Routes That Change Cardinal Direction

[Big John]

^^  WI 22 goes E-W after Gillett, but is signed N-S the whole way.

[SSOWorld]

Damn I forgot about WIS 100. 

As I mentioned before in this thread the cardinal direction switch of WIS 23 is at WIS-13/US 12/WIS 16 JCT.

[vtk]

The last on my list is US 62.  Never driven all of it, but looking at the routing, I imagine it must change directions at least once?  Can anybody verify?

US 62 is (I think) E—W from Texas to Kentucky, mostly E—W (many places directionless and occasionally N—S) in Ohio, and N—S in Pennsylvania and NY.  I personally think it should be N—S in Ohio.

[jp the roadgeek]

CT 154 is E-W for the portion that goes around the Old Saybrook loop and is co-signed with US 1 over the railroad bridge.  It then becomes N-S as it travels up the portion formerly known as CT 9A.

[Mergingtraffic]

I'd say I-278, in this pic the road is actually heading west in this area.

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(of course the fact that trucks have to use the service road and I-278 goes to a single lane nearby while the Grand Central Pkwy is a 3-lane exit is for another post)

[mrsman]

I'd say I-278, in this pic the road is actually heading west in this area.

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(of course the fact that trucks have to use the service road and I-278 goes to a single lane nearby while the Grand Central Pkwy is a 3-lane exit is for another post)

Full-circle beltways (like in Washington DC and Baltimore) that utilize a cardinal direction (NSEW) must change its direction at least twice within the course of doing a full loop.  Many change four times.  So if I'm driving on the outer loop of I-495 around Washington DC, I'll be going WEST from College Park to Bethesda, SOUTH from Bethesda to Springfield, EAST from Springfield TO National Harbor, NORTH from National Harbor to College Park.

Half-beltways, though, tend to maintain one direction throughout, even though it may some times make sense to have the direction change.

For I-278, arguably a half-beltway, the road as a whole is certainly east/west, but the BQE (between Triboro Bridge and Verrazano Bridge) is much more north/south in orientation.  I would support changing the road signs on this stretch to be north/south to alleviate some of the associated confusion with this section being east/west.

But I would not support changing the directions on national routes (2dis, US highways) like I-95 along the Cross-Bronx Expy.  Since this is part of I-95, a national north/south route, it should be signed north/south despite having a significant east/west portion through the Bronx.  Ditto I-95 in Connecticut, I-94 between Chicago and Milwaukee, US 101 between Ventura and the San Fernando Valley, etc. etc.  The way to alleviate the inherent confusion is to make wide spread use of control cities. 

I find I-94 particularly confusing.  I was in Chicago and I was heading toward the northern suburbs and I came across a sign leading one way to I-94 east and another way to I-94 west.  No control cities were provided on the sign.  On the fly, I knew that I was heading north but couldn't remember if that was east or west.  I wasn't interested in making a long distance trip to North Dakota (which is obviously west), I wanted to go to Skokie, only slightly north of where I was.  If the sign was supplemented by control cities (Chicago Loop vs Milwaukee) there would have been no confusion for me.

[agentsteel53]

the most confusing one to me is the 80/580 multiplex.  I once actually had to stop at the top of the ramp to figure out whether I was intending to go east/west, or if west/east was instead the more correct direction.

(I was intending to go south.)

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Then I-80 W/I-580 E is the correct option. If CA gave up and duplicated route 180, then this wouldn't happen...

[agentsteel53]

Then I-80 W/I-580 E is the correct option. If CA gave up and duplicated route 180, then this wouldn't happen...

oh, I figured it out quickly enough, but the signage certainly could have been more intuitive.

what was ever wrong with highway 17??

[hbelkins]

Found this example along US 231 in Tennessee.