A control city is a city, locality, or other location posted on a series of traffic signs along a particular stretch of road indicating destinations on that route.[1] Together with route numbers and cardinal directions, these focal points aid the motorist navigating along a highway system. Such cities appear on signs at junctions to indicate where the intersecting road goes and where the road ahead goes. They are also typically used on distance signs.
Different countries have different practices as far as focal points on directional signs are concerned, and the term control city is not used globally. Where a sign contains a number of destinations for a particular direction, not all of those destinations may be considered a control city. In most countries, control cities are perceived to be the destinations on signs that aid longer-distance traffic, as opposed to local traffic. Accordingly, local destinations on a sign, which only appear incidentally, would in a number of countries not be considered control cities.[2]
While a control city may not appear on the signs of every single junction, the control city would at least appear on major junctions.
- ^ Jennings, Ken (2011). Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks. New York: Scribner. p. 168. ISBN 9781439167199. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
- ^ An example would be Germany, where the Richtlinie für die wegweisende Beschilderung auf Autobahnen distinguishes between Fernziele and Nahziele.