Your Personal Ranking of Control Cities in Your Region

[PNWRoadgeek]

I decided to rank every state based on Control City signage in this thread. I'm ranking California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Montana, and Utah. Basically the West.

In the West, I would say:

1.Arizona

The fact that they sign LA on I-40 is awesome. And besides that they basically do everything right, besides I-10 having no control city through Phoenix, but even then that makes sense because there are faster ways to get to Tucson. There though I would sign Downtown Phoenix. I-15, I-17, and I-19 are all done well too, so Arizona definitely takes the top spot.

2.Utah

Utah kind of snuck up on me, it's almost as good as Arizona, but I think they make a couple mistakes. First off, the fact that Snowville, a very small town, is signed on the second line on mileage signs on I-84. Another issue I have with Utah is that I-215 does not get control cities on some of its junctions. But besides that, Utah does pretty much everything right.

3.Montana

Montana could swap with Utah at any given point. But I think they have a couple mistakes that are more major than Utah's mistakes. I don't think Sheridan should be signed out of Billings on I-90 for example, should probably be Gillette or Casper. Take it up with Wyoming though. I don't think they do anything wrong besides that, but that is a fairly major mistake considering Montana doesn't have to go along with Wyoming.

4.Washington

Here's where things start to get a little ugly. I think they do good on I-5, and for the most part, they do well on I-90. But there's a lot of weird stuff on I-82. The fact that sometimes they do the Illinois thing, such as signing Prosser or Sunnyside at random interchanges and not one of the Tri-Cities never made sense to me. Also, Ellensburg over Seattle/Spokane out of Yakima is just abysmal. It's because it's where I-82 ends.

I-82 also annoys me because they sign Richland and not Kennewick  Like I kinda get it because Richland is the closest one to I-82, but I would prefer Kennewick or Richland/Kennewick, maybe Pasco/Kennewick. Pendleton I think coming out of the Tri-Cities is fine, especially considering long-distance traffic would've taken US 97 to get to Portland. I'll talk more about Pendleton and why I think it's a good control city in the Oregon section though.

5.Idaho

Sometimes Idaho does great with signage(Like signing Winnemucca on US 95, which is 2 states away), and other times, it is straight-up trash. The worst thing they do is the frequent signage of suburbs in the Boise area along I-84. And the fact that they sign Ontario once out of the Boise metro area. Ugh.

But they can do perfectly well sometimes. Ogden coming out of Twin Falls, I think that is the way to go considering it represents the Salt Lake area well enough, and I-84 actually goes there. West for Twin Falls on I-86 isn't that great though, also, the fact that they love signing Chubbuck on I-15 as a secondary, when I think Pocatello/Salt Lake should be used out of Idaho Falls.

Finally, I-84 East for Mountain Home/Twin Falls I don't think is too bad if Idaho wants to go with something Idaho-related. Though I would strongly prefer Twin Falls/Salt Lake, and then switch to Ogden out of Twin Falls. Also, like I said with I-86, I think it should be Boise westbound out of the border, and not Twin Falls.

6.Oregon

Oregon really only has 2 major Interstates, so not anything major to talk about here. Pendleton I think is a good control city on Eastbound I-84 because of the junction with US 395, as well as having some tourist appeal. It's also the largest city on I-84 in Oregon that isn't in the Portland area.

Besides that, everything is pretty meh. US 26 west for Seaside in the Portland area I think is bad because Cannon Beach and Astoria are larger tourist draws. And I-84 east Ontario coming out of Pendleton is just Oregon wanting to sign an Oregon thing. Same with Ashland out of Medford, though Ashland is a major tourist draw. Besides those couple issues, I think Oregon does ok.

7.California

If you've seen my recent posts in the "Control Cities that do not Reciprocate" thread, then you probably realized that I'm NOT a fan of California's signage. Blythe, Needles, Barstow, Santa Ana, Indio, etc. Also they never sign LA in the best times when they should, I do not know why.

Northern California does things pretty well, especially on I-80 where they make pretty much no mistakes whatsoever. But SoCal just makes California throw in the towel. They have so many missed opportunities! Indio and Blythe over Phoenix! Santa Ana over San Diego!

Anyways, that was my ranking. Don't really know how to end this post lol.

[Max Rockatansky]

I have control cities on about the same level of interest as Fictional Pokemon highways.

[webny99]

I thought this was going to be a ranking of the control cities themselves, not the states posting them. If that was the case this would be a good catch-all for the endless control city debates in other threads.

[PNWRoadgeek]

I have control cities on about the same level of interest as Fictional Pokemon highways.

lol

Well maybe it's time to switch highway interests on my side then.

[Max Rockatansky]

I have control cities on about the same level of interest as Fictional Pokemon highways.

lol

Well maybe it's time to switch highway interests on my side then.

It seems that the long dead horse that is "Control Cities" topic has been beaten into bloody paste by the road fandom.    We are at such a point where nobody has anything unique to add or offer an opinion that hasn't been seen dozens of times. 

[PNWRoadgeek]

I have control cities on about the same level of interest as Fictional Pokemon highways.

lol

Well maybe it's time to switch highway interests on my side then.

It seems that the long dead horse that is "Control Cities" topic has been beaten into bloody paste by the road fandom.    We are at such a point where nobody has anything unique to add or offer an opinion that hasn't been seen dozens of times. 

Oh well. I'll let the thread stay, people can do what they want with it.