Signs in Odd Areas Mainly Because of Driver Confusion

[ethanhopkin14]

I was thinking about California and their state wide single pool of numbers for all routes, so basically California treats all highways as state routes, so no number is repeated (except I-15 and SR-15, I-110 and SR-110 and I-210 and SR-210 to name a few, but all those are extensions of the same route).   I don't like California's practice.  I don't like making all highways have the same weight.  I do, however, like how its is a little less confusing to the driver.  Then I started to think of other states that have a pool of numbers per classification of highway so they could have an interstate and state highway with the same number but are unrelated.  It made me think how those instances are handled.  Sometimes there are unrelated routes that are within an hour's drive that lead to some confusion.  I personally don't understand how Interstate X is confused with State Highway X, but apparently it happens.  All this to get to this.  Apparently enough people have exited Interstate 12 here trying to get to Interstate 59, so much that a special trailblazer was added to inform people you have to keep driving to get to I-59.  I was wondering how many other instances of like named roads or like named locations that had signs near their intersection or exit directing traffic to the other thing that has a like name that is in another location.  I have seen a number of those, but I can't remember specific locations of these signs. 

These signs can sometime come off as random because they are informing traffic of an exit that's 37 miles away, but it's because that location and the location close to that exit have a very similar name.  I have been there, noticing a sign about exit 27 when I am at exit 59 and I think, why so random.  Then I realize it's because there is some confusion in the names/route numbers and I start looking around.  I know there is one on SH-130 southbound about the Circuit of the America's exit randomly when the exit is like 15 or so miles away, and I can't remember what is nearby that gets people confused on the two things. 

[wanderer2575]

Westbound I-70 west of Hagerstown, MD (posted previously):


I-75 in Oakland County, MI (posted previously):

[citrus]

I've always enjoyed this surface-street sign in Walnut Creek, CA https://goo.gl/maps/cH1yvjDJ5m5ZsiaC6

[SkyPesos]

I remember seeing a sign posted in another thread that's near the SB US 75 and FM 121 exit telling DFW airport bound drivers looking for TX 121 to stay on US 75.

[pianocello]

I have to imagine driver confusion is the reason this sign exists.

"Gee, it seems like we've been driving through corn fields for a long time, are you sure we haven't passed the exit for Cedar Rapids?"

[thspfc]

I have to imagine driver confusion is the reason this sign exists.

"Gee, it seems like we've been driving through corn fields for a long time, are you sure we haven't passed the exit for Cedar Rapids?"

Not as bad as the Genoa Rd exit in Belvidere IL being signed 22 miles away: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.1183826,-88.4243482,3a,19.6y,299.93h,98.21t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sNMU8CvC6ETBiEg2VvbKgzA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DNMU8CvC6ETBiEg2VvbKgzA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D151.68112%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

And Genoa Rd isn't a major exit by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I'd say it's the second least important exit on I-90 in Illinois, after nearby Irene Rd.

[skluth]

I was thinking about California and their state wide single pool of numbers for all routes, so basically California treats all highways as state routes, so no number is repeated (except I-15 and SR-15, I-110 and SR-110 and I-210 and SR-210 to name a few, but all those are extensions of the same route).   I don't like California's practice.  I don't like making all highways have the same weight. 

While you go on to another discussion, it's a pretty big leap of logic to say that just because California doesn't repeat numbers that all CA highway numbers have the same weight. It's like saying an Interstate highway and Farm Road in Texas have the same weight because they both have numbers; I prefer California's practice of counties using a letter-number combo for their local roads. I also appreciate that California, unlike Texas, manages to keep all their highway route numbers three digits or less because IMO Texas has some sort of OCD when it comes to numbering roads. Different strokes for different folks.

[kurumi]

On UT 143, where you'll be if you miss the 90-degree turn in Panguitch, Utah:

[SeriesE]

The reason is colloquialism eliminating the distinguishing classification from speech. They all say highway ## or just the number.

Remember the George Carlin quote: " Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

[Mapmikey]

There are also these previously cited elsewhere...

https://goo.gl/maps/vGDFbeK1qhqUWQMQ7 - NY 17 is 132 miles from here...

https://goo.gl/maps/sUdiViNXsqcfDHf67 - I-40 is 76 miles from here...

[hotdogPi]

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.7136167,-71.2107697,3a,75y,25.12h,89.89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssMOdeCOaPV3M15kPocr4tQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

"TRAVEL PROHIBITED IN BREAKDOWN LANE". It's allowed south of here (behind, since this is northbound) from 3-7 PM on weekdays, and it used to be allowed here until they reconfigured old exit 46/new exit 43.

[ethanhopkin14]

Alas, here it is!  So the exit for Circuit of the Americas is 16 miles south of this point on SH-130.  The next exit after this picture is Exit 432.  There is very little logic why this random sign is here for an exit 16 miles away, but my best guess is A) this is right after the merge from eastbound SH-45, so maybe motorists coming for SH-45 want to know when to exit? and B) the next exit is accessible to Austin Executive Airport, which may get confused with Austin Bergstrom International Airport?  Circuit of the Americas is a few exists south of the Austin Bergstrom International Airport exit so maybe people are exiting there thinking Circuit of the Americas is nearby?  That's kind of a stretch, I know, but I wouldn't put it past people getting the airports confused, despite the fact one is an international airport and the other is a single landing strip in a cornfield. 

