If you've recently come up with a new word for something road-related, and think it might catch on, try sharing it here!
I've recently started using the term "ramplet" for those smooth right-turn rampy thingies at intersections. I think the conventional engineering term is "channelized right turn" but that's not very catchy.
I call those "cutoff ramps".
I've always heard them referred to as "porkchops".
I call a short numbered route that was once a significantly longer designation (VA 162, for example) a "remnant route".
Remant routes, now with enhanced clinch-ability!
I call those painted intersections with crosshatched stripes "waffles".
Wow, a thread called "roadgeek neologisms" and it wasn't started by NE2...
Quote from: vtk on May 31, 2012, 05:00:07 PM
If you've recently come up with a new word for something road-related, and think it might catch on, try sharing it here!
Viatology!
Oh, wait... :ded:
Delta junction.
I don't know if other people use it or not; I think I inherited the term from Spanish (by way of a map legend in GuÃa Roji). I think it should be pretty obvious what it is, but here's an example:
http://goo.gl/maps/SjZS (http://goo.gl/maps/SjZS)
Not necessarily new, but Bugo coined the term "Oklahoma Y" a few years ago :thumbsup:
Quote from: kphoger on June 01, 2012, 12:03:37 AM
Delta junction.
I don't know if other people use it or not; I think I inherited the term from Spanish (by way of a map legend in GuÃa Roji). I think it should be pretty obvious what it is, but here's an example:
http://goo.gl/maps/SjZS (http://goo.gl/maps/SjZS)
The English equivalent is probably simply a "wye" or "Y junction", inherited from the rail terminology for the same sort of thing. As noted above since ODOT seems particularly fond of them, "Oklahoma Y" is a somewhat popular term.
I contributed "Volleyball Interchange (http://www.google.com/search?q="volleyball+interchange")".
Quote from: vtk on May 31, 2012, 05:00:07 PM
I've recently started using the term "ramplet" for those smooth right-turn rampy thingies at intersections. I think the conventional engineering term is "channelized right turn" but that's not very catchy.
I call them sliplanes.
Quote from: vtk on May 31, 2012, 05:00:07 PM
I've recently started using the term "ramplet" for those smooth right-turn rampy thingies at intersections. I think the conventional engineering term is "channelized right turn" but that's not very catchy.
Quote from: Duke87 on May 31, 2012, 07:13:15 PM
I've always heard them referred to as "porkchops".
"Channelized right turn" is the engineering term. The "pork chop" or "pork chop island" is a term referring to the raised island (or neutral area) created between the intersecting roadways and the channelized turn lane.
Bip: the thing that takes you around a city.
Quote from: Scott5114 on June 01, 2012, 12:24:39 AMThe English equivalent is probably simply a "wye" or "Y junction", inherited from the rail terminology for the same sort of thing. As noted above since ODOT seems particularly fond of them, "Oklahoma Y" is a somewhat popular term.
In Britain, a variant of this junction type (not designed to handle high-speed movements) used to be called a "Bennett junction."
I probably coined "cloverstack", not that anybody uses that much... I also refer to 4-level full stack interchanges as the Maltese Cross, from their aerial appearance. I don't think that's ever caught on, either.
I also measure street widths by "stripe", from the number of crosswalk stripes it takes to span it. This comes from exploring Philadelphia, where they have a fascinating fractal grid of ever-decreasing street widths, from a 13-stripe (or more) main drag, through small 3-stripers (side streets) and even down to tiny one-stripe alleys, not even wide enough for motor traffic. I have a fondness for tiny streets. :-)
Quote from: empirestate on June 01, 2012, 03:44:30 PMI also refer to 4-level full stack interchanges as the Maltese Cross, from their aerial appearance. I don't think that's ever caught on, either.
