# Naming and numbering systems for interchanges and exits



## Ingenioren (Jan 18, 2008)

Norway only started numbering exits in 2005.


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## MichiH (Jan 5, 2013)

I think Germany has officially introduced exit numbering (consecutively, not distance-based) on 1st July 1992 after a previous test period (first signs in 1988?)


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

In retrospect, many European countries started really late with exit numbering, only a few countries actually numbered their exits before 1990. Many countries already had a sizeable motorway network by the time exit numbering was first implemented.

These are some dates I found;

* UK: late 1960s
* Spain: early 1970s
* Belgium: 1979
* France: 1982
* Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg: early 1990s
* Switzerland, Sweden: early 2000s


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## Ryme Intrinseca (Aug 3, 2016)

ChrisZwolle said:


> I believe they started in the late 1960s, by that time the motorway construction began to pick up steam.


Here's an image of the M6 near Preston in 1966: 










It appears that the junction number is a crude addition to the original sign.


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## Uppsala (Feb 26, 2010)

ChrisZwolle said:


> I believe they started in the late 1960s, by that time the motorway construction began to pick up steam.
> 
> Spain was also one of the first in Europe in the 1970s when they built the first autopistas. These had sequential exit numbering, while the later autovías had distance-based exit numbering.





ChrisZwolle said:


> In retrospect, many European countries started really late with exit numbering, only a few countries actually numbered their exits before 1990. Many countries already had a sizeable motorway network by the time exit numbering was first implemented.
> 
> These are some dates I found;
> 
> ...


In UK they still dont have the European standard-symbol for exitnumbers. Same with Belgium.

France is using the European standard-symbol now, but they still have a few old signs with old French with the text "sortie" instead of the symbol.

Spain is using the European standard-symbol now, when did they change to that? And how was the old exitnumers look like in Spain before they intruduced the European standard-symbol?

Sweden got exitnumbers 1994. But only at the westcoast from the begin. That was a testperiod the first years only at that part. The early Swedish exitnumers did not have the European standard-symbol. They hade the Danish symbol instead. Some signs were in Danish style, with the exitnumers, but most of them was normal Swedish signs, but with exitnumers in Danish style. In 2003 Sweden officially introduced exitnumbers for real. And from 2003 they changed from the Danish symbol to the European standard-symbol.

Denmark still have the Danish symbol and not the European standard-symbol.


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## Kanadzie (Jan 3, 2014)

I wonder how it looks in the UK with consecutive exits for so long... is there a lot of "J12a-bis" exits?


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## Uppsala (Feb 26, 2010)

This must be the original exitnumbers in Spain. No symbol, just a text "SALIDA" and the number.

When did they started with the modern symbol for exitnumers in Spain?


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## Penn's Woods (Apr 8, 2010)

^^I’d guess Gerona is posted in Catalan - Girona - or both languages now.


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## Kpc21 (Oct 3, 2008)

Poland had numbering of interchanges on the A4 in something like 1990s, maybe still in 2000s.

This is how the sign looked like:










Later they changed the system into names and it started looking so:










The selection of names was quite a random thing. Initially they were sometimes taken from little villages, sometimes from bigger towns, but, for example, the A1/S8 interchange near Łódź (finally named Łódź Południe - Łódź South) was supposed to bear the name Wrocław. Even though it's located over 200 km from Wrocław, near Łódź. Another example near Łódź are the exits/interchanges on the A2. Initially, the exit from A2 onto DK14 was supposed to be named Stryków II, the interchange with the A1 - Stryków I. From the nearby town. But finally they changed it and while the already existing exit onto DK14 stayed with the name Stryków, the A2/A1 interchange was named Łódź Północ (Łódź North).

However, for example, the S8/S14 interchange is still called Róża, from a village the population of which is 171.

In the so called "experimental signage", which has been introduced on newly built motorways and expressways, they added the exit numbers:





































In Poland there is no differentiation between interchanges and exits, so the same symbols are used for both.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Penn's Woods said:


> ^^I’d guess Gerona is posted in Catalan - Girona - or both languages now.


Most, if not all signage in Catalonia uses Catalan names. Lleida is even used in Spanish-speaking Aragón. Girona also seems to becoming standard (as opposed to Spanish Lérida and Gerona). Barcelona has the same name in Spanish and Catalan, though there appears to be a slight difference in pronunciation.

In the Valencian Community, national roads are bilingual, except for Valencia, since the only difference is the accent on the "e" (Valencia vs València). Castelló / Castellón and Alacant / Alicante are often signed in both languages. 

The first autopistas of Spain were built in those regions, especially long sections of AP-7, so they were among the first to introduce exit numbering.

In Catalonia, the older style signage used the Spanish word "salida". I'm not sure if they ever signed "sortida".


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## Losbp (Nov 20, 2012)

Indonesia uses kilometer mark as our exit numbers; usually signed with the Indonesian word *KELUAR | xx*

It is regulated by law to have exit numbers on our expressways but some exits don't put them hno:

Jalan Tol Palimanan - Kanci - Pejagan - Pemalang by Adriansyah Yasin, on Flickr

Cikopo Palimanan Toll Road by Adriansyah Yasin, on Flickr

Jalan Tol Bekasi - Cawang - Kampung Melayu (Becakayu) by Adriansyah Yasin, on Flickr

Jakarta Inner Ring Road is somehow also exempt from this:

Jakarta Inner Ring Road by Adriansyah Yasin, on Flickr

And we don't number our interchanges, not even put a KELUAR sign on it

Jakarta Outer Ring Road by Adriansyah Yasin, on Flickr


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## Stuu (Feb 7, 2007)

Kanadzie said:


> I wonder how it looks in the UK with consecutive exits for so long... is there a lot of "J12a-bis" exits?


