Mile-Based Exit Numbers

Dear Daytonian,

Exit numbers in Ohio are useful for more than just knowing which off-ramp to take.  In the 1970s Ohio renumbered from sequential-based to mileage-based numbers.  Sequential-based numbers are useful for knowing how many more exits there are before you get to yours, but milage-based exits tell you the more useful information of how far you have to go.  Sequential-based numbers are also really bad if you're adding lots of new intersections between existing ones.  While the conversion to mileage-based exits was confusing and a bit of a pain, the overall reasoning was so obvious that people accepted it and quickly got used to it.

But if you travel outside Ohio, particularly to the northeast portions of the U.S., those folks are more resistant to change, with some converting and others not, so don't get spooked when those exits seem to take an awfully long time to increase and it seems you're getting nowhere fast.  You can check out all the laggards at this link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_numbers_in_the_United_States