Control cities you would use for your area

[Bryant5493]

On I-75, south of Atlanta and the Airport, I'd add Savannah as a control city over Tampa, as is on a few overhead signs.


Be well,

Bryant

[hbelkins]

Kentucky's control cities are pretty well chosen for the interstates, although I'd choose Evansville over St. Louis for I-64 westbound in Louisville. I like what's done in Lexington to add the first local destination as well as the distant control cities for I-64 and I-75. In Louisville that would be Clarksville (Ind.) and Shepherdsville for I-65, New Albany (Ind.) and Shelbyville for I-64, and LaGrange for I-71.

I'd make radical changes to West Virginia, especially I-64 east of Beckley. The control city there is Lewisburg, a small and inconsequential town near the state line that's known for an osteopathic medical school and the home of the state fair. I'd sign I-64 east from I-77 for Richmond.

[flowmotion]

Bay Area:  The control city for I-580 East should be Los Angeles, not Stockton.

Generally speaking the "piddly little town that happens to be near the state border" control city practice should be prohibited. If nobody outside of your state has heard of it, its not a good control city.

[agentsteel53]

Generally speaking the "piddly little town that happens to be near the state border" control city practice should be prohibited. If nobody outside of your state has heard of it, its not a good control city.

indeed - or the international boundary, as the case may be.  I've noticed that the US has no problem with signing Canadian destinations, but Mexican ones are few and far between.

[TheStranger]

Bay Area:  The control city for I-580 East should be Los Angeles, not Stockton.

That dates back to when I-580 was US 50 (which indeed followed today's 205 and 5 to Stockton).  It is also the only all-freeway route between the Bay Area and that city (which isn't a small community - IIRC it's on par with Buffalo for population), at least until the freeway gap between Brentwood and Stockton on Route 4 is filled in.

[corco]

Generally speaking the "piddly little town that happens to be near the state border" control city practice should be prohibited. If nobody outside of your state has heard of it, its not a good control city.

What do you mean? This never happens!

(Pendleton/Boise - Tri-Cities/Seattle would be better I guess) Although in fairness most people in Oregon have never heard of Ontario- it is significant to Idahoans though as the place with the sales tax-free Wal-Mart

[Revive 755]

On I-75, south of Atlanta and the Airport, I'd add Savannah as a control city over Tampa, as is on a few overhead signs.

But I-75 doesn't go to Savannah; I'd stick with Tampa, use Macon, or sign it as South I-75 To I-16/Tampa/Savannah.

Kentucky's control cities are pretty well chosen for the interstates, although I'd choose Evansville over St. Louis for I-64 westbound in Louisville.

I disprove of using Evansville over St. Louis, but I have a significant bias here.  Maybe if Evansville was more than two exits on I-64, a more significant junction, had a city population near 200,000, or a metro area population closer to 500,000.  In regards to a more significant junction, I'm thinking along the lines of somewhere with a decent split in the traffic stream, such as I-75/I-16 in Macon.  Should I-69 be completed, it appears it would still be more efficient to access Memphis or Paducah from Louisville via the existing parkways over I-64 and I-69.

[Bryant5493]

On I-75, south of Atlanta and the Airport, I'd add Savannah as a control city over Tampa, as is on a few overhead signs.

But I-75 doesn't go to Savannah; I'd stick with Tampa, use Macon, or sign it as South I-75 To I-16/Tampa/Savannah.

Fair point. But there should be more signage for Savannah, other than the guide signs at the I-475 split and on I-75 south of said split.


Be well,

Bryant

[tdindy88]

Isn't New Albany already listed as a control city in Louisville, and for that matter, isn't Jeffersonville mentioned at least at the Spagetti Junction. As for Evansville, it really is a tough call for I-64. It is listed as a point of interest on mileage signs and Illinois does refer to it as a control city at regular interchanges between Mt. Vernon and the Indiana border, but I understand how being 15 or so miles south might be a hinderance. Then again, Dayton is not exactly on I-70 either yet it is a control city from Indy to Columbus, perhaps the size of the city makes it justifiable. Speaking of Lexington, my list (never going to happen) for control cities from Indianapolis was based on the Lexington model.

