Why can't I ride the train to exit 18?

August 6, 2010 10:47 AM

Why are highway exits numbered but rail / subway stops aren't?
posted by smackfu to Travel & Transportation (24 answers total)

Trainstops usually coincide with population centers. It is therefore easy to name them by town or neighborhood (for example: Haverbrook, North Haverbrook, Haverbrook Heights). Highway exits sometimes just connect to other highways so numbering makes more sense.

Additionally, exits are often listed by mile marker which is useful if you are driving as you can estimate your time of arrival based on your speed. This would not be useful on a train as you rarely have a good estimate of your speed.
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:55 AM on August 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Subway stops in Atlanta are numbered, at least on some maps. (MARTA seems to be inconsistent about this.)
posted by madcaptenor at 10:56 AM on August 6, 2010

Numbering train stops might help people who are riding on unfamiliar lines, who keep wondering when their stop is going to come. For example, I feel less lost riding subways in Manhattan (where the streets are numbered, and the subway stops on north-south-running lines inherit those numbers) than in San Francisco (where they're not).
posted by madcaptenor at 10:59 AM on August 6, 2010

In much of California, especially in urban areas, highway exits are not numbered and instead are named after the street or population center they go to. So in that case they are much like rail/subway stops. There is a recent trend to adding exit numbers, though.
posted by zsazsa at 11:07 AM on August 6, 2010

Highway stops are usually numbered but also have the names of the locations as well (Exit 18: North Haverbrook, Salem, etc.) Train stops are also usually numbered but that's usually just used internally.
posted by proj at 11:07 AM on August 6, 2010

A lot of subway systems do this. Singapore does, Tokyo does, and I know I've seen it in other places, too. Here's Tokyo's documentation on this: http://www.tokyometro.jp/global/en/service/routemap.html.
posted by jrockway at 11:08 AM on August 6, 2010

jrockway: "A lot of subway systems do this. Singapore does, Tokyo does, and I know I've seen it in other places, too."

I think Beijing also.
posted by sharkfu at 11:10 AM on August 6, 2010

Because most train stations are in the center of a neighborhood, town, or intersection. So it makes sense to call it what it is. In other words, the train stations are destinations. Freeway exits are not.
posted by oneirodynia at 11:11 AM on August 6, 2010

California is adding exit numbers, although it's taking them forever.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:11 AM on August 6, 2010

Something else to consider: a lot of highway exit "numbers" are actually names, after a fashion, as they're numbered based on their mile-marker, not their order. A number of states which used to number their exits sequentially starting with one, then two, etc. switched to the mile-marker method a little while ago. So the "number" of the exit doesn't necessarily tell you how many exits you've passed, but it does give you a rough idea about where you are and how far you have to go.
posted by valkyryn at 11:11 AM on August 6, 2010

Highway stops are often (always?) measured and numbered by distance. Exit 1 is one mile from Exit 2. This matters to drivers because you are in control of your car. You could run out of gas, for example.

Distance doesn't matter to train riders in the same way. You're not in control, you're not going to run out of gas if you don't pay attention. All that matters to you is travel time, really. Moreover, trains have tunnels, subways and bypasses, etc., that (usually) ignore the geographic hindrances of roads, which must navigate around buildings and other features -- a distance of 10 miles "by car" could be significantly less "by train."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:13 AM on August 6, 2010

My guess is that train lines never had a need for numbers because people thought in terms of time and place rather than distance. The train company may have a need to know distances, but customers only need to know time and place. The sequence of those places doesn't affect the outcome.

Highways are open to the public. The individual makes his own decisions about fuel and time, and mileage is key to estimating these.
posted by RobinFiveWords at 11:15 AM on August 6, 2010

Highway stops are often (always?) measured and numbered by distance

The New Jersey Turnpike is one example I can think of. Pretty sure there's a bunch of other NJ roads that don't obey the milemarker paradigm. I suppose this varies by state.
posted by schmod at 11:16 AM on August 6, 2010

Subways were built using the paradigm left over from trains, which was to name the station after the place, because that's the easiest way to glean information about where you are without having to consult a key after sitting in a metal tube hurtling across the country. It made sense then, but as train distances got smaller and smaller (from neighborhood to neighborhood) they kept with it because that's what they had always done.
posted by amethysts at 11:24 AM on August 6, 2010

Um, subway stops are both numbered and named in my city.

