Number of in-state control cities on major interstates

[michravera]

The first list of California cities by population gave me the top 100 and #100 was around 77000, so it might be closer to 200 (and remember that these are cities' official populations inside the city limits).

The vast majority being bedroom communities in 3 large metro areas.

Chico, Marysviille, Yuba City, Red Bluff, Merced, Madera, and Redding are a bedroom communities for which city now? LA, San Diego, or San Jose?
Tulare and Visalia are bedroom communities for which of those?

We can argue about Santa Clarita, Salinas, Santa Rosa, Palmdale, Lancaster, Escondido, and even Yucca Valley and Stockton, but CASR-99 has a *LOT* of cities that have nothing to do with The Bay Area, LA, or San Diego. And quite a few that have nothing to do with Fresno, Bakersfield, or Sacramento either. They are just there with their own importance. Not terribly important to everyone, but pretty important to the 100000 or so people who live there!

I remember navigating for my father back in 1968 along CASR-99. There was a decent sized town every couple of minutes and what seemed like big ones every 15 or 20.

To be fair, looking at the Wiki list of 100 largest California cities (2015 Census population estimates), we find:

8 cities I would consider to be anchors of major metro areas
(Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Bakersfield, Stockton)

6 cities I would consider to be secondary anchors of major metro areas
(Long Beach, Oakland, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Riverside, San Bernardino)

8 cities I would consider to be anchors of smaller areas
(Modesto, Salinas, Visalia, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Redding, Chico, Indio)

8 cities I would consider to be satellite cities
(Oxnard, Santa Clarita, Santa Rosa, Lancaster, Palmdale, Victorville, Ventura, Hesperia)

The other 70 cities I would consider suburbs or bedroom communities
(42 in Los Angeles/Orange County/Inland Empire; 16 in Bay Area; 7 in San Diego; 3 in Sacramento; 1 in Fresno; 1 in Stockton)

Did you count Madera or Modesto (both over 150 km from Oakland) as part of Stockton or Fresno or the Bay Area? And Marysville, Yuba City (Sacramento?) and Red Bluff (Chico? Redding?) went where? You miss quite a lot flying along I-5. CASR-99 is where the Valley action is. Tulare? San Luis Obispo? (bigger than Santa Maria at least when you add Five Cities) Are you counting Monterey and Salinas and Santa Cruz, and Watsonville as part of the Bay Area? Gilroy?

[Laplace]

The state with the least amount of  in-state control cities I can think of is Utah, with Arizona being a close second.

Utah:
I-15: Salt Lake City and Ogden (Skips both Provo and St. George southbound, opting for Las Vegas. Northbound uses Pocatello)
I-215: Ogden and Provo
I-70: None.... (Uses Denver eastbound)
I-80: Salt Lake City (Uses Reno westbound and Cheyenne eastbound)

I think that Provo should be used on I-15 south if Ogden will be used on I-15 north, at least co-signed with Vegas. St. George was a small town until recently, and it's so close to Vegas I could understand why Utah skips it over, but it's still a noteworthy skip.

Arizona:
I-8: Phoenix/Tucson (I-8 hits neither of them, skips Yuma westbound, opting for San Diego. Skips Casa Grande eastbound)
I-10: Phoenix, Tucson (Westbound uses LA, Eastbound uses El Paso)
I-17: Phoenix, Flagstaff
I-19: Tucson, Nogales
I-40: Flagstaff (Uses LA westbound and Albuquerque eastbound)

Yuma and Casa Grande are much more viable options for control cities on I-8. San Diego is a major city, but Yuma has enough signficance to be listed. Heck, Yuma has a metro population of over 200k at this point. Casa Grande is a decent sized city now and the junction of two interstates (I-8 and I-10) and also should be included.

Now on the other hand, New Mexico has WAY too many control cities for only having 3 population centers:
I-10: Lordsburg, Deming, Las Cruces
I-25: Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Raton
I-40: Gallup, Albuquerque, Santa Rosa, Tucumcari

IMO, the only in-state control cities should be Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Santa Fe. The others don't have enough national (or even state) signficance to be a control city.

[pdx-wanderer]

I love dramatic, far-flung control cities: Like San Antonio on I-10 in El Paso, Tampa on I-75 in Atlanta and Los Angeles on I-40 in Arizona.

Cheers to that. I'm a big proponent of "real cites"  as control cities. Local traffic know the roads anyway, and rinky dink control cities that nobody has ever heard of are useless for through traffic. Totally in favor of concepts like 5 North - Portland in Sacramento or 80 East - Omaha in Cheyenne.