[iwishiwascanadian]

Connecticut:

I-95 (South/East to North/West)
NYC - Bridgeport/Stamford - New Haven - New London - Providence

I-91 (South to North)
New Haven - Hartford - Windsor Locks (because of BDL) - Springfield

I-84 (East to West)
Mass Pike (to Boston/Worcester)/Manchester - Hartford - Waterbury - Danbury - Hudson Valley

I-291 (West to East)
Windsor/Hartford (I-91) - Manchester/Boston/Willimantic (Providence) (I-84)

I-384 (East to West)
Willimantic/Providence - Manchester - Hartford

I-395 (South to North)
New London - Norwich - Worcester

I-691 (West to East)
Waterbury/Meriden - Hartford/New Haven/Middletown

CT 2 (West to East)
Hartford - Glastonbury/Portland - Colchester - Norwich

CT 8 (South to North)
Bridgeport - Waterbury - Torrington

Some of these can be paired together for obvious reasons. 

[Brandon]

I-80: Hodgepodge of Indiana, Iowa, Toledo, and Des Moines for primary controls. 

I'd thought South Bend would be used for a control city before Toledo.

Nope, South Bend never appears as a control on the Indiana Toll Road.  It's always Chicago and Ohio.  Considering that South Bend itself is only 2 exits on the Toll Road, Ohio fits better, IMHO.

[TheStranger]

Isn't New Albany already listed as a control city in Louisville, and for that matter, isn't Jeffersonville mentioned at least at the Spagetti Junction.

Jeffersonville is indeed mentioned on I-65 north at the Spaghetti Junction:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Louisville&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.664131,71.542969&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Louisville,+Jefferson,+Kentucky&ll=38.256228,-85.741854&spn=0,0.017467&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=38.256362,-85.741818&panoid=9h-Fzv-ncxkrkJmPo97ECA&cbp=12,10.71,,0,5.22

At I-264, I-65 north is signed for Louisville/Indianapolis (even though it is in Louisville city limits) -
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Louisville&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.664131,71.542969&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Louisville,+Jefferson,+Kentucky&ll=38.184818,-85.723636&spn=0.010693,0.017467&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=38.18491,-85.723734&panoid=plSXj2K26HSourzbI1vSug&cbp=12,324.53,,0,5

[golden eagle]

I'd sign 264 East as Lexington/Cincinnati.

[FreewayDan]

For U.S. 59 (Eastex Freeway) north of Houston, I change the control city from Cleveland to Lufkin/Texarkana.

[hm insulators]

Bay Area:  The control city for I-580 East should be Los Angeles, not Stockton.

Generally speaking the "piddly little town that happens to be near the state border" control city practice should be prohibited. If nobody outside of your state has heard of it, its not a good control city.

Heading east from Los Angeles, the first sign you see listing Phoenix as the control city is not until you're almost through the Indio/Coachella area, east of Palm Springs. And Phoenix isn't even listed first on the sign--little Blythe, California is listed first! Now how many people go to Blythe as a destination?

Really, the control signs on I-10 heading east from Los Angeles should read, "San Bernardino/Phoenix." East of the junction with I-215, the signs should read "Palm Springs/Phoenix." And once you get east of the Palm Springs turnoff, the control city should be Phoenix only, not Indio or Blythe.

[TheStranger]

Heading east from Los Angeles, the first sign you see listing Phoenix as the control city is not until you're almost through the Indio/Coachella area, east of Palm Springs. And Phoenix isn't even listed first on the sign--little Blythe, California is listed first! Now how many people go to Blythe as a destination?

Really, the control signs on I-10 heading east from Los Angeles should read, "San Bernardino/Phoenix." East of the junction with I-215, the signs should read "Palm Springs/Phoenix." And once you get east of the Palm Springs turnoff, the control city should be Phoenix only, not Indio or Blythe.

CalTrans almost always will have an intermediate destination before a longer-distance major destination for control cities, i.e. the following examples on I-80:

Vallejo/Sacramento
Fairfield/Sacramento
Vacaville/Sacramento

In that case, as long as Phoenix starts garnering mention as far west as I-215 (as you note) - 318 miles west - something like "Blythe/Phoenix" works but for a short distance (not for the entire distance east of the Indio/Palm Springs area), more in line with the above I-80 examples.

(For that matter, should Route 210's control city east of Route 259 be "Redlands/Phoenix" as opposed to merely "Redlands"?  Likewise, Route 60 east of Riverside is currently signed for "Beaumont/Indio", so maybe "Indio/Phoenix" would work better there as well.)

---

This reminds me...

At the eastern landing of the Bay Bridge, a small green sign notes that Los Angeles can be accessed via I-580 (to I-5, which isn't noted).  I don't think there is any companion signage for San Francisco in the metro LA area, though SF becomes US 101's control city from Ventura on.  Not sure if there's anything else similar in existence in the state.

