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Unpopular Anything Road-Related Opinions

Started by Ned Weasel, March 26, 2021, 01:01:03 PM

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Quillz

To comment on an earlier discussion: I don't think you need some kind of numbering perfection by any means, but I do think any system starting from scratch should attempt some kind of meaningful order. Even if ends up being chaotic later on. I've never liked completely random setups from the start (i.e. where numbers are just assigned in the order they're built or thought of). I always prefer when attempts were made (like 1934 California), even if later on things don't have order.

I think a lot of it has to do with human nature. We generally want to find order in things. It's scary to think the universe is chaotic and disorderly. This is one of the reasons why it was once believed Earth was the center of the universe, and everything revolved around it. It was an attempt to bring order to chaos. I think humans like that.


kurumi

^ same. I don't mind exceptions -- they add interest to what otherwise might be a rigid system -- but having that system is useful.

Sequential exit numbers have generally less benefit to motorists than mile-based numbers; but in the sequential era, "missing" or "extra" numbers would be a hint to abandoned or changed plans and other history.

Same for a geographic or other ordering of route numbers. I found a 1931 planning map of CT routes (just before the big renumber) with some handwritten numbers erased. Based on the system, I was reasonably confident of CT 23 as a working number in Stamford (and possibly CT 21 in Greenwich). If the numbers were haphazardly assigned, and there was no such thing as a "missing" route, I'd have no idea.
My first SF/horror short story collection is available: "Young Man, Open Your Winter Eye"

CtrlAltDel

Quote from: kphoger on February 01, 2024, 05:35:45 PM
Quote from: SEWIGuy on February 01, 2024, 05:22:25 PM
So we move all of BC back a year?

Or move all AD forward a year.  I don't care either way.  Might make research even more difficult, though...

Another idea would be to use the Holocene calendar, which adds 10,000 to the current year. Essentially every human event that can be pinned down to a precise date has taken place in a positive year in this system.
Interstates clinched: 4, 57, 275 (IN-KY-OH), 465 (IN), 640 (TN), 985
State Interstates clinched: I-26 (TN), I-75 (GA), I-75 (KY), I-75 (TN), I-81 (WV), I-95 (NH)

CtrlAltDel

Quote from: kphoger on February 01, 2024, 11:48:08 AM
Years . . . hmm, yeah, that would be bad to have out of order.  Also, there really needs to be a year zero.

I don't know. The current system without 0 has been in more or less common use for more than a thousand years, so if there's a need, it's a weak one.

Quote from: kphoger on February 01, 2024, 11:48:08 AM
Days of the month . . . oh my, that would be awful!

As you may know, since you mentioned Rome stuff earlier, the traditional Roman system of labeling dates with respect to the upcoming calends, nodes, and ides lasted a while, so depending on what we do here, it could be workable. (Incidentally, this system places the leap day on what we would call February 24.)

Quote from: kphoger on February 01, 2024, 11:48:08 AM
Building stories . . . actually, it might be fun to designate them with some other system.  105 W Indiana Ave, Giraffe Fl., Apt. 6 or something.

In Chicago and perhaps elsewhere, there is a number of buildings with vanity floor numbers, that is floor numbers higher than a count would indicate. Mostly it happens by creating a gap in the numbers at the top of the highest parking floor and the lowest occupied floor.
Interstates clinched: 4, 57, 275 (IN-KY-OH), 465 (IN), 640 (TN), 985
State Interstates clinched: I-26 (TN), I-75 (GA), I-75 (KY), I-75 (TN), I-81 (WV), I-95 (NH)

pderocco

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on February 03, 2024, 02:54:43 PM
Another idea would be to use the Holocene calendar, which adds 10,000 to the current year. Essentially every human event that can be pinned down to a precise date has taken place in a positive year in this system.
That's pretty close to the idea of using ten's complement numbering. We could keep AD the same, and count down before that as 2, 1, 0, 9999, 9998, 9997, etc., like a 4-digit odometer. Then, everything is a positive number, and all arithmetic would be modulo 10000.



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