Youthful Misconceptions

[J N Winkler]

Another example:  "EXIT ONLY" on a lane-drop sign means "Impossible to re-enter the freeway in this direction at this interchange" and not "This lane is dropped at the next exit."

[D-Dey65]

I used to think any road that ended in the name "Parkway" never allowed trucks and buses.

I also used to think many of the roads that should've been built were going to be built.

[Brian556]

I used to wonder why Arkansas needed 2 posts for their signs when Louisiana only used one.

Do you know why Arkansas used to use the diagnoal post as a brace on all their signs? Please don't say "Its to keep the wind from blowin' 'em down"; No other state uses them, jsut curious if anybody knows why Arkansas thought it was nessessary?

[Zmapper]

Greater stability for the signs other duty as a shooting target? 

[kphoger]

I used to wonder why Arkansas needed 2 posts for their signs when Louisiana only used one.

Do you know why Arkansas used to use the diagnoal post as a brace on all their signs? Please don't say "Its to keep the wind from blowin' 'em down"; No other state uses them, jsut curious if anybody knows why Arkansas thought it was nessessary?

Minnesota braces their signs up in what I assume is a similar fashion.

When I was young, I thought cars with one state's license plate in front and another state's in the rear had owners who lived in one state half the year and the other the other.  I also thought that any jog in a street was due to having to correct the grid due to the curvature of the earth.

[corco]

I also thought that any jog in a street was due to having to correct the grid due to the curvature of the earth.

That's awesome.

[The High Plains Traveler]

Do you know why Arkansas used to use the diagnoal post as a brace on all their signs? Please don't say "Its to keep the wind from blowin' 'em down"; No other state uses them, jsut curious if anybody knows why Arkansas thought it was nessessary?

Minnesota braces their signs up in what I assume is a similar fashion.

I noted this year that Nevada does the same on I-80. Though I've driven I-15 I haven't made note of this, but on I-80 their signs are mounted on round signpost with two additional pieces angled to a single central point behind the sign. Even on guide signs; no I-beam posts. Minnesota uses channel post supplemental supports angled straight back on many signs, but not interstate guide signs. I saw one sign on U.S. 169 in the Twin Cities western suburbs after a strong storm with about six of the channel posts bent forward and the rear supports pulled out of the wet ground.

[Alps]

I had thought that the I-80 Local lanes between Exits 43 and 47 were actual mainline I-287 due to the way they were signed from the mainline. I was jealous because I never got to travel on I-287 in NJ as a kid (in NY, all the time though).

Route 3 was the route that went into the Lincoln Tunnel. 495 did not register as a number.

I was used to Garden State Parkway tolls always taking 10 minutes and sometimes longer to get through. Looking back, I don't think it actually took more than 5 minutes on most days, but I have this recollection of getting out of the car because the toll lane was stopped. I'm sure it wasn't actually that way.

AAA maps showed minor freeways as narrower than regular freeways, and with black numbers instead of red. I operated under the assumption these freeways were narrower themselves.

I had a lot of old maps around. So I didn't know NJ 24 and I-287 were completed until many years after the fact. I was also surprised to discover in the 2000s that Florida had built more than a couple of roads since my 1986 map, and the Bee Line no longer existed.

Anything more than about 10 minutes away was far. It was either a full-day shopping trip (3 hours+, certainly) or a vacation.

[ctsignguy]

When i was a kid, i always thought "Shore Points" was the longest town in Connecticut...it was mentioned at almost every exit on the Connecticut Turnpike from Cos Cob (Exit 2) to East Lyme (Exit 75)

[Riverside Frwy]

I thought Interstates had to actually cross state borders and they were the only type of roadway that could be freeways.

I think most of us have done this.

When I was *really* young I thought freeways were race tracks.

For some reason, I thought interstate numbering was completely random, and for reason I never noticed that all the Interstates in the area either had '05' or '10' and were related to I-5 and I-10.

When I was young I used to think ALL state route routes in other states used California's spade shape. I tried imagining a CA state route shield that said "Pennsylvania" when where "California" would be on the shield.

[NE2]

When I was young I used to think ALL state route routes in other states used California's spade shape. I tried imagining a CA state route shield that said "Pennsylvania" when where "California" would be on the shield.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsub1/361232102/

[roadfro]

Do you know why Arkansas used to use the diagnoal post as a brace on all their signs? Please don't say "Its to keep the wind from blowin' 'em down"; No other state uses them, jsut curious if anybody knows why Arkansas thought it was nessessary?

Minnesota braces their signs up in what I assume is a similar fashion.

I noted this year that Nevada does the same on I-80. Though I've driven I-15 I haven't made note of this, but on I-80 their signs are mounted on round signpost with two additional pieces angled to a single central point behind the sign. Even on guide signs; no I-beam posts.

The diagonal bracing is fairly standard NDOT practice for larger post-mounted signs in Nevada. This is most often seen in rural areas for all major freeway guide & service signs, as well as some larger guide signs on non-freeway routes. In urban areas, the diagonal post method is used only for service and supplemental guide signs. I believe the origins of the diagonal bracing were to provide extra support for high winds, especially in rural Nevada where wind gusts can be quite high due to the basin & range nature of the state.

