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For at least a decade, Massachusetts (the Commonwealth where each geek gets one's own pot holes) has put up no new signs... umm, anywhere. Suddenly they've been putting up a bunch of them in the suburbs. However, many of them seem to be useless. Here comes an example.
I was driving up 128 north from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
metahacker's place to go home. Just after exit 30 (route 2A in Lexington) I see a new mileage sign: "Burlington 7; Peabody 21..." and something else was 44 (maybe Newburyport). Keep in mind the following facts:
When I used to commute to Manchvegas, The Future of Redneck Ghettos, I saw mileage signs that I could not figure out until I realized they were in kilometers. I thought these may be the same kind of thing but they aren't. Either someone meant to put this sign a lot earlier on 128 north (say, just after the onramps from Mass Pike) or this is a psych experiment. In fact, a simple test with Google Maps shows that the western edge of Burlington (43 Middlesex Tpke, aka. exit 32B) to the western edge of Peabody (1 Newburyport Tpke, aka. U.S. 1) is 13 miles which gets me 14 miles when I add a little for the distance from the U.S. 3 onramps to Middlesex Pike. Since 21 minus 7 is indeed 14, the sign itself is accurate internally but anchored incorrectly. Therefore a location seven miles back would be about 4.5 miles behind where the sign is now.
How hard is it to put a mileage sign WHERE IT WAS CALCULATED TO BE VALID? To whom should I write the letter with my research? Can I have the sign named after the dead person of my choice for spotting the FLAGRANT ERROR?
Promised stories later. I had to vent about this before my mind could let me sleep.
-OCD plus map obsession equals Dante
I was driving up 128 north from
metahacker's place to go home. Just after exit 30 (route 2A in Lexington) I see a new mileage sign: "Burlington 7; Peabody 21..." and something else was 44 (maybe Newburyport). Keep in mind the following facts: - There is an exit about once every mile on this orbital road around Boston;
- Lexington borders both Burlington and the next town after it, Woburn;
- The first Burlington exit is exit 32A;
- There are already mile markers along the road.
When I used to commute to Manchvegas, The Future of Redneck Ghettos, I saw mileage signs that I could not figure out until I realized they were in kilometers. I thought these may be the same kind of thing but they aren't. Either someone meant to put this sign a lot earlier on 128 north (say, just after the onramps from Mass Pike) or this is a psych experiment. In fact, a simple test with Google Maps shows that the western edge of Burlington (43 Middlesex Tpke, aka. exit 32B) to the western edge of Peabody (1 Newburyport Tpke, aka. U.S. 1) is 13 miles which gets me 14 miles when I add a little for the distance from the U.S. 3 onramps to Middlesex Pike. Since 21 minus 7 is indeed 14, the sign itself is accurate internally but anchored incorrectly. Therefore a location seven miles back would be about 4.5 miles behind where the sign is now.
How hard is it to put a mileage sign WHERE IT WAS CALCULATED TO BE VALID? To whom should I write the letter with my research? Can I have the sign named after the dead person of my choice for spotting the FLAGRANT ERROR?
Promised stories later. I had to vent about this before my mind could let me sleep.
-OCD plus map obsession equals Dante
