Russians seem to avoid using N, S, E and W

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Richard Robin wrote:

> Come to think of it, Russian *road signs *are rather sparse on compass
> directions, at least in the cities I have driven in or between (Moscow, SPb,
> Petrozavodsk, Arkgangelsk). (For those who do not drive in the US, nearly
> all numbered road markers, from the widest Interstate to a lowly country
> state route, usually have direction tags, e.g. I-95 North) The only time I
> remember seeing compass directions used is on  the MKAD: МКАД - СЕВЕР, МКАД
> - ЮГ... which actually makes little sense, since it's a ring (albeit oval
> shaped, and at 109 km, about the same dimensions at the 103-km Atlanta
> Perimeter Road, I-285), and you're never going in one direction for long (in
> theory - although traffic may keep you in one place for hours). But for all
> the exits (and for the Petersburg KAD as well and intercity roads beyond),
> the directions are referenced by suburb and city names, e.g. ЦЕНТР vs.
> МУРМАНСК. Road markers are rare (like M10 / E95) and never include direction
> tags. Plus, identifying markers are totally non-existent for secondary
> roads; directions are often  given by landmarks: Go about 10 minutes until
> you see the dacha development billboard, then turn right. The approach to
> Petrozavodsk from the only intercity road (Murmanskoe shosse) has two signs
> showing ЦЕНТР within a few hundred meters of each other. They both lead
> downtown, but one leads to a northern spur, the other to a southern spur.
> The signs don't give you a clue as to which is which.
>
> Of course in general American signs are in general more loquacious than
> Russian signs, which hew to established international symbolic standards.
> Russian signs convey in symbols not words things like No Left Turn, One Way,
> End Divided Highway (BTW, why are these apparent imperatives in American
> English?), etc. And some of our No Parking signs have so much verbiage on
> them that they resemble legal contracts.

In my experience, many Americans are ignorant of NESW, so the GPS habit 
of giving directions in terms of your current heading makes sense. I 
happen to prefer knowing NESW, but I can't often get that information 
unless I go online or consult some other map.

In the Philadelphia area, the original roads were built parallel or 
perpendicular to the Delaware river, so the entire grid is 40° off true 
north. Consequently, it makes little sense to speak of traveling "west" 
when you're actually traveling 40° north of west (310°)....  In 
Manhattan, on the other hand, uptown/downtown is essentially 
north/south, and the east and west sides of the island are called that, 
so everyone is familiar with it and uses NESW on a daily basis.

My favorite is Salt Lake City, which was built from scratch on a planned 
grid. Streets are named for their grid position, thus: "200 South" is a 
street running E/W 200 houses south of the main E/W axis. And a house 
400 houses east of the center of town on the street called "200 South" 
would have the address "400 East 200 South." Beautiful!
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_City#Layout>

As for numbered routes, the directions specified on road signs correlate 
to the big picture, not to the road's direction at a particular point. 
So for example, US Route 202 runs mostly N/S along the eastern seaboard, 
but anyone who knows a bit of geography will immediately see that it's 
more like NE/SW, with frequent wrinkles along the way. But for 
convenience, the convention is to call its directions "north" and 
"south." Similarly, Pennsylvania route 611 runs roughly N/S from 
Philadelphia to the Poconos.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Route_611>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_202>

As luck would have it, these two roads intersect and overlap briefly 
near Doylestown, PA:


611 N/S                202 N/S
   ||                      ||
    \\                    //
     ||                  ||
      \\ <= 611 N/202 S //
        ================
      // 202 N/611 S => \\
     ||                  ||
    //                    \\
   ||                      ||
202 N/S                611 N/S

As you can see, the overlap bears the very peculiar designations "202 
N/611 S" on the eastbound side and "611 N/202 S" in the westbound side. 
How anyone can understand that proceeding east on this highway will take 
you simultaneously north on 202 and south on 611 is left as an exercise 
to the reader.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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