[TEG24601]

I've always enjoyed this surface-street sign in Walnut Creek, CA https://goo.gl/maps/cH1yvjDJ5m5ZsiaC6

I was quite thankful when our county dispatch centers were combined into one agency.  They require that no two streets could have the same name, regardless of designation, except for grid streets, and those that were on opposite ends of the island or on another island.  So a number of roads were re-named, and entire city re-thought their numbering scheme (formerly with block streets in multiples of 100), our 5, entirely different, but nearby Bayview/Bay View Road/Street/Avenue/Place got renamed, and one road, which changed names 6 times over its route, repeating the names a few times, was finally just consolidated into a single name.


Unfortunately, we still have roads that change names, simply because they change their primary direction, but that is another thing to grapple with.

[Dirt Roads]

https://goo.gl/maps/sUdiViNXsqcfDHf67 - I-40 is 76 miles from here...

That's wild: I-40 never even enters Virginia yet somehow there was enough confusion to be concerned about folks getting off onto VA-40 and heading into the wild woods of Ferrum.  Something tells me that it would have been best to leave them there (said with a strong thick Appalachian twang).

[ethanhopkin14]

https://goo.gl/maps/sUdiViNXsqcfDHf67 - I-40 is 76 miles from here...

That's wild: I-40 never even enters Virginia yet somehow there was enough confusion to be concerned about folks getting off onto VA-40 and heading into the wild woods of Ferrum.  Something tells me that it would have been best to leave them there (said with a strong thick Appalachian twang).

So Interstate 40 travels through 8 states but has shields in 9?

[Mapmikey]

https://goo.gl/maps/sUdiViNXsqcfDHf67 - I-40 is 76 miles from here...

That's wild: I-40 never even enters Virginia yet somehow there was enough confusion to be concerned about folks getting off onto VA-40 and heading into the wild woods of Ferrum.  Something tells me that it would have been best to leave them there (said with a strong thick Appalachian twang).

So Interstate 40 travels through 8 states but has shields in 9?

There is also at least one I-40 shield in Mississippi - https://goo.gl/maps/p331ZvbUa4JK6H6o7

[vdeane]

https://goo.gl/maps/vGDFbeK1qhqUWQMQ7 - NY 17 is 132 miles from here...

I see a sign saying you're 17 miles from New York Route (what an interesting name for a town...)

[Scott5114]

https://goo.gl/maps/sUdiViNXsqcfDHf67 - I-40 is 76 miles from here...

That's wild: I-40 never even enters Virginia yet somehow there was enough confusion to be concerned about folks getting off onto VA-40 and heading into the wild woods of Ferrum.  Something tells me that it would have been best to leave them there (said with a strong thick Appalachian twang).

That would have been awesome if it was an NC state-name shield.

[SkyPesos]

Some "To I-64 continue straight" signs on southbound IN state routes at where they intersect IN 64:

- https://goo.gl/maps/h4Jx4ii9BcQAP3YH6
- https://goo.gl/maps/kRPbQcW7K75uNV6a6
- https://goo.gl/maps/jLrN1VF781fWEGFS7
- https://goo.gl/maps/tXH5BoZzAEWQDnkb6

[hbelkins]

Don't forget that there are no southbound exit signs along I-79 anywhere between Morgantown and Sutton, WV, for US 19, to eliminate anyone who's looking for Corridor L (Summersville/Beckley) getting off on one of the other exits.

[ethanhopkin14]

https://goo.gl/maps/sUdiViNXsqcfDHf67 - I-40 is 76 miles from here...

That's wild: I-40 never even enters Virginia yet somehow there was enough confusion to be concerned about folks getting off onto VA-40 and heading into the wild woods of Ferrum.  Something tells me that it would have been best to leave them there (said with a strong thick Appalachian twang).

So Interstate 40 travels through 8 states but has shields in 9?

There is also at least one I-40 shield in Mississippi - https://goo.gl/maps/p331ZvbUa4JK6H6o7

Mississippi also has this gem!

[thenetwork]

In Akron, on I-77 just south of I-76, there is an overhead BGS which listed and differentiated the exits for Akron Municipal Airport and the Akron-Canton Airport.

I also seem to remember the same process was applied on I-94 in Detroit in at least 2 spots differentiating the Interstate exits for Detroit City Airport and Detroit Metro Airport ‐‐ in the days when there were scheduled passenger flghts out if the former east side airport.

[lepidopteran]

Surface road in Toledo, OH, opposite to a diamond half-interchange with I-475.

Note that unusual One Way sign in the background.

[jay8g]

I was confused for a long time as to why WSDOT felt the need to tell people how to get to SeaTac Airport on the CD lanes leaving downtown, nowhere near any obvious decision point. I eventually figured out that it's probably because they were worried about people getting confused by Airport Way, which leads to Boeing Field instead! That being said, with how heavy traffic is most of the time, by the time you get to that sign, you're pretty much committed to taking the Airport Way exit, and it's not particularly easy (at least for someone who's already confused about where they're going) to get back on I-5 from there.

[CardInLex]

Surface road in Toledo, OH, opposite to a diamond half-interchange with I-475.

Note that unusual One Way sign in the background.

I am more confused by the sealed up nice looking pedestrian bridge with no pedestrian access.