What state posts the worst control cities? The best?

[dbz77]

I'd nominate Nevada for one of the best. 

I-15: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City
I-80: Sacramento, Reno, Elko, Salt Lake City

I-11 won't always be Boulder City but it makes sense for now since it doesn't cross the border.

Chris

The use of Los Angeles for I-15 southbound is left over from the Arrowhead Route, which passed through Las Vegas and terminated in Los Angeles.

(Cajon Pass is exactly 200 miles from Las Vegas, and the 15/215 junction is 215 miles, from where the 15 southbound finally departs from the Arrowhead Route for good.)

Let's start with I-40.  Going west from Flagstaff, the control city is Los Angeles but changes to Barstow once you're in California.

It does seem weird that Arizona uses Los Angeles as the control city for I-40 west, as I-40 does not even intersect with a highway that reaches Los Angeles.

[The Nature Boy]

I'd nominate Nevada for one of the best. 

I-15: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City
I-80: Sacramento, Reno, Elko, Salt Lake City

I-11 won't always be Boulder City but it makes sense for now since it doesn't cross the border.

Chris

The use of Los Angeles for I-15 southbound is left over from the Arrowhead Route, which passed through Las Vegas and terminated in Los Angeles.

(Cajon Pass is exactly 200 miles from Las Vegas, and the 15/215 junction is 215 miles, from where the 15 southbound finally departs from the Arrowhead Route for good.)

Let's start with I-40.  Going west from Flagstaff, the control city is Los Angeles but changes to Barstow once you're in California.

It does seem weird that Arizona uses Los Angeles as the control city for I-40 west, as I-40 does not even intersect with a highway that reaches Los Angeles.

If you're going to LA from Flagstaff, you would take I-40 west. It makes sense as a way to point you in the right direction. Los Angeles is also more meaningful to long distance travelers than Barstow might be.

[kirbykart]

I'd nominate Nevada for one of the best. 

I-15: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City
I-80: Sacramento, Reno, Elko, Salt Lake City

I-11 won't always be Boulder City but it makes sense for now since it doesn't cross the border.

Chris

The use of Los Angeles for I-15 southbound is left over from the Arrowhead Route, which passed through Las Vegas and terminated in Los Angeles.

(Cajon Pass is exactly 200 miles from Las Vegas, and the 15/215 junction is 215 miles, from where the 15 southbound finally departs from the Arrowhead Route for good.)

Let's start with I-40.  Going west from Flagstaff, the control city is Los Angeles but changes to Barstow once you're in California.

It does seem weird that Arizona uses Los Angeles as the control city for I-40 west, as I-40 does not even intersect with a highway that reaches Los Angeles.

If you're going to LA from Flagstaff, you would take I-40 west. It makes sense as a way to point you in the right direction. Los Angeles is also more meaningful to long distance travelers than Barstow might be.

Yep, definitely. Barstow is just useless for long-distance traffic on I-40 West, the vast majority of which is heading down I-15 South. I-15 technically doesn't go to Los Angeles, but it serves the city. LA can easily be accessed from I-15 via the large network of 3dis in that area.

[SEWIGuy]

I'd nominate Nevada for one of the best. 

I-15: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City
I-80: Sacramento, Reno, Elko, Salt Lake City

I-11 won't always be Boulder City but it makes sense for now since it doesn't cross the border.

Chris

The use of Los Angeles for I-15 southbound is left over from the Arrowhead Route, which passed through Las Vegas and terminated in Los Angeles.

(Cajon Pass is exactly 200 miles from Las Vegas, and the 15/215 junction is 215 miles, from where the 15 southbound finally departs from the Arrowhead Route for good.)

Let's start with I-40.  Going west from Flagstaff, the control city is Los Angeles but changes to Barstow once you're in California.

It does seem weird that Arizona uses Los Angeles as the control city for I-40 west, as I-40 does not even intersect with a highway that reaches Los Angeles.

If you're going to LA from Flagstaff, you would take I-40 west. It makes sense as a way to point you in the right direction. Los Angeles is also more meaningful to long distance travelers than Barstow might be.

Right. I don't think a highway needs to actually go to a city to be an effective control city. I actually don't mind states either. I think their purpose is to tell "directionally challenged" people which ramp to use.  So using "Los Angeles" or even "California" for I-40 westbound makes perfect sense to me.

[roadman]

And for those following the signs for Green River UT thinking they're going toward Green River WY? (Or avoiding it – "I'm not trying to go toward Wyoming, so this is the wrong way.")

This is exactly why all out of state destinations on signs should include the 2 letter state abbreviation.

[roadman]

I'm not a fan of how MA uses states and geographical locations as control points; NH-Maine, Cape Cod, and the most egregious, The Islands.

