Road Sign Math

The largest city in all of Nebraska takes a wonderful opportunity to welcome those that appreciate mathematically significant road signs to their beautiful city. Visitors to Omaha, whether they are heading westbound toward Colorado or eastbound to Iowa, are welcomed warmly on I-80 with a mathematical greeting.

Omaha doesn’t feel a need to be pretentious and hide behind complex math. Some cities may choose modulo function or square roots. Frankly you could consider the use of such evolved math to be unfriendly to families! Omaha on the other hand welcomes families and math aficionados alike with the simplest of mathematics

1 + 2 = 3

These two signs perched on I-80 are not only a welcome to Omaha but they also tell a story. A story of times that were better for Omaha. The first sign erected was in the boom times of Omaha. Times when every kid in America watched Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom eagerly on Sunday nights. In these lavish times Omahanians spared no expense in their signs. Spacious metal canvases reveled in fully spelling out “Street” and the use of the expensive superscript for “th” showed a level of class and sophistication that fit the city.

In recent years though times have gotten tough. The demise of popular children’s wildlife shows and the increasing crunch that has placed on city coffers has led Omaha to a much more frugal path. Now the “th” must be done in normal letters, the extra cost of the superscript simply cannot be absorbed with the financial situation the way it is. And without a doubt you must use the abbreviated “St” instead of spelling it out. No person in their right mind could be so unabashedly extravagant.

Together we will wait for the return of the vibrant prosperity of children’s wildlife shows. Some day I am sure that Omaha will replace their new sign with another sign of the golden prosperity of their metropolis. Perhaps one that even spells out “sixty” and “seventy-second street”. Who knows, maybe even an upgrade from “Street” to “Boulevard” (or “St” to “Blvd”, depending on how big the boom.)

These reverse matching signs are found on I-80, both westbound and eastbound as you go through Omaha, NE. The GPS coordinates for these signs is approximately N41 13 26.3 W96 01 24.8. See sign on map!