# Hmmmm. I'm skeptical \[road signs\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 3, 2021, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455 "2021-12-03T15:56:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455/101 "2021-12-08T14:38:12Z")
^ Then you start getting things like **SE 110th Street Rd.** and you better not forget the **Rd.** part or, as you say, you could end up with miles to go before you sleep. And while I’m at it, I generally like grid systems until you find SE 5th St. has three houses, neither of which has the street address you’re looking for because _that_ section of SE 5th St. is eight miles further south with, say, a big lake in between – but those two roads line up in the grid. Urg! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455/102 "2021-12-08T14:39:35Z")
In some ways it’s worse in the U.S. The reason that the town that _The Simpsons_ is set in is called Springfield is that there are so many of them in the U.S., and none of them particularly stands out as being the largest or the most well known. _The Simpsons_ isn’t even the first American television show where the setting is a town called Springfield. There are also Springfields in various other countries: > **[Springfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Springfield may refer to: ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455/103 "2021-12-08T14:42:14Z")
^ It’s a helluva town The schoolyard’s up And the shopping mall’s down The stray dogs go To the animal pound! 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455/104 "2021-12-09T20:18:02Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > In some ways it’s worse in the U.S. The reason that the town that _The Simpsons_ is set in is called Springfield is that there are so many of them in the U.S., and none of them particularly stands out as being the largest or the most well known. _The Simpsons_ isn’t even the first American television show where the setting is a town called Springfield. There are also Springfields in various other countries: > > [Springfield - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield) In New Jersey there are 5 or 6 towns named Washington, at least 3 Franklins and a few named Raritan. Also 2 Springfields. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455/105 "2021-12-10T00:03:50Z")
They’ve now replaced that sign with a huge granite slab with the name carved into it. Try getting that into your VW van, you filthy hippies! ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455/106 "2021-12-10T10:12:19Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Our neighborhood has 673 distinct roads that all start with **Bahia** ; every combination you can think of – Bahia Rd., Bahia St., Bahia Circle, etc… GPS is no help when people need to come out to the house, so we specify in big letters in texts which street to look for. It wouldn’t be half bad if the house numbers were graduated (e.g., our road has #1 - #28, a different Bahia road starts at #100, another starts at #1000, and so on but, NO, every street starts at #1 [or #2]), but that would require cleverness and no one’s clever Friday afternoon at 4PM. 🙄 This sounds like a cruel joke by the original city planners. I wonder if using latitude and longitude coordinates would help? For example the San Francisco house where my aunt and uncle lived was at these coordinates: 37.715387, -122.400638. You can navigate to it with Waze or Google Maps. Just paste that in. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455/107 "2021-12-10T11:26:11Z")
Back in the 1980’s, my mother lived on an un-named cul-de-sac in a lake community. Town asked the three residents to pick a name for the short street - two guys on either side went to a meeting my mom missed and picked ‘Larry Bird Drive’. Mom, who didn’t even know which side of a ball to bounce on the ground, wondered how they managed not to think of ‘Larry Bird Court’. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455/108 "2021-12-10T13:19:54Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Famously twinned with Dull (in Scotland) and Bland (in Australia). That’s hilarious! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmmm-im-skeptical-road-signs/955455.md?page=5)