{"id":31455,"date":"2024-04-18T19:53:07","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T23:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yurasko.net\/wfy\/?p=31455"},"modified":"2024-04-18T19:53:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T23:53:07","slug":"qa-with-control-city-freak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yurasko.net\/wfy\/2024\/04\/qa-with-control-city-freak\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Control City Freak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All right road geeks, get your pour your self some Bacradi Limon<\/em> and get your Control City Freak<\/strong> on. That’s the youtube channel<\/strong><\/a> where he talks about interstate highways and the places they are signed to go to. If you dig that kind of content why not give a like or subscribe, ya subscribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man behind the videos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WFY: Who is Todd, the Control City Freak? How did you come to care about control cities? How many interstate control cities have you called home?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been a roadgeek since birth. I looked at maps and atlases all the time in elementary school, and the July day my family drove from Kansas to Michigan every year was basically second Christmas for me. I always sat in front to \u201cwatch the road\u201d and never remotely considered taking a nap. I was into control cities but had no idea what they were called or how to talk about them, but seeing the signs switch from Kansas City to Des Moines to Davenport to Chicago to Indiana always helped me to determine our progress on the road, and seeing signs for Detroit and Toledo always blew me away since they seemed like such faraway places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t lived in too many primary control cities, mainly Chicago and kinda weirdly Rockford, but I have lived in less prominent ones like Lawrence, Tacoma, and St. Petersburg and in just outside of Los Angeles and Baltimore. Oh yeah, and Paris, Seoul, and Ho Chi Minh City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WFY: Does it feel like a burden to know exactly what control city should be for every stretch of interstate highway in the country? Is that why you decided to start the channel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF:<\/strong> I started it because I\u2019m a total control city nerd, and it didn\u2019t seem anybody else was on that particular corner on YouTube. I could have tried out making a Zelda channel or an NFL channel for a wider possible audience, but there\u2019s already so many creators out there making fantastic content on those topics. Knowing the control cities never felt like too much of a burden since I know a bunch of them by heart anyway, but I\u2019ve also made plenty of videos on roads I don\u2019t know very well and have never driven, and I definitely forget the details of those roads as soon as I\u2019m done making the vid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WFY: Has running a youtube channel about control cities helped you gain the respect of your peers, family, etc.?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF: <\/strong>Not particularly lol. My wife watches some of them but she still has no idea what I\u2019m talking about. My parents subscribe but rarely watch. I do have some friends who are pretty jazzed about it and watch regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interstate talk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WFY: Is two control cities a best practice when a highway has to major destinations? I’m looking at I-95 north of Baltimore in particular.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF: <\/strong>I like dual control cities and think they would work well in a lot of places. Baltimore is a great example, somewhere where there\u2019s a major junction in a less-worthy city (sorry, Wilmington). I also think it could be useful to doubly sign the next reasonable control city alongside the next truly major city (say, the next actual major sports league city + Omaha, Louisville, Albuquerque, Tulsa, and maybe Boise). I\u2019m more of a system guy then a number guy, so I have no problem signing major cities on a different number rather than minor cities on the same number. For example, 40 East could be something like Needles\/Phoenix, Kingman\/Phoenix, Flagstaff\/Albuquerque, Holbrook\/ABQ, Gallup\/ABQ, Grants\/ABQ, ABQ, Amarillo\/OKC, OKC, Fort Smith\/Memphis, Little Rock\/Memphis, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville\/Charlotte, Asheville\/Charlotte, Winston-Salem\/Raleigh, Greensboro\/Raleigh, Durham\/Raleigh, Raleigh, Jacksonville\/Wilmington, Wilmington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WFY: You don’t mention signage much in your videos, just the control cities. Do you have preferences on things like fonts, exit tabs, route markers? Some people have strong feelings about clearview or legacy button copy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF: <\/strong>I\u2019m pretty agnostic on that. I don\u2019t care for super weird fonts that seem like they are trying to be standard, like the ones on the Welcome to Alabama signs, but I\u2019m fine with highway gothic, clearview, and button copy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF favorites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WFY: Please share your top five state route