ITT: You're hopelessly lost

Comments

  • You can go Southwest, or North North.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    ^^ The best part is that "temporary" is a blatant lie. It's meant to route trucks around an overpass of substandard height, but neither the city nor the railroad company has any plans of ever replacing the underpass.
  • Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast
    Christ on a bike

    I'm so glad I dont drive IN AMERICA!
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    WHERE IS YOUR GOD, NOW?!

    image
  • THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Rimmer: Oh, it can get bad here. The signs around DC in particular are renowned for being quite inscrutable, or at least they were before all the huge improvement projects started.
  • Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast
    Justice42 said:

    WHERE IS YOUR GOD, NOW?!


    image
    Thats actually surprising clear
    Oh, it can get bad here. The signs around DC in particular are renowned
    for being quite inscrutable, or at least they were before all the huge
    improvement projects started.
    Oh bugger :/
  • edited 2012-11-08 17:17:11
    READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    This is a better example of Portland road dickery:


    Each lane takes you to a completely different area. And heaven help you if you haven't figured out which one you needed to be in before this point, because there's a good change traffic is not good enough that you can quickly get over.


    I should also mention that at this point you're going at least 50 mph, so you have pretty much no time to correct being in the wrong lane. 
  • I actually have DPD so I really am hopelessly lost a lot of the time.

    @Justice42
    Portland looks scary as hell to drive in. How did you ever get the hang of it?
  • READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    I have a GPS in my car, and on my phone.

    I'm pretty sure I'd be dead in a ditch in like...Aloha, Oregon or some other bizarre suburb of the Portland Metropolitan area if this was not the case.

      
  • There's a suburb fairly close to here locally known as Horse-Head (for reasons that are both less and more grisly than that name would lead you to believe) that is set up in what I can only describe as a racetrack-like fashion.

    It's an oval, there are houses on the outside of the oval in a ring, and a few facing outwards in an "island" in the middle that share a small space as backyards.

    It's the strangest thing, and there's only one road that leads into/out of the development.

  • edited 2012-11-11 07:21:36
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    This one isn't like this anymore, but it was actually such a problem that they ended up rebuilding it less than 10 years after it opened:

    image

    Five lanes, every single one going somewhere different.

    The big problem, congestion-wise, was that the left three lanes, which up to this point were for I-670 through traffic, are suddenly exit lanes, forcing everyone who wants to stay on 670 to try and merge into the second lane from the right.

    To add insult to injury, they couldn't keep their bloody exit numbers straight:

    image
  • edited 2012-11-11 14:02:38
    READ MY CROSS SHIPPING-FANFICTION, DAMMIT!

    i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
    Here's going real old school in Portland:

    image


    Well, that looks completely terrifying, let's see how they've fixed it 70 years later:

    image




    And they've added a streetcar that goes through this area....

    Note to self, stay the FUCK off of North Broadway. 
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    The present day one looks mildly better, but only insofar as they've realized that one three-leg intersection and one four-leg intersection close together are marginally safer than one giant five-leg intersection.

    Also, you reminded me: Columbus, Ohio has a street whose proper name is "North Broadway". It's an east-west street and fits perfectly into our grid as such, so addresses on it fall on "East North Broadway" and "West North Broadway".

    Most people who actually live here have long ago accepted it as Yet Another Little Quirk, but it's fun to watch people from out of town trip over it. Especially since the signs from the main freeway just say "N. Broadway".
  • edited 2012-11-18 08:41:55
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    iphone-nov12-06

    iphone-nov12-12

    Good luck!
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat

    The present day one looks mildly better, but only insofar as they've realized that one three-leg intersection and one four-leg intersection close together are marginally safer than one giant five-leg intersection.

    Also, you reminded me: Columbus, Ohio has a street whose proper name is "North Broadway". It's an east-west street and fits perfectly into our grid as such, so addresses on it fall on "East North Broadway" and "West North Broadway".

    Most people who actually live here have long ago accepted it as Yet Another Little Quirk, but it's fun to watch people from out of town trip over it. Especially since the signs from the main freeway just say "N. Broadway".


    You think that's fun, I'd find it frustrating...
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    You mean you don't enjoy a good street-grid-based shibboleth?
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    No I don't
  • edited 2012-11-18 08:53:23
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Aww...well then I'll be sure to keep you up to date on all of my city's little street name quirks before you visit!

    Among other things:
    • Hamilton Avenue and Hamilton Road are two different things
    • Numbered Avenues go east-west and numbered Streets go north-south, exactly the opposite of NYC
    • When people say "Polaris Parkway" they usually mean Powell Road and when they say "Powell Road" they usually mean Polaris Parkway
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Do you even have a South Broadway
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    No. Thank god.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Why "Thank god."?
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Well, you know...having "West North Broadway", "East North Broadway", "West South Broadway", and "East South Broadway" as four separate things would become a pain very quickly.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Oh, right.
  • The sadness will last forever.
    YAY
  • wow british road signage is way clearer than... whatever the hell this thread is. i mean we have town names and things not an incomprehensible string of numbers and arrows

    Well, you know...having "West North Broadway", "East North Broadway", "West South Broadway", and "East South Broadway" as four separate things would become a pain very quickly.

    that said, near me you may find an Eastern Avenue East, Eastern Avenue West, Western Avenue East and Western Avenue West
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    sunn wolf said:

    wow british road signage is way clearer than... whatever the hell this thread is. i mean we have town names and things not an incomprehensible string of numbers and arrowa

    From what I understand, that's one of the biggest differences between signs in North America and signs in the UK (and presumably elsewhere, though I've only discussed it with British people): ours tend to emphasize route numbers above all else, while yours tend to place more emphasis on towns and other destinations.

    I kinda understand why that is, I think. America's big, and if you're going on a longer trip--say, from Cincinnati to Atlanta--it's easier to think of it as "go south on I-75 to Atlanta" than "go towards Lexington, then go towards Knoxville, then go towards Chattanooga," etc.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I have no idea what they were thinking here:

    image

    Seriously, three of the "truck" assemblies could be omitted entirely because they're redundant with the mainlines!
  • Doctor Who reference in Pokemon B2W2? Headcanon accepted.

    I have no idea what they were thinking here:


    image

    Seriously, three of the "truck" assemblies could be omitted entirely because they're redundant with the mainlines!
    As a truck driver, I can attest that we appreciate that redundancy. There's nothing worse than going down a tiny street that you can't fit down and then have to back out. 
  • edited 2012-11-22 00:46:07
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    No, no, I understand that.

    But in this case, Truck 80, Truck 14, and Truck 22 East are all pointing exactly the same direction as their non-truck counterparts. Why include separate truck signs if there aren't actually separate truck routes?
  • Doctor Who reference in Pokemon B2W2? Headcanon accepted.
    I think I can explain that too. If you pick up a Rand McNally atlas meant for professional drivers, you'll see orange-lined highways on the map. That means they're acceptable (so to speak) routes for a truck to go down. It's not a legal indication by any means, but highways and roads that aren't outlined in orange are typically considered to be a bad idea to travel down in a truck.  Considering that's Alabama there, I'm guessing that's the hill country where these roads can get troublesome and that's why there's all those truck indicators on the signs.

    Also one time I blew the map off and went down a non-orange highway in northern california. Shaved a lot of time off my trip but I got in trouble with my driver manager for it. 
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Ah, that does make sense. Instead of saying "if you're driving a truck, go a different way" they're trying to say "if you're driving a truck, this road's okay for you too!"
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