(Today's quiz: What's the distance from the Fort Wayne Airport Expressway exit of 1-69 to the I-465 exit in Indianapolis?)
Outside of Fort Wayne, the road I travel on the most is I-69, to visit my sister in Indianapolis once or twice a month. Driving it (as I did this past weekend) gives me an appreciation of one thing Indiana gets right. Some states (such as New York) number their interstate exits consecutively, without regard to any outside factor -- Exit 1, Exit 2, Exit 3, etc. But some states (such as Indiana) do it a better way: The exits are numbered according to the mile marker they are at or closest to. So, heading south, you go from Exit 64 (Marion) directly to Exit 59 (Gas City). Heading north, Exit 14 (Fortville) comes immediately after Exit 10 (Noblesville).
If you're driving on an interstate in New York and see that you're at, say, Mile Marker 55, all you know is that you're 55 miles from one end of the highway. (Tip of the day: All interstate mile markers start at the southern or western end of the road; numbers get higher as you go north or east.) But if you see that you're at a certain mile marker on I-69, you also know what exits you're near. And if you happen to see an exit, you don't have to have been paying attention to the mile markers to know how far along the trip you are. This is a tremendous aid to people like me who are cartographically challenged (couldn't find our you-know-whats with our hands and a flashlight).
Quiz answer: Exit 99 (here) to Exit 0 (there), the perfect 100-mile trip.
