Ask Lemmy

One comment mentioned that some things are legal in one state but illegal in another.
And I also remember that laws in general are often quite different between states.

So, I am wondering if there exist some kind of controls near state borders to catch illegal stuff and practices (or even wanted persons?) crossing the border?

Like others have said, the roads here tell you.

Specifically, when you cross State Line Road, you've crossed the state line.

You should bounce from Alabama to Mississippi, night and day difference, which is funny because Americans lump the two states together.

We drive hundreds and hundreds of miles a year through backwoods Alabama highways, thence into Mississippi. There is one short stretch where the road is messed up. Going into Mississippi, the road turns to crap instantly, even the US highways are somehow underfunded.

Gas stations in AL are neat enough, in MS there's trash flying around everywhere. For that matter, you can tell by the small towns. Alabama side? Generally charming, though poverty is bad. Pass into Mississippi? Next town you come to will be a wasteland of poverty and ground down infrastructure.

Forest drops quickly in favor of farmland. AL is the most forested state in America. MS countryside looks more like Oklahoma.

Going from Florida into Alabama, you really can't tell without a sign, and there usually is one, or Google Maps announces it. The landscape and forests don't change until you've gone a ways north or west. Takes awhile to start seeing hills! Florida's the flattest state in America.

I don't live near the border but on a road trip I noticed an immediate difference in the quality of the road surface when I entered Alabama coming from Florida. Florida has pretty good roads. Alabama, uhh, not so much. Mississippi and Louisiana roads were also terrible. Texas was better but the quality was spottier.

There often aren't major cultural differences, not the abruptly, but there still can be changes. Sometimes the road will be 2 lanes on one side and 4 on the other. Sometimes you'll see a ton of new billboards on one side and not the other because they just bought a bunch in one state. Architecture? Not so much, I don't think, though it could be in some areas. Generally if someone is actively picking something while they're there,like building a house, it won't change, but if it's someone picking or choosing something from afar like what a road should be like or what to advertise it can change abruptly.

A good example is that in the past (not so much now), I-75 going south into Georgia began to have a ton of weird pro life billboards and Christian billboards once you cross the state line. Since then they have passed the line, but for real, it was a very abrupt change from none to tons of pictures of fetuses and talking points about when "your baby's" heart beat begins. As well as weird pictures of an apocalypse and Jesus that just sort of says "do you have a decision to make?" With no context.

I actually signed that last one's website's guest book to tell them the domain name on their signs was wrong, which was hilarious to me. It seems like the site would come before the billboards, so why wouldn't they notice the billboards had the wrong site? It was something like org instead of com, pretty minor. But sure enough they changed the billboards next time I went to Florida. So clearly someone is maintaining that site and those billboards. I just checked and it's still up, but it looks like they have some redirects now. So, maybe they fixed some stuff or my memory is fuzzy, this was probably about 10 years ago, definitely pre COVID though.

I used to live in the US and travel a lot by car. The infrastructure, specifically the roads, their striping, their guardrails, etc. could change drastically at state borders. They could sometimes even be of different quality and material at county borders within a state.

The road surface materials and condition of the road changes.

Some states/towns limit billboards and tall sign poles. And some are very maximalist about it.

There’s a spot near me where 3 intersect right on the road. The pavement is in a different state of disrepair for each. You can see it and hear it driving along.

Yeah. Drive into South Carolina and the atmosphere just feels like you’ve rolled around on a truck stop bathroom floor. Then there’s all the fireworks stands, DUI defense attorney billboards, shit roads, Palmetto signs, etc. I think they just got Jersey Mike’s because I saw a bunch of plaques for them on the exits.

When I lived in the Midwest one of the clearest signals (aside from the obvious signage) was the college football team swag on cars and in front of houses.

More bumps on the road after crossing the state line.

I once lived in a small city right on that state's border. It was sort of a suburb tho to a very large city in the neighboring state. The major roads would have signage, but on the smaller roads there really wasn't any way to tell. The main difference tho was that the large city's public transit options extended pretty far out even into the small towns along the border, but wouldn't at all come into my small city..

Where I live now, you have to cross a very large river to get into the neighboring state. What's worth sharing here tho, is that there is a nearby county line, where even tho there's a sign, you don't need it at all. The landscape/biome changes pretty much at the county line.
It goes from a sort of temperate rainforest-like climate, to arid grassland/high desert climate. You'll be driving thru areas with large, old growth evergreens and lots of ferns underneath, and then it turns to dead, dry, brown grass and sagebrush shrubs everywhere. Like, it could also even be raining the whole first part of the drive there, but once you get to this county line the rain almost always dissipates. It's pretty wild.

this is such an adorable question.

The time on my phone changed.

Highways go from being free to costing money (Illinois 😒)

Well, there's a big fucking river—so that helps.

When driving through the Kansas City metro area, the road that splits the two states is literally named State Line Road. Everything looks the same on both sides of the road.

Otherwise there tend to be signs on roads welcoming you to whichever state depending on the direction you are going. Those signs used to match up with a change in road maintenance quality but Kansas decided to join the race to the bottom so it isn't as noticeable anymore.

In most cases it isn't apparent and doesn't matter. But there are some that are* noticeable and do matter. Having traveled to most states via car, it's been interesting to see the ones that stood out.

The lines on a map are actually painted on the ground. It's amazing to see the one running along the bottom of Lake Tahoe. 😊