Roadgeek annoyments

[freebrickproductions]

"Signs are what give a road context. "

I agree, but I'm surprised at how much more emphasis there is on green signs (which, admittedly, are more important,) than other visible signage landmarks such as



or



or




There are some exits that I identify by those or similar landmarks instead of exit numbers; probably because that's how I drive surface streets. I don't find the blades very helpful.

If you're on Facebook, it sounds like you might enjoy the "All Retail" group.

[jon daly]

Is there a non-FB equivalent? I spend enough time online as it is, so I avoid most social media.

I have a few more of these pics (and some highway pics at my blog (Designated Sitter) and my Instagram page (This Used To Be The Future.) My old phone took better pics, so I haven't been taking as many lately, but I did take a bunch in '17.

I actually took a highway sign pic today because I was stuck in traffic. I texted it to my boss as a way of letting him know that I'd be running late.

[DJ Particle]

Cape Cod NIMBYs

Seriously... it's why the Mid-Cape Highway (US-6) is the cramped (no shoulder lanes over most of it, a Super-2 section known for its head-on collisions, Eastham extension cancelled in 1970) badly-signed (very little overhead signage despite the heavily-wooded surroundings, and even then overhead signage is only around the canal) freeway it is.  Locals don't even consider it a freeway because they say "a freeway is a 'city thing'".  They need to accept that the Cape hasn't been "rural" for decades... not even Truro is truly rural anymore.

They are the ones whose complaints put the exit renumbering on hold in the ENTIRETY of Massachusetts.

[US71]

AHTD gets me because they say they are going to preserve an old bridge, then wind up demolishing it, anyway...sometimes before I can get over there to photograph it. Of course. MoDOT is nearly as bad.

[MantyMadTown]

When a road sign shows up in a movie or TV show and you can't find it anywhere in real life.

I was watching S7E11 of Shameless (trying to catch myself up for season 9) and I found a stretch of OK-66 that I don't think is even there, and Farm Road 3605 near I-44 in Texas. This stretch of OK-66 looked like it was going through some dry grassland, the kind you'd see if you go further out west, and OK-66 doesn't even go that far. I also tried looking it up, but Texas Farm Road 3605 also doesn't exist.

Doesn't it annoy you when movies and TV shows use fake highways?

[roadman65]

I love it when Bob Dylan sang Highway 99 in NJ in one of the Traveling Wilbury's tune.  You think he would have used Highway 95 for I-95 that does exist.

[jon daly]

I'm not sure what song that is, but perhaps he was trying to make it rhyme.

[DJ Particle]

That reminds me... an animated Doctor Who episode from 2010 supposedly depicted the "alien crash" at Roswell in 1947.... and there was a sign for "I-25"

interstates weren't a thing yet in 1947! 

[bzakharin]

I love it when Bob Dylan sang Highway 99 in NJ in one of the Traveling Wilbury's tune.  You think he would have used Highway 95 for I-95 that does exist.

There isn't a "highway" anything in NJ anyway. They are routes or more rarely Interstates. Here "highway" is the generic term never used with a number.

[CapeCodder]

Cape Cod NIMBYs

Seriously... it's why the Mid-Cape Highway (US-6) is the cramped (no shoulder lanes over most of it, a Super-2 section known for its head-on collisions, Eastham extension cancelled in 1970) badly-signed (very little overhead signage despite the heavily-wooded surroundings, and even then overhead signage is only around the canal) freeway it is.  Locals don't even consider it a freeway because they say "a freeway is a 'city thing'".  They need to accept that the Cape hasn't been "rural" for decades... not even Truro is truly rural anymore.

They are the ones whose complaints put the exit renumbering on hold in the ENTIRETY of Massachusetts.

I totally agree with you. The Cape is getting more urban. I don't think they've replaced the BGS's along the road. Reflective material is all but gone.

[jp the roadgeek]

I love it when Bob Dylan sang Highway 99 in NJ in one of the Traveling Wilbury's tune.  You think he would have used Highway 95 for I-95 that does exist.

At least Springsteen was accurate with his Highway 9 (Born to Run; although most call it Route 9) and Route 88 (Spirit in the Night) lyrics, except Greasy Lake must be a local spot, as I don't see it in GSV.


At least Highway 61 is real, Dylan being from Minnesota and all.

[mrcmc888]

I'd say any sort of NIMBY is an annoyance.  Especially when the proponents tell you smugly, "You'd think the same way if they were going to build the road on top of your house."

I understand not wanting to move but I think inconveniencing thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, or maybe even millions of commuters a day along that specific road just because you don't want to leave is an extremely selfish decision, especially when you're getting government compensation for your land and home.

