On a recent trip, I saw a few signs that had Cutoff on them.
I've seen these signs in a lot of travels, and was curious what the cutoff indicates when you see a road labeled as such?
I think it's just a more direct route, sort of a bypass from route to another. At least in the South, it usually mentions a place name. (Bobtown Cutoff Road would indicate it's near Bobtown.)
I'm never quite sure if a "cutoff" leads to or away from the place it indicates, but I suppose that depends if you just passed the destination or not.
In my county, KY 498 is commonly called the Cutoff Road.
At the intersection of KY 52 and KY 498, KY 52 takes a 90-degree southward turn while KY 498 more or less continues east to KY 11, 2.5 miles away. Without the presence of the Cutoff Road, any eastbound traffic on KY 52 that needed to access KY 11 north would have to drive five miles to their intersection before turning north. And given the quality of KY 11 as a road rebuilt in the early 1980s, much traffic now uses KY 498 to KY 11 south to go to Beattyville.
https://goo.gl/maps/KKr3GBZcdZLAC6Et7
Connecticut used the term "cutoff" frequently in the 1930s and 1940s, for bypass routes around cities, mostly on US 1 and US 5. They were not necessarily the shortest route, but intended to be the quickest.
In the 1930s, several new "cutoff" routes for US 1 were signed as US 1A. One problem: the state found out that some motorists that would benefit from the cutoffs were reluctant to leave US 1, and ended up driving through downtown anyway. So, in 1939, they swapped US 1 and US 1A in each city so the thru route was US 1. More info: http://kurumi.com/roads/ct/us1a.html
The Hastings Cutoff on the California Trail led to the demise of the Donner party. Cutoffs, while they may be shorter, aren't necessarily the best route.
There is a Six Mile Cutoff Rd near Eagle Mountain, Utah. It's more or less a shorter way than Eagle Mountain Blvd to get to that city from SR 73...except most of it isn't paved or even maintained all that well. (Also, it doesn't save 6 miles, and the road is more in the neighborhood of 3 miles long... so I'd love to know where the name came from.)
Somebody post that infamous Wiener Cutoff Road sign pic from Arkansas!
Some quick googling found that one:
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/490d95764f39fd5e6fd9218c5a07350c/4b10a2b32029b7a2-7a/s640x960/e11d10ead79e2135f0fee8dec28cd35f6c007c08.jpg)