NH-Maine no longer exists as a destination on signs in MA, it's been replaced with Portsmouth NH.  Cape Cod is a logical control destination, as it's immediately recognizable by people 'at a glance'.  The issue I have with "The Islands", besides being horribly vague, is that you need to take a ferry that requires an advance reservation to use to get there.  To me, Woods Hole would be a better destination.

[ethanhopkin14]

I think this is the only time using states as control cities make sense.

[Flint1979]

I think this is the only time using states as control cities make sense.

Yeah that lone exit in Indiana you can't miss where you are going there but still if you went the Ohio way you'd end up in Kentucky at some point and if you went the Kentucky way you'd end up in Ohio at some point too.

[ran4sh]

I'd nominate Nevada for one of the best. 

I-15: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City
I-80: Sacramento, Reno, Elko, Salt Lake City

I-11 won't always be Boulder City but it makes sense for now since it doesn't cross the border.

Chris

The use of Los Angeles for I-15 southbound is left over from the Arrowhead Route, which passed through Las Vegas and terminated in Los Angeles.

(Cajon Pass is exactly 200 miles from Las Vegas, and the 15/215 junction is 215 miles, from where the 15 southbound finally departs from the Arrowhead Route for good.)

Let's start with I-40.  Going west from Flagstaff, the control city is Los Angeles but changes to Barstow once you're in California.

It does seem weird that Arizona uses Los Angeles as the control city for I-40 west, as I-40 does not even intersect with a highway that reaches Los Angeles.

If you're going to LA from Flagstaff, you would take I-40 west. It makes sense as a way to point you in the right direction. Los Angeles is also more meaningful to long distance travelers than Barstow might be.

Right. I don't think a highway needs to actually go to a city to be an effective control city. I actually don't mind states either. I think their purpose is to tell "directionally challenged" people which ramp to use.  So using "Los Angeles" or even "California" for I-40 westbound makes perfect sense to me.

"I actually don't mind states either"

Sometimes states can be useful control "cities" but more often than not, they're too vague and/or their use omits certain parts of the state.

For example, for much of the country, the route to different parts of New York State is different (e.g. if you're in Wytheville VA the route to NYC is different from the route to Buffalo), yet some people think "New York" meaning the state is an appropriate control city.

GDOT used to use "Florida" at the I-75/I-285 interchanges to mean that traffic going to peninsular Florida should use I-285 around Atlanta. They don't do that anymore, in part because the Florida panhandle is also part of Florida and is accessed by different routes.

[Road Hog]

Arkansas is hard to mess up. All inbound E-W interstates lead to Little Rock; outbound interstates sign the main cities at or close to the border (Texarkana, Memphis, Fort Smith). Only one I'm not sure about is I-49 North; Shreveport is the control city south of Texarkana.

[SEWIGuy]

I'd nominate Nevada for one of the best. 

I-15: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City
I-80: Sacramento, Reno, Elko, Salt Lake City

I-11 won't always be Boulder City but it makes sense for now since it doesn't cross the border.

Chris

The use of Los Angeles for I-15 southbound is left over from the Arrowhead Route, which passed through Las Vegas and terminated in Los Angeles.

(Cajon Pass is exactly 200 miles from Las Vegas, and the 15/215 junction is 215 miles, from where the 15 southbound finally departs from the Arrowhead Route for good.)

Let's start with I-40.  Going west from Flagstaff, the control city is Los Angeles but changes to Barstow once you're in California.

It does seem weird that Arizona uses Los Angeles as the control city for I-40 west, as I-40 does not even intersect with a highway that reaches Los Angeles.

If you're going to LA from Flagstaff, you would take I-40 west. It makes sense as a way to point you in the right direction. Los Angeles is also more meaningful to long distance travelers than Barstow might be.

Right. I don't think a highway needs to actually go to a city to be an effective control city. I actually don't mind states either. I think their purpose is to tell "directionally challenged" people which ramp to use.  So using "Los Angeles" or even "California" for I-40 westbound makes perfect sense to me.

"I actually don't mind states either"

Sometimes states can be useful control "cities" but more often than not, they're too vague and/or their use omits certain parts of the state.

For example, for much of the country, the route to different parts of New York State is different (e.g. if you're in Wytheville VA the route to NYC is different from the route to Buffalo), yet some people think "New York" meaning the state is an appropriate control city.

GDOT used to use "Florida" at the I-75/I-285 interchanges to mean that traffic going to peninsular Florida should use I-285 around Atlanta. They don't do that anymore, in part because the Florida panhandle is also part of Florida and is accessed by different routes.

Oh I agree. I am thinking of examples like I-294 around Chicago.  "Wisconsin" and "Indiana" make perfect sense to me.

[Ted$8roadFan]

I'm not a fan of how MA uses states and geographical locations as control points; NH-Maine, Cape Cod, and the most egregious, The Islands.

NH-Maine no longer exists as a destination on signs in MA, it's been replaced with Portsmouth NH.  Cape Cod is a logical control destination, as it's immediately recognizable by people 'at a glance'.  The issue I have with "The Islands", besides being horribly vague, is that you need to take a ferry that requires an advance reservation to use to get there.  To me, Woods Hole would be a better destination.

I actually didn't mind the NH-ME and Cape Cod references, at least on some places. They were valuable to out-of-state drivers, especially since most were coming on the Mass. Pike. "˜The Islands"  are a bit vague, though.

[ethanhopkin14]

So basically, this thread can be summed up by 1) dislike of Arizona having Los Angeles as it's control city for two of it's interstates, then California breaking it into smaller cities, 2) a lot of eastern and midwestern states have too many control cities (breaking it down to smaller cities) and 3) hatred for control states.

I think control cities should be uniform as well, BUT, I think the points above work well for their specific situations.  Take the more populated northeast.  Using the smaller control cities works well since, for the most part, people don't dive 500 miles around there.  Giving them the large, but very unobtainable New York City on I-80 when you are not going to be driving that long, does give the driver a nice heading, but better information is given when Willamsport is mentioned before New York is. 

Chicagoland is a funny place, and lots of times control states are used.  Even though I am not a fan, I think this works well since most people when seeing a road sign in the Chicago area want to know two things:  how to get to and how to get away from Chicago.  They can do it given the city is located at the junction of three states. 

In the desert southwest, you dive a long, long way to get to... more nothing.  I think it is important out there to sign the far away destinations because A) its the only place of significance and B) It gives you a very good idea of scale.  "We left Phoenix; the next big city is Los Angeles."...but it's still 373 miles away!

I think the system needs a mandatory way to give this information and not just leave it up to the states, but I also think some of these nuances make sense if you put yourself in the location they are located. 

[MattHanson939]

If you're going to LA from Flagstaff, you would take I-40 west. It makes sense as a way to point you in the right direction. Los Angeles is also more meaningful to long distance travelers than Barstow might be.

Similarly, if you're going to El Paso from Albuquerque, you take I-25 south.  As the route points you in that direction, using El Paso as the southbound control city from Albuquerque indeed makes sense.  And I think El Paso is more meaningful than Las Cruces for long distance travelers.  I get that Las Cruces has an interstate junction; but El Paso is much bigger and is just a short distance from Las Cruces.

Also, if you don't want to use Los Angeles on I-40 west from Flagstaff, the most logical choice would be to sign Kingman because it's bigger than Barstow.

[MattHanson939]

That being said, I don't mind the use of in-state control cities on US highways.  Most of them aren't freeways to begin with; and they do go right through many of these small towns, serving as their main streets.  That's why before the interstates were completed, it would've made sense to use towns like Santa Rosa, Belen, Grants, Gallup, Las Vegas (NM), Raton.

[SkyPesos]

That being said, I don't mind the use of in-state control cities on US highways.  Most of them aren't freeways to begin with; and they do go right through many of these small towns, serving as their main streets.  That's why before the interstates were completed, it would've made sense to use towns like Santa Rosa, Belen, Grants, Gallup, Las Vegas (NM), Raton.

I start to have issues with that when they are freeways or expressways. Ohio have a lot of US route freeways or expressways that could afford maybe not using every county seat it passes by, and something more for longer-distance travelers. Like US 35 is a commonly used route to get between the Midwest and Southeast, and could be better off only using only Dayton, Chillicothe and Charleston WV as controls.

[kirbykart]

I'm not a fan of how MA uses states and geographical locations as control points; NH-Maine, Cape Cod, and the most egregious, The Islands.

NH-Maine no longer exists as a destination on signs in MA, it's been replaced with Portsmouth NH.  Cape Cod is a logical control destination, as it's immediately recognizable by people 'at a glance'.  The issue I have with "The Islands", besides being horribly vague, is that you need to take a ferry that requires an advance reservation to use to get there.  To me, Woods Hole would be a better destination.

Massachusetts may not use NH-Maine anymore, but New Hampshire still uses "All Maine Points" and Maine still uses "Points South/N.H.-Mass."

[US 89]

That being said, I don't mind the use of in-state control cities on US highways.  Most of them aren't freeways to begin with; and they do go right through many of these small towns, serving as their main streets.  That's why before the interstates were completed, it would've made sense to use towns like Santa Rosa, Belen, Grants, Gallup, Las Vegas (NM), Raton.

