State Abbreviations on Guide Signs

[shoptb1]

I know that we've touched on this topic in a few other discussions, but I wanted to open this up for discussion in itself.  What, if any, standards are out there for how (and when) to use a state abbreviation after a city name on a guide sign?  This can be either as a control city, or just on a secondary guide sign.  When should it be used...when shouldn't it?  What do you prefer from a formatting standpoint?  I've noticed some oddities across the states....thought I'd post some pictures of these variations and open it up for discussion.

1) All-Caps Two-Character Postal Code with a Trailing Period

I-70 east in Indianapolis...abbreviates Ohio as 'OH' with a following period '.'.


2) All-Caps Two-Character Postal Code without a Trailing Period

Newer Ohio BGS on I-71 north in the Cleveland area...abbreviates Pennsylvania as 'PA'


West Virginia sign on I-77 north near Silverton...abbreviates Ohio as 'OH'


3) Two-Character Postal Code without a Trailing Period and first character is capitalized

Older Ohio BGS on I-480 in the Cleveland area...abbreviates Pennsylvania as 'Pa'


Newer Pennsylvania BGS on I-79 north in the Washington PA area...chooses to put 'Pa' after the city in their own state


4) Non-Standard State Abbreviations

BGS in West Virginia on US-35 uses old-style postal code to abbreviate Ohio as 'O.' (I think this one's cool)  


Arkansas BGS on I-40/I-55 abbreviates Mississippi as 'Miss.' (and uses non-matching shields...arrgghh)


Virginia BGS on I-81S/I-77N abbreviates West Virginia as 'W.Va.'


5) No Abbreviation at All....when you really think there should be...

Ohio BGS on I-70 east near Buckeye Lake doesn't abbreviate Wheeling as 'WV' or Pittsburgh as 'PA' even though both cities are in other states.

[Truvelo]

Newer Pennsylvania BGS on I-79 north in the Washington PA area...chooses to put 'Pa' after the city in their own state

That's probably to avoid confusion with Washington DC

[shoptb1]

That's probably to avoid confusion with Washington DC

Good point, or they could just name it 'Lil' Washington' as the locals refer to it

[Jim]

Most places in New York, at least on Interstates where standard control cities are specified, an out-of-state (or even Canadian) control city does not include a state name or abbreviation.  In the Albany area, we have plenty of "Boston" and "Montreal".  In NYC, there are plenty of "New Haven" and "Trenton".  And new signs on I-87 at Exit 17 have "Scranton" for I-84.  I have pictures still on my camera of those, hope to have them up before too long.

One exception I can recall from I-86 near Jamestown.



All of the "Erie" references on the Thruway that I can recall do not specify the state.

I have also usually seen simply "Pittsfield" and "Bennington" on the state and US highways that connect to those.  

[corco]

Wyoming tends to call Salt Lake by "Salt Lake" and Denver as "Denver," and Sidney as "SidneY" [sic], and Omaha as "Omaha" and Billings as "Billings" from freeway gantries, but one mileage signs you get "Kimball Nebr" "Greeley Colo." "Sidney Nebr", generally without the period

Smaller cities, state is listed pre-1987 abbreviations with no period, like so.



Wyoming's pretty consistent like that

[shoptb1]

Wyoming's pretty consistent like that

That's pretty interesting.  If I saw that sign with 'Decker Mont' I'm not sure that I would know that's referring to Montana.

[Bryant5493]

1) All-Caps Two-Character Postal Code with a Trailing Period

I-70 east in Indianapolis...abbreviates Ohio as 'OH' with a following period '.'.

I'd prefer that without the period at the end.

4) Non-Standard State Abbreviations

BGS in West Virginia on US-35 uses old-style postal code to abbreviate Ohio as 'O.' (I think this one's cool)  

That's an instant fail.

----

In Georgia, I don't think I've seen the state added to an out-of-state destination. Just the "first name," if you will, is used.


Be well,

Bryant

[rawmustard]

Michigan for the most part doesn't abbreviate outside states on its freeway signs, because most likely it's understood that Chicago, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Toledo refer to places outside Michigan. State abbreviations are more apt to appear on non-freeway signs, although having the Great Lakes around the state greatly reduce the number of instances where an outside state's destination could be listed.

[Truvelo]

Perhaps there should be some standardisation in signing places across state lines like this example from Eastern Europe. Cities in other countries have the country code in an oval next to the name.

[tdindy88]

Speaking of Indiana, I believe there is a sign or two in the same area that refers to Columbus as "Columbus O." Of course the Ohio designation is needed so that Columbus isn't confused with Columbus, Indiana. Elsewhere in the state, I've seen Kentucky abreviated as "Ky.", Illinois as "Ill." and Michigan as "MI."

[Duke87]

Most places in New York, at least on Interstates where standard control cities are specified, an out-of-state (or even Canadian) control city does not include a state name or abbreviation.  In the Albany area, we have plenty of "Boston" and "Montreal".  In NYC, there are plenty of "New Haven" and "Trenton".  

Installed just a couple months ago:



Personally, I prefer the postal abbreviation to any other methodology (e.g., "CT", not "Conn."). Two capital letters like that make it immediately obvious you're naming a state. Other abbreviations do not. Also, don't omit the comma please.

That said, I would not put any such suffix in cases where the city is major enough that most people know what state it's in. The "CT" on this sign is utterly unnecessary. Everyone going under it knows that New Haven is in Connecticut.


Also, couple corrections here:

Newer Ohio BGS on I-271 north in the Cleveland area...abbreviates Pennsylvania as 'PA'

This is on I-71 north, not 271.

Older Ohio BGS on I-271 north in the Cleveland area...abbreviates Pennsylvania as 'Pa'

And this one's on 480 east.

[myosh_tino]

AFAIK, California doesn't add state abbreviations to it's guide signs.  From memory (with some help from the AARoads gallery) here is a partial list of out-of-state cities shown on California guide signs...

I-80: Reno
I-15: Las Vegas
I-5: Portland
US 97: Klamath Falls

In all cases, only the city is listed (no abbreviations).

[Ian]

Delaware normally doesn't and I am pretty sure Pennsylvania doesn't either. Though, "New Jersey" appears as a control city for I-276 and the Philadelphia area bridge approaches. New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine do.

[Mr_Northside]

I am pretty sure Pennsylvania doesn't either. Though, "New Jersey" appears as a control city for I-276 and the Philadelphia area bridge approaches.

There are some occasions that the PA-TPK does. (I know at New Stanton, Wheeling has WV attached)
I also recall an axillary guide sign approaching Bedford for "Cumberland Maryland".

I wouldn't be surprised if PennDOT has some around too.

[roadfro]

Re: option 4:  Abbreviations like "Miss." and "W.Va." are standard abbreviations in the Associated Press Stylebook frequently used by news outlets--these can sometimes be more easily recognized than some of the more cryptic postal abbreviations.

Generally, state names are not really necessary to use with a control city. The only time they're really needed is if there needs to be some disambiguating factor so that a control city is not confused for a similarly-named city nearby, as in the Washington PA mentioned above. 

When a state abbreviation is used, I feel it should either be the state's postal abbreviation (without a period) or the AP abbreviation (with a period) should be used. I also think that there should always be a comma between city and state if a state abbreviation is used--although the use of a comma is discouraged by the MUTCD.


For the record, Nevada doesn't use state abbreviations either--at least not on major freeway signs.  Most of the control cities used are fairly self explanatory: Los Angeles, Salt Lake City (sometimes just "Salt Lake"), Sacramento, Phoenix.

Even on many of the non-freeway signs I've seen, there are no state abbreviations: South Lake Tahoe, Bishop (CA); Adel, Lakeview (OR); Boise, Pocatello (ID); and so forth.  Again, these are fairly recognizable and aren't apt to be mistaken for a town in Nevada--cause there's few (if any) place names in Nevada that are close enough to similar names in other states that would be confusing.

[Revive 755]

Here's one on I-64 in Illinois that uses the postal code to distinguish Nashville, IL from Nashville, TN:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=38.392111,-89.377749&spn=0,359.972534&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=38.392069,-89.377373&panoid=EndYk67_ry4RLYjK8w0Y1A&cbp=12,150.58,,0,12.1

At least one sign on I-74 uses the first three letters of the state:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=39.942844,-86.61973&spn=0,359.972534&z=16&layer=c&cbll=39.942757,-86.619739&panoid=31_FnZgicLaaGamxYBJMGw&cbp=12,29.48,,0,-25.3

Missouri using MO on NB I-270:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=38.538666,-90.415978&spn=0,359.945068&z=15&layer=c&cbll=38.538748,-90.416077&panoid=AGlNk2roYt4TV3xd9nKUZw&cbp=12,336.13,,0,4.16

[mightyace]

Again, the infamous New York City via PENNA on I-76 EB near the Ohio Turnpike number switch with I-80.  "PENNA" or "Penna." is an old abbreviation for Pennsylvania and also shows up on the Turnpike Shield.


from AARoads

IIRC That sign or a similar replacement was still there just before Christmas.

[J N Winkler]

Kansas DOT practice, which AFAIK has not been codified as policy, is to use the traditional abbreviation for the other state, rendered in all caps at a smaller letter height, and centered vertically on the name of the city in the other state (in other words, the state abbreviation and the name of that state's city do not share a common baseline).  This fictional sign shows an example:



Personally, I think the use of sentence punctuation (including commas and periods) on signs should be avoided wherever practicable, and spaces (even if of half width) should be used instead.  I also dislike two-letter postal abbreviations (except when they coincide with traditional abbreviations), even at reduced letter height.  For reasons of message loading, other states should normally be identified only when there is a genuine risk of confusion with cities in the same state or with larger, more well-known cities, or when there is some other reason motorists would find it useful to know that a city is in a different state or even a different country.

FWIW, in actuality Kansas DOT doesn't sign "York  NEB," although northbound US 81 has signs giving the distance to "Chester  NEB" and "Hebron  NEB."  These are in the vicinity of Belleville (near the Nebraska state line) and I don't think the state line is otherwise signed.

In El Paso, TxDOT used to sign "Juarez" in button copy but has now changed over to "Juárez, México" in Clearview with accented characters and comma.  Since I don't think there is anyone likely to drive in that area who doesn't know Ciudad Juárez is in Mexico, I think "México" is unnecessary.  The accent over the e, though correct, also looks pedantic and rather precious.  (Mexican signs don't have accented "MEXICO" although they get away with this by the grammatical convention that capitalized words in Spanish do not require accents.)  If I wanted to look sophisticated, I'd probably go for a synthesis of the old and new ways--"Cd Juárez" (using the Spanish abbreviation for "city") or, where required for brevity, just "Juárez"--in Clearview.

In Washington State, WSDOT has an eccentric convention where the Canadian province to the north is concerned.  BC must appear on signs with periods:  "B.C."  If a city in BC is named, additional space (to imply a comma) must be provided between the name of that city and "B.C."  BC is the only place or geographical region for which periods are required.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Newer Pennsylvania BGS on I-79 north in the Washington PA area...chooses to put 'Pa' after the city in their own state

That's probably to avoid confusion with Washington DC

Most likely. Washington, VA (which is also referred to as Little Washington, like the one in PA) is signed "Washington Va" in most places.

[rickmastfan67]

Newer Pennsylvania BGS on I-79 north in the Washington PA area...chooses to put 'Pa' after the city in their own state

It's been like that forever.

[shoptb1]

Also, couple corrections here:

Newer Ohio BGS on I-271 north in the Cleveland area...abbreviates Pennsylvania as 'PA'

This is on I-71 north, not 271.

Older Ohio BGS on I-271 north in the Cleveland area...abbreviates Pennsylvania as 'Pa'

And this one's on 480 east.

Thanks - I've corrected the original post. 

[74/171FAN]

VA uses NC for Rocky Mount, NC on I-95 and I-295 SB to not be confused with Rocky Mount, VA off US 220 south of Roanoke about 200 miles west of I-95  

[Truvelo]

Here's one in northern Iowa

[PAHighways]

Newer Pennsylvania BGS on I-79 north in the Washington PA area...chooses to put 'Pa' after the city in their own state

That's probably to avoid confusion with Washington DC

That is the reason.

Guide signage for I-79 southbound around Pittsburgh leaves off the "Pa."

[Bickendan]

Perhaps there should be some standardisation in signing places across state lines like this example from Eastern Europe. Cities in other countries have the country code in an oval next to the name.

That would be a good means of doing things.

Again, the infamous New York City via PENNA on I-76 EB near the Ohio Turnpike number switch with I-80.  "PENNA" or "Penna." is an old abbreviation for Pennsylvania and also shows up on the Turnpike Shield.


from AARoads

IIRC That sign or a similar replacement was still there just before Christmas.

Gah, that I-76 is noticeably off center.