Road Numbering - What do they mean and why should I use them in my MD?

[Pharaon-Kheops]

Well, I'm coming a bit late, but here comes the little description of French road system:

-Highways: a highway ("autoroute") is a 2x2 minimum separated lanes with no crossings and wich use is not permited to pedestrians and bikes. minimum speed is 60km/h and max speed is 130km/h. They are build by the state but most of them are maintained by private corporation and thus are not free, except urban highways around the big cities. To be noted: for this reason, there is NO highways in the Britanny region because historically no road toll can be applied there. Highways are prioritary, which means when you enter on a highways you have to let those wich are already on pass first... They are called A### (see below for the numbering concept). Many of them (the first build) have quite the same path than a National Road (see below)

-"Freeways": a freeway ("Route pour automobiles" ou "Voie rapide") is logically a sort of free highway. Any road with separated lanes (ie with a median) and no crossings is considered a freeway and is unallowed to peds and bikes. Freeways are prioritary. Max speed limit is 110km/h. There is no freeways naming system, they could be Natinal roads or Departemental roads.

-National Roads ("Routes Nationales"): these are the historical great road network. Before highways where build (ie before 1960/1965) this was the only state-wide system. There is no size or quality obligation, a National road could be anything between a 4x4 highway-like ultra-new freeway to a one lane road lost in the rurals wich last maintainance occured in 1979 ;-) . the only
criteria to be a National Road: be maintained by the state. Except in urban areas, max speed limit on roads is 90km/h. There are numbered N###. The first numbers where given in clockwise order around Paris: the N1 go right north from Paris to Lille splitting at a moment giving birth to N2, th N3 starts just a mile or so at the right of N1 and go N-W.... N7 starts south of Paris and go to the famous Côte d'Azur, 800km south from here... N13 start at the west of Paris near LaDéfense and go to deauville, etc... other number where attributed in order of road importance and after that to fit the best in this system. As said before, highways where first built according to that, so A1 goes north to Lille, A13 goes west to Deauville, etc...

-Departemental roads ("routes departementales"): there is no strict difference between a national and a departemental road except that at the moment when the system was established, the authorities have stated that this road was not sufficiently important to be maintained by the state, thus they are maintained by the departement. Things could have changed since then, so some departemental roads are now big freeways ;-)   they are numbered D### and once more, the number is function of local (departemental) importance.

-Communal roads ("routes communales"): essentialy rural roads maintained by local municipality... they are only fond in small rural towns

A word on European Roads: they have been mentioned earlier in this topic, but nor road are actually build to be a E##, instead each road of importance in EU have been labelled E## by the European Comission. Thus, a A## could be a E##, as could also a N## be one.... but french peoples aren't "europtimists"
When I lived in Bruxelles, Belgium, everybody designed the higways by their E## and it was actually very hard to find what the original (belgian) number was... in France, most people tend to ignore the E## of their favourite quotidian highway. Nobody use anything else than the A## and quite everybody is convinced that E## are only added to the signs to help international truckers finding their way... (does somebody know if they indeed have any other useness?)  ;-)

Directional indications are on green and white (for local indications) pannels for roads (departemental, national and freeways) and on blue pannels for highways.

I am sorry, I have no illustrating pics just now but if somebody is interested, tell me and I would find some online and edit this post with some linkies.

Hope I have been clear enough... our system is not that simple since the weight of history is here more pregnant than logic and efficiency....frenchs are like that lol

A last note, for a little oddity: the parisian peripherique (= ring) though being a separated way from 2x2 to 5x5 is not considered a highway nor a freeway. Its max speed limit is 80km/h and it is not a proritary road... ie when you enter the ring, they MUST let you pass!!! (go ahead tourist friends, don't be affraid... force the passage, you're on your right!! lol)

[Yamaneko]

In Indiana, you can usually get an idea of where you are within the state with the state highway numbers.  As done with US highways, Indiana state routes increase from east to west and from north to south.  I have found no Indiana state highway that bears the number of a US highway going through the state -- if you are on Route 12 you are on US 12, and if you are on Route 14 you are on Indiana 14. 