Works quite well.

As to why other cities don't do this? I have no idea.
posted by strixus at 11:35 AM on August 6, 2010

Highway exits only serve a single highway. Subway stops often serve several lines. Every line knows that it gets off at Times Square, but Times Square would be Exit 21, 7, 15, 35, 44 and 1 - depending on what line you were on.
posted by dirtdirt at 12:51 PM on August 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you told me what exit to take off the highway, I wouldn't know which one it was. If you told me the street (e.g., take the LIE to the Meadowbrook South or take the Southern State to the Cross Island North to the Throgs Neck), then I'd know exactly where you wanted me to go.

I agree with schmod. Metro NY is also an area where exit numbers are sequential, the exit number doesn't coincide with the mile marker (we also don't have very many mile markers either). I can't think of a single road in NYC or on LI or nearby places where we do have exits based on mile marker.

I also agree with dirtdirt, many lines serve multiple stops. Then throw in the express versus local trains. If your friend tells you take a 2 to stop 5, is that the fifth stop the local takes or the fifth stop the express takes?
posted by Brian Puccio at 12:57 PM on August 6, 2010

The Taconic Parkway has no exit numbers. I just describe the exit. You know that exit where the troopers pull everyone over north of 84 with the bridge named after the fallen state trooper. That is where to get off. I think it says school house lane.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:42 PM on August 6, 2010

What dirtdirt said - it would be more confusing than helpful for NYC if we were talking about which stop it was. And in new york, most of manhattan and some of the other boroughs have numerical street names anyway, so you can keep track of how many stops based on that. But more important, there is a map right there, both a full map and a simplified list of the stops coming up, that you can check while the train is in motion - no need to pull over or anything... Since you might walk part of the way, you want to know the names of streets, so "exit #x" would not really be helpful.
posted by mdn at 2:12 PM on August 6, 2010

That Taconic Parkway exit is Beekman Road. It used to be a grade level crossing until enough accidents occurred there that the state built an overpass. Same thing with the Bull's Head Road exit about 20 miles north.

Oddly enough the grade level crossings on the Taconic had exit numbers originally, D1 etc. in Dutchess County, C1 etc. in Columbia County. Those signs were removed and many of those crossings have been closed.
posted by leaper at 6:26 PM on August 6, 2010

Highway stops are often (always?) measured and numbered by distance. Exit 1 is one mile from Exit 2.

This is not universal. For example, if you were driving on I-95 in Florida prior to 2002 you would have been surprised to learn that exit 67 to exit 71 was actually 42 miles in distance. But I guess they realized how crazy that was and renumbered, but I'm positive there are other places that did the same thing.
posted by Rhomboid at 10:40 PM on August 6, 2010

Response by poster: Incidentally, this came to mind because on Metro North in CT, they have some station names that are just tiny neighborhoods where no one uses the name except for the train station. They just had to come up with something to call "the second Fairfield station" and what they ended up with is really no more descriptive than an exit number and doesn't even have the context that a number has.
posted by smackfu at 9:55 AM on August 8, 2010

Why not just call it something like "Fairfield West"?

On one of the branches of Boston's Green Line (light rail) there are three stops named in this way: BU East, Central, and West.
posted by madcaptenor at 4:20 PM on August 8, 2010

Subway stops here in Seoul are numbered sequentially with three digits, the first always indicating the line number. A great idea maybe, but nobody uses them. Most stations are tied to a specific neighborhood, so I guess it makes more sense to refer to "Gangnam Station" or "Ehwa Women's University Station" than "stop 222" or "stop 241".

On review, what dirtdirt and mdn said...
posted by photo guy at 9:15 AM on August 9, 2010