Highway Renumbering

There have been a few discussions online about the pros and cons of the US’s dual system of highway numbers — Interstates and US highways.

Personally, the distinction between the two annoys me in a few ways. I don’t mind the "Interstate" brand, but because of the popularity of the "Interstate brand" of highway numbers, we see odd things happen as cities or politicians try to secure a red-white-and-blue shield for their area, hopefully attracting industry that looks at highway trailblazers rather than the real quality of road access.

In 1997 I played around a little bit with how I would go about designating a saner, more consistent set of federal highway numbers to address my annoyance with the current scheme. A slightly updated version of that scheme is presented here, for your amusement.

I don’t expect to see anything like this ever happen — the expense would be enormous, the confusion massive — but I can dream, can’t I?

Next: Premise / Intention