This image shows the default County Highway sign in the United States.
A county highway (also county road or county route; usually abbreviated CH or CR) is a road in the United States and in the Canadian province of Ontario that is designated and/or maintained by the county highway department. Route numbering can be determined by each county alone, by mutual agreement among counties, or by a statewide pattern.
Any county-maintained road, whether or not it is given a signed number, can be called a county road. Depending on the state or province and county, these roads can be named after local geographic features, communities, or people and/or be assigned a name determined by a standardized grid reference.
County roads and highways vary greatly in design standards, funding and regularity of maintenance. Some county highways in urban areas are freeways or expressways. County roads that link communities or serve residential areas are often indistinguishable from state highways or residential streets. In rural areas, many county roads carry very little traffic; these roads are maintained less frequently. They may be in poor condition (if they are paved) or not paved at all. In remote areas, county roads are made of sand, gravel, or graded earth, seeing only occasional foot, equestrian, and four wheel drive traffic. Some states, such as Wisconsin, use county highways in great numbers, linking major highways and cities or towns to each other.
United States[]
County highway markers are usually a yellow-on-blue pentagon (the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices standard pattern), or a black-on-white rectangle, or black text on a white rectangle (largely older signs). Some states, like Virginia and North Carolina, have no county highways in most of their counties; the state government maintains all roads in unincorporated areas. In West Virginia, the state maintains secondary roads but they are designed as county routes. Other states, like Connecticut, have no county routes because there is no government at the county level. Alaska's county-equivalent boroughs maintain roads in unincorporated areas but none are numbered; Louisiana's county equivalents are parishes, and, accordingly, and clearly, have parish routes.
In the United States, county highways are denoted in various ways, differing by state. In states like Wisconsin, county highways are marked with letters—with one- to three-letter combinations (i.e.: C, CC, or CCC). Wisconsin's county highways are frequently and clearly marked at most intersections. Because the county names are non-exclusive, the state has many county roads with similar or identical names. In states like Illinois, county highways are marked either with a number (usually one or two digits), a single letter followed by a one- or two-digit number (i.e.: V-34, A-29), or in Rock Island County, with letters like Wisconsin but on a blue pentagon marker. These highways are usually marked at the beginning of the highway and marked occasionally throughout the route, but are not majorly relied on as geographic directions the way more major highways (state, U.S. Route, or Interstate) are. In Iowa, county roads are marked with a single letter and a one- or two-digit number, such as B-26.
New Jersey[]
Main article: County routes in New Jersey
In New Jersey, there are two sets of county routes, the 500-series (500–599) part of a statewide system which usually run through multiple counties, but are county-maintained, and the non-500 routes which are usually contained within a single county and are repeated between different counties. The latter generally use numbers in the 600-series (600–699) and some counties have routes in the 700s (700-799) along with one route in the 800s. Two counties, Bergen and Monmouth, along with some routes in Ocean County, have routes outside this range with one- or two-digit numbers along with some numbers in the 100s. In New Jersey, county routes are usually signed just as well as state routes, including mile or half-mileposts, and appearances on freeway exit signage.