The real breakdown in the old exit numbering system came when they decided they needed a new exit in between Exit 3 and Exit 4!
Charlottesville has another problem on a main thoroughfare. Despite the fact that you go straight at every traffic light, the road has six different names.
I-69 in Indiana originally ran from the Michigan border around Fort Wayne and then to the I-465 beltline around Indianapolis. The original exit numbers marked the distance from the Indiana-Michigan border to the I-465 beltline. The plans are now finalized for I-69 to be extended through the southern part of the state to the Kentucky border, do all the exits have been renumbered.
??? You tell me the exit number, I know exactly how far I’ll be driving before I take the exit. An EXCELLENT addition to the highway system.
The difference between the NY and MA exit numbering system got me a nights pay for waiting. I was a Buffalo NY driver for a MA trucking company pulling two 45’ trailers down the Thruway to Exit 34A. Central dispatch was closed from noon Sat. to Monday morning. Any trips between those times had to be set uo in advance with times places and equipment numbers.
Central dispatch called me Sat, am to set up a Sunday night trip. The dispatcher asked me what Exit I would meet a Framingham driver because he was sending someone who did not usually run West. I told him exit 34A. I got there about 1 am and waited for the other driver. There was nobody to call until 8am so I went to sleep. At 8 am I called. Dispatch had sent the other driver to exit 34 because in MA, A an B are opposite sides of the same exit.
In NY, 34 and 34A are 15 miles apart. I don’t think exit 34 even has a compound for breaking up long doubles.
Anything to spend the money to justify another bloated budget next year…
We have mile markers…but the exit numbers didn’t correlate to mile marker. They are just sequential starting at 1. First exit off of I-93 heading North in NH is Exit 1. I-293 exit off of I-93 in Manchester NH is 20 miles away…It’s exit 6.
MA is slowly changing over now…Not sure when/if NH will ever change over.
Exit numbers and the closest mile marker have been like that in OK for as long as I can remember.
Personally, I never pay attention to the number on the exit sign; just the name although that might lead some people astray.
There’s an Orlando exit on N I-35 in OK and I wonder how many people have taken that exit just to find after driving down several miles of gravel road they come to a town with no gas stations, motels, etc…
The most worthless exit on Earth IMO…
Yep, I get that. I just can’t remember driving anywhere where that was the case. I’ve not driven in NH.
I do remember that I have driven in MA to and from the airport but was using a nav app on my phone so I didn’t notice the exit numbers. I didn’t see it as a hindrance at all. We were looking for the named exits.
I do take issue with states that name their highways and refer to those names on the traffic signs and on the radio. I’m talking about driving in Michigan specifically… On the Fisher freeway headed to the Reuther via the Lodge. And the radio telling me of a crash on the Chrysler tying up traffic. NONE of which is useful to a listener who doesn’t live there!
[quote="Mustangman,
I do take issue with states that name their highways and refer to those names on the traffic signs and on the radio. I’m talking about driving in Michigan specifically… On the Fisher freeway headed to the Reuther via the Lodge. And the radio telling me of a crash on the Chrysler tying up traffic. NONE of which is useful to a listener who doesn’t live there!
If I remember right when XM radio first came out local radio station’s tryed to stop them from doing traffic report’s XM won the case for the reasons you stated.
@MikeInNH. Maybe New Hampshire got stuck using the Old Hampshire numbering system when the interstates came along and the exits had to be numbered.
Maybe. But NY is also the same. Pretty much the whole North East.
MA and southern NH are also very densely populated. And some of these exits are not even 1 mile apart…especially when you get in the cities like Boston. Exit 45.7? followed by 45.1 and then 44.5?
@MikeInNH. Number the mile markers and the exits in binary.
Exit 44.5 becomes 101100.1
Exit 45.1 becomes approximately 101101.01
Exit 45.7 becomes approximately 110101.11
Of course, the odometer would stretch across half the dashboard. However, the exits would look like they are further apart.
Unless there’s more than 26 in a mile, no problem: 14A, 14B, 14C…
I think all this discussion of numbering the exits off the interstates has turned us into EXITSTENTIALISTS.
I very rarely disagree with Triedaq, but I’ll just gently say this is a CRAZY idea. So crazy that someone in DOT might just take it serious and start ordering longer exit signs in preparation.
I agree with the road name issue. I have no idea where the Kennedy Freeway is in Chicago so can never take evasive action. But then there is Wisconsin with highway WW and WY and AA and so on. Help.
Then around here, the emergency folks pushed the idea of numbering all of the roads across the county just like they were in the city. So now we have gravel roads with three different names for the same road, and they want to eliminate paper maps? Sometimes my old 1956 plat book is the only way to figure out where something is in the county.
@bing. I probably should withdraw my crazy post before some official in DOT thinks it’s a great idea because it would require larger mile marker signs which would be more expensive.
Years ago, I had a very bright, but mischievous 7th grade student when I was doing student teaching. I had to teach a unit on expressing numbers in different bases. This kid was convinced that we should use the base 12 system called the duodecimal system as opposed to the base ten or decimal system that we use. He reasoned, quite correctly, that there are more divisors of 12: 2, 3, 4, 6 than divisors of 10: 2, 5 so that there would be more fractions that would come out even, like 1/3, expressed as a duodecimal than fractions expressed as a decimal. He even went so far as to put up posters on the bulletin boards all over the school that read:. Up with Duodecimal, Down with Decimal. This kid would be the type that, if he had control of DOT, would want the mile markers expressed in binary. At least, making the posters kept him out of trouble.
Just change it to Hex…
Exit 44.5 becomes 2C.8
Exit 45.1 becomes approximately 2D.19
Exit 45.7 becomes approximately 2D.B3
Heh heh, I can see it now, Legislature called into special session to determine whether to use base 10 or 12. Journalists are flummoxed not understanding what the hey they are talking about but sure it has something to do with whether to put the decimal on the left or right.
Some parts of the St. Louis area are similar. McCausland becomes Skinker, then Kenlein, then Jennings Station. One stretch of Lindbergh is called Kirkwood and if you go far enough north it’s Route 367.
I’m sure it infuriates visitors that St. Louis locals call I64 “highway farty.” (And yes, that’s how locals pronounce it.)
Folks, we’re just having some fun in case anyone takes us seriously.