# I-5 Lane Crossover **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 9, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925 "2016-06-09T15:56:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/21 "2016-06-09T21:53:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But it’s a “meh” all around, i was surprised that someone would post to "correct’ it as it certainly not wrong…_either way_. No, you are totally **WRONG**! Wrong from the beginning, wrong through the middle, and wrapped up with a dessert of wrong. I can’t believe how a person like you could believe such a thing, you [redacted]!!!1!!! Now **that’s** a “message board thing!” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/22 "2016-06-09T22:02:47Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > No, you are totally **WRONG**! Wrong from the beginning, wrong through the middle, and wrapped up with a dessert of wrong. I can’t believe how a person like you could believe such a thing, you [redacted]!!!1!!! > > Now **that’s** a “message board thing!” 😛 You forgot to get racist and homophobic…unless that is in the redacted part. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/23 "2016-06-09T22:08:13Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > No, you are totally **WRONG**! Wrong from the beginning, wrong through the middle, and wrapped up with a dessert of wrong. I can’t believe how a person like you could believe such a thing, you [redacted]!!!1!!! > > Now **that’s** a “message board thing!” 😛 :eek::p:D;) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/24 "2016-06-10T05:15:42Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > And, it’s not real. It’s blown way out of proportion. (well, it’s true, we rarely refer to exits by their numbers) When a “the road number” sneaks into the Mr. Roadshow column in the Mercury News, the nasty letters come for weeks. So it isn’t just message boards. But they have only started to number exits in the Bay Area, and no one except Google maps calls an exit by its number. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/25 "2016-06-10T13:52:34Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > But they have only started to number exits in the Bay Area, and no one except Google maps calls an exit by its number. When I started making excursions up here, i thought the numbered exits were pretty handy for charting my progress and estimating how long it would take to get to my next/final destination. In L.A. we didn’t have numbers. What’s wrong with ‘Take the 405 to the Venice Blvd. exit’ or ‘Take the 10 to the Cloverfield exit’? But when I went back in 2007 I noticed exit numbers popping up. Up here I still prefer using exit names unless I’m giving directions to someone who doesn’t know the area. I know my exit number and the exit number before mine, but I couldn’t tell you what the exit numbers for State St./Ohio St. or Lakeway Dr. are. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/26 "2016-06-10T14:24:30Z")
Oregon’s exit numbers are in fact mileage markers, such that exit 99 on I-5 is 99 miles north of the California border, Exit 249 on I-84 is 249 miles east from the freeway’s terminus in Portland. Sometimes the numbers are posted in ad copy but as a parenthetical, “Take the I-205 to Division Street (exit 22) and turn left at the light.” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/27 "2016-06-10T16:35:49Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Oregon’s exit numbers are in fact mileage markers, such that exit 99 on I-5 is 99 miles north of the California border, Exit 249 on I-84 is 249 miles east from the freeway’s terminus in Portland. Sometimes the numbers are posted in ad copy but as a parenthetical, “Take the I-205 to Division Street (exit 22) and turn left at the light.” I thought all interstates, if not all highways, were that way? I always used street named exits to navigate LA. “Get off on La Cienega.” I laughed when I saw one exit on the 134, that services two streets. The exit was “[Brand Central](https://goo.gl/maps/Su2JwkuaTHs)”. Obviously someone from Sears’ advertising team drove that highway regularly! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/28 "2016-06-10T16:49:17Z")
^^I think most of them are now, but it wasn’t always that way. I know Georgia and Florida used to have exit numbers that were just sequential numbers not related to the mile markers. Then 10-15 years ago or so they converted to mile marker exits. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/29 "2016-06-10T16:59:12Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I thought all interstates, if not all highways, were that way? Unfortunately, no. Especially in the Eastern part of the country, many highways number their exits sequentially. On the Massachusetts Turnpike, there are about 30 miles between Exit 2 and Exit 3 (at the western, rural end), and less than a mile between Exits 22 and 23 (in downtown Boston.) Highways like this are slowly being renumbered as the years go by. My understanding is that [federal regulations](http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/) call for exits to be numbered by mile, rather than sequentially; but the old system is grandfathered in until a major highway project is undertaken. A [major highway near where I live](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_395_(Connecticut%E2%80%93Massachusetts)) was recently renumbered because the exit signs needed replacement and the new exit numbers needed to be mile-based to be “up to code”. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/30 "2016-06-10T17:21:52Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > When a “the road number” sneaks into the Mr. Roadshow column in the Mercury News, the nasty letters come for weeks. So it isn’t just message boards. > But they have only started to number exits in the Bay Area, and no one except Google maps calls an exit by its number. Yeah, all by morons. It’s blown way out of proportion. Yes, you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/31 "2016-06-11T00:00:43Z")