Salt Lake City on I-15 in CA as well.

[Charles2]

Most of the control cities used in Alabama are logical:

10: Pensacola->Mobile->Pascagoula
20: Meridian->Tuscaloosa->Birmingham->Atlanta
22: Memphis->Birmingham (although for some reason Jasper is used on guide signs in the immediate Birmingham area)
59: Meridian->Tuscaloosa->Birmingham->Gadsden->Chattanooga
65: Mobile->Montgomery->Birmingham->Huntsville->Nashville
85: Montgomery->Atlanta

The only one that I might question would on I-59 north from Birmingham.  It uses Gadsden rather than Chattanooga.  On the other hand, Tennessee and Georgia use Nashville and Birmingham on I-24 west leading to the I-59 junction.

Given the rapid growth of Auburn (the city as well as the university), perhaps I-85 from Montgomery should use dual control cities of Auburn and Atlanta.

[DTComposer]

The first list of California cities by population gave me the top 100 and #100 was around 77000, so it might be closer to 200 (and remember that these are cities' official populations inside the city limits).

The vast majority being bedroom communities in 3 large metro areas.

Chico, Marysviille, Yuba City, Red Bluff, Merced, Madera, and Redding are a bedroom communities for which city now? LA, San Diego, or San Jose?
Tulare and Visalia are bedroom communities for which of those?

We can argue about Santa Clarita, Salinas, Santa Rosa, Palmdale, Lancaster, Escondido, and even Yucca Valley and Stockton, but CASR-99 has a *LOT* of cities that have nothing to do with The Bay Area, LA, or San Diego. And quite a few that have nothing to do with Fresno, Bakersfield, or Sacramento either. They are just there with their own importance. Not terribly important to everyone, but pretty important to the 100000 or so people who live there!

I remember navigating for my father back in 1968 along CASR-99. There was a decent sized town every couple of minutes and what seemed like big ones every 15 or 20.

To be fair, looking at the Wiki list of 100 largest California cities (2015 Census population estimates), we find:

8 cities I would consider to be anchors of major metro areas
(Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Bakersfield, Stockton)

6 cities I would consider to be secondary anchors of major metro areas
(Long Beach, Oakland, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Riverside, San Bernardino)

8 cities I would consider to be anchors of smaller areas
(Modesto, Salinas, Visalia, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Redding, Chico, Indio)

8 cities I would consider to be satellite cities
(Oxnard, Santa Clarita, Santa Rosa, Lancaster, Palmdale, Victorville, Ventura, Hesperia)

The other 70 cities I would consider suburbs or bedroom communities
(42 in Los Angeles/Orange County/Inland Empire; 16 in Bay Area; 7 in San Diego; 3 in Sacramento; 1 in Fresno; 1 in Stockton)

Did you count Madera or Modesto (both over 150 km from Oakland) as part of Stockton or Fresno or the Bay Area? And Marysville, Yuba City (Sacramento?) and Red Bluff (Chico? Redding?) went where? You miss quite a lot flying along I-5. CASR-99 is where the Valley action is. Tulare? San Luis Obispo? (bigger than Santa Maria at least when you add Five Cities) Are you counting Monterey and Salinas and Santa Cruz, and Watsonville as part of the Bay Area? Gilroy?

Please note the first sentence of my post: 100 largest California cities by population. Not urban areas, not metro areas. Of all the cities you mention in your post, Modesto and Salinas were in my lists; the other cities are not in the 100 largest.

My point was not about which of these cities should or shouldn't be control cities. It was to reinforce the point that, of the 100 largest cities in California, the majority of them are indeed suburbs or bedroom communities.

That said - using urban areas (2010 populations) instead of city proper:
Red Bluff: not even an urban area, just an urban cluster. Population 18,000. Hardly control-city worthy.
Tulare: part of the Visalia urban area.
San Luis Obispo: if you include the Five Cities, population is 111,000. Still smaller than the Santa Maria urban area (130,000). That said, I do consider it a better control city candidate than Santa Maria.
Marysville/Yuba City: too close to Sacramento to be a control city other than local routes.
Watsonville: too close to Santa Cruz.

[roadman65]

Illinois tends to use secondary control cities that are in state rather than out of state.  Examples:

This approach makes sense to me, although I do find East Saint Louis a little silly.

On I-70 East St. Louis was removed (well at least from Vandalia westward) and now St. Louis is used.


Also to note only on local roads are in state cities used, as interstate to interstate junctions a major US city is always used except for I-90 west of Chicago using Rockford as control city.  Also Gary is used on I-80 E Bound from Joliet eastward. 