It has. I have seen it in official publications and there are at least 13 hits on it in this forum, all in relation to a type of fully semi-directional four-level interchange where direct connectors handling opposite-facing left turns do not cross in plan. The term is also well known in other European languages:
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorv%C3%A4gskorsning
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahnkreuz#Malteserkreuz
A while ago, in another forum I frequent, I published a list of Maltese cross stacks I had compiled. It has some omissions (and I have not attempted to keep it up to date), but I counted 71, of which 64 are in the US. Texas alone has 29 and California is the closest runner-up with 10.
http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=23923
Well how do you like that! Great minds think alike. ;-)
UCEB: Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridge (for most modern bridges)
Australian terms
Coverplate (greenout plates)
Focal Point (control cities)
Trailblazer (shield assembly)
Quote from: national highway 1 on June 01, 2012, 10:13:44 PM
Australian terms
Trailblazer (shield assembly)
Over here, that's an official word in the MUTCD.
I call the new LED street lamps I'm seeing throughout L.A. "flatheads" based on their shape. However, I'm also seeing another variant that looks like the old cobraheads, of which I've dubbed them "flat cobras."
Virginia has expanded a number of its US routes from two to four lanes by building two lanes parallel to the existing highway, and leaving the original highway in service as one direction of travel. This is usually pretty obvious when one carriageway has two 10-foot lanes and follows the contour of the land, while the other has two 12-foot lanes and is flat.
I once called this "Virginia twinning," and then promptly forgot that I came up with the term until someone reminded me on m.t.r.
That's actually called a "Missouri Expressway."
US 31 north of Indy is that way as was old M-21 (now M-121?) between Grand Rapids and Holland.
How about when you have a freeway exit, but shortly later another exit that serves the same road? I call them idiot ramps. (such at 38 1/2 on south I-35 and Spicewood off South Mopac in Austin).
Quote from: national highway 1 on June 01, 2012, 10:13:44 PM
Australian terms
Coverplate (greenout plates)
Focal Point (control cities)
Trailblazer (shield assembly)
One of my favorites in Oz was a same word-different spelling one: a curb in the US is a kerb there and probably in most of the rest of the English-speaking world. Also, in both Oz and New Zealand, their yield signs say "Give way".
Yep, that's what we do here.
Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.
Quote from: US71 on June 03, 2012, 10:28:50 AM
Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.
That's not a roadgeek neologism. It's an ignorant driver neologism.
Quote from: US71 on June 03, 2012, 10:28:50 AM
Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.
You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?
Quote from: empirestate on June 04, 2012, 01:16:22 AM
Quote from: US71 on June 03, 2012, 10:28:50 AM
Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.
You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?
That's not correct usage either. A true suicide lane has the same markings on each side, and gives neither direction right-of-way. Here's an example in the UK: http://www.rural-roads.co.uk/shap/shap1.shtml
Quote from: empirestate on June 04, 2012, 01:16:22 AM
Quote from: US71 on June 03, 2012, 10:28:50 AM
Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.
You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?
That almost sounds like MoDOT's "Shared 4 Lane"
Quote from: texaskdog on June 02, 2012, 09:20:46 PM
How about when you have a freeway exit, but shortly later another exit that serves the same road? I call them idiot ramps. (such at 38 1/2 on south I-35 and Spicewood off South Mopac in Austin).
The Twin Cities have plenty of those.
"Sign Salad" - a term I haven't originated, but refers to a cluster of signs (mainly highway markers indicating directions at an intersections). Missouri seems to have a few of them. Wisconsin is more apt to have a "poster sign salad" in that their multiple highway directional indications are all painted onto a single sign board.
New York is absolutely notorious for sign salad, although for salads, they're typically easy to read. This GSV image (http://goo.gl/maps/9w3N) is a bit blurry, but you can see there are 8! shields on this assembly.
I believe "Sine Salad" originated from C. C. Slater aka Comrade Yamamoto. I've used the term for a few photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/therealkurumi/5232317292/ (US 43/412/31)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/therealkurumi/5231964247/ (kentucky 3-layer)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/therealkurumi/5231964453/ (kentucky 5-layer)
Quote from: kurumi on June 04, 2012, 07:31:48 PM
"Sine Salad"
why has this idiotic "miller lite" spelling been allowed to propagate?
