Oddly Designated Control Cities

[Ian]

My first roommate in college was from Pennsylvania and he hated Penna... but what got him really upset was "Pennsy"...The Star Ledger used to use that back in the 1980s..

For some reason, I find "Pennsy" more appealing than "Penna."

[cpzilliacus]

My first roommate in college was from Pennsylvania and he hated Penna... but what got him really upset was "Pennsy"...The Star Ledger used to use that back in the 1980s..

For some reason, I find "Pennsy" more appealing than "Penna."

There is a Pennsy Drive in the Landover section of Prince George's County, Maryland. 

It's mostly a warehouse area, and yes, nearby is Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, once owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad.

[jp the roadgeek]

Hello folks! This is (kinda sorta) a spinoff of the "Control Cities in Your State" thread.

Are there any control city designations that, while not necessarily wrong, are quite odd in the grand scheme of things?

I-95 south in RI seems to deny the existance of any control cities in CT. If they refer to any cities south of their border, the closest one they refer to is New York, like CT doesn't even exist. 

I found this website (http://www.kurumi.com/roads/ct/i395.html) which talks about CT roads and it might shed light on this subject, specifically this blurb about CT/RI:

Connecticut vs. Rhode Island
Some of the following is based on fact, and some has not been proven. It concerns why the Connecticut Turnpike was routed by Norwich and Killingly instead of continuing along the shore; and what might have been some consequences decades later.

Reasons for locating the Turnpike northward certainly included helping Norwich and Killingly. State Senator Lawrence Gilman (not the music critic) is said to have favored a highway linking Norwich to the shoreline. The Turnpike's original name is the Greenwich-Killingly Expressway, for the towns at each end.

As the Turnpike was being designed, the allocation of a federal Interstate route along the shore was already well-known. Some say that the Killingly alignment was also intended to secure a longer extent of future Interstate 95 in Connecticut. This would have resulted in fewer miles for Rhode Island, as I-95 would have proceeded straight across to Providence; under Ocean State protest, as the story goes, Interstate 95 was ruled to go closer to the shore.

The final part of the story: In the early 1980s, when Connecticut needed Rhode Island's help to keep the eastern I-84 proposal alive, Rhode Island remembered the Connecticut Turnpike/I-95 attempt and "got revenge" by stuffing I-84.

Again, I've heard this from just a few people, and not seen any sources you could call official. But the story is interesting nonetheless.

In my opinion, Rhode Island wanted to get back at Connecticut even more and did so by not recognizing any control cities in CT on south I-95.

Because when RI tries to recognize CT control cities on exit signs, they can't get it right. The US 6 West sign just before the 6/10 split, and the signs on I-95 Exits in Downtown Providence direct you to "Hartford Ct."  The fact that there is a capital C and small t would tell me that there's a street nearby off the exit called Hartford Court.  Took them years to get the signs right on I-295

[NE2]

'Ct.' is a valid abbreviation for Connecticut...

[jp the roadgeek]

'Ct.' is a valid abbreviation for Connecticut...

It's always written as capital C capital T on envelopes.  Capital C and small t is the abbreviation for court.

[Scott5114]

'Ct.' is a valid abbreviation for Connecticut...

Is it? I thought the traditional, pre-postal abbreviation was "Conn." ...

[jp the roadgeek]

'Ct.' is a valid abbreviation for Connecticut...

Is it? I thought the traditional, pre-postal abbreviation was "Conn." ...

True.  My mother still writes Conn. when addressing envelopes (generation gap).  But with the capitalization discussion, the 2 letter state abbreviations (CT, NY, MA) are all in caps.  The street abbreviations (St., Rd., Av(e)., Ct.) are all capitalized first letters, but small second letters.

[roadman65]

How about  the use of "THE" when 2 or more cities share something in common.

The Amboys- Perth and South Amboys in New Jersey
The Palm Beaches- Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach
The Oranges- Orange, East Orange, West Orange, South Orange in NJ again.

Odd, but effective, I must say.

Then like others have been saying about NY over Philadelphia in MD for I-95 NB.

[NE2]

'Ct.' is a valid abbreviation for Connecticut...

Is it? I thought the traditional, pre-postal abbreviation was "Conn." ...

'a' vs. 'the'...

[1995hoo]

My first roommate in college was from Pennsylvania and he hated Penna... but what got him really upset was "Pennsy"...The Star Ledger used to use that back in the 1980s..

"Pennsy" has long been a slang name for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

It sounds like what William Penn would be nicknamed if he played hockey nowadays.