At one-mile intervals on state and US highways, the state places a little milepost indicating the distance to the southern or western terminus of the highway, or when the highway leaves the state.  Since some of the US highway system supplanted the state system, these signposts are not always reliable.  Indiana 43 used to run from Crawfordsville to Michigan City.  From Reynolds northward, it was supplanted by US 421.  From West Lafayette southward, it was supplanted by US 231.  The mileposts indicate the distance to Crawfordsville.  Conversely, Indiana 55 used to run from Crawfordsville to Business Route 6, now on Gary's southern border.  The state decommissioned the stretch south of Wingate, and distances on the mileposts go to Wingate.

Beneath the state level, Indiana likes to number its county roads in most of the flat counties and some of the hilly counties.  An east-west highway (or line on the map) is designated 00, 0 N/S or Division;  roads to the north or south get a number that indicates the distance to the division;  300 North is three miles north of Division.  A north-south highway is designated 00, 0 E/W or Meridian.  600 East is six miles east of Meridian.  Since most of Indiana's farmland was surveyed and sold in sections (squares 1/4 mile on a side), most county highways' numbers are some multiple of 25.  Diagonal roads get named.  Older state routes are usually referred to "Old X";  like Old 27

[calibanX]

These are fantastic everybody. I've begun to number the roads and highways in my cities according to the information presented here. Thanks for your work.

Geoff

[homefryes]

Never noticed this topic before. I didn't see a completely accurate description on US (a.k.a. Federal) Highways, so I wanted to elaborate. Much like Interstates, odd-numbered US Highways run south-north while even-numbered routes run west-east. Opposite of Interstates, however, the smaller numbered odd US routes are in the east and get larger to the west, and the smaller numbered even routes are in the north and get larger to the south. There are exceptions to the rule: much of US Route 6 runs parallel and south of US Route 20, for example. The three-digit description earlier is pretty accurate. These are for the most part "spur" routes, although they may not ever intersect with the parent route.

I also wanted to bring up Ohio State Routes, since I grew up there and have since learned more about how they got their numbering. They began numbering the routes in 1924. The major routes (ones that ran across the state) were given the lowest numbers. Next, they "batched" or "grouped." There is no real pattern with the grouping, but simply a batch of highways in a particular area were given a series of numbers. For example, in Northeast Ohio, you will find 43, 44, 45 and 46; then 82, 83 (the original route), 84, 85, 86, 87 and 88. After they mapped out the state with these, they moved on to 3-digit routes: (again in the northeast) 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169 and 170; and then 303, 304, 305, 306 and 307; and finally 528, 531, 532 and 534. Once the US Highways were designated in 1926, where they "overtook" a state route, the state dropped its designation in favor of the new US Route designation. Some of these dropped numbers were reincarnated elsewhere. And as for north-south or east-west distinction, there is none that I'm aware of on Ohio state routes.

I've lived in Illinois for 10 years now, and have no idea as to the rhyme or reason for the numberings here. I see no patterns or correlation among routes.

Pennsylvania utilizes spur routes. I don't fully understand the pattern (if any) with the parent routes, but many of these parents have lots of spur routes in the same area. For example, where I lived in the western part of the state, you'll find State Routes 8, 108, 208 and 308; 18, 318, 418, 518, 618 and 718; 58, 158, 258 and 358; 51, 151, 351 and 551 (the ones in green can all be found in Mercer County, and some don't even go beyond the county limits!). You'll also find 3-digit routes that appear to have no parent.

[MandelSoft]

Oh, by the way, I've found a map of the dutch 'Rijkswegenplan' of 1932 (planning where all the routes should be placed):
[Linkie!] (picture is protected agains deeplinking). Compare this picture to the current setup [Linkie] Spot the differences 

Best,
Maarten