Interstate Control City

Purpose of a Control City – To provide the driver the best orientation of the major destinations and population centers located on or near the Interstate Highway System.

Control City legends should be used in the following situations:

1. Interchange between freeways
2. Separation points of overlapping freeways
3. On directional signs on intersecting routes, to guide traffic entering the freeway
4. On pull Thru signs
5. On the bottom line of post interchange distance signs

A state or municipality may want to change the list of control cities on an Interstate Highway within its boundaries by adding, deleting, or replacing a control city. This requires coordination with other adjacent states that are impacted by the change prior to the state or municipality submitting a request for revision to the list of control cities.

Requests for changes to the list of control cities should include the following information:

1. A statement indicating what addition or change is proposed
2. Any illustration that would be helpful to understand the request
3. Any supporting data/information that would provide justification for making the requested change
4. Any comments from other states as to the impacts that may occur as a result of the proposed change, including additional signing requirements/changes to regionally significant destinations

The AASHTO Committee on Traffic Engineering (CTE) will convene a task force to review the request for a change to the Control Cities.  With a favorable recommendation and approval from the full CTE membership, a recommendation for approval will be forwarded to the AASHTO Council on Streets and Highways and the AASHTO Board of Directors for approval.