This book discusses the origins and evolution of the U.S. Numbered Highway System. In 1926, a nationwide automobile highway network was created for the United States. For the first time, a set of numbered roads would span the country, ensuring that any driver could find their way beyond their own town or county by following a number. This U.S. Numbered Highway System, of which the former U.S. 66 (the ‘Route 66’ of song and television fame) is the best known, included a geographic logic behind its route numbering system that has become embedded in countless other networks. A hundred years after its creation, this book investigates the geographical origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System, how it evolved within a rapidly changing country, and the ways in which it helped shape the changing geography of the United States.

Joe Weber attended the University of Arizona and Ohio State University, USA, with BA, MA, and PHD degrees in Geography. A professor in the Geography Department at the University of Alabama, he has been studying the American highway system for the last 25 years and has published numerous scholarly papers on various aspects of highways. Many of these examined entire networks and most involved studies of how highway systems have changed over time. His research interests also include the changing geography of America’s national park system. Dr. Weber has taught transport geography, urban geography, and the geography of national parks and has written more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and co-authored or edited 4 books