markers and toll highway trailblazers…<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF:<\/strong> For state route markers, I\u2019ve definitely got to lean west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kansas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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California<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Alaska<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Washington<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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New Mexico<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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For toll highways, I\u2019m generally annoyed by paying tolls so I don\u2019t really love any of them, but I suppose I\u2019ve got to be a homer here and pick the Kansas Turnpike. It\u2019s got a good looking trailblazer, and it\u2019s well maintained and has reasonable prices compared to legacy eastern tollways and the new ones that have popped up all over Florida and Texas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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WFY: What’s your favorite interstate, interstate section, sign, etc.? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF: <\/strong>My favorite overall is I-70. The entire stretch from its start in Utah to Denver is fantastic, and I recently drove it for the first time in 20 years and enjoyed it just as much as I did when I drove it semi-regularly in the late 90s. The Kansas section underrated, and it connects a lot of major cities in the eastern half of the country. Plus, with the San Rafael Swell, Glenwood Canyon, Eisenhower Tunnel, first stretch of Interstate pavement, Breezewood, and the Park and Ride, it\u2019s got more random quirks than any 3 Interstates combined. Idaho Springs to Vail in particular is my favorite stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Tollroads.net attacks Breezewood and so do I<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite sign is the To Chicago Skyway one at Cornell and Stony Island on the South Side of Chicago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019m also a fan of this one in Grant\u2019s Pass, Oregon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Living for the (Control) City<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WFY: Does living in a place that is a mainline interstate control city confer on an individual a certain level of prestige<\/em>? Does living in a place that is merely a 3-digit interstate control city mean some prestige<\/em>, but not as much as a 2di?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF: <\/strong>That\u2019s an interesting question. I just took a glance at the top 50 cities proper and top 50 metros in the US.. Fresno (34) and Bakersfield (48) are the largest cities that aren\u2019t really on any Interstate and thus not regular Interstate control cities. Mesa (36) is near I-10 but is not an Interstate control city at all, but it\u2019s clearly a suburb. Milwaukee (31) and Virginia Beach (42), and Tulsa (47) are not on X0 or X5 Interstates but are Interstate control cities. San Jose (12) and Long Beach (43) are on 3-digit Interstates. Long Beach is part of the Los Angeles CSA and is a kinda suburb, but I\u2019ve also spent enough time in the LBC to know it\u2019s its own thing. San Jose is its own metro for reasons<\/em>, but in my mind it\u2019s part of the Bay. As for top 50 metro areas, San Jose (27) isn\u2019t on a 2di, and Pittsburgh (30), Virginia Beach (36), Milwaukee (38), and Hartford (47) aren\u2019t on x0 or x5 routes. Given that there are no Interstates 50 and 60 due to potential conflicts of with same-numbered US Highways, one could think of 44 and 64 making up the real I-50, I-70 being real 60, 80 being real 70, 90 being real 80, and 94 being real 90, which would remove any lack of cachet for Virginia Beach, Milwaukee, and Tulsa. Also, I-70 should absolutely sign Pittsburgh in both directions, so it\u2019s hard to deduct points from the Burgh based on bad choices by PennDOT, Maryland, Ohio, and West Virginia. Ultimately, this means that the only top cities and markets losing the prestige of control citydom are San Jose (one of the richest cities in the country but one that should<\/em> be part of the SF market), Bakersfield, and Fresno. Given that, yes, I suppose there is something of a lack of prestige in not being signed on a major Interstate.
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Editor’s aside..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Goodnight Vienna! I guess growing up in a mainline control city is pretty prestigious.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Raising your family in a X5 control city – even more prestige because it’s on the bottom line?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Born in 3di? Well, that’s better than a place without a interstate control city. Button copy hanging on in Jersey too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Limon…LIMON!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WFY: Long ago, When I was in Colorado one spring break, I wondered how Limon got to be a control city, even though I didn’t know the term at the time. While Limon gets your angst, what is the second worst control city? Is using Limon as a control city as egregious as Interstate 238 or 99?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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