False. Maybe where you are, but I've seen such outside California.
Some states are renumbering from exits numbered sequentially to a system where exits are numbered by the nearest mile marker.
That doesn't matter as long as the Mexicans can read the numbers.
The mile marker system has been used by most states since the inception of the Interstate Highway System.
No argument there, but I never said anything about that.
Exit numbers have NOTHING to do with language. Spanish Speakers can read a proper name written in English as easily as an English speaker can read a proper name written in Spanish.
That's just plain hooey. Changing signs isn't cheap, especially when the pavement is crumbling in front of them. Thus the change is a matter of signs having priority over pavement, which should tell you something. A trucker can easily get WAY lost once off the interstate. Thus exit numbers that reduce ambiguity to a foreign trucker are of major benefit.
Then there’s the cost of keeping the National Guard at every truck stop and protecting Mexican trucks out in the wide open America, presuming American truckers don’t take the impoverishment of their families as just the price for getting along.
Read the following taken from a Road Geek Site:
http://www.roadnotes.com/interstate/index.htm
“Mile Markers and Exit Numbers
Mile Markers
Mile markers, or mileposts as they are also known, are the vertical green signs on the edge of highways placed at one-mile intervals. Mile marker numbering begins at the most southerly or westerly point in a state. For example, if you enter Colorado from New Mexico, mile markers will increase as you travel north through Colorado. Likewise if you were to enter Colorado from Utah, mile markers would increase as you travel east through Colorado. California is the only state that does not use mile markers. Instead they use a Post Mile system with numbering beginning and ending at county lines.
Exit Numbers
Interstate exit numbers are determined by one of two methods. The first, and most widely used, is based on the mile marker system. Using this method, the first exit number on an Interstate as you travel south to north or west to east is determined by its distance from the state line. For example, if an exit is located between mile markers 4 and 5, it is numbered as Exit 4. The next exit, if located at mile marker 8.7, would be numbered as Exit 8. Thus you would know that you must travel approximately 4 miles to reach the next exit. Using this method of exit numbering helps to determine the location and distance to a desired exit.
The second method of numbering Interstate exits is the consecutive numbering system, which means Interstate exit numbers begin at the most southerly or westerly point and increase consecutively as you travel north or east. Using this method, the first exit on an Interstate as you travel south to north or west to east is Exit 1. Each exit thereafter increases consecutively as Exit 2, Exit 3 and so on. Few states use this method of numbering Interstate exits.
California’s Numbering System
As mentioned above, California does not use mile markers nor does it indicate exits with a number. This is changing, however. In January of 2002, California began erecting signs displaying exit numbers based on the mile marker system. Completion of this project is expected in 2008. The exit numbers and mile marker numbers used in this web site for California are based on the new proposed numbers that California has assigned.”
(me again)
Wikipedia also has two good articles on exit numbering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_number
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_numbers_in_the_United_States
California has always been an oddball when it comes to road issues (The 1964 mass decertification of many US Highways, It’s unique version of the US Highway sign). It’s initial proposals for Interstate numbers were rejected by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) because they bore no resemblence to the rules laid down by AASHTO for numbering interstate highways. Don’t even get me started on Interstate 238.
Not everything in this world revolves around immigration. The renumbering of California exits is a case of Caltrans finally playing be the rules that everyone else uses.