[1995hoo]

I'm not sure what song that is, but perhaps he was trying to make it rhyme.

"Tweeter and the Monkey Man."

Tweeter and the Monkey Man were hard up for cash.
They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash
To an undercover cop who had a sister named Jan.
For reasons unexplained she loved the Monkey Man.
Tweeter was a Boy Scout 'fore she went to Vietnam
And found out the hard way, nobody gives a damn.
They knew that they'd find freedom just across the Jersey line,
So they hopped into a stolen car, took Highway 99.

And the walls came down
All the way to hell.
Never saw them when they're standing,
Never saw them when they fell.

....

It's obviously there for the rhyme. Nobody in Jersey would say "Highway 99"  even if there were such a road there. They'd say "Route,"  though they'd incorrectly pronounce it as "Root."

[D-Dey65]

I'd say any sort of NIMBY is an annoyance.  Especially when the proponents tell you smugly, "You'd think the same way if they were going to build the road on top of your house."

I've seriously hoped some of them would say it to my face, so I can challenge them to make bets on their sentiment. Then I'd show them incidents where I actually advocated road improvements within places I've lived in and have been familiar enough with, some of them roads I actually lived on.

[silverback1065]

[insert project here] is going to cause too much traffic and noise! -every nimby

[DJ Particle]

It's obviously there for the rhyme. Nobody in Jersey would say "Highway 99"  even if there were such a road there. They'd say "Route,"  though they'd incorrectly pronounce it as "Root."

Or more likely because Bob Dylan hails from Minnesota, where state highways are called "Highway".   

[DJ Particle]

I totally agree with you. The Cape is getting more urban. I don't think they've replaced the BGS's along the road. Reflective material is all but gone.

They just replaced the BGSs along US-6 on the Upper/Mid Cape this year.  The last time they were replaced were 20-25 years ago.  They're still ground-mounted, and as such will still tend to get hidden by growing trees, and even now, the only parts of the freeway to have a shoulder/breakdown lane is eastbound between exits 67-77 (6-9), and westbound just west of Exit 74 (8)...the parts that were built in 1967.

The BGSs in Truro for exits 106 & 109...are even older.  The signs for Exit 109 were last replaced in the 1980s, and last I knew, the Exit 106 signs (save for one) date back to when the road was the weird 3 lane setup (pre-1976)

[1995hoo]

It's obviously there for the rhyme. Nobody in Jersey would say "Highway 99"  even if there were such a road there. They'd say "Route,"  though they'd incorrectly pronounce it as "Root."

Or more likely because Bob Dylan hails from Minnesota, where state highways are called "Highway".   

I was referring more to the "99"  part being there for the rhyme. "Highway"  fits the meter, whereas "Route"  (regardless of pronunciation) doesn't. Poetic license is legitimate!

[hubcity]

Greasy Lake must be a local spot, as I don't see it in GSV.

It appears to have become Lake Shenandoah - about a mile out (from Route 9) on the south side of Route 88.

[formulanone]

Bannered US Routes in general:

Truck, Business, Spur, By-Pass, Alternate, Suffixed...it's tricky to figure them out at first glance, there's limited consistency, and they're sometimes tough to keep track of.

[kphoger]

[JCT] with an arrow.

[roadman]

Far less common than they used to be, but you still see advance route assemblies with just a shield and a double arrow instead of full directional assemblies.  Yes, I know for years this was actually MUTCD compliant, but it still gets me.

[sparker]

Doesn't it annoy you when movies and TV shows use fake highways?

Last night's (9/25) episode of Bull, the season opener, had a plot twist whereby a character dropped for this season was dealt with by killing her off -- in a New Jersey bridge collapse on "Interstate 99" (with a viaduct that looked much like the Pulaski but with a section missing via CGI).  Doesn't I-99 get enough grief from we roadgeeks without having it collapse with multiple fatalities on network TV -- in the wrong state!?  

[DJ Particle]

Doesn't I-99 get enough grief from we roadgeeks without having it collapse with multiple fatalities on network TV -- in the wrong state!?

They should have called it I-101   

[jeffandnicole]

Doesn't it annoy you when movies and TV shows use fake highways?

Last night's (9/25) episode of Bull, the season opener, had a plot twist whereby a character dropped for this season was dealt with by killing her off -- in a New Jersey bridge collapse on "Interstate 99" (with a viaduct that looked much like the Pulaski but with a section missing via CGI).  Doesn't I-99 get enough grief from we roadgeeks without having it collapse with multiple fatalities on network TV -- in the wrong state!?  

However, it was a subliminal reference to say where I-99 should be.  That in itself deserved a lot of bonus points because at least some writer or designer or whoever recognizes where I-99 should be placed in the interstate system grid!