Difference between revisions of "The logic behind road numbers"

(condensed E/W and N/S paras, & other changes)
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Knowing the logic behind road numbers can help you navigate when you are lost.
 
Knowing the logic behind road numbers can help you navigate when you are lost.
  
Roads that circumscribe major metropolitan areas have three digits. Thus, 495 circumscribes the Boston area.
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Roads that circumscribe major metropolitan areas have three digits. Thus, 495 circumscribes the Boston area.  The last two digits names (at least one of) the interstate(s) that this road stems from and connects to.
  
Further, three-digit interstates with a even first digit are ring roads that run around cities, like 495. Odd first digits (like 395 in CT) signify a spur highway to a city.
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Furthermore, three-digit interstates with a even first digit are ring roads that run around cities, like 495. Odd first digits (like 395 in CT) signify a spur highway to a city.
  
Roads that run north/south have odd numbers. Thus, 95 runs from Florida to Canada.
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Roads that run north/south have odd numbers and roads that run east/west have even numbers. Thus, 95 runs from Florida to Canada, and Route 66 is perhaps the most famous example of an American east/west road.  ''There are some caveats to this, however.''  Local parts of a north/south route may run east/west for relatively short spans, and vice versa.  Even though Route 1 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, for example, is odd numbered, long stretches of it travel farther east/west than north/south.
  
Roads that run east/west have even numbers. Thus, [[Route 2]] runs from Cambridge, out through Williamstown, and beyond. I-40 runs from Wilmington, NC, to somewhere way out west, past Texas. And Highway/Route 66 is perhaps the most famous example of an American east/west road.
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It also helps to know that the numbers for interstate highways [http://www.ihoz.com/viol.html mostly] increase from west to east and south to north.
 
 
It also helps to know that the numbers [http://www.ihoz.com/viol.html mostly] increase from west to east and south to north (for interstate highways at least).
 
  
 
Knowing this logic can (sort of) help you navigate when you are lost.
 
Knowing this logic can (sort of) help you navigate when you are lost.

Revision as of 18:52, January 23, 2006

(The word "road" is used here to avoid the route/highway argument.)

Knowing the logic behind road numbers can help you navigate when you are lost.

Roads that circumscribe major metropolitan areas have three digits. Thus, 495 circumscribes the Boston area. The last two digits names (at least one of) the interstate(s) that this road stems from and connects to.

Furthermore, three-digit interstates with a even first digit are ring roads that run around cities, like 495. Odd first digits (like 395 in CT) signify a spur highway to a city.

Roads that run north/south have odd numbers and roads that run east/west have even numbers. Thus, 95 runs from Florida to Canada, and Route 66 is perhaps the most famous example of an American east/west road. There are some caveats to this, however. Local parts of a north/south route may run east/west for relatively short spans, and vice versa. Even though Route 1 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, for example, is odd numbered, long stretches of it travel farther east/west than north/south.

It also helps to know that the numbers for interstate highways mostly increase from west to east and south to north.

Knowing this logic can (sort of) help you navigate when you are lost.