DON’T GET LOST
Blog 8
Hello everyone. How are you doing today? Has anyone here ever been lost? Well after today that may not happen again. Were going to discuss the interstate, highway, and county road systems and how you can use this information to keep from getting lost and if you do it wont be for long. I’m going to give you a few historical facts then show you on two different maps how you can easily keep from getting lost.
The interstate system according to wikipedia.org in 1921 when the Bureau of Public Roads ask the Army to provide a list of roads it considered necessary for national defense. The Interstate Highway system was authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 it had been lobbied by major U.S. automobile manufacturers and championed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As of 2006 $425 billion has been spent on the original plan that is projected for completion in 2009.Which will be comprised of 160,000 miles of interstate and highway.
So how do we utilize this system for us? Well we need to know how the system works. First is the numbering system it is really quite simple. The Interstate numbers start on the west and using odd numbers get bigger as you travel toward the east. Then they start in the south and get larger as you travel north. There are little green signs on the side of the interstates that are called mile markers they start at the west and south side of each state and get larger toward the east and north side of each state. Very helpfully these mile markers coincide with the exit numbers for example if you want to get off at the Crawfordsville exit at U.S. 231 it would be exit number 34 so if you are traveling west and you see mile marker 38 you know that you have 4 more miles to go until you get to exit 34.
State highways work in the same way except you don’t have exit numbers, but you do still have mile markers that are little blue signs instead of little green signs. And they are numbered from the North and East and get bigger as you travel south and West. Just the opposite of the Interstates.
Now we have the county road system it is a little bit different. What they do is split the county in fourths straight down the middle north and south the straight across east and west. For example in Montgomery county they split it north and south by using U.S 231 then they spit it east and west by using U.S. 32 on the east side of U.S. 231and Base line road on the west side of U.S. 231.Then they number the county roads in increments of miles away from these three different roads for example if you were at the intersection of 150N and 650W you would be one and one half mile north of Base line road and six and one half miles west of U.S. 231.
So as you can see it is really a pretty simple system. Just remember the numbering systems, mile markers, and exit numbers, on the interstates. Remember the numbering system and mile markers on state highways. And remember the numbering system and which direction you are going on county roads and you should not get lost if you do you should be able to look at a map and figure out pretty quick were you are. I hope this information will be very useful to you in your travels. And I thank you for your time. Now please keep these maps in your car because lost is not were you wont to be.