Thanks to Ken Dumas at Sign Language for his permission to use the image.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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Leaving Plum Island
Some blogs of interest
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How to Compare Cell Phone Plans6 years ago
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Deborah Elizabeth8 years ago
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Re:10 years ago
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Next City Committee Meeting10 years ago
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Ah to breathe the fresh air.12 years ago
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Thanks, and Back to Work13 years ago
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10 comments:
I keep looking for that one off the turnpike(?) where it says (or used to), "North 95, Cape Cod"... or was it "South 95, NH - Maine"?
I'm not as familiar w/the turnpike, or south of Boston. The 95/93/128 thing confuses me enough. I don't know where this sign is because I thought 95 and 128 were the same for a bit, but not 93 and 128 ...
That sign is somewhere between Canton and Braintree where 128 is also 93 (well and Rt 1). Of course, your direction of travel is really Eastbound at that point.
Fine, Bubba, just add another direction (and road) into the mix! lol
I thought 128 was only north of Boston - a clear result of not owning a car here for 20 or so years (and being more or less oblivious when others are driving).
Similar situations occur in almost every city, where North/South roads go East/West for a while. That's what's happening here.
The real story of 128 is that when they decided to run I95 along 128 from Danvers to Canton, they decided to change all the signs, removing the 128 designation. It was, at the time (maybe still?) the most famous highway in the world. Every techie that came to visit a Mass company knew 128. There were months of total confusion until they relented and added 128 signs to all the I95 signs.
The current situation is that 128 is continuous from Gloucester to Braintree, but it is the same road as I95 from Danvers to Canton.
Thanks, Dick. I learned to drive, and drove for many, many years in Michigan. I don't remember such a confusing system of highways there ... of course, Flint only had one bizarre offshoot of an expressway (as we called them there), which was I-475 - built to provide a more direct route between the auto factories located east of I-75.
Michigan highways have many instances of one of the worst features anywhere: left hand exits. You're peacefully driving somewhere at 75-80mph in one of the two left lanes, when suddenly some clown going 55 cuts in front of you, because he has to get off at the next exit, which is probably 2-3 miles away. The only one I commonly encounter here like that is the I93/128 - Route 24 interchange (in Canton? Randolph?).
Although, that silly interchange where I95 & 128 split in Danvers is nearly as silly. If I95 is the main road, why does it exit to the right? Especially, when it is making a left turn? Did the engineers just want to make a big, looping (expensive), California-style exit?
Um, the east/west thing was meant to be a joke...
More highway triva - the even number '4' in 475 means it's a loop that branches from and returns back to 75. If it's odd, then it's a spur, which branches and never returns, as in rt 195.
Oh Bubba, I took the hook right up to my gills. Thanks for the loop/spur info ...
Dick, at least they label the exits as being on the left miles ahead of time! Which brings me to the I95 split in Danvers. I believe I ended up in Gloucester twice by accident because of that, early on after I moved here. I still don't get it, either.
Not to mention the Rte. 1 split off I95 (also in Danvers, I think), where if you're in either of the 2 right lanes, you end up on Rte. 1 (with little or no warning).
And then there's Rte. 3 ... never mind, I'll run screaming from the house if I continue!
Dick,
I think you answered your own question earlier - when they built the "big looping ramp", 128 was the main road and 95 the exit. I don't think even MA is goofy enough to rebuild the ramp when they changed the signs....
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