[Scott5114]

Oklahoma barely participates in the control city game; on I-35 and I-40, the only >in-state< control city is Oklahoma City. On I-44 you also get Tulsa and Lawton.

Ummm...  FTFY.

I-35 north out of OKC is control-signed for Wichita.  I-35 south out of OKC is control-signed for Dallas.  I-40 west out of OKC is control-signed for Amarillo.  I-40 east out of OKC is control-signed for Fort Smith.  I-44 southwest out of Lawton is control-signed for Wichita Falls.

If in-state control cities were used instead, then it would be something like.....
I-35 Guthrie
I-35 Pauls Valley or Ardmore
I-40 Elk City
I-40 Shawnee or Henryetta
I-44 ..... shoot, I don't know, Walters?

Right, I meant in-state. At the risk of fictionalizing this, some reasonable in-state controls could be:
I-35: Ardmore, Pauls Valley, Purcell, Norman, Okla. City, Guthrie, Perry
I-40: Sayre, Elk City, Weatherford, El Reno, Okla. City, Shawnee, Henryetta, Sallisaw
I-44: Walters, Lawton, Chickasha, Newcastle, Okla. City, Tulsa

...though some of these might be getting into Illinois/Pennsylvania levels of silliness.

[SSOWorld]

Illinois tends to use secondary control cities that are in state rather than out of state.  Examples:

This approach makes sense to me, although I do find East Saint Louis a little silly.

On I-70 East St. Louis was removed (well at least from Vandalia westward) and now St. Louis is used.


Also to note only on local roads are in state cities used, as interstate to interstate junctions a major US city is always used except for I-90 west of Chicago using Rockford as control city.  Also Gary is used on I-80 E Bound from Joliet eastward. 

I-90's unusual from an IDOT perspective since ISTHA controls that one.  Same is true for I-88. (It does list Moline/Rock Island and Aurora)  The only IDOT freeways using mainline in-state cities are 39 (Bloomington, Rockford), 72 (Urbana-Champaign, Decatur, Springfield, Jacksonville), 74 (Peoria, Moline/Rock Island), and any 3di not crossing a state line.  24 (Uses Interstate 57 (sic) in the NW direction), 55, 57, 64, 70, 80 and 94 don't even consider in-state cities other than Chicago.  80 and 94 are even wierder - particularly in District 1/ISTHA land where they have control states as does I-294.  Don't even get me started on the use of "Suburbs" for the control blobs.

[roadman65]

NC uses plenty on I-95
Roanoke Rapids
Rocky Mount
Wilson
Smithfield
Benson
Dunn
Fayetteville
Lumberton
Rowland

PA along I-80
Delaware Water Gap
Stroudsburg
Hazleton
Bloomsburg
Bellefonte
Dubois
Sharon
(there might be more for this route

[Flint1979]

Illinois has used some of the following which are a bit strange:

West Suburbs (basically this is on the Eisenhower and means that it'll take you to the western suburbs).
Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana (used on Interstate's that actually do go to those states but it seems strange to use state names instead of city names). For Wisconsin, Milwaukee could have been used.

Chicago is used on WB I-94 as far east as Detroit as well. I'm not totally sure exactly where Detroit starts being used in the Chicago area.

[roadman65]

NH with "All Maine Points" is stranger that West Suburbs.  Maine can do if Indiana is good for Illinois.

Also Milwaukee is used leaving O' Hare for I-294 NB.  That may be cause I-90 also goes to WI.  So using it there for I-294 might be considered controlling all interests of Wisconsin to exclusively use I-294.

[Flint1979]

NH with "All Maine Points" is stranger that West Suburbs.  Maine can do if Indiana is good for Illinois.

Also Milwaukee is used leaving O' Hare for I-294 NB.  That may be cause I-90 also goes to WI.  So using it there for I-294 might be considered controlling all interests of Wisconsin to exclusively use I-294.

Strange because going the opposite way they use Wisconsin for I-294 and use Indiana on the same side as they use Milwaukee. I think they should use Milwaukee and Rockford together on the stretch where I-90 and I-94 run together on the Kennedy and Dan Ryan combo and then use Milwaukee and Rockford for both at the Edens split.

I honestly don't know what control city the Eisenhower should have other than West Suburbs really it kind of makes sense because there are a lot of suburbs out there and they are west of town. It should probably really use Schaumburg or Palatine, both pretty good sized suburbs.

Mackinac Bridge is used for I-75 north of Saginaw.

[thenetwork]

Illinois has used some of the following which are a bit strange:

West Suburbs (basically this is on the Eisenhower and means that it'll take you to the western suburbs).
Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana (used on Interstate's that actually do go to those states but it seems strange to use state names instead of city names). For Wisconsin, Milwaukee could have been used.