I start to have issues with that when they are freeways or expressways. Ohio have a lot of US route freeways or expressways that could afford maybe not using every county seat it passes by, and something more for longer-distance travelers. Like US 35 is a commonly used route to get between the Midwest and Southeast, and could be better off only using only Dayton, Chillicothe and Charleston WV as controls.

as a native westerner, I only know Dayton is someplace in Ohio and I have no idea where Chillicothe is, therefore they should absolutely never be used as control cities

[hbelkins]

That being said, I don't mind the use of in-state control cities on US highways.  Most of them aren't freeways to begin with; and they do go right through many of these small towns, serving as their main streets.  That's why before the interstates were completed, it would've made sense to use towns like Santa Rosa, Belen, Grants, Gallup, Las Vegas (NM), Raton.

I start to have issues with that when they are freeways or expressways. Ohio have a lot of US route freeways or expressways that could afford maybe not using every county seat it passes by, and something more for longer-distance travelers. Like US 35 is a commonly used route to get between the Midwest and Southeast, and could be better off only using only Dayton, Chillicothe and Charleston WV as controls.

Jackson needs to be on that list. Major crossroads of US 35 and Corridor D (OH 32).

[ethanhopkin14]

That being said, I don't mind the use of in-state control cities on US highways.  Most of them aren't freeways to begin with; and they do go right through many of these small towns, serving as their main streets.  That's why before the interstates were completed, it would've made sense to use towns like Santa Rosa, Belen, Grants, Gallup, Las Vegas (NM), Raton.

I always felt that was just the norm.  US highways are more of the local roads that also travel to the next town of consequence, so the next town of any consequence would be the next control city for it. Its kind of like the bus that makes every stop vs. the express bus.  They may travel to the same place eventually, but the bus that makes every stop calls the next stop despite it being only a block ahead.  The express bus calls the far away stop because the point of the express bus is it skips all the other stops to get to the next major stop quicker.  The US highway is the commuter bus and the Interstate is the express bus. 

[Flint1979]

That being said, I don't mind the use of in-state control cities on US highways.  Most of them aren't freeways to begin with; and they do go right through many of these small towns, serving as their main streets.  That's why before the interstates were completed, it would've made sense to use towns like Santa Rosa, Belen, Grants, Gallup, Las Vegas (NM), Raton.

I start to have issues with that when they are freeways or expressways. Ohio have a lot of US route freeways or expressways that could afford maybe not using every county seat it passes by, and something more for longer-distance travelers. Like US 35 is a commonly used route to get between the Midwest and Southeast, and could be better off only using only Dayton, Chillicothe and Charleston WV as controls.

as a native westerner, I only know Dayton is someplace in Ohio and I have no idea where Chillicothe is, therefore they should absolutely never be used as control cities

Chillicothe is fine as a control city. First of all it was the first and third capital of Ohio, it's the junction of US-23, US-35 and US-50, it has a University and about 20,000 people. So just because you've never heard of Chillicothe it shouldn't be used as a control city? I'm pretty sure that a vast majority of Ohioans know where Chillicothe is so I'd have to say it's fine.

Chillicothe is bigger than Limon, CO and I know where Limon is.

[codyg1985]

Arkansas is hard to mess up. All inbound E-W interstates lead to Little Rock; outbound interstates sign the main cities at or close to the border (Texarkana, Memphis, Fort Smith). Only one I'm not sure about is I-49 North; Shreveport is the control city south of Texarkana.

I think they use "Joplin MO" for I-49 North. I'd say that's fairly fitting.

[JayhawkCO]

Chillicothe is fine as a control city. First of all it was the first and third capital of Ohio

Not sure if we should be picking control cities based on history.

Should Kaskaskia, IL be a control city for I-55?
Windsor, VT for I-91?
Kingston, TN for I-40?
Guthrie, OK for I-35?
Corydon, IN for I-64?

I think not... 

[Scott5114]

Guthrie, OK for I-35?

I think I actually have seen at least one oddball sign out there that uses Guthrie as a control. Because ODOT.

[codyg1985]

For the most part, Alabama does an acceptable job at control cities.

I-10 Eastbound: Mobile then Pensacola. That's acceptable.
I-10 Westbound: Mobile then Pascagoula. Not a fan at all of Pascagoula. Should be Biloxi or Gulfport with New Orleans as a secondary control city.

I-20 Eastbound: Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Atlanta. Nothing wrong with that.
I-20 Westbound: Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Meridian.

I-22 Eastbound: Birmingham
I-22 Westbound: Jasper, Hamilton, Tupelo, or Memphis, depending on where you are. This should be Tupelo. Maybe Memphis as a secondary control city. No Jasper or Hamilton.

I-65 Northbound: Montgomery, Birmingham, Huntsville, Nashville. I have a minor quip with Huntsville since I-65 doesn't pass through the main part of Huntsville (even though I-65 passes through the city limits of Huntsville). Since there is I-565 that connects it with Huntsville, it makes it borderline acceptable.
I-65 Southbound: Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile.

I-85 Northbound: Atlanta
I-85 Southbound: Montgomery