[Scott5114]

How about  the use of "THE" when 2 or more cities share something in common.

The Amboys- Perth and South Amboys in New Jersey
The Palm Beaches- Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach
The Oranges- Orange, East Orange, West Orange, South Orange in NJ again.

Odd, but effective, I must say.

Then like others have been saying about NY over Philadelphia in MD for I-95 NB.

You left out what's probably the most well-known version of this trope...The Hamptons.

'Course, I dunno if NYSDOT uses that as a control point or not.

[J N Winkler]

"Conn." and "Ct." are both traditional abbreviations for Connecticut, as are "Penna." and "Pa."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_abbreviations

I will grant, however, that "Ct." was probably less common than "Conn." in postal addressing--though it has to be noted that a similar ambiguity arises between "CT" for "Court" and "CT" for "Connecticut" when all-uppercase unpunctuated address labelling is used (as used to be, and probably still is, the preferred USPS standard for typed or machine-generated address labeling).

[Roadsguy]

As has been said, "Penna" is used in the Turnpike shields and once was in the state route shields.

Anyway, had to be done.



(Edited to fix wording of first sentence.)

[doogie1303]

Because when RI tries to recognize CT control cities on exit signs, they can't get it right. The US 6 West sign just before the 6/10 split, and the signs on I-95 Exits in Downtown Providence direct you to "Hartford Ct."  The fact that there is a capital C and small t would tell me that there's a street nearby off the exit called Hartford Court.  Took them years to get the signs right on I-295

True, I've seen this in several places on US 6, I believe there is even a BGS on I-95 North in Providence just after exit 19 (I-195) that says I-95 North "Boston Ma." instead of just Boston. I tried to pull it up on Street View to confirm but the pictures are too old, they still show all the construction on I-95 North from the "I-WAY" project.

Maybe RI is being extra cautious and wants to let people know which Hartford US 6 is going to as there are several cities/towns in New England named Hartford (can you name them all?).

As to using the "Ct." instead of "CT", I've seen abbreviations for Massachusetts done the same way, signed either as "Ma." or "MA".

[KEVIN_224]

It's better than I-95 in Kittery, ME, where the control cities near Exit 2 southbound simply say "New Hampshire | Massachusetts."

[agentsteel53]

It's better than I-95 in Kittery, ME, where the control cities near Exit 2 southbound simply say "New Hampshire | Massachusetts."

as the control city for I-495 in Massachusetts is "N.H.-Maine", I am now led to wonder if there is any place in New Hampshire where one direction is signed "Maine" and the other "Massachusetts".

[roadman65]

Back in the 80s a company in South Hackensack, NJ at the south end of Green Street, used to have its name, that was Bendix, as control city on US 46 for its Green Street exit.  The sign would read:

Green Street
Bendix
Hackensack

I checked Street View and it is gone as of last time Google captured it.

[motorway]

How about  the use of "THE" when 2 or more cities share something in common.

The Amboys- Perth and South Amboys in New Jersey
The Palm Beaches- Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach
The Oranges- Orange, East Orange, West Orange, South Orange in NJ again.

Odd, but effective, I must say.

Then like others have been saying about NY over Philadelphia in MD for I-95 NB.

You left out what's probably the most well-known version of this trope...The Hamptons.

'Course, I dunno if NYSDOT uses that as a control point or not.

In the UK they drop the article, for example referring to Great Shelford and Little Shelford collectively simply as "Shelfords" on guide signs. I like the "The..." construction better, personally.

[Road Hog]

Here's an example of a UK sign using directionals as controls (obviously from southern Scotland):

[jcarte29]

How about  the use of "THE" when 2 or more cities share something in common.

The Amboys- Perth and South Amboys in New Jersey
The Palm Beaches- Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach
The Oranges- Orange, East Orange, West Orange, South Orange in NJ again.

Odd, but effective, I must say.

Then like others have been saying about NY over Philadelphia in MD for I-95 NB.

You left out what's probably the most well-known version of this trope...The Hamptons.

'Course, I dunno if NYSDOT uses that as a control point or not.

NC does the same thing with the Brunswick Co. Beaches (Oak Island, Holden, Ocean Isle, Sunset) on I-140 and US 17

[jcarte29]

So many examples of this in North Carolina, and after checking the previous pages to see if any of them had been mentioned, and had not, here we go...

