the Cherokee Turnpike in Oklahoma; the old road is Alternate US 412.

Numbering
U.S. Routes in the contiguous United States follow a grid pattern, in which odd-numbered routes run generally north to south and even-numbered routes run generally east to west, though three-digit spur routes can be either-or.[c] Usually, one- and two-digit routes are major routes, and three-digit routes are numbered as shorter spur routes from a main route. Odd numbers generally increase from east to west; U.S. Route 1 (US 1) follows the Atlantic Coast and US 101 follows the Pacific Coast. (US 101 is one of the many exceptions to the standard numbering grid; its first "digit" is "10", and it is a main route on its own and not a spur of US 1.) Even numbers tend to increase from north to south; US 2 closely follows the Canadian border, and US 98 hugs the Gulf Coast. The longest routes connecting major cities are generally numbered to end in a 1 or a 0;[6] however, extensions and truncations have made this distinction largely meaningless.[7] These guidelines are very rough, and exceptions to all of the basic numbering rules exist.

In the 1950s, the numbering grid for the new Interstate Highway System was established as intentionally opposite from the US grid insofar as the direction the route numbers increase. Interstate Highway numbers increase from west-to-east and south-to-north, to keep identically numbered routes geographically apart in order to keep them from being confused with one another,[7] and it omits 50 and 60 which would potentially conflict with US 50 and US 60. In the US Highway system, three-digit numbers are assigned to spurs of one or two-digit routes. US 201, for example, splits from US 1 at Brunswick, Maine, and runs north to Canada.[8] Not all spurs travel in the same direction as their "parents"; some are connected to their parents only by other spurs, or not at all, instead only traveling near their parents, Also, a spur may travel in different cardinal directions than its parent, such as US 522, which is a north–south route, unlike its parent US 22, which is east–west. As originally assigned, the first digit of the spurs increased from north to south and east to west along the parent; for example, US 60 had spurs, running from east to west, designated as US 160 in Missouri, US 260 in Oklahoma, US 360 in Texas, and US 460 and US 560 in New Mexico.[9] As with the two-digit routes, three-digit routes have been added, removed, extended and shortened; the "parent-child" relationship is not always present.

AASHTO guidelines specifically prohibit Interstate Highways and U.S. Routes from sharing a number within the same state.[11] As with other guidelines, exceptions exist across the U.S.

Some two-digit numbers have never been applied to any U.S. Route, including 39, 47, 86 and 88.

Signage
Route numbers are displayed on a distinctively-shaped white shield with large black numerals in the center. Often, the shield is displayed against a black square or rectangular background. Each state manufactures their own signage, and as such subtle variations exist all across the United States. Individual states may use cut-out or rectangular designs, some have black outlines, and California prints the letters "US" above the numerals. One- and two-digit shields generally feature the same large, bold numerals on a square-dimension shield, while 3-digit routes may either use the same shield with a narrower font, or a wider rectangular-dimension shield. Special routes may be indicated with a banner above the route number, or with a letter suffixed to the route number. Signs are generally displayed in several different locations. First, they are shown along the side of the route at regular intervals or after major intersections (called reassurance markers), which shows the route and the nominal direction of travel. Second, they are displayed at intersections with other major roads, so that intersecting traffic can follow their chosen course. Third, they can be displayed on large green guide signs that indicate upcoming interchanges on freeways and expressways.

Divided and special routes
Since 1926, some divided routes were designated to serve related areas, and designate roughly-equivalent splits of routes. For instance, US 11 splits into US 11E (east) and US 11W (west) in Bristol, Virginia, and the routes rejoin in Knoxville, Tennessee. Occasionally only one of the two routes is suffixed; US 6N in Pennsylvania does not rejoin US 6 at its west end. AASHTO has been trying to eliminate these since 1934;[12] its current policy is to deny approval of new split routes and to eliminate existing ones "as rapidly as the State Highway Department and the Standing Committee on Highways can reach agreement with reference thereto".[4]

Special routes—those with a banner such as alternate or bypass—are also managed by AASHTO.[4] These are sometimes designated with lettered suffixes, like A for alternate or B for business.[13]