Oddly specific distances on signs

[DSS5]

Sadly the Street View image is really low quality, but there's a clearance sign on Reynolda Road in Winston-Salem that says "5/10 mile." Don't they mean "1/2 mile" 

[Pete from Boston]

On MA Route 8 North about half a mile south of the center of North Adams, MA, is an orange diamond sign that says "Road narrows 11 feet."  i'm sure they mean the lane width narrows to 11-foot lanes, or a pair of zeroes fell off, but either way it's pretty funny. 

[djsinco]

Oddly specific? Even though 2115 feet is almost precisely 0.4 miles, would anyone be harmed if the sign said 1/2 mile?

https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=hale+center&data=!1m7!1m3!1d3!2d-101.843955!3d34.058229!2m1!2f90!4f75!2m4!1e1!2m2!1sSEdn9RTsoU14G8Yqn5iwNQ!2e0!4m10!1m9!4m8!1m3!1d117943!2d-104.9498004!3d39.915687!3m2!1i1730!2i925!4f13.1&fid=5

[jeffandnicole]

Perhaps distances of less than 1/4 mile should just fudge it and say 1/4 mile?

I disagree.  I think that distances should always be greater than what is posted.

exit 23 here in San Diego off I-8 is tricky because it has only one advance sign with a distance: 1 mile.  the exit is around a fairly sharp right curve with a bluff just inside of it - it really sneaks up on you... and it's 0.85 miles from the sign.

I-295 North in NJ has a 1 1/2 Mile ahead sign for Exit 20.  The actual distance is under a mile. 

I-295 South in NJ has a 1 Mile ahead sign for Exit 34 (NJ 70). The actual distance is about 3/4 mile.

Approaching Exit 10 (Center Square Rd) in both directions on I-295, there's a SGS for a horse park that states 1 Mile ahead, even though the signs were placed well after the 1 Mile ahead BGS for the exit (which are actually a mile from the exit).

There's several others along the highway that are a bit questionable, but I give it the benefit of the doubt if the distance falls within the decel lane limits (I forget the actual standard where the distance should be measured from/to).  The examples above are more extreme though.

[1995hoo]

The Fairfax County Parkway (VA-286) has a half-mile advance sign for Ox Road (VA-123) that always felt longer than half a mile. The other day I measured it as nine-tenths of a mile.

Having the sign further away is better than having it too close, but having it off by that much is a bit distracting.

[Central Avenue]

I haven't gotten a picture yet, but on OH 16 near I-270 there's a temporary sign that says "ROAD WORK NEXT 4.07 MILES"

Decimal miles always kind of annoy me, but in this case it seems especially silly because you could round down with pretty much no consequence. How many drivers actually have an idea of how long 7/100 of a mile is anyway?

EDIT: Fixed typo

[NE2]

7/100, not 7/1000. (It's about 350 feet.)

[Central Avenue]

7/100, not 7/1000. (It's about 350 feet.)

Typo on my part. I haven't been to bed yet.

[formulanone]

I haven't gotten a picture yet, but on OH 16 near I-270 there's a temporary sign that says "ROAD WORK NEXT 4.07 MILES"

Just round up to the nearest mile, and let me feel like I've won the lottery by resuming the speed limit a tad earlier.

[1995hoo]

For years, Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia, has had a strange string of signs on each side starting with an "S" and going up to a "6." The signs are spaced a distance your odometer won't verify because they're not at tenths of a mile or half-mile or 1 km intervals. I always wondered what they were and assumed maybe they had some sort of bike race purpose or something. Here's a video from last week (click thumbnail to play):



It turns out they serve a more mundane purpose: They're located every sixth of a mile and they're there for the City of Alexandria's hack inspector to verify that taxi meters are calibrated properly. The hack inspector rides in each cab and watches the meter to verify that it turns over as the cab passes each sign (the per-mile fare is 36¢). For a long time Eisenhower Avenue didn't get much traffic and was a good place for doing this sort of thing. It's a much busier road than it used to be, but the city doesn't really have a better place available.

[djsinco]

$0.36 per mile, or per 1/6th? Gas alone costs about half of that for the average car...

[1995hoo]

$0.36 per mile, or per 1/6th? Gas alone costs about half of that for the average car...

There's a base initial fare, I think $3.00, and then the per-mile rate is added atop that. You're right, I made a typo: 36¢ per one-sixth of a mile, not 36¢ per mile. That's $2.16 per mile.

[sbeaver44]

PennDOT will sometimes post "Bridge 2112 Feet Ahead" instead of the tenth of a mile equivalent, 0.4 miles.  They do this not just with 2112, but with other multiples of 528 feet / 0.1 miles.

Another PennDOT oddity is the segment numbers on non-interstates represent twentieths (1/20) of a mile and reset at county lines.  Interstates are tenths and do not reset at county lines.  (Looks like US 15 north of Williamsport reflects I-99's future mileage through Lycoming County?  It starts somewhere in the 1260 or 1280 range.)  I never could figure out why they use twentieths of a mile.

These segment numbers are the ones you see on the bottom of the little white signs, such as:

SR 74
1110

This one's in York County, and it means you're starting the segment that corresponds to mile 55.5 within the county.

[1995hoo]

PennDOT will sometimes post "Bridge 2112 Feet Ahead" instead of the tenth of a mile equivalent, 0.4 miles.  They do this not just with 2112, but with other multiples of 528 feet / 0.1 miles.

....

You're supposed to rush to that bridge when you see that sign. 

