Unsigned Highway - Background

Background

Routes are often left unsigned when they are extremely short. Roads that serve as a short connector to a major highway are sometimes signed to show the connection to the major road, rather than the road's actual designation.

Some highway maintenance agencies have separate numbering systems for their minor and major routes. To avoid confusion from having multiple highways in the same area with the same number, often the minor routes will be signed differently, or not signed at all. Other agencies use multiple numbering systems for the same set of routes; one number used for public signs and an internal numbering system for inventory purposes. In this case a highway may be unsigned as it has only been assigned an inventory designation, but not assigned a number in the public system.

Some highways are not signed to avoid multiple designations, such as when the entire route runs concurrent with other highways, or the route has been assigned both name and a number. In countries where multiple agencies can create and number highways, a situation can occur where a road was built and signed by one agency, and later adopted or upgraded to become part of another network; yet is only signed with one of the designations. A situation unique to the United States is where some states assign state route inventory numbers to the U.S. Highways and Interstate Highways that enter the state.