State highway

Encyclopedia : S : ST : STA : State highway

---

---

 

This article is about the idea of state highways. There is a specific highway in New Jersey that is referred to in some signage as the State Highway, and is more formally known as Route 139.

State highway, state road or state route can refer to one of three related concepts, two of them related to a state government in a country that is divided into states (including the United States, Australia and Mexico):

1. A road numbered by the state, falling below numbered national highways (like U.S. Routes) in the hierarchy
2. A road maintained by the state, including nationally-numbered highways

Depending on the state, state highway may be used for one meaning and state road or state route for the other. A third meaning, used in some countries such as New Zealand, uses the word "state" in its sense of a nation. By this meaning a state highway is a road maintained and numbered by the national government rather than local authorities.

Australia

Australia's State Route System is a system of urban and inter-regional routes that are not covered by the National Route System, or the National Highway System. These routes are marked with a blue shield. Sometimes a state route may be formed when a former national route is decommissioned.

New Zealand

New Zealand's state highway system is a nationwide network of roads covering the North and South Islands. As of 2006, just under 100 roads have a "State Highway" designation: Transit New Zealand administers them. The speed limit for most State Highways is 100 km/h, with reductions when a State Highway passes through a built-up area.

The highways were originally designated on a two-tier system, National (SH 1-8) and Provincial, with national highways having a higher standard and funding priorities. Now all are State Highways, and the network consists of SH 1 running the length of both main islands, SH 2-5 and 10-58 in the North Island, and SH 6-8 and 60-99 in the South Island. National and Provincial highways are numbered approximately North to South. State Highway 1 runs the length of both islands.

United States

State highways are generally a mixture of primary and secondary roads, although some are freeways (for example, Route 128 in Massachusetts). Each state has its own system for numbering and its own marker. The default maker is a white circle containing a black sans serif number (often inscribed in a black square or slightly rounded square), according to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. However each state is free to choose a different marker, and many states have. Often, states will choose something related to their state such as Pennsylvania, the keystone state, which has chosen a keystone outline to distinguish state highways. Other states use an outline of the state. Many states have a secondary set of state roads; Missouri and Wisconsin use letters for these roads.

Terminology

The usage of the terms "state highway", "state route", etc. may vary from country to country or even from state to state. In the United States, it is not uncommon for the general public to use different conventions even within a particular state.

See also

• List of Canadian highways by province
• List of numbered highways in the United States
• Interstate Highway System, U.S. Highway System
• Missouri Supplemental Route
• County highway
• Highways in Australia
• New Zealand State Highway network

 

---

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

---

Search Titles

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

?