Question: "When traveling on Tucson's roads and coming to an intersection, some of the intersection signs indicate — as you face them — how far north or south or east or west the cross street is. But other signs at other intersections indicate only the north-south or east-west orientation of the street you actually are on. The latter do absolutely no good at all if you are trying to figure out whether you are nearing a particular address. Why can't the Tucson Department of Transportation do all of us drivers a favor and have all street-intersection signs show the approximate north-south or east-west location of that intersection?" Karen Schickedanz wrote.

Answer: The city department's standard is for all of its signs to show both the cardinal direction of the street and the orientation of the street on the city grid, said Michael Graham, spokesman for the Tucson Department of Transportation.

For example, signs along East Grant Road should not only say East Grant Road, but they should also tell you how far east you are when you're at Grant and Craycroft, using a city block number. As the department replaces older signs, the new ones will have the cardinal direction and the city block number, Graham said.