I will ask this in the context of Fedral/Interstate highways and also for State highways, since if there are regulations they may differ.
When you see a sign on a highway giving the distance to some city (“East Armpit - 5 Miles”) What exactly are they referring to? Is it when you cross the city’s limits? The exit leading to the city? I’ve heard that it used to be the distance to the Town Hall, but that doesn’t seem very workable for roads that never really go anywhere near the town center.
Is there some Highway Engineer’s Guide or other set of regulations covering this?
My experience has been the city limits. I’ll see a sign, 50 miles to Bigcity. Watching my odometer, I drive 50 miles and barely start seeing houses. It may be another 10 miles before I get downtown. A lot of my trips are on old state highways that actually go through towns.
I often use my odometer to fight boredom on long trips. It helps to know the next town and a restaurant is 60 miles away. 10 miles, 20 miles, 30 half-way there At least I can stay awake doing that.
That isn’t true where I live in Massachusetts. There are signs off of the interstate highways that tell you that you are miles from a town when you are practically across the border already. I think it goes by town or city center around here because most of them are fairly well-defined but it probably varies widely across the country.
Distance signs should direct drivers to municipalities with well-defined central area or central business districts, with (now) secondary emphasis on post office or rr station locations (it used to say to postoffices or city/town halls).
Chapter and verse: 2: 2D.41 01, 02, 03, 04 on page 161 with pictures on page 155
Interstates – I travel in Texas, Ark, Tenn, Mississippi. When There’s a sign on the interstate it usually refers to the distance to the main city exit ramp.
50 miles to BigCity is either the first exit to that city (if there’s only one) or the main exit that takes you into the city.
That only makes sense. Heck some towns are miles off the Interstate. Any mileage signs on the Interstate are going to refer to exits.
In Paris there is a “kilometre zero” from which all the French distances are measured. I know this because there is also a well-regarded bookstore there.
Here in NH, either. But PlainJain’s theory does seem to work: There’s a mile sign just a few hundred feet from my house, and it claims that the nearest city is ten miles away, but I only live five miles from the town line. However, the courthouse in that city really is ten miles from my house.
Or here in Texas either. There’s a sign or two around here in the Dallas area (either on US 75, the Dallas North Tollway or Preston Rd/TX 289) that say something like “Dallas - 8 miles”, when in fact, that’s the distance to downtown, because the city limits are like 1-2 miles south (toward downtown) of the sign (and in some cases less than that to the sides).
Indeed, the Texas state highway map used to note that distances were given to the city hall, post office, or main downtown intersection. An unusual distance sign on I-290 in Oak Park notes both the mileage to Chicago City Limits and to Chicago Loop.
Not necessarily. There is a town I used to drive by daily. It’s miles off the interstate. 4 miles from the exit, the sign reads either 10 or 11 miles to town. At least that sign is definately measuring to someplace inside of the town.
At least I can stay awake doing that.