[hbelkins]

PennDOT will sometimes post "Bridge 2112 Feet Ahead" instead of the tenth of a mile equivalent, 0.4 miles.  They do this not just with 2112, but with other multiples of 528 feet / 0.1 miles.

....

You're supposed to rush to that bridge when you see that sign. 

With the Red Star proudly high in hand.

[PHLBOS]

School Zone/Crossing distance signs in Springfield (Delaware County), PA near the intersection of Springfield Road & Norwinden Drive.

115 feet (along Springfield Road)
http://goo.gl/maps/F0TaJ

45 feet (from opposite direction)
http://goo.gl/maps/2j6uP

180 feet (along Norwinden Drive)
http://goo.gl/maps/XpCI7

77 feet (opposite direction)
http://goo.gl/maps/7q2za

[mass_citizen]

School Zone/Crossing distance signs in Springfield (Delaware County), PA near the intersection of Springfield Road & Norwinden Drive.

115 feet (along Springfield Road)
http://goo.gl/maps/F0TaJ

45 feet (from opposite direction)
http://goo.gl/maps/2j6uP

180 feet (along Norwinden Drive)
http://goo.gl/maps/XpCI7

77 feet (opposite direction)
http://goo.gl/maps/7q2za

What's with the permanent "DIP" sign on that last one? Did a contractor screw up the grading during a repaving project? I've only seen the orange temporary construction ones. I have seen many screw ups in grading like that at driveways and intersections, but I've never seen them admit they screwed up by simply putting a permanent warning sign like that.

[PHLBOS]

What's with the permanent "DIP" sign on that last one?

Guess on my part, the DIP sign is referring to the encountering of the crown of the crossing primary road (Springfield Road) in relation to Norwinden.

Whether this oddity was a paving contractor-related or overall design-related, I do not know.

[mass_citizen]

On MA Route 8 North about half a mile south of the center of North Adams, MA, is an orange diamond sign that says "Road narrows 11 feet."  i'm sure they mean the lane width narrows to 11-foot lanes, or a pair of zeroes fell off, but either way it's pretty funny.

I believe this is the one your referring to:

http://goo.gl/maps/qqoCi

[roadman65]

Here is one oddity, 2000 feet being used over 1/2 mile.

[Alps]

School Zone/Crossing distance signs in Springfield (Delaware County), PA near the intersection of Springfield Road & Norwinden Drive.

115 feet (along Springfield Road)
http://goo.gl/maps/F0TaJ

45 feet (from opposite direction)
http://goo.gl/maps/2j6uP

180 feet (along Norwinden Drive)
http://goo.gl/maps/XpCI7

77 feet (opposite direction)
http://goo.gl/maps/7q2za

What's with the permanent "DIP" sign on that last one? Did a contractor screw up the grading during a repaving project? I've only seen the orange temporary construction ones. I have seen many screw ups in grading like that at driveways and intersections, but I've never seen them admit they screwed up by simply putting a permanent warning sign like that.

Those are actually not so uncommon in California. Sometimes a road gets a dip and you can't come up with money to dig it completely up and put in 2-3 feet of new subgrade. As long as it's traversable, you live with it.

[formulanone]

Bump for this one - 0.72 miles to road (I guess they couldn't post the sign 150 feet before this):



I don't think I've ever seen Florida use decimals to represent distances before - nor anywhere else - unless it was converted from metric.

[Jardine]

I-29 north of Missouri Valley/Highway 30 exit a few miles has an exit sign for Modale showing a distance of 1 1/4 miles.

There is a county gravel road overpass either at the 1 mile location or presenting a visual barrier to a sign placed at the 1 mile location.

Considering the smart levels involved in doing things highway related I guess I'm surprised the  1 1/4 mile signage was thought of before they relocated the interfering overpass.

There might be a photo of the sign on this site somewhere, seems like this topic has arisen before.

[bzakharin]

The I-295/I-76/NJ 42 interchange has a bunch of interesting exit distances.

The first advance sign approaching 295 on 42 North is 1 1/4 miles:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8475086,-75.09524,3a,75y,5.38h,95.98t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snKE8YRNOgv9DFmyuMmkiXg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1
This despite there being a 1 mile sign too, and there being an exit before that one not mentioned on this gantry. Oddly, the latter exit has a single 1/4 mile advance sign:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8579602,-75.0987896,3a,75y,5.38h,95.98t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sal3CYtjXi34lv16-VkuruQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1

I-295 South approaching NJ 42 has 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 mile signs. Here's the last one:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8710918,-75.1021484,3a,75y,171.73h,103.25t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCrPlLkGDxCqmc8SDEfT0Gg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1

I-76 has a 1/8 mile sign for I-295 South as well (in addition to a 1/2 mile sign):
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8729574,-75.1022003,3a,75y,177.21h,79.09t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snB0u3-_xxeKml7qdy55ECw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1

I-295 North has a 500 feet advance sign for the first I-76 exit (https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8643798,-75.108139,3a,75y,53.48h,98.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sI_8_Zv2w5vi9pfcUTF4SQQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1) in addition to the normal 1 mile and 1/2 mile signs, and a 1000 feet one for the second I-76 exit (https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8687164,-75.1007335,3a,75y,311.88h,83.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sS_KPUnDH7jcWoDUU9pp5qw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1)

I may have missed some

[BigRTM]

I don't think I've ever seen Florida use decimals to represent distances before - nor anywhere else - unless it was converted from metric.

The only decimals that I have seen for Florida are a few Narrow Bridge in .5 miles signs.