Green signs pointing to towns - which states have distances, which ones don't?

[webny99]

(I much prefer the ones that have the distances on them.)

What benefit is it to have the distances on them?

Does the distance help you know which way to turn?  No.

It's additional information that is often helpful - say, if there's no services in sight and you have 10 miles to an empty gas tank - and hardly takes up any space, so why not?

[kphoger]

It's additional information that is often helpful - say, if there's no services in sight and you have 10 miles to an empty gas tank - and hardly takes up any space, so why not?

Those signs don't tell you if there's a gas station in the town they point to.

[Eth]

As best as I can recall, Georgia does not do this, while Florida does, at least from Interstate off-ramps.

[Scott5114]

They tell you how far it is to the town after you turn.  If the distance signs are posted religiously I suppose it could be redundant, but often those signs are used sparingly or not at all.

Standard practice in every state that I'm familiar with (meaning OK, KS, MO, TX) includes a distance sign as the next sign after the reassurance shield (usually accompanied with a speed limit sign somewhere in the batch). If I were to run into a state which only included mileages on the junction sign and not on a separate sign after the junction (as you seem to imply is NYSDOT standard practice), I would find it odd enough that it would stick in my memory.

The practice makes sense, since, as mentioned above, distance information is not really relevant at the decision point, so to reduce message loading it can be given to the driver after they have already committed to a turn. This also has the effect of serving as a secondary reassurance message, reinforcing the reassurance shield.

Here's a practice that might blow your mind–Kansas DOT includes a mileage sign after the majority of rural freeway interchanges! (Not 100% of them, but pretty close!)

[webny99]

Here's a practice that might blow your mind–Kansas DOT includes a mileage sign after the majority of rural freeway interchanges! (Not 100% of them, but pretty close!)

A mileage sign on the freeway, or the surface road?

The former would not be surprising, as that's SOP here in New York, too, especially on the Thruway. However, on surface streets I would say post-junction mileage signs are uncommon, if not rare. Usually, as mentioned, the mileage is only on the sign at the junction. This applies to both freeway junctions, and surface road junctions. Here's a classic four-line example.

[Scott5114]

Here's a practice that might blow your mind–Kansas DOT includes a mileage sign after the majority of rural freeway interchanges! (Not 100% of them, but pretty close!)

A mileage sign on the freeway, or the surface road?

Both.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

For Minnesota it depends on how close that interchange is to a town. If the surface road enters a town within a couple minutes, the mileage sign isn't posted going that direction until after town. If it's just rural mileage, there is usually a sign right away.

[Road Hog]

Arkansas bolts the reassurance sign to the distance sign past the intersection. If they could make it a uni-sign, it would remind me of the motorways in Europe. They started that practice in the late 1990s.

[sbeaver44]

I like Ohio's way of doing it here at US 322/OH 11.  Mileage on everything, even for the freeway onramps.

[wanderer2575]

New York mostly has the mileage, but for a while (late 1970s thru at least the mid-'80s) new installs were mileage-free. Most of the ramp signage on I-390 in Livingston County, built during that era, is like that.

A strange example is on the exit 7 northbound off-ramp.
When this section opened in 1982, a pair of signs pointed to Geneseo and Batavia, both without distances. A few years later, the Batavia one was removed. Later, a Mount Morris sign was added – by then, NYSDOT started using distances again.

Here's another mixed one, in Maine.  I guess the designer REALLY didn't want to make the guide sign wider than the route assembly.

[Ketchup99]

I really don't see why you wouldn't have them. Personally, I find them useful - if I'm going somewhere and see "35 miles" I can say "I'll be there in about half an hour," and if I know my parents want me home in half an hour and I see a sign that says "State College 42 Miles"... then I know what I have to do 

Pennsylvania's pretty good at it.

[csw]

Here's another mixed one, in Maine.  I guess the designer REALLY didn't want to make the guide sign wider than the route assembly.

I think the deal with this one is that Fryeburg Center is less than a mile away, so they didn't even bother posting the distance. At least that's what a quick look at Google maps told me.

