Talk:County roads in Ohio

Establishment date

@Imzadi1979: I was on the fence about saying February 17, 1804, was the date county roads in Ohio were formed. My thought was that this article discusses the entire system, numbered or otherwise. (The fact that, say, Hamilton County's roads are numbered is an obscure fact unknown to most people using them.) On the other hand, even though the county roads form one "system" in a legal sense, they aren't coherent enough from county to county for anyone outside the government to consider one system. So maybe the infobox isn't warranted at all. – Minh Nguyễn ^💬 17:34, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

Or perhaps, it's inappropriate to ascribe one establishment date for what is really a collection or aggregate of separate systems? BTW, where did you come up with that date? Imzadi 1979 → 18:17, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

The date came from this ODOT pamphlet. I cited that source at the beginning of "History" but neglected to cite it a second time inside the infobox. – Minh Nguyễn ^💬 03:34, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

Factually Incorrect Information

SR 823 is not in Lucas County. The entire length of SR 823 is in Scioto County. Furthermore, the edit removed regarding Scioto County’s shields was cited in the same way as a good portion of the rest of the article, so I am unsure what something “more concrete” would be. The vast majority of the orange shields bearing the county outline have been replaced with the blue pentagons so this article is outdated in that regard. Gshoemaker2002 (talk) 15:28, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

"More concrete" would be a more reliable source than Google Maps. Maps don't tell you when or why something happened, which are the important details. –Fredddie™ 01:31, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

@Gshoemaker2002 @Fredddie: The Google Street View photo in question depicts an OMUTCD-standard shield along an ODOT-maintained right of way. If anything, this would (very weakly) support the subsequently removed statement that ODOT only posts OMUTCD-standard signs (which is established pretty well in Ohio Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices#Legal authority), but it would not support the claim that the Scioto County Engineer's Office has begun replacing any of their orange shields with the standard ones. The increasing prevalence of the blue pentagons is due to State Route 823 requiring exit destination signs on state-maintained property. For an example of a reliable source, see this edit describing Holmes County's recent introduction of a nonstandard shield. Minh Nguyễn ^💬 03:16, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

IMHO, altering the sentence regarding Belmont County's replacement of signs might then be warranted given that its only citation is also a Street View image. Perhaps altering the phrasing regarding Belmont & Scioto Counties to indicate simply the presence of the blue pentagons rather than discussing which organization or entity is erecting them would be better? I feel that information regarding which designs are actually used in practice to represent county roads would be relevant to the article. The most closely related article I have been able to find is this news article, though it does not specifically mention CR shields, but rather only safety signage. Information specifically regarding CR shields other than maps & Street View in Scioto County does not seem to be very readily available online as far as I can tell. Gshoemaker2002 (talk) 04:46, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

@Gshoemaker2002: Yes, that line about Belmont County doesn't seem particularly rigorous either. It kind of makes the point by linking to a before and after of the same sign in Street View, but that doesn't prove anything about a trend or intentional change. I've removed that bit. I agree that there should be some caveat that the standard OMUTCD shields can appear in these same counties (due to ODOT posting them), but it'd be difficult to find a source stating that ODOT follows its own state regulations in this specific case. Minh Nguyễn ^💬 05:25, 3 March 2023 (UTC)