Roadgeek Neologisms

[texaskdog]

How about when you have a freeway exit, but shortly later another exit that serves the same road?  I call them idiot ramps.  (such at 38 1/2 on south I-35 and Spicewood off South Mopac in Austin). 

[mukade]

Australian terms
Coverplate (greenout plates)
Focal Point (control cities)
Trailblazer (shield assembly)

One of my favorites in Oz was a same word-different spelling one: a curb in the US is a kerb there and probably in most of the rest of the English-speaking world. Also, in both Oz and New Zealand, their yield signs say "Give way".

[national highway 1]

Yep, that's what we do here.

[US71]

Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.

[NE2]

Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.

That's not a roadgeek neologism. It's an ignorant driver neologism.

[empirestate]

Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.

You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?

[NE2]

Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.

You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?

That's not correct usage either. A true suicide lane has the same markings on each side, and gives neither direction right-of-way. Here's an example in the UK: http://www.rural-roads.co.uk/shap/shap1.shtml

[US71]

Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.

You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?

That almost sounds like MoDOT's "Shared 4 Lane"

[SSOWorld]

How about when you have a freeway exit, but shortly later another exit that serves the same road?  I call them idiot ramps.  (such at 38 1/2 on south I-35 and Spicewood off South Mopac in Austin). 

The Twin Cities have plenty of those.

"Sign Salad" - a term I haven't originated, but refers to a cluster of signs (mainly highway markers indicating directions at an intersections).  Missouri seems to have a few of them.  Wisconsin is more apt to have a "poster sign salad" in that their multiple highway directional indications are all painted onto a single sign board.

[Kacie Jane]

New York is absolutely notorious for sign salad, although for salads, they're typically easy to read. This GSV image is a bit blurry, but you can see there are 8! shields on this assembly.

[kurumi]

I believe "Sine Salad" originated from C. C. Slater aka Comrade Yamamoto. I've used the term for a few photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/therealkurumi/5232317292/ (US 43/412/31)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/therealkurumi/5231964247/ (kentucky 3-layer)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/therealkurumi/5231964453/ (kentucky 5-layer)

[agentsteel53]

"Sine Salad"

why has this idiotic "miller lite" spelling been allowed to propagate?

[empirestate]

Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.

You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?

That's not correct usage either. A true suicide lane has the same markings on each side, and gives neither direction right-of-way. Here's an example in the UK: http://www.rural-roads.co.uk/shap/shap1.shtml

Didn't realize "suicide lane" was an official-enough term to have a "correct" usage!

[US71]

"Sine Salad"

why has this idiotic "miller lite" spelling been allowed to propagate?

If memory serves correct, "Comrade" Otto Yamamoto was the first to use that phrase. Or one of the earlier adopters of it.

[NE2]

Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.

You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?

That's not correct usage either. A true suicide lane has the same markings on each side, and gives neither direction right-of-way. Here's an example in the UK: http://www.rural-roads.co.uk/shap/shap1.shtml

Didn't realize "suicide lane" was an official-enough term to have a "correct" usage!

http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/suicide_lane/ has some citations showing early use for passing and later use for turning (probably once most passing examples had been restriped).

[empirestate]

Didn't realize "suicide lane" was an official-enough term to have a "correct" usage!

http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/suicide_lane/ has some citations showing early use for passing and later use for turning (probably once most passing examples had been restriped).

Given the evolution of the concept, I'd say the term is appropriate for all of the above definitions. However, the most recent usage, that of the two-way left turn lane, probably owes more to lineage than to actual descriptiveness; it's fairly unlikely that two opposing vehicles, each about to either stop or exit the roadway, pose much theoretical threat to each other. Of course there is great potential for misuse of these lanes, so the term isn't yet archaic.

[empirestate]

"Sine Salad"

why has this idiotic "miller lite" spelling been allowed to propagate?

New-timer, are ya? That all goes back to the golden years of m.t.r. and roadgeek websites. It was popularized if not coined by C. C. Slater.

[agentsteel53]

New-timer, are ya? That all goes back to the golden years of m.t.r. and roadgeek websites. It was popularized if not coined by C. C. Slater.

MTR has provided idiot spelling and Cal Rogers... I'm not sure I'd call it "golden years".

[Kacie Jane]

I'll see if I can get a picture of a sign around here that reads "OVERNITE PARKING PROHIBITED".  I'm sure Jake will love it.

[The High Plains Traveler]

I'll see if I can get a picture of a sign around here that reads "OVERNITE PARKING PROHIBITED".  I'm sure Jake will love it.

Is that really worse than "THRU TRAFFIC"?

[empirestate]

New-timer, are ya? That all goes back to the golden years of m.t.r. and roadgeek websites. It was popularized if not coined by C. C. Slater.

MTR has provided idiot spelling and Cal Rogers... I'm not sure I'd call it "golden years".

I'm not. I'm calling that time period "golden years", and it may well not be the same time period you consider "golden". But if peculiar spelling (used selectively for expressive purposes, not out of ignorance) irks you, you probably should avoid reading Josh Billings as well.

[Kacie Jane]

I'll see if I can get a picture of a sign around here that reads "OVERNITE PARKING PROHIBITED".  I'm sure Jake will love it.

Is that really worse than "THRU TRAFFIC"?

I was going to argue dictionary... and then realized "thru", "lite", and "nite" are all in Merriam-Webster.  Godfuckingdammit.  But yes, I find thru the least innocuous of the three.

[triplemultiplex]

Two I use personally:

The Miichigan Trumpet:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=43.87841,-84.78016&z=15&t=S
It's a semi-directional wye interchange where the least used left turn motion exits from the right and curves on a tight loop back around to merge from the right again.  It's used in places where a trumpet interchange would probably function well enough, but someone made the effort to not have that 'left exit' that a trumpet does for the loop ramp.  I first observed it in Michigan and they have a couple of 'em so that's what I call it.

The Texas Stack:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=32.73717,-97.47991&z=16&t=S
That's a four-level stack interchange where the right turn motion ramps are tucked underneath the left turning motion ramps.  There's a couple in DFW so that's where I got the name from.

[Duke87]

As a kid I witnessed an oddity in RI 78: it's fully access controlled, but only one lane in each direction. I came up with the term "semi-highway", or "semi-hi" for short, to describe this. Of course, we all know this as a "super 2".

Interestingly, at the time I was unaware that there was any other road like this in existence and indeed thought it was so absurd that it must be unique - at least in the real world. I subsequently filled notebooks with fictitious examples.

[national highway 1]

Another batch of Aussie neologisms.
AD, Advance Directional Sign, used for advance signange at upcoming major intersections

A diagrammatical AD sign used with arrows that show where the lanes go

ID, Intersection Directional Signs, used for signage at the intersection itself
Newer signage incorporates the road name patch into the sign itself.

RD, Reassurance Directional Signs also called distance signs.

Fork signs, used on freeways

Fingerboards, used on many rural highways showing the distance to the nearest towns.

Double-Chevron Signs, a modern variant to the the fingerboard

Kilometre plates, used at 5km intervals on rural highways, with the town's intial at the top. The E stands for Euston. Usually towns with the same first letter have an additional letter to differentiate between the two.