I always thought “The Grapevine” referred specifically to the stretch of road from the summit (around Lebec or Gorman) northward down into the San Joaquin Valley. The crossed-over section, in the vicinity of Castaic, is farther south than that. I have never been aware of that area being called Grapevine. The crossed-over section isn’t really confusing to drivers (IMHO) because the two sides the the freeway are so far apart – driving on it in either direction, it looks like you’re on a one-way road with the other-way road far off in the distance. (I lived in Saugus for one year, 1968-1969, my senior year of high school, and commuted daily to school on Roscoe Blvd in Sun Valley. But the road was much simpler then. When I graduated and drove up to Berkeley, none of the present I-5 from about Valencia to Los Banos was there, and that grotesquely complex interchange with SR-14 didn’t exist either.) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/32 "2016-06-11T00:06:25Z")
SR-14 in that vicinity, by the way, was another sight back in the day. Some substantial length of it, between the I-5 junction and outbound, was a bucolic winding hilly road, much of it with THREE lanes – the center lane was a passing lane that could be used by cars driving in either direction. Visibility was limited in some places because of the hilly terrain, and the road was also a favorite cruising alley for fast-driving high-schoolers. It was called “Blood Alley” for a reason. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/33 "2016-06-11T00:23:09Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I always thought “The Grapevine” referred specifically to the stretch of road from the summit (around Lebec or Gorman) northward down into the San Joaquin Valley … [snip] You could be right, now that you bring it up … ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/34 "2016-06-12T11:27:11Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > Unfortunately, no. Especially in the Eastern part of the country, many highways number their exits sequentially. On the Massachusetts Turnpike, there are about 30 miles between Exit 2 and Exit 3 (at the western, rural end), and less than a mile between Exits 22 and 23 (in downtown Boston.) > > Highways like this are slowly being renumbered as the years go by. My understanding is that [federal regulations](http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/) call for exits to be numbered by mile, rather than sequentially; but the old system is grandfathered in until a major highway project is undertaken. A [major highway near where I live](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_395_(Connecticut%E2%80%93Massachusetts)) was recently renumbered because the exit signs needed replacement and the new exit numbers needed to be mile-based to be “up to code”. I-95 in Maine is numbered by mile. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/35 "2016-06-12T15:25:27Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I always thought “The Grapevine” referred specifically to the stretch of road from the summit (around Lebec or Gorman) northward down into the San Joaquin Valley. > > The crossed-over section, in the vicinity of Castaic, is farther south than that. I have never been aware of that area being called Grapevine. This is true. The section of I-5 between Castaic and Gorman is quasi-officially known as the “Ridge Route Alternate”. ---
**Author:** ![Toledo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@Toledo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toledo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/36 "2016-06-12T18:04:02Z")
Out in this neck of the woods, the Ohio Turnpike was originally (mid 1950s) numbered sequentially, Exit 1 was the Indiana border and the numbers went up until exit 20-something at the Penn. state line. Then in the 60s and 70s new exits were added as more of the interstate system was finished, and traffic patterns shifted. So they added in exit 6A and 10B and such. For a while the turnpike commission even thought about numbering the exits for the connecting highway, so the exit for I-75 would be exit 75, and the exit for I-280, only about 5 miles away would be exit 280. Fortunately that never happened, and the exits now conform to the mileposts like most places. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/37 "2016-06-12T20:19:40Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > This is true. The section of I-5 between Castaic and Gorman is quasi-officially known as the “Ridge Route Alternate”. Which carried over from US99. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/38 "2016-06-12T20:37:52Z")
There are certainly plenty of sections of highway all over the place that are simultaneously part of two different numbered routes, and thus have two numbered names. Famously, there’s a north-south-running stretch of freeway in Berkeley that (if you are driving north) is simultaneously Eastbound I-80 and Westbound I-580. The highway between the San Fernando Valley and the San Joaquin Valley was once State Route 99 (ETA: not US99), but is now I-5. Question: Is it still simultaneously SR-99 too? (There are other sections of road that are simultaneously part of an Interstate and part of a State Route. A stretch of I-5 south of Mendota, for example, is also SR-33.) ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/39 "2016-06-13T16:54:35Z")
Washington State numbers its exits by mile which makes it really handy to measure progress when traveling on the freeway. If you have multiple exits within a mile of each other they just add “A, B, C, etc.” to the end of the exit. It’s rare for me to see a C exit and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a D so it seems to work. Oh, and up here “I-5” is called “I-5”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925/40 "2016-06-13T17:25:18Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Oh, and up here “I-5” is called “I-5”. Except I notice ‘the Five’ slipping in once in a while on KING 5 or KPLU. I like to think I’m influencing it a little. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-5-lane-crossover/756925.md?page=3)