I've seen a couple instances where NDOT has used I-beam posts without diagonal members for ground-mounted signs (although can't recall specific signs/locations at the moment). The ones I remember seeing were in urban locations though, in which the sign was already behind a jersey wall. I wonder if the crash breakaway factor is something NDOT is considering in not installing I-beam post signs more often...

[SteveG1988]

Did anyone else think that their state had a unique sign color until they left their state, i thought at one time (maybe 10 years old) that all road signs in NJ were green, and unique until we went down to DC in the real late 90s, probably 1998 or sometime in 1997. Then again we did take the NJTP which has unique signs.

[empirestate]

I remember thinking that "No U Turn" was a funny phrase. I always sort of thought it meant something like "hey you, don't turn" but with weirder syntax.

[NE2]

When my mom was learning to drive she came across a "signal ahead" sign and asked her sister "which way do I signal?". Luckily she didn't see any "do not pass" signs.

[vdeane]

That reminds me of a story about my aunt learning how to drive.  She put the car into "ride" and was surprised when it moved backwards.

[xonhulu]

I thought every interstate had to have a US Highway to go with it, since both the major interstates in Oregon had them: US 99 was still around then with I-5, and US 30 went with then-I-80N.  Even I-405 had US 26 with it -- I didn't really know 26's exact routing through Portland back then, but it was on all the signs on 405.  I thought this despite living just off US 30 west of Portland 50-some miles west of the end of I-80N!

[txstateends]

One I remember was coming back from the TX coast to go see my sister get married, I was "helping" my mother with getting back home and I noticed on the map that I-45 stopped at US 79 (where we were going to exit) and that there were a few miles of dashed lines north of that.  I must have been smart enough about maps by then (3rd grade) that there was no more pavement if the road wasn't drawn on there after a certain point.  I remember bugging my mother to exit at US 79, I guess cause I thought we were going to fall off the pavement or unfinished bridge or something.  Little did I know that the map we were using wasn't up to date (I don't know how much older our map was) and that we wouldn't suffer any calamity if we hadn't exited onto US 79.

[J N Winkler]

Really, really youthful misconception (spurred by a comic book drawn just as the Interstate program was getting under way):  grading and drainage is unnecessary to build a road.  All you have to do is get a paving machine which drops tar out of a downspout mounted just in front of a roller, and drive that cross-country.

[msubulldog]

I used to think that when signs got old, the highway department would stick a new sign over the old one(at that time, I did not realize that it was actually the "trim" of the button-copy era). 

[hbelkins]

I had a cousin who worked as a maintenance engineer for the old Kentucky Bureau (later Department) of Highways. He used to talk about "resurfacing" a road. I thought he was actually saying "reservice" which I took to mean installing all new signs, guardrails, safety posts (which we used to have a lot of around here), etc.

I used to think that when signs got old, the highway department would stick a new sign over the old one(at that time, I did not realize that it was actually the "trim" of the button-copy era). 

There have been some signs that actually have been refurbished like that in Kentucky and West Virginia.

Really, really youthful misconception (spurred by a comic book drawn just as the Interstate program was getting under way):  grading and drainage is unnecessary to build a road.  All you have to do is get a paving machine which drops tar out of a downspout mounted just in front of a roller, and drive that cross-country.

Some roads around here actually appear to have been built in that manner.

[msubulldog]

I also used to think that Texas was the only state to use button-copy. 

[Eth]

I used to think that only Interstates were allowed to have exit numbers, because the only non-Interstate freeways I saw on a regular basis (the US 19/41 Griffin bypass and GA 141 north of I-285) didn't use them.

When I was growing up in Georgia in the 1990s, the exit numbers here were still sequential.  The only other state I visited regularly was Florida, and they were still sequential then there as well.  Logically, I assumed this was the case everywhere until the first time we entered South Carolina.

I also thought that BGSes everywhere used Series D lettering (not that I knew what it was called) and was surprised when we left the state and the text on the signs looked like someone had turned on the bold option or something.

[J N Winkler]

Some of my own "discoveries" as a new driver from Kansas, before traffic signing manuals and construction plans became widely available on the Internet, and MTR became available for roadgeek discussion:

*  All Interstates have to have exit numbers and mileposts.  (Crosses Colorado River on I-10 going west)  Where are the mileposts?  Why are the exits not numbered?

*  All exit numbers are mileage-based.  You can use the exit number and the mileposts to tell the distance to your exit.  (Crosses into Pennsylvania on I-70)  Claysville isn't just one mile east of West Alexander, is it?  I could have sworn I drove about a dozen miles between the two exits.  And why don't the mileposts agree with the exit numbers?

[D-Dey65]

I've mentioned this before, but I used to think that the original BGS's for Exits 41 N-S on the Long Island Expressway looked like a creepy owl with glasses that stared at anyone along the road, ready to randomly pick any vehicle as it's prey.

I also used to hope against all hope that when the still unfinished Sprain Brook Parkway went past Jackson Avenue, that it might go to the north pole.