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Outside Narvik, Norway (at Gratangseidet north of Bjerkvik, at the border between Nordland and Troms) is a road sign indicating the distance to Kirkenes along the E6 as 1042 km:

Kirkenes 1042
Kirkenes 1042 km

Outside Murmansk/Му́рманск, along the M18, there is a road sign indicating the distance to Saint Petersburg/Санкт-Петерб́ург as 1382 km (Google Streetview), and another one at 1434 km (presumably another route).

This forum post contains a photo of a sign indicating 2800 km to Perth.

I recall having seen a photograph of a road sign in Siberia, indicating ~5000 km-ish to Moscow, but I cannot find it now. However, this panoramio photo pictures 3177 km to Magadan / Магада́н.

What is the highest ordinary distance road sign in the world? By ordinary, I mean that special signs showing far-off cities don't count; I mean only road signs part of ordinary distance signage.

There is some discussion on a skyscrapercity forum thread and a aaroads forum thread.

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  • I think these are much better then distance: signspotting.com/56685
    – Karlson
    Commented Mar 15, 2013 at 13:08
  • Why shouldn't we use words such as 'here' and 'this' in textlinks?
    – hippietrail
    Commented Mar 16, 2013 at 23:24
  • Signage over 1000km is fairly common in brazilian highways. This one sits at the border-crossing of Brazil and Uruguai in Chuí w/ Rio de Janeiro at 2062km -> flickr.com/photos/ricardomoraleida/2272554032/in/…
    – moraleida
    Commented Mar 17, 2013 at 21:27
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    Very disappointed to discover that the Trans Canada Highway (8000km long) doesn't seem to have signs saying how far away the most distance points are.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 1:07
  • For the record in case anybody wants to Google Street View their way around Vladivostok: the furthest distance I could find there was Khabarovsk and in Khabarovsk the furthest was Chita so not contenders by any definition.
    – Jan
    Commented May 1, 2019 at 20:41

7 Answers 7

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+500

Just found this one @ https://web.archive.org/web/20141109133836/http://poleofcold.com/the-zimnik-road-a-photo-story/. Tried to find its location, to no avail unfortunately (the sign says it's 30 km east of Peledui (Пеледу́й), Sakha Oblast).

Moscow 5796 km

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  • 4
    Nice find! It's 30 km east of Peledui (Пеледу́й), Sakha Oblast. Route to Moscow on Yandex: maps.yandex.com/…
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Feb 12, 2015 at 11:40
  • Great find! 30 km from Пеледу́й and 107 km from the Талаканское oil fields ought to pinpoint it pretty precisely.
    – gerrit
    Commented Feb 12, 2015 at 16:17
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    Looks like the image is down...
    – Yisela
    Commented Nov 24, 2016 at 15:37
  • Must be some odd things with the roads around there, since Surgut (4764 km) and Moscow (5796 km) are in roughly the same direction from Peleduy, yet 2900 km from each other...
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 2:30
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    @NateEldredge I don't expect the road network in Siberia to be quite dense. I don't find it surprising that the route to Moscow is more direct than to a medium-sized provincial town in western Siberia. The surprising element to me is rather why Surgut is listed at all. NB, your map-link links to Google Drive which tells me Access denied.
    – gerrit
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 14:56
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Route 6 East, stands up as the longest I can find. Route 6 used to be the longest road in the US, until 1964 when it was truncated. However, distances ON the route don't change (cities don't move) and as such, this is still visible, in Bisop, California:

Longest road sign?

(source)

3205 miles is approximately 5157.95 kilometres.

Then there's this in Brazil