[arin-ppml] Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2022-11: Clean-up of NRPM – Introduction of Section 2.17

[John Santos]

They use this scheme in SOME places, but not everywhere.

Massachusetts has been changing the highway exit numbers for the last decade or 
slow to adopt the scheme where the exit numbers are the number of miles from one 
end of the highway.  So you know that if you are at exit 68 and want exit 72, 
its another 4 miles (or you missed it 4 miles ago.)  But you don't know how many 
exits there are before you get to it, and you don't know if you should move to 
the right lane now, or wait until you've passed exit 71.

Another bad feature of this numbering scheme (but maybe was a matter of poor 
choices rather than a necessary feature) is that instead of the exits being 
numbered, for example, 17E and 17W for exits to an East-West road when you are 
on a North-South road, they are labeled 68A and 68B.  If you know you want to go 
west from the interchange and are currently heading north, you probably want 68B 
(pass 68A, go over the bridge, and take 68B) but not all interchanges work this 
way.  Sometimes the letters increase in the same direction the numbers increase, 
so you'll pass 68A to get to 68B, but sometimes the letters increase in the 
direction of travel, so 68B leads to the same road that 68A leads to if you  are 
traveling on the current road in the other direction.  Sometimes there is a 
single exit ramp for many or all of the intersecting roads, and you have to 
split after you exit, and sometimes not.  There are lots of really complicated 
intersections and road numbers when your highway designers were cows!  Less than 
a mile from where I'm sitting, there is a road that is simultaneously Mass Rt 2 
East, Mass Rt 16 West, US 3 South, Fresh Pond Parkway South and, for 1 block, 
Concord Ave. East.  (Or MA 2W, MA 16E, US 3N, Fresh Pond Parkway North and 
Concord Ave West if you are going in the other direction.)



On 3/23/2023 1:52 PM, Owen DeLong via ARIN-PPML wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Mar 22, 2023, at 10:13, William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 22, 2023 at 10:05 AM David Farmer <farmer at umn.edu> wrote:
>>> When I look at section 2 as a whole, I believe the term Number
>>> Resources logically belongs near the top of the list and not near the bottom of the list.
>>
>> Hi David,
>>
>> If you're just looking at the static document, you're right. But
>> here's the thing: there are postings, tutorials and even books that
>> refer to "section X.X of the ARIN NRPM." It's a whole ecosystem of
>> knowledge. If you renumber the sections so that those references no
>> longer line up, you contribute to the general chaos instead of making
>> things easier to understand.
>>
>> It's like the problem of numbering the exits on the Interstate
>> highways. If you just number them in order, 1 2 3 4 5, then whenever
>> you add a new off-ramp you have to change all the numbers. Suddenly
>> all the maps are wrong.
> 
> Well… They do actually just number them in order, sort of… They number
> them based on the number of miles between the western or northern point
> where the highway enters the state or begins. In cases where more than one
> exit ends up within the same mile, sometimes they fudge (+/- 1 mile) and
> more often they use a/b/c/d (counting west to east).
> 
> Indeed, if an exit ends up being installed between (e.g. 23b and 23c), then
> they do in fact end up renumbering 23c->23d etc. to create a new 23c and
> all the maps are, indeed, wrong.
> 
> This usually isn’t a problem since all the maps would be wrong if they didn’t
> show all the exits anyway.
> 
> Owen
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>
>>
>>> Further, if added to the top of the list, the added details of Bill's proposed definition seem much more appropriate to me.
>>
>> I appreciate the support!
>>
>> Regards,
>> Bill
>>
>> -- 
>> For hire. https://bill.herrin.us/resume/
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-- 
John Santos
Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc.
781-861-0670 ext 539