Turnpike Trailblazers

[cpzilliacus]

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I always loved the simplicity of this, which really does illustrate where the road goes. I'd love to know where the inspiration for that sign came from, but I'm not sure who to ask.

Agreed, even though I have never driven it.  Reminds me (a little) of the Blue Ridge Parkway's Trailblazer, as seen in the vintage Michael Summa image via Gribblenation below:

[thenetwork]

The first time my parents took me to the Chicagoland Area, I had thought that the "Illinois Tollway" was merely just a SINGLE turnpike within all the other freeways in Chicago, and it puzzled me why those damn trailblazers were all over the Tri-State area, since you rarely (if ever) saw the Tollway logo signs once you were ON the Tollway.

[dgolub]

It still strikes me as strange to see highways signed only with the highway name trail blazer.  Oklahoma is one of the two states that I can think of that still does it.  The other one is Kentucky for their parkways.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike's Northeast Extension was signed this way before it became PA 9.  (Of course it is now I-476)  The sign was the generic PA Turnpike trailblazer with no notation that this was the Northeast Extension and not the main turnpike.  The only way to tell at the time was that the mile markers were like this: A104 with the start point being the junction with the main turnpike.  Once I-476 got replaced PA 9, the mile markers were redone to fit I-476 as a whole.

How about New York, with all the parkways in New York City, on Long Island, and in Westchester?  Ditto for the Garden State Parkway and the Palisades Parkway in New Jersey, as well as the southern section of the New Jersey Turnpike.  These are NJ 444, NJ 445, and NJ 700, respectively, but the route numbers are unsigned.

[dgolub]

Sometimes state highway departments have 'understandings' about certain roads that dip into other jurisdictions...

for instance, NY 120 actually dips into Connecticut briefly....while it is firmly in Connecticut, NYSDOT is in charge of all maintenance for that road...signing, painting, plowing, potholes, etc....same with I-684, which runs a few miles inside Connecticut but has no interchange in the state (closest exit is NY120 just inside the NY state line....)

i dont think it is all that unusual on the East Coast...

Do you mean NY 120A?  I don't think that NY 120 crosses the border, although it comes very close in a couple of spots.

[Brandon]

The first time my parents took me to the Chicagoland Area, I had thought that the "Illinois Tollway" was merely just a SINGLE turnpike within all the other freeways in Chicago, and it puzzled me why those damn trailblazers were all over the Tri-State area, since you rarely (if ever) saw the Tollway logo signs once you were ON the Tollway.

That's because they are directing you to the Tollway System.  Here's a modern one in the wild:

[PHLBOS]

It still strikes me as strange to see highways signed only with the highway name trail blazer.  Oklahoma is one of the two states that I can think of that still does it.  The other one is Kentucky for their parkways.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike's Northeast Extension was signed this way before it became PA 9.  (Of course it is now I-476)  The sign was the generic PA Turnpike trailblazer with no notation that this was the Northeast Extension and not the main turnpike.  The only way to tell at the time was that the mile markers were like this: A104 with the start point being the junction with the main turnpike.  Once I-476 got replaced PA 9, the mile markers were redone to fit I-476 as a whole.

I first drove the NE Extension (which was still PA 9 at the time) back in 1991-1992 (and got off at the PA 63 Lansdale interchange (Exit 31)) and I remember seeing mile markers numbered as 1 through 10 w/no A-prefix along that stretch.  The call-boxes OTOH had the A-prefixed mile markers (A1 through A10) on the posted signs.

[DeaconG]

I miss the Bee Line shield.  Worse, there's no replacement shield for the Beachline (spit), just the TOLL 528 shield.  That Bee Line shield not only had character, but accurately described the drive...

[sipes23]

I wish the Illinois tollway did that for their tollways instead of the same tollway trailblazer for each tollway.

Have you seen the C-KC thing on IL 110 yet?

[webfil]

Genuine Autoroute des Cantons-de-l'Est trailblazer, 9 miles from where that turnpike used to begin : http://goo.gl/maps/WovLh

[formulanone]

The Florida Turnpike has a bunch of variations.

Usually, they don't use Series D for the legend, but it's the basic layout.


Inverted state colors:


Green-black-white oddball:


SR-like one-off: