IC sign name in contention in PA

Interchange signs on expressway-standard highways are often a matter of contention especially as they often lead several places. That's the case at Exit 31 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Northeast Extension which sports the name Lansdale on its Exit sign. Lansdale is the major established population center and probably was the original justification for locating the interchange there in the first place.

But Lansdale is a couple of miles away. The interchange is located right in Kulpsville in the township of Towamencin, which over the years has attracted some development, probably thanks to the Turnpike.

Last month  Towamencin township supervisors voted to lobby the Turnpike Commission to change the name on the sign to Kulpsville on the argument that that's where the interchange is.

This month Lansdale borough council hit back formally opposing the name change and releasing a letter they'd sent to Craig Shuey, executive director of the Turnpike:

"…history and logic are on the side of keeping the Interchange name the same: Lansdale.
"The Interchange, opened in 1955, has always been the Lansdale Interchange.

"This Interchange, like so many other Interchanges, is not physically within the town for which it is named, but, as in our case, is within an area where thousands of people have a Lansdale mailing address even though they live in municipalities of a different name

"…the economics are on the side of maintaining the name, as a change would be costly at a number of levels."

They pay executives like Shuey big bucks to make tough calls like this.

Another source of difference is in popular and professional terminology. In the northeast US at least in popular language interchanges are generally known as Exits, though of course you can almost always enter as well as exit at the 'Exit,' which makes the word nonsensical.

Then also toll plazas are often called toll booths, although a booth is just the small structure housing the toll collector up to which the cash paying motorist drives. It causes a certain confusion when a motorist is described as having "driven through the toll booth."

What was the fate of the poor toll collector, you wonder?

TOLLROADSnews 2012-07-12