Quote from: NE2 on June 04, 2012, 07:06:44 AM
Quote from: empirestate on June 04, 2012, 01:16:22 AM
Quote from: US71 on June 03, 2012, 10:28:50 AM
Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.
You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?
That's not correct usage either. A true suicide lane has the same markings on each side, and gives neither direction right-of-way. Here's an example in the UK: http://www.rural-roads.co.uk/shap/shap1.shtml
Didn't realize "suicide lane" was an official-enough term to have a "correct" usage! :-P
Quote from: agentsteel53 on June 04, 2012, 07:48:20 PM
Quote from: kurumi on June 04, 2012, 07:31:48 PM
"Sine Salad"
why has this idiotic "miller lite" spelling been allowed to propagate?
If memory serves correct, "Comrade" Otto Yamamoto was the first to use that phrase. Or one of the earlier adopters of it.
Quote from: empirestate on June 04, 2012, 09:06:01 PM
Quote from: NE2 on June 04, 2012, 07:06:44 AM
Quote from: empirestate on June 04, 2012, 01:16:22 AM
Quote from: US71 on June 03, 2012, 10:28:50 AM
Suicide Lanes: the continuous Left Turn Lanes.
You mean, as distinct from the earlier usage (the middle lane of a three-lane highway, 2 in one direction and 1 in the other, where the one-laned direction has a broken yellow)?
That's not correct usage either. A true suicide lane has the same markings on each side, and gives neither direction right-of-way. Here's an example in the UK: http://www.rural-roads.co.uk/shap/shap1.shtml
Didn't realize "suicide lane" was an official-enough term to have a "correct" usage! :-P
http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/suicide_lane/ has some citations showing early use for passing and later use for turning (probably once most passing examples had been restriped).
Quote from: NE2 on June 05, 2012, 08:16:57 AM
Quote from: empirestate on June 04, 2012, 09:06:01 PM
Didn't realize "suicide lane" was an official-enough term to have a "correct" usage! :-P
http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/suicide_lane/ has some citations showing early use for passing and later use for turning (probably once most passing examples had been restriped).
Given the evolution of the concept, I'd say the term is appropriate for all of the above definitions. However, the most recent usage, that of the two-way left turn lane, probably owes more to lineage than to actual descriptiveness; it's fairly unlikely that two opposing vehicles, each about to either stop or exit the roadway, pose much theoretical threat to each other. Of course there is great potential for misuse of these lanes, so the term isn't yet archaic.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on June 04, 2012, 07:48:20 PM
Quote from: kurumi on June 04, 2012, 07:31:48 PM
"Sine Salad"
why has this idiotic "miller lite" spelling been allowed to propagate?
New-timer, are ya? ;-) That all goes back to the golden years of m.t.r. and roadgeek websites. It was popularized if not coined by C. C. Slater.
Quote from: empirestate on June 05, 2012, 03:03:12 PM
New-timer, are ya? ;-) That all goes back to the golden years of m.t.r. and roadgeek websites. It was popularized if not coined by C. C. Slater.
MTR has provided idiot spelling and Cal Rogers... I'm not sure I'd call it "golden years".
I'll see if I can get a picture of a sign around here that reads "OVERNITE PARKING PROHIBITED". I'm sure Jake will love it.
Quote from: Kacie Jane on June 05, 2012, 04:42:16 PM
I'll see if I can get a picture of a sign around here that reads "OVERNITE PARKING PROHIBITED". I'm sure Jake will love it.
Is that really worse than "THRU TRAFFIC"?
Quote from: agentsteel53 on June 05, 2012, 03:05:57 PM
Quote from: empirestate on June 05, 2012, 03:03:12 PM
New-timer, are ya? ;-) That all goes back to the golden years of m.t.r. and roadgeek websites. It was popularized if not coined by C. C. Slater.
MTR has provided idiot spelling and Cal Rogers... I'm not sure I'd call it "golden years".
I'm not. I'm calling that time period "golden years", and it may well not be the same time period you consider "golden". But if peculiar spelling (used selectively for expressive purposes, not out of ignorance) irks you, you probably should avoid reading Josh Billings as well.