Luckily the British government dealt with that by not building any more roads.

And slightly more seriously, there are a few J9a etc but I'm fairly sure there are no b's. There were and are missing numbers for future roads, which have either been added later e.g. M4 round Cardiff originally went 29-32-34 I think, but now the numbers are consecutive.

There are very few places where new junctions have been added to motorways, only very significant new roads have been joined directly to motorways, most other major new roads have been linked into existing junctions, which has not been a good idea in lots of places


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## Ryme Intrinseca (Aug 3, 2016)

Stuu said:


> Luckily the British government dealt with that by not building any more roads.
> 
> And slightly more seriously, there are a few J9a etc but I'm fairly sure there are no b's. There were and are missing numbers for future roads, which have either been added later e.g. M4 round Cardiff originally went 29-32-34 I think, but now the numbers are consecutive.
> 
> There are very few places where new junctions have been added to motorways, only very significant new roads have been joined directly to motorways, most other major new roads have been linked into existing junctions, which has not been a good idea in lots of places


The A282 has J1B (using a continuation of M25 numbering). I wouldn't be surprised if there are more. 'A' junction numbers are pretty common (about 8 on the M1 alone).

Lots of new junctions have been added to UK motorways. Nowadays they are as likely to be for local development as for strategic traffic. Some recent or ongoing examples are M275 J1, M1 J11A, M49 Avonmouth junction and M11 J7A.


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## Stuu (Feb 7, 2007)

Ryme Intrinseca said:


> The A282 has J1B (using a continuation of M25 numbering). I wouldn't be surprised if there are more. 'A' junction numbers are pretty common (about 8 on the M1 alone).
> 
> Lots of new junctions have been added to UK motorways. Nowadays they are as likely to be for local development as for strategic traffic. Some recent or ongoing examples are M275 J1, M1 J11A, M49 Avonmouth junction and M11 J7A.


Ok, according to CBRD, there are 44 junctions with an a, b, or c. Only 3 are b, and only 1 is c (M90 to do with the new Forth bridge). Which is a lot more than I had thought there would be


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## Kanadzie (Jan 3, 2014)

Uppsala said:


> This must be the original exitnumbers in Spain. No symbol, just a text "SALIDA" and the number.
> 
> When did they started with the modern symbol for exitnumers in Spain?


Interestingly, in Quebec Canada, they used the "modern symbol" in the 1960s-70s similar era to the Spanish photo, and now, not used (well, the arrow is gone)


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## Uppsala (Feb 26, 2010)

^^
Interesting! And now not used there any more? Its not exactly like the European, but similar. Maybe someone in for example Germany was looking at this one and made a new more modern version of it?

I think the first in Europe was Germany 

Then around 2000-2010 more and more European countries introduced it.


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## Kanadzie (Jan 3, 2014)

That's right
the shape is basically the same and the "yellow trapezoid" is itself the "exit symbol" in Quebec, but the "Y" diagrammatic disappeared sometime in late 80's early 90's, some old signs still around. The trapezoid angled side points in the exit direction (e.g. it is reversed for a left exit)

eg like this now:









the "exit sign" is duplicated at the gore point as well, but is narrower for some reason.


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## Uppsala (Feb 26, 2010)

^^
Interesting again!

Look here:

Denmark have a style at their signs who looks more American than European. And they dont using the European standard-symbol. They dont really have a symbol, they have like a shape like they have in Quebec.

But in Denmark they have a hexagon for the exitnumbers. And thats interesting. Germany and Sweden have the European standard-symbol, but not Denmark.

But i think the idea of the Danish "white hexagon" looks similar to the "yellow trapezoid" from Quebec.

Maybe Denmark got the idea for the "white hexagon" from the "yellow trapezoid" in Quebec


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## Ryme Intrinseca (Aug 3, 2016)

The UK also uses the 'number inside a coloured shape' approach, specifically a black rectangle:










As far as I know this has always been the UK exit numbering symbol - you can see it in the image from 1966 I posted above.


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## Uppsala (Feb 26, 2010)

^^
Belgium use a green rectangle. Is similar to the rectangle in UK except for the colour, its green instead of black. And the exitnumbers in Belgium is quite old. Maybe they made them with influence from the UK


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## OulaL (May 2, 2012)

MattiG said:


> In addition, in some cases, the naming promoted not the best route. The exit 3/E12/25 has the name "Hyvinkää E", but taking it does not give the best way to Hyvinkää.


It could make sense if it could be understood as "the best way to southern parts of Hyvinkää".

However, in order to this make sense, "Hyvinkää K" or "Hyvinkään keskusta" (for centre) should be used along with Tampere pointing northward on road 3/E12. Alternatively the word "keskusta" could be replaced by the language neutral dartboard symbol.


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## 54°26′S 3°24′E (Oct 26, 2007)

Ingenioren said:


> Norway follows the Swedish system, with the name of the junction being the name of the exact place it is located. Also note this exit is between cities, doesn't lead to anything important - so there is only destination being a church.


Naming of junctions are not used in a systematic manner, though. The names of many junctions are not signposted.


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## marciomaco (Jan 17, 2009)

Portugal has numbers for the exits and interchanges (although sometimes they forget to put the numbers :lol on a yellow square. No names, the signs for exits just point out nearby villages and cities and interchange signs show farther cities.


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