This sign in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma lists control cities of Wichita, Kansas and Ft. Smith, Arkansas, for Interstate 35 and Interstate 40 respectively.

A control city is a city or locality posted on a traffic sign indicating forward destinations on a certain route. Signs indicating such cities are usually found at highway junctions to show where the intersecting road goes, or on mileage signs on longer routes. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1656 × 1242 pixel, file size: 591 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Control city Metadata This file contains... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1656 × 1242 pixel, file size: 591 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Control city Metadata This file contains... Nickname: Location in Oklahoma County and the state of Oklahoma. ... Nickname: The Air Capital, The Peerless City Location in the state of Kansas County Sedgwick Government  - Mayor Carlos Mayans Area  - City 359. ... Fort Smith is a city that lies on the Arkansas Oklahoma Border. ... This Interstate Highway article needs to be cleaned up to conform to both a higher standard of article quality and accepted design standards outlined in the WikiProject U.S. Interstate Highways. ... Interstate 40 (abbreviated I-40) is a major west-east interstate highway in the United States. ... Unused traffic signs in Austria Most countries post signage, known as traffic signs or road signs, at the side of roads to impart information to road users. ...

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has standardized all control cities used on the Interstate highway system in the United States. The published standard is not always followed, either because major destinations have since appeared that were not on the original list, or because of state highway departments' hesitancy to sign destinations in other states. An example is a sign on eastbound Interstate 10 near Palm Springs, California, which, though Phoenix, Arizona is the nearest major forward destination, signs only the small city of Indio, California and "other Desert Cities". [1] AASHTO, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test protocols and guidelines which are used in highway design and construction throughout the United States. ... Interstate Highways in the lower 48 states. ... Interstate 10 (abbreviated I-10) is the southernmost east-west, coast-to-coast interstate highway in the United States. ... Palm Springs is a famed Riverside County, California, desert resort city, approximately 110 miles east of Los Angeles. ... Nickname: Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona Coordinates: Country United States State Arizona Counties Maricopa Incorporated February 25, 1881 Government  - Type Council-Manager  - Mayor Phil Gordon (D) Area  - City  515. ... The Indio Fashion Mall. ...

A control city is not always a major city. For instance, Interstate 76 heading westbound out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania uses Valley Forge, a historic but minor locality where I-76 joins the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Interstate 76 (abbreviated I-76) is an Interstate Highway in the United States, running 435 miles (700 km) from an interchange with Interstate 71 west of Akron, Ohio east to Interstate 295 near Camden, New Jersey. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area    - City 369. ... The Village of Valley Forge is an unincorporated settlement located just outside of Valley Forge National Historic Park in Schuylkill Township of Chester County, Pennsylvania. ... This Pennsylvania state route article needs to be cleaned up to conform to both a higher standard of article quality and accepted design standards outlined in the WikiProject Pennsylvania State Highways. ...

Occasionally, a large city will not be a control city because a larger city is located farther down a highway. For example, highway signs in Maryland on Interstate 95 northbound between the Interstate 395 junction in Baltimore and the Mason-Dixon Line at the Delaware border use New York City as their control city, even though I-95 directly passes through the closer Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (although the branching off of the New Jersey Turnpike from northbound I-95 about 40 miles south of Philadelphia probably accounts for this). Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²)  - Width 90 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37°53N to 39°43N  - Longitude 75°4W to 79°33... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (abbreviated I-95) is a well-known, important, and heavily traveled highway in the United States Interstate Highway System. ... The 2 mile long Interstate 395 is a spur of Interstate 95 that travels from Interstate 95 to downtown Baltimore. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Monument City, Charm City, Mob Town, B-more Motto: Get In On It (formerly The City That Reads and The Greatest City in America; BELIEVE is not the official motto but rather a specific campaign) Location Location of Baltimore in Maryland Coordinates , Government Country State County United... For the fictional character, see Mason Dixon (Rocky Balboa character). ... Nickname: Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1625 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area  - City  468. ...

Similarly, I-95 north of New York uses New Haven as the control city, as it is more well known than the cities of Stamford or Bridgeport. Another example is in California on US 101 where San Francisco is the control city north of Ventura, even though the highway first passes through the larger, but less famous San Jose. (However, at the time of US 101's construction and signage placement, San Francisco was the larger city.) US 101 in this region is an example of using two control cities: the next intermediary regional destination (in this example, San Jose, Salinas, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura) as well as the larger and more distant destination (in this example, San Francisco northbound and Los Angeles southbound). This article is about the city in Connecticut. ... There is more than one place named Stamford. ... Bridgeport is the name of a number of places in the United States of America: Bridgeport, Alabama Bridgeport, California Bridgeport, Chicago Bridgeport, Connecticut - by far the largest city with this name Bridgeport, Illinois Bridgeport, Michigan Bridgeport, Ohio Bridgeport, New Jersey Bridgeport, Pennsylvania Bridgeport, Washington Bridgeport, West Virginia See also: Bridgeport... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Nickname: Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates: Country United States of America State California City-County San Francisco Government  - Mayor Gavin Newsom Area  - City  47 sq mi (122 km²)  - Land  46. ... Coordinates: Country United States State California County Ventura Mayor Carl Morehouse Area    - City 84. ... Nickname: Location of San Jose within Santa Clara County, California. ... Nickname: Americas Salad Bowl Location of Salinas, California Country United States State California County Monterey Government  - Mayor Dennis Donohue Area  - City 19 sq mi (49. ... San Luis Obispo, San Luis, or SLO (Spanish for ) is a city in California. ... Santa Barbara is a city in California, United States. ... Nickname: Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ...

See also

• List of long-distance mileage signs on interstates

I-95 at the I-85 Junction Petersburg, Virginia — Heading southbound on Interstate 95 past Petersburg before the I-85 interchange, there are 2 signs that show Miami (which is 920 miles away) as the destination of I-95 and Atlanta (507 miles away) as the destination for the I...

External links

• List of Control Cities for Use in Guide Signs on Interstate Highways