Award for probably the two smallest control cities in the country with two interstates each

-Statesville (I-40, I-77) which is used SEVERAL times on each interstate while only bein 40 miles or so from both Winston-Salem and Charlotte, and not much further from Asheville.

-Benson (I-40, I-95) which is less than 40 miles from Raleigh. (In Raleigh they finally added a Wilmington control city under Benson near Wade Ave Exit)

And some honorable mentions-
Smithfield, Wilson, Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount, Mount Airy, Gastonia, Burlington (although it's not so small anymore).

North Carolina, in a general sense, won't use cities out of state until you get almost on the SC State Line when Columbia is used on I-77 (Charlotte is still used practically in town), and also in Charlotte when Spartanburg SC is used on I-85.

Up at the VA State Line on I-77 Wytheville VA is used, on I-85 north of Durham I believe they finally mention Petersburg VA, I-95 they use Emporia VA oddly enough.

[english si]

In the UK they drop the article, for example referring to Great Shelford and Little Shelford collectively simply as "Shelfords" on guide signs. I like the "The..." construction better, personally.

No, they don't drop the article. The example that you give is botched.

It sounds like what William Penn would be nicknamed if he played hockey nowadays.

Nah, nowadays he'd be called Minty or something, being descended from a guy with no link to Penn, Buckinghamshire (who was born in Minety, Gloucestershire) who changed his name to give him link to the family there for nefarious purposes. William Penn (the state founder, not his dad the Admiral whom the state is named after) may have actually visited Penn, but hung out elsewhere in South Bucks and lived in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

Here's an example of a UK sign using directionals as controls (obviously from southern Scotland):

A bit ugly (especially that temporary (A74)(M) plate that would have (M6) underneath - the patch fell off the other one). Ironic example as Scotland goes for more European-style far off control destinations (other than in the central belt, but even then they are further apart than England) and doesn't often use 'The NORTH', 'The SOUTH', etc like England and Wales - and uses them like cardinal directions. I think the 90s sections of A74(M) are the only road that uses it out of the Highlands and Islands. Beattock is a local destination there, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Carlisle are the 'primary destinations'.

I think Scotland designated its Primary Destinations oddly - while you have tiny Crianlarich, which is a major enough node for West Coast traffic to be worth signing, you don't have much bigger Cumbernauld, which performs a similar function in the Central Belt. Likewise Newtownmore performs a similar role in the middle of the Highlands and isn't used on the A9 (though is a primary destination) - more touristy Aviemore would be better though. They often only use one destination - the new M74 through Southern Glasgow has 'Carlisle' as the only mainline destination heading south/east (actually it might have an (M73) in places). Hamilton or Motherwell would be useful as large towns on the edge of the urban area and/or Rutherglen for a local destination. It's pretty mad to English eyes.

[hbelkins]

If you look at some food products, you'll see the following:

"Reg Penna Dept Ag"

[roadman65]

So many examples of this in North Carolina, and after checking the previous pages to see if any of them had been mentioned, and had not, here we go...

Award for probably the two smallest control cities in the country with two interstates each

-Statesville (I-40, I-77) which is used SEVERAL times on each interstate while only bein 40 miles or so from both Winston-Salem and Charlotte, and not much further from Asheville.

-Benson (I-40, I-95) which is less than 40 miles from Raleigh. (In Raleigh they finally added a Wilmington control city under Benson near Wade Ave Exit)

And some honorable mentions-
Smithfield, Wilson, Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount, Mount Airy, Gastonia, Burlington (although it's not so small anymore).

North Carolina, in a general sense, won't use cities out of state until you get almost on the SC State Line when Columbia is used on I-77 (Charlotte is still used practically in town), and also in Charlotte when Spartanburg SC is used on I-85.

Up at the VA State Line on I-77 Wytheville VA is used, on I-85 north of Durham I believe they finally mention Petersburg VA, I-95 they use Emporia VA oddly enough.

NC will sign Richmond in VA as far south as Benson on I-95.  Also Richmond was used even before the section from Kenly to Gold Rock was completed.  At the current US 301 and NC 4 junction, it had Richmond used as control point from then numberless NC 4 directing motorists from NB US 301 back on to the interstate from where they were traveling the US route for several miles at the time.

[cpzilliacus]

And some honorable mentions-
Smithfield, Wilson, Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount, Mount Airy, Gastonia, Burlington (although it's not so small anymore).

"Rocky Mount NC" is used by VDOT on southbound I-95 prior to the I-95/I-295 interchange in Henrico County, north  of Richmond (here on GSV).