When Your Travel Direction Differs from Route Direction

[AlexandriaVA]

For example, you are on Route 123 Northbound, but the actual direction of your vehicle is southbound. Not counting roundabouts/loops/helixes/etc

I-395 has this phenomenon between Washington Boulevard (VA-27) and Jefferson Davis Highway (US-1)....people on 395 northbound briefly go east-southeast, and people on 395 southbound briefly swing east-northwest.

[hotdogPi]

It's not that rare.

US 101's northern end
MA 127's northern end
MA 28's southern end
US 1 in Maine, many times
I-93 near I-91 in Vermont (also happens once in New Hampshire)
MA 145
Happens twice on RI 102
US 3 when overlapped with I-95
MA 27 in Sharon, MA
MA 97 in eastern Haverhill, MA
I-89 in Lebanon, NH and two places in Vermont
I-95 slightly "south" of Bangor Maine

[steviep24]

NY 96 is signed North/South but has a long section in Ontario County that's mainly East/West.

[jeffandnicole]

Other examples:

I-95 near PHL
I-95 thru Baltimore
I-295 numerous times between Wilmington and Trenton

[epzik8]

To add to jeffandnicole's post, I-95 is without a doubt an east-west highway most of the way between Baltimore and Wilmington, Delaware.

There's also I-83 in the vicinity of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; specifically, between the York Split and the Eisenhower Interchange.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I-25 'North' of Santa Fe.
Westbound US 60 just after overlapping itself in Newport News VA.

[sparker]

Besides the Washington "upside-down-U" section on the Olympic Peninsula, US 101 is, obviously, E-W from North Hollywood to Gaviota, a distance of some 105 miles.   Prior to 1964, US 99 did a virtual mirror-image of this east of downtown L.A. out to Indio (about 120 miles), coincident with US 70 and sometimes US 60  -- one of the more egregious & awkward routings that prompted the '64 renumbering effort.

[formulanone]

US 321 in Tennessee.

[GenExpwy]

I think it's a more interesting challenge to find the stricter cases where the actual direction is completely the opposite of the sign – where "Route 00 North"  is going 100% due south (or beyond), not just kinda east-south-east-ish.

I've found 4½ examples among 2-digit Interstates, not counting TOTSO cloverleafs and such:

• I-95 Northbound, approaching the George Washington Bridge, is briefly due south (& vice versa) in Fort Lee NJ.
• I-40 in the Great Smoky Mountains of NC goes in the opposite direction in a couple of places.
• I-64 ends up going in the opposite direction where it curves around at its end in Chesapeake VA.
• I-15 northeast of Butte MT, has a tiny opposite-direction section between Basin and Boulder.
• I-84 Eastbound only, east of Pendelton OR, in the section where the carriageways take completely different paths, goes due west within an S-curve. I-84 Westbound does not have a matching curve.

I-89 at Royalton VT and I-25 just outside Santa Fe NM (Arroyo Hondo Rd bridge) come close, but don't quite meet this stricter definition.

[Inyomono395]

US 6 in california is marked as East-West but in reality it's North-South

[StogieGuy7]

I-94 through Illinois is marked east-west, but is actually north-south with very little east-west component.  Taking I-94 "west" to Milwaukee, a city that is NNE of where I am, is an interesting stretch. Even if I understand why it's marked that way, it can be challenging to explain it to a newcomer to the area.

Also, I-95 through Connecticut is almost entirely east-west, despite being marked north-south. 

[Bickendan]

BC 97 along the BC/YT border.

[TEG24601]

US 101's northern end

This one is a bit different, as WSDOT actually re-signs 101 when it turns E/W into E/W, then when it turns back N/S they re-sign it N/S.  So the Northern Terminus of US 101 is signed "South".


WA SR-20 is backwards across the Ebey Prairie National Preserve, and North of NAS Whidbey Island.

[jwolfer]

I-94 through Illinois is marked east-west, but is actually north-south with very little east-west component.  Taking I-94 "west" to Milwaukee, a city that is NNE of where I am, is an interesting stretch. Even if I understand why it's marked that way, it can be challenging to explain it to a newcomer to the area.

Also, I-95 through Connecticut is almost entirely east-west, despite being marked north-south.

Like i4 through Orlando area.. It NS from downtown through Seminole County


LGMS428

[hbelkins]

Just about any road that climbs a mountain via switchbacks, or follows the twists and turns of a stream.

[fillup420]

US 421 from Greensboro, NC to west of Boone, NC is signed north-south but runs due east-west for about 120 miles.


iPhone

[Eth]

US 278 performs a full 360 over the course of a half-mile around the East Lake MARTA station on the Atlanta/Decatur border, all on surface streets.

[20160805]

Since the Peshtigo, WI, bypass was completed circa 2008, there has been a brief section where northbound US 41 actually goes southeast, and southbound goes northwest.

Northbound US 151 in Madison also has a brief SE curve as it goes through town.

[Thunderbyrd316]

   The one that annoys me most, even more than I-82 (which at least is nearly as much east-west as it is north-south) is SR 16. SR 16 is CLEARLY a north-south route between Tacoma and Gorst yet it has an even number and is posted east-west.

   In my opinion this should not only be an odd numbered route posted as north-south but really the whole freeway corridor from Tacoma to Poulsbo should have a single number. One possible solution would be to swap the number 16 with the southern part of the 3 between Gorst and Shelton. Another possibility would be to create a new single north-south number for a route that included the 16, the freeway portion (and north to the 104) of the 3 and the 104 to the 101.

   Another possibility, with some VERY expensive upgrades, would be to make the freeway portion of the route Interstate 505. Just my 2 cents.

[coatimundi]

The western portion of US 54 is mostly a north-south road. Until fairly recently, it was signed north/south in El Paso. Several remnants of this still exist: https://www.google.com/maps/@31.8511454,-106.4404222,3a,75y,50.02h,85.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sT8nFBHiLyWpu8-AERDQnzQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Then, in the Bay Area, there's the famous I-238, which is signed north/south but only runs east/west.

[roadman]

I-93 between Canton (MA) and Braintree (MA).  The route is signed as north/south, while the physical roadway is east/west.

[jwolfer]

Florida SR105 northeast of downtown Jacksonville known as Zoo Parkway and Heckscher Dr.. Is signed as NS but is really EW in the part that is signed..there are parts along the river wher its signed North when you are going SE because of the river. That has bothered me for years

105 officially multiplexes with A1A into Fernandina Beach and is NS from St Johns River ferry but it is not signed.  Florida generally has even EW and odd NS but they do signed 109 as EW where it is EW in Jacksonville and SR421 in Port Orange is signed EW..

SR 105 should be changed.

LGMS428

[Rothman]

US 278 performs a full 360 over the course of a half-mile around the East Lake MARTA station on the Atlanta/Decatur border, all on surface streets.

Heh.  Might as well include the pigtail bridges in the Black Hills, then, or the I-495 helix leading into the Lincoln Tunnel.

[bzakharin]

I-76 through Philly is North-South instead of West-East and has multiple places where it's NE-SW

[roadman]

MA 111 is a north/south route, but runs east/west between Acton and Harvard.  In the MassDPW days, District 3 actually signed the Acton to Harvard section as east/west.