In many jurisdictions in the United States, roads run along every

section line In U.S. land surveying under the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), a section is an area nominally , containing , with 36 sections making up one survey township on a rectangular grid. The legal description of a tract of land under the PLSS incl ...

, giving access to previously remote areas and serving in many instances as

firebreak A firebreak or double track (also called a fire line, fuel break, fireroad and firetrail in Australia) is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebre ...

s. A road or arterial in which the

centerline Center line, centre line or centerline may refer to: Sports * Center line, marked in red on an ice hockey rink * Centre line (football), a set of positions on an Australian rules football field * Centerline, a line that separates the service cour ...

is laid out along a section line boundary is often referred to as a section line road or section line arterial. In

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the nort ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, an ...

;

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ...

; metropolitan areas of

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

(most notably Phoenix and

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

); and much of the

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Statistical Area i ...

, all major thoroughfares run along section lines, producing a readily identifiable grid. Watts, R.D., R.W. Compton, J.H. McCammon, C.L. Rich, and S.M. Wright. "Distance to the nearest road in the conterminous United States". "1-mile section line road grid

In some locales, section lines were designated as the basis for the street numbering system. For example, in the state of

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, S ...

the

Burkle addressing system The Burkle addressing system is a system of assigning road names and addresses over a large, rural geographical area. It is used in the state of North Dakota for rural addresses to be used for the 911 system as well as mail delivery to rural prop ...

is used to name the section line roads and other rural roads across the state for consistency in emergency services. The state of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

uses a similar system, but it numbers starting from the northwest corner of the state, rather than from the geographical center as in the Burkle system.

References

{{reflist Roads in the United States Geography of the United States

See also

References