Chicago is used on WB I-94 as far east as Detroit as well. I'm not totally sure exactly where Detroit starts being used in the Chicago area.

Detroit is being used along the Borman I-80/94.

Toledo used to be the CC on I-80 East from the I-55 junction near Joliet into the 90s.  Not sure if it was replaced by Gary or something else.

[Flint1979]

Illinois has used some of the following which are a bit strange:

West Suburbs (basically this is on the Eisenhower and means that it'll take you to the western suburbs).
Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana (used on Interstate's that actually do go to those states but it seems strange to use state names instead of city names). For Wisconsin, Milwaukee could have been used.

Chicago is used on WB I-94 as far east as Detroit as well. I'm not totally sure exactly where Detroit starts being used in the Chicago area.

Detroit is being used along the Borman I-80/94.

Toledo used to be the CC on I-80 East from the I-55 junction near Joliet into the 90s.  Not sure if it was replaced by Gary or something else.

I never understood why South Bend wasn't used for EB I-80/90.

[kphoger]

I honestly don't know what control city the Eisenhower should have other than West Suburbs really it kind of makes sense because there are a lot of suburbs out there and they are west of town. It should probably really use Schaumburg or Palatine, both pretty good sized suburbs.

Having lived in the west suburbs of Chicago, I think it makes perfect sense.  When I tell people where I used to live, I refer to the area as "the west suburbs of Chicago".

[Flint1979]

I honestly don't know what control city the Eisenhower should have other than West Suburbs really it kind of makes sense because there are a lot of suburbs out there and they are west of town. It should probably really use Schaumburg or Palatine, both pretty good sized suburbs.

Having lived in the west suburbs of Chicago, I think it makes perfect sense.  When I tell people where I used to live, I refer to the area as "the west suburbs of Chicago".

When I lived in Elmhurst I would just tell people I'm in the western suburbs of Chicago when anyone asked where I was from. Actually I was closer to O'Hare than I was to The Loop.

[thenetwork]

I honestly don't know what control city the Eisenhower should have other than West Suburbs really it kind of makes sense because there are a lot of suburbs out there and they are west of town. It should probably really use Schaumburg or Palatine, both pretty good sized suburbs.

Having lived in the west suburbs of Chicago, I think it makes perfect sense.  When I tell people where I used to live, I refer to the area as "the west suburbs of Chicago".

Along I-90 in Cleveland, there are still overhead supplemental BGS near I-271 that say Eastern Suburbs, Next Right/Left. 

Meanwhile, along I 480 Westboud FROM I-271, there used to be overhead BGSs that said I-480 West -- Cleveland - West Suburbs.  Those signs ha e since been replaced with Cleveland &/or Toledo as the CC(s).

[mrsman]

Very clear from the discussions above that it is best for the motoring public if control cities chosen for 2dis (and for specific 3dis) were limited to cities of national importance until there aren't any left.  Within most states there are only a handful of cities that qualify.  It seems like AZ and UT have the right idea, the cities chosen are really helpful to the long-distance motorists who are less likely to be familiar with the area.

Specific to Chicago area, I'm not a fan of their use of states because of the inherent lack of specificity.  All Wisconsin controls should be renamed for Milwaukee.  Rockford can be added as a secondary control to the extent that it makes sense and there is room (along the joint 90/94). South Bend can be the control to replace Indiana.  Although I-94 does not go to South Bend, a lot of traffic uses it to reach the 80/90.  IMO Detroit should only be a control from Portage IN east and Toledo should only be used on 80/90 east of South Bend.  Iowa should be replaced with Des Moines.

Joliet should be used as a secondary control along portions of I-80 where appropriate. 

Not a fan of the use of suburbs, either.  I-355's control cities should be Joliet and Schaumburg entirely.  I-290's control should be Aurora from the Loop until at least Western Ave and then the control can be Aurora with Schuamburg as a secondary.  (Schaumburg should be the sole control west of the I-88 split.)

[Occidental Tourist]

Did you count Madera or Modesto (both over 150 km from Oakland) as part of Stockton or Fresno or the Bay Area? And Marysville, Yuba City (Sacramento?) and Red Bluff (Chico? Redding?) went where? You miss quite a lot flying along I-5. CASR-99 is where the Valley action is. Tulare? San Luis Obispo? (bigger than Santa Maria at least when you add Five Cities) Are you counting Monterey and Salinas and Santa Cruz, and Watsonville as part of the Bay Area? Gilroy?