In my experience, Pennsylvania is the king of posting mileages on every single sign, no matter how major or minor the highway. Ohio also does it a lot. Most states will put up a sign without mileages before the intersection, then another sign after the intersection with distances on it. Pennsylvania, though, does both, so the fact that Erie is STILL 34 miles away is drilled into your head.

[ozarkman417]

Sometimes, Missouri will omit a distance when a town is basically in sight or right around the bend. I've found distances to be less common on limited access highway ramps. In Arkansas, no distances are given, but distances for a close town above, then a more major town/junction (or one that's simply further away) below are given just past an intersection directly below a reassurance shield. Sometimes instead of cities/towns, distances to state parks are shown.

[Big John]

There is this confusing sign on US 41 by Marinette, WI: https://goo.gl/maps/hxienWr1SqxHdZ2C8
The 5 refers to it being W Frontage Rd #5

[webny99]

There is this confusing sign on US 41 by Marinette, WI: https://goo.gl/maps/hxienWr1SqxHdZ2C8
The 5 refers to it being W Frontage Rd #5

Yeah, I thought it meant five miles until I clicked back and read your second line.
This type of thing is very common in Ontario, Canada, which I suppose could be similarly misinterpreted, though it's not as egregious.

[kphoger]

I really don't see why you wouldn't have them. Personally, I find them useful - if I'm going somewhere and see "35 miles" I can say "I'll be there in about half an hour," and if I know my parents want me home in half an hour and I see a sign that says "State College 42 Miles"... then I know what I have to do 

Pennsylvania's pretty good at it.

If there's no distance sign after the junction, then I get it.

But, if there's a distance sign after the junction, then the distance being posted ahead of the junction would be superfluous.

On the other hand, if distances were only ever posted in advance of junctions, then same-route distances would need to be included at every junction–not just the distances for destinations on the crossroad.

[Ketchup99]

I really don't see why you wouldn't have them. Personally, I find them useful - if I'm going somewhere and see "35 miles" I can say "I'll be there in about half an hour," and if I know my parents want me home in half an hour and I see a sign that says "State College 42 Miles"... then I know what I have to do 

Pennsylvania's pretty good at it.

If there's no distance sign after the junction, then I get it.

But, if there's a distance sign after the junction, then the distance being posted ahead of the junction would be superfluous.

On the other hand, if distances were only ever posted in advance of junctions, then same-route distances would need to be included at every junction–not just the distances for destinations on the crossroad.

Usually PA doesn't have a distance sign after the junction, so it's useful.

[csw]

I really don't see why you wouldn't have them. Personally, I find them useful - if I'm going somewhere and see "35 miles" I can say "I'll be there in about half an hour," and if I know my parents want me home in half an hour and I see a sign that says "State College 42 Miles"... then I know what I have to do 

Pennsylvania's pretty good at it.

If there's no distance sign after the junction, then I get it.

But, if there's a distance sign after the junction, then the distance being posted ahead of the junction would be superfluous.

On the other hand, if distances were only ever posted in advance of junctions, then same-route distances would need to be included at every junction–not just the distances for destinations on the crossroad.

Usually PA doesn't have a distance sign after the junction, so it's useful.

Really? I've seen them all over the western/central parts of the state.

[Ketchup99]

I really don't see why you wouldn't have them. Personally, I find them useful - if I'm going somewhere and see "35 miles" I can say "I'll be there in about half an hour," and if I know my parents want me home in half an hour and I see a sign that says "State College 42 Miles"... then I know what I have to do 

Pennsylvania's pretty good at it.

If there's no distance sign after the junction, then I get it.

But, if there's a distance sign after the junction, then the distance being posted ahead of the junction would be superfluous.

On the other hand, if distances were only ever posted in advance of junctions, then same-route distances would need to be included at every junction–not just the distances for destinations on the crossroad.

Usually PA doesn't have a distance sign after the junction, so it's useful.

Really? I've seen them all over the western/central parts of the state.

I shouldn't have spoken for the whole state. Lots of roads around where I live have a distance sign at an intersection but not one right ahead. However, I might just not be looking...