What are some obvious ways in your city that lets you know you have left the city limits? (home, neighborhoods)

[BrooklynJo]

Here in NYC we have a unique street light look that immediately doesn’t exist once you leave the city limit wether you are going up to Westchester County or heading towards Long Island.

Another way you can tell you have left the city limits is by the streets. In Queens for example all the streets are numbered “257th st” “245th st” and immediately when you enter Long Island the streets become actual names like “Ocean Ave”. Mt Vernon has numbers like the Bronx except in the Bronx boarder the high I believe is 243rd st whereas neigboring Mt. Vernon uses a whole different numbering style and starts back at 1st/1st Ave again.

For NYC it’s pretty easy to tell when you have left the city limits. I know it’s not as easy in other cities so what are a few tricks to find out the ending of the city limits in your cities?

[btownboss4]

This might sound silly but geographic features, Rivers, streams, ridgelines etc can be town borders.

Also some towns have different street sign colors.

[BrooklynJo]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

This might sound silly but geographic features, Rivers, streams, ridgelines etc can be town borders.

Also some towns have different street sign colors.

Is that the case for Boston?

[atadytic19]

Street signs in Houston are green.
The land locked cities usually use green or red street signs.
Bellaire Blvd for example guess through Houston, West U, Bellaire and Back to Houston. So the street signs change from green to Red to blue and back to green.

Some management districts also use different colors

[TheTimidBlueBars]

Chicago also has different street lights from the surrounding suburbs - not only in lamppole design, but the bulbs also exude a distinctive marigold glow, compared to the white bulbs in most suburbs.

I also think the tree cover increases fairly suddenly once you get out of the city limits, in most directions.

[Serious Conversation]

There are generally signs indicating when you enter the city limits, not necessarily exit. Sometimes there is a sign alongside the road that indicates the initials of the county.

[stremba]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

Chicago also has different street lights from the surrounding suburbs - not only in lamppole design, but the bulbs also exude a distinctive marigold glow, compared to the white bulbs in most suburbs.

I also think the tree cover increases fairly suddenly once you get out of the city limits, in most directions.

That's not necessarily true. In many cities in the Northeast, the city limits are pretty much set by history/geography, but urbanization has taken place without regard to the city limits. The inner ring suburbs in many of these cities resemble the adjacent city neighborhoods quite closely, and it can be very difficult to tell just by the appearance of the neighborhood whether or not you have crossed the line from city to suburb.


In my home city, Pittsburgh, the line is really only obvious because of street signs. The major streets in the city have blue overhead signs at intersections with the name of the city neighborhood appearing in smaller print above the street name. The surrounding suburbs all have differently colored street signs. There are quite a few areas here that are just as I described above; without the different street signs you would never know when you've crossed from Pittsburgh proper into an adjacent inner-ring suburb.

[SunGrins]

The neighboring town puts up a welcome sign.

[Chicago60614]

In Chicago it's for sure the streetlights being orange and most other areas white.

[T. Damon]

Last US Exit/Mexico Only