Control city

Control City

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Control city

A control city is a city or locality posted on a traffic sign

Traffic sign

Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With increasing speed of transport, the tendency is for countries to adopt pictorial signs or otherwise simplify and standardize signs, to faciliate international travel where language differences can create barriers and in genera...
indicating forward destinations on a certain route. Signs indicating such cities are usually found at highway junctions to show where the intersecting road goes, or on mileage signs on longer routes.

United States
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

AASHTO, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test quality control and guidelines which are used in highway design and construction throughout the United States....
(AASHTO) has standardized all control cities used on the Interstate highway system in the United States

United States

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Encyclopedia

A control city is a city or locality posted on a traffic sign

Traffic sign

United States

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. The published standard is not always followed, either because major destinations have since appeared that were not on the original list or because of state highway departments' hesitancy to sign destinations in other states. An example is a sign on eastbound Interstate 10

Interstate 10

Interstate 10 is the southernmost east-west, coast-to-coast Interstate Highway in the United States. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean at California State Route 1 in Santa Monica, California, California to Interstate 95 in Florida in Jacksonville, Florida, Florida....
near Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, California, approximately 111 miles east of Los Angeles, California and 136 miles northeast of San Diego, California....
, which, though Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital and largest city in the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the fifth most populous city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,552,259 residents, and is the anchor of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area with 4,179,427 residents....
, is the nearest major forward destination, signs only the small city of Indio, California

Indio, California

Indio is a city in Riverside County, California, California, United States, located in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's desert region....
, and "other Desert Cities". . Sometimes, the opposite is true. In Washington

Washington

Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
, Vancouver, British Columbia is the control city for northbound Interstate 5

Interstate 5

Interstate 5 is the main Interstate Highway System on the West Coast of the United States, paralleling the Pacific Ocean from Canada to Mexico and serving some of the largest cities of that part of the U.S., including Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Oregon, Sacramento, San Francisco/Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Diego....
north of Seattle, even though Interstate 5 never touches Vancouver.

A control city is not always a major city. For instance, Interstate 76

Interstate 76 (east)

Interstate 76 is an Interstate Highway in the United States, running 435 miles from an interchange with Interstate 71 west of Akron, Ohio, east to Interstate 295 near Camden, New Jersey....
heading westbound out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population city in the United States. It is the fifth-largest metropolitan area and fourth-largest urban area by population in the United States, the nation's fourth-largest consumer media market as ranked by the Nielsen Media Research, and the 49th-most...
, uses Valley Forge

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

The Village of Valley Forge is an unincorporated settlement located on the west side of Valley Forge National Historical Park at the confluence of Valley Creek and the Schuylkill River....
, a historic but minor locality where I-76 joins the Pennsylvania Turnpike

Pennsylvania Turnpike

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is a toll highway system operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in the state of Pennsylvania, United States....
.

Occasionally, a large city will not be a control city because a larger city is located farther along a highway. For example, highway signs in Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic States of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the Washington, D.C. to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east....
on Interstate 95

Interstate 95 in Maryland

Interstate 95 in Maryland is a major highway that runs diagonally from northeast to southwest, from Maryland's border with Delaware, to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, briefly entering the District of Columbia before reaching Virginia....
northbound between the Interstate 395

Interstate 395 (Maryland)

Interstate 395 is a 2-mile-long spur from Interstate 95 in Maryland that travels from Interstate 95 in Maryland to downtown Baltimore, Maryland....
junction in Baltimore and the Mason-Dixon Line

Mason-Dixon line

The Mason?Dixon Line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute between British colonies in Colonial America....
at the Delaware border use New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
as their control city, even though I-95 directly passes through the closer Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Canada

Control cities are particularly necessary for highways that do not follow strict linear directions. Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a Provinces and territories of Canada located in the Central Canada part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area....
's Queen Elizabeth Way

Queen Elizabeth Way

The Queen Elizabeth Way is a vital 400-series highways freeway in Ontario, Canada. It links Buffalo, New York, USA and the Niagara Peninsula with Toronto and its western suburbs....
, for example, wraps around the western end of Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. The lake is bounded on the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south by Ontario's Niagara Peninsula and by the U.S....
, with segments proceeding both east and west at different points. Compass directions are not used at all in its central sections, and the control cities of Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population in Canada and the Provinces and territories of Canada Provincial and territorial capitals of Canada of Ontario....
and (for the opposite direction) Hamilton

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the James Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe....
/Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, Ontario

Niagara Falls is a Canadian city of 82,184 residents on the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of south-central Ontario. It lies across the river from Niagara Falls, New York, and was incorporated on June 12, 1903....
/Fort Erie

Fort Erie, Ontario

Fort Erie is a town on the Niagara River in the Regional Municipality of Niagara, Ontario, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly across the river from Buffalo, New York....
are the only bearings provided.

Highway directions in Montréal

Montreal

Montreal, or Montr?al, is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada of Quebec and the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population....
, Québec

Quebec

Quebec , in French language, Qu?bec , is a Provinces and territories of Canada in the Central Canada and Eastern Canada regions of Canada....
indicate control cities as far as Toronto and Ottawa on major Autoroutes 20 and 40.

External links

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