A few weeks ago on the road to Rochester, Roadguy encountered this construction sign:

Now, Roadguy knows what a “C.S.A.H.” is because it’s his full-time job to know such things (he even knows people who pronounce it “kuh-SAH”). But I had to wonder: Is this understandable to your everyday motorist who isn’t familiar with the details of state highway funding and is driving by at 70 miles per hour?

On the one hand, I get that the state might want some credit for the county roads it helps fund. That’s what a C.S.A.H. is — a “county state aid highway,” like County Road 42 in Burnsville. But normal people mostly just call it County Road 42.

So my question for today is directed at the normal people: Did you already know what a C.S.A.H. (or M.S.A.S.) was when you first got up this morning? Should construction signs aim for the vernacular? Or should the general public make a point to inform itself about such things? Share your thoughts (and other potentially confounding abbreviations) below.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 6:05 am and is filed under Main, WUWT?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.