US Rt 202

[eschereal]

Even numbered highways are anchored at eastern and western endpoints. The compass designation is not the literal direction you are going but whether you are headed toward the eastern or western terminus. Odd numbered highways have northern and southern endpoints, and the same holds true for indicated direction of travel.

Maine is clearly both north and east of Delaware, by maybe about the same distance, so it would have been a tossup whether to give the route an even or odd number, but since US 1 already covered the main N/S route, calling it 202 must have made as much sense as anything.

[Lord_Feldon]

@eschereal

Even numbered highways are anchored at eastern and western endpoints.

That’s a (rough) rule for 1 and 2 digit US routes, but not 3-digit routes. 202 just means it’s (probably) a spur of Route 2. It might go broadly the same direction or it might shoot off at a right angle.

[RadicalPi]

@eschereal

Even numbered highways are anchored at eastern and western endpoints. The compass designation is not the literal direction you are going but whether you are headed toward the eastern or western terminus.

This is a good rule of thumb,* but there are a number of exceptions on the ground, of which the most notable is probably I-69 in Michigan, which switches between north-south and east-west somewhere around Lansing.

• and I think you expressed it really well

[boffking]

@Lord_Feldon

That’s a (rough) rule for 1 and 2 digit US routes, but not 3-digit routes. 202 just means it’s (probably) a spur of Route 2. It might go broadly the same direction or it might shoot off at a right angle.

It is a spur of Route 2. They branch off from each other in Bangor, Maine.