Effective "July 1, 2004", the electronic and printed versions of the Rural Functional Class Map Book shall supercede all previous editions.  

This map book depicts the approved revisions to the 1993 National Functional Classification System of rural areas.  Both the national system and the revisions to it have been approved by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

Functional classification has been an important factor in Federal-aid highway programs for many decades.  A roadway functional classification system has been helpful to a variety of government agencies in areas of planning, organizing, jurisdictional responsibility and cost allocation.

Functional classification is the process by which streets and highways are grouped into classes according to the character of service they are intended to provide.  Cities, towns, businesses, farms, homes, schools, recreation areas and other places generate or attract trips.  These trips involves movement of vehicles through a network of roads.  It becomes necessary to determine how travel movement can be channelized within a limited road network in a logical and efficient manner.  Functional classification defines the nature of this channelization process by defining the role that any particular road or street should play in serving the flow of trips through a road network.  The heavy travel movements are directly served by major channels, and the lesser trips are channeled into somewhat indirect paths.

The Functional Classification System is divided into rural and urban areas.  The characteristics of these two areas are different in the types of land use, street and highway networks and the nature of travel patterns.  The classification data for rural area roadways is known as The County Collector System.  For a more detail description of the urban functional classification system, see the State's Urban Area Functional Classification map book.

Rural roads consist of those facilities that are outside of small urban and urbanized areas.  They are classified into the following four major systems: