Longest distance from exit ramp to control point city

[Scott5114]

US 287 north out of Boise City, OK, has a directional sign for "Denver, CO", which is 306 miles away.

Going east out of town, there's a sign for Amarillo and OKC:


Probably a record for two cities in the same state. Too bad they don't list mileage to Idabel...part of the concurrency that passes by this sign is SH-3, which runs from Colorado (18 miles north of Boise City) to Idabel (about equidistant from Texas and Arkansas in the SE corner of the state). SH-3 is the longest OK state highway, passing the 100 milepost before it even gets out of the Panhandle and ending east of Idabel, racking up an impressive total of 616 miles! Were Idabel listed, it'd have a mileage on this sign of 569.

Boise City is inconveniently far away from everywhere!

[Bryant5493]

IIRC, in Cobb County, near the Windy Hill Road Interchange, there's a similar one for the pull-through of I-75 coming southbound.

I-285 West (Birminham/Tampa) signage


Be well,

Bryant

[TheStranger]

On the other hand, routes like 101 and 99 in California (which pass through several notable communities between Northern and Southern California) lend themselves perfectly to the presence of intermediate control cities, i.e. on 101...

Primary: Los Angeles -> Hollywood -> Ventura -> San Francisco northbound, San Jose -> Los Angeles southbound
Secondary: Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Salinas

For 99, there are probably more:

Primary: Bakersfield -> Fresno -> Sacramento northbound, Stockton -> Fresno -> Los Angeles southbound
secondary: Modesto, Turlock, Merced, Madera

All of those places are metropolises compared to, say, Milton or Dubois...  

[The High Plains Traveler]

Omaha is a control city on I-80 in Cheyenne, and that's 494 miles away

However, these signs are being replaced by new Clearview signs that have new control cities: Fort Collins for SB I-25 instead of Denver and Sidney for EB I-80 instead of Omaha.  Sidney is much closer than Omaha and isn't very big as control cities go, and if I had been consulted I might have suggested use of South Platte.

[Bickendan]

it's one thing to be lazy and use Arial

Better Arial than Clearview...

Speaking of bad US shields, at SE Powell Blvd (US 26) and SE 39th Ave in Portland, there's a US 26 directional shield with the '26' centered a good several inches too high on the shield.

[Scott5114]

it's one thing to be lazy and use Arial

Better Arial than Clearview...

I have to say I would rather have Clearview than many of the non-highway fonts in existence...

[agentsteel53]

I have to say I would rather have Clearview than many of the non-highway fonts in existence...

yes, Clearview is a lot nicer than Arial, or "My Mommy Works Here Sans".

[shoptb1]

yes, Clearview is a lot nicer than Arial, or "My Mommy Works Here Sans".

[agentsteel53]

yes, Clearview is a lot nicer than Arial, or "My Mommy Works Here Sans".

a brown object that I, ahem, manufactured this morning also looks better than "My Mommy Works Here Sans" so don't get your hopes too high up!

[architect77]

After being stolen for the fourth time in September '09, NCDOT announced they won't be replacing this distance sign as I-40 begins in Wilmington, NC.

[Scott5114]

Good job. Way to go, hosers.

[rickmastfan67]

After being stolen for the fourth time in September '09, NCDOT announced they won't be replacing this distance sign as I-40 begins in Wilmington, NC.

Wrong.  They happened to find one remaining one in storage and are going to post it.

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=100.msg43526#msg43526
http://www.wwaytv3.com/no_sign_road_ahead/11/2009

[shoptb1]

After being stolen for the fourth time in September '09, NCDOT announced they won't be replacing this distance sign as I-40 begins in Wilmington, NC.

Maybe it's just me, but if NCDOT wanted to avoid having this sign stolen so many times, one would think that they would mount it some place that wasn't so easy to just walk up and steal.  I mean hell, it doesn't even look like someone would need a ladder to take that one down.  Not saying that makes it ok, but they are kind of asking for it with that installation.

[Truvelo]

Wouldn't it be better to give the distance to somewhere more useful such as Raleigh? How many people would drive all the way to Barstow?

As for the theft problem, how about mounting it on the bridge surrounded by razor wire

[Bryant5493]

Why is that Barstow, Calif. sign being stolen, anyway?


Be well,

Bryant

[Scott5114]

Wouldn't it be better to give the distance to somewhere more useful such as Raleigh? How many people would drive all the way to Barstow?

As for the theft problem, how about mounting it on the bridge surrounded by razor wire

That sign is outside Wilmington NC, the east end of I-40. Barstow is home to the west end of I-40. Thus the purpose of the sign isn't to be useful, just to be neat. I think that California has (or at least had) a sign listing the distance to Wilmington near Barstow as well.

Similar examples exist in Sacramento and Ocean City, MD giving the distance to the other (termini of US 50), and Baltimore has a mileage sign near the beginning of I-70 listing distances to Columbus, OH; St Louis, MO; Denver, CO; and Cove Fort, UT (the western terminus of the interstate), installed a few years ago as a proof-of-concept for Clearview.

[shoptb1]

As for the theft problem, how about mounting it on the bridge surrounded by razor wire

This is North Carolina, not Nazi Germany (or CalTrans-Land even)!    

[architect77]

In September 1991, I drove into LA for the first time. As I departed Victorville I suddenly entered a huge white cloud of smog probably ten times worse than LA ever gets today, and practically every center pedestal sign in San Bernadino county was covered in graffiti despite the razor wire.

I do agree that NCDOT could mount the sign onto the bridge with enough extension outward to thwart any efforts to steal the sign again.

I used to pass this sign everyday in Santa Monica, and also pictured is an old photo taken in Barstow.

[Riverside Frwy]

In Ventura, San Francisco is the control city for US 101, a good 365 miles away.

[TheStranger]

In Ventura, San Francisco is the control city for US 101, a good 365 miles away.

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=2157.msg49291#msg49291

First time is around Route 126 at 364 miles south exactly!

[agentsteel53]

thread resurrection 



Just got this photo from Michael Summa, who took it in the late 70s.

760 miles to San Francisco, 790 to Portland.  We may very well have a winner!

[huskeroadgeek]

I wonder how long that sign was up. The current sign(which has been up at least since 2004 when I was last through there and probably longer than that) just has Salt Lake and Ogden-no San Francisco or Portland. To me, very distant signs like that are novelties sort of like the mileage signs at the end of US 50, I-70 and I-40 because the cities on them don't appear again for quite awhile. I'm guessing even back then, a sign for San Francisco probably didn't appear again until Reno, and one for Portland didn't appear again until past Boise. Same for Miami at the I-85/I-95 jct. in Petersburg, Va.-Miami doesn't appear again until somewhere in Florida.

To me, the real winner in something like this would be a city that appears as a control city and then consistently appears on signs until that city is reached. The longest ones of these I have seen would be El Paso which first appears as a control city for I-10 West in San Antonio(554 Miles). Not sure about the longest mileage sign, but I know Las Vegas begins appearing on mileage signs at some point on I-70 WB W. of Denver.

[TheStranger]

I'm guessing even back then, a sign for San Francisco probably didn't appear again until Reno,

Looking at Google Street View, I-80 is signed westbound for Sacramento only at US 395...I don't even think San Francisco becomes a primary westbound control city until the Roseville area (100 miles away)!

[Scott5114]

One wonders if there were also Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta Recreation Areas.

[agentsteel53]

One wonders if there were also Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta Recreation Areas.

there's probably a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot recreation area.  Wait, no, this is Utah.  Water Tango Foxtrot, then.