[brownpelican]

In Slidell, La., I'd have Gulfport replace Bay St. Louis on I-10 East.

In New Orleans, I'd have Business U.S. 90 West signed Gretna/Westwego at the CBD end and Westwego starting at Stumpf Blvd.

Between Columbia and Clinton, S.C., I'd have I-26 West signed Spartanburg/Greenville.

[Removed unnecessary markup. -S.]

[golden eagle]

In Slidell, La., I'd have Gulfport replace Bay St. Louis on I-10 East.

I agree. Biloxi and/or Mobile are feasible too.

[J N Winkler]

Indeed - or the international boundary, as the case may be.  I've noticed that the US has no problem with signing Canadian destinations, but Mexican ones are few and far between.

To be fair to the US (or rather to the border state DOTs), there are relatively few through roads which lead to the Mexican border and change directly into a through highway of equivalent standard which leads directly to a major Mexican city.  TxDOT does a good job with Juárez as a control city in the El Paso area, but this really exists only on US 54 (since the other major highways run largely on a tangent to the border), and treats Juárez itself as the next major city, as opposed to Chihuahua (which I believe has a slightly larger population) or even Mexico City.  US 67, which turns directly into Mex. 16 at the border, is another exception, but it is not developed to freeway standard in west Texas and so does not have control cities in the strict sense.  Ojinaga appears on distance signs, however (though I'm not sure how far north of Presidio this occurs).  I-19, on the other hand, never actually crosses the border or even leads directly to a port of entry.  It makes interconnection possible with freeways on the Mexican side, but the connections are multiple and indirect.

On the Canadian side, Canadian destinations tend to be signed in the US where a direct connection of comparable standard exists.  You see this quite often, for example, on two-lane state highways in eastern Washington state, as well as on I-5 northbound, which becomes the BC 99 freeway at the border.  On the other hand, the Detroit-area Interstates have indirect connections to the border and to Ont. 401 on the Canadian side, so you don't (for example) see control-city signing for London, Hamilton, or Toronto on the American side.

So, to put it more simply, I don't think the lack of control city signing for Mexican destinations results from a belief that "there is nothing worthwhile down there," though I'd certainly agree that many Americans seem to have that belief.

[agentsteel53]

To be fair to the US (or rather to the border state DOTs), there are relatively few through roads which lead to the Mexican border and change directly into a through highway of equivalent standard which leads directly to a major Mexican city.

I think Tijuana should count as that - while the 1D is a dang sight hard to find, when you cross from San Ysidro, you are promptly in Tijuana.  There is no need to follow any road; you are practically downtown just a block or two away from San Ysidro.

therefore, Ensenada (which 1D - a toll road comparable to 5 in quality - leads to) should not be signed, but Tijuana should.

(interestingly, there is a distance sign on either 5 or 805 - I forget which - that has the distance to Ensenada.  I think it has Tijuana as well.  It's pretty far south; haven't seen it in years so I don't remember it well.)

[golden eagle]

To be fair to the US (or rather to the border state DOTs), there are relatively few through roads which lead to the Mexican border and change directly into a through highway of equivalent standard which leads directly to a major Mexican city.

therefore, Ensenada (which 1D - a toll road comparable to 5 in quality - leads to) should not be signed, but Tijuana should.

(interestingly, there is a distance sign on either 5 or 805 - I forget which - that has the distance to Ensenada.  I think it has Tijuana as well.  It's pretty far south; haven't seen it in years so I don't remember it well.)

The 805 had a sign to Ensenada, which was 78 miles IIRC. It's been almost seven years since I moved away from San Diego, but I'm assuming it's still there.

[brownpelican]

In Memphis, I-240 North would be signed Downtown (Memphis) instead of Little Rock since the highway goes from west-east to north-south at I-55.

[Removed unnecessary coloring. -S.]

[TheStranger]

In Memphis, I-240 North would be signed Downtown (Memphis) instead of Little Rock since the highway goes from west-east to north-south at I-55.

When I-69 is officially signed through there and built northward, I almost feel like Dyersburg would also work as a control city (as the point where I-155 ends at today's US 51/future I-69), in conjunction with downtown Memphis.

If anything, I-55 would be better off signed for Little Rock along with St. Louis (as it goes east-west with the four US routes, towards I-40 west) at that junction.

[national highway 1]

What is the control city for I-70 W of Denver?

[huskeroadgeek]

What is the control city for I-70 W of Denver?

Grand Junction.