Why are you identifying distances in kilometers?

[Brandon]

Illinois has used some of the following which are a bit strange:

West Suburbs (basically this is on the Eisenhower and means that it'll take you to the western suburbs).
Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana (used on Interstate's that actually do go to those states but it seems strange to use state names instead of city names). For Wisconsin, Milwaukee could have been used.

Chicago is used on WB I-94 as far east as Detroit as well. I'm not totally sure exactly where Detroit starts being used in the Chicago area.

Detroit is being used along the Borman I-80/94.

Toledo used to be the CC on I-80 East from the I-55 junction near Joliet into the 90s.  Not sure if it was replaced by Gary or something else.

Indiana.  Yes, just Indiana.

[pdx-wanderer]

Illinois has used some of the following which are a bit strange:

West Suburbs (basically this is on the Eisenhower and means that it'll take you to the western suburbs).
Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana (used on Interstate's that actually do go to those states but it seems strange to use state names instead of city names). For Wisconsin, Milwaukee could have been used.

Chicago is used on WB I-94 as far east as Detroit as well. I'm not totally sure exactly where Detroit starts being used in the Chicago area.

Detroit is being used along the Borman I-80/94.

Toledo used to be the CC on I-80 East from the I-55 junction near Joliet into the 90s.  Not sure if it was replaced by Gary or something else.

Indiana.  Yes, just Indiana.

Reminds me of this https://goo.gl/maps/xtUhv4zAn492

[ilpt4u]

The one I always find odd, because it is inconsistent, are the Controls @ the I-80 and I-55 Cloverlead

I-80's Controls are State-based (Iowa and Indiana). I-55's are Cities - Chicago and St Louis

I-55 North has to stay Chicago, obviously, but if I-80 uses "Next State"  Controls, why not have I-55 signed for Missouri instead of St Louis?

Or, conversely, and really preferably, leave the I-55 Controls as Chicago and St Louis, but change I-80's (back?) to Des Moines and Toledo

If you want to use "Next State"  as an Interstate Control, at least do it consistently. But really, Controls should be Cities or Points of Interest

[Bitmapped]

Maryland has:
I-68: Cumberland and maybe Hancock

Yes to Hancock.  Signage on US 220 South just north of the I-68/US 220 concurrency displays "I-68 EAST/MD 144  Hancock".  Also can add Frostburg.  Pull-thru signage on I-68 West at Exit 39 reads "I-68/US 40 WEST  Frostburg"

Frostburg is only used westbound. I tend to think they should just dump it for Morgantown. This is especially the case from LaVale, where most cars going to Frostburg just use Alt US 40 rather than I-68 to MD 36.

[Flint1979]

The one I always find odd, because it is inconsistent, are the Controls @ the I-80 and I-55 Cloverlead

I-80's Controls are State-based (Iowa and Indiana). I-55's are Cities - Chicago and St Louis

I-55 North has to stay Chicago, obviously, but if I-80 uses "Next State"  Controls, why not have I-55 signed for Missouri instead of St Louis?

Or, conversely, and really preferably, leave the I-55 Controls as Chicago and St Louis, but change I-80's (back?) to Des Moines and Toledo

If you want to use "Next State"  as an Interstate Control, at least do it consistently. But really, Controls should be Cities or Points of Interest

You'd use Toledo at the I-55 interchange over places like South Bend? I'm just saying though, Toledo is 260 miles from the I-55 interchange and there is another state in between with 2 or 3 cities that could be used over Toledo.

[Flint1979]

Illinois has used some of the following which are a bit strange:

West Suburbs (basically this is on the Eisenhower and means that it'll take you to the western suburbs).
Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana (used on Interstate's that actually do go to those states but it seems strange to use state names instead of city names). For Wisconsin, Milwaukee could have been used.

Chicago is used on WB I-94 as far east as Detroit as well. I'm not totally sure exactly where Detroit starts being used in the Chicago area.

Detroit is being used along the Borman I-80/94.

Toledo used to be the CC on I-80 East from the I-55 junction near Joliet into the 90s.  Not sure if it was replaced by Gary or something else.

Indiana.  Yes, just Indiana.

Reminds me of this https://goo.gl/maps/xtUhv4zAn492

On I-94 in Detroit at the I-96 interchange the control cities are as follows: Lansing and Bridge To Canada. Then once you get on the exit ramps from I-94 to I-96 it just says Canada and Lansing.

Here's an eastbound I-94 vantage point

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3454003,-83.1119562,3a,75y,355.46h,88.1t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHcmR03qS_k65H7o1zLkGMA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192