Quote from: The High Plains Traveler on June 05, 2012, 06:33:25 PM
Quote from: Kacie Jane on June 05, 2012, 04:42:16 PM
I'll see if I can get a picture of a sign around here that reads "OVERNITE PARKING PROHIBITED". I'm sure Jake will love it.
Is that really worse than "THRU TRAFFIC"?
I was going to argue dictionary... and then realized "thru", "lite", and "nite" are all in Merriam-Webster. Godfuckingdammit. But yes, I find thru the least innocuous of the three.
Two I use personally:
The Miichigan Trumpet:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=43.87841,-84.78016&z=15&t=S (http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=43.87841,-84.78016&z=15&t=S)
It's a semi-directional wye interchange where the least used left turn motion exits from the right and curves on a tight loop back around to merge from the right again. It's used in places where a trumpet interchange would probably function well enough, but someone made the effort to not have that 'left exit' that a trumpet does for the loop ramp. I first observed it in Michigan and they have a couple of 'em so that's what I call it.
The Texas Stack:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=32.73717,-97.47991&z=16&t=S (http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=32.73717,-97.47991&z=16&t=S)
That's a four-level stack interchange where the right turn motion ramps are tucked underneath the left turning motion ramps. There's a couple in DFW so that's where I got the name from.
As a kid I witnessed an oddity in RI 78: it's fully access controlled, but only one lane in each direction. I came up with the term "semi-highway", or "semi-hi" for short, to describe this. Of course, we all know this as a "super 2".
Interestingly, at the time I was unaware that there was any other road like this in existence and indeed thought it was so absurd that it must be unique - at least in the real world. I subsequently filled notebooks with fictitious examples. :)
Another batch of Aussie neologisms.
AD, Advance Directional Sign, used for advance signange at upcoming major intersections
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozroads.com.au%2FNSW%2FRouteNumbering%2FState%2520Routes%2F40%2F25.JPG&hash=f7d3a8953966ea051c73aa1f9a8d7a220002b9a1)
A diagrammatical AD sign used with arrows that show where the lanes go
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozroads.com.au%2FNSW%2FRouteNumbering%2FState%2520Routes%2F40%2F08.JPG&hash=c31bf9b7dda15f91d0ac903636391bc36a21ff6a)
ID, Intersection Directional Signs, used for signage at the intersection itself
Newer signage incorporates the road name patch into the sign itself.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozroads.com.au%2FNSW%2FRouteNumbering%2FState%2520Routes%2F40%2F34.JPG&hash=a43d72d7775f184f6620a40d630e281ad97f210a)
RD, Reassurance Directional Signs also called distance signs.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozroads.com.au%2FNSW%2FRouteNumbering%2FState%2520Routes%2F40%2F51.JPG&hash=45bfbbcb55ae7924930889d2cf304844aa525854)
Fork signs, used on freeways
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozroads.com.au%2FNSW%2FFreeways%2FM5%2F01.JPG&hash=3925e177a2e83e6633d0ff4c2a8734aa76d9912a)
Fingerboards, used on many rural highways showing the distance to the nearest towns.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozroads.com.au%2FNSW%2FHighways%2FPacific%2F355.JPG&hash=641eaec1a3c5a6ab16e897d6b68ae33cac198b05)
Double-Chevron Signs, a modern variant to the the fingerboard
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozroads.com.au%2FNSW%2FRouteNumbering%2FState%2520Routes%2F89%2F21.JPG&hash=b4e10ffe8321e17a2391955c0d148d11f2c36436)
Kilometre plates, used at 5km intervals on rural highways, with the town's intial at the top. The E stands for Euston. Usually towns with the same first letter have an additional letter to differentiate between the two.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozroads.com.au%2FNSW%2FRouteNumbering%2FNational%2520Routes%2F79%2Fsilvercity_01.JPG&hash=2088625ee1b70a5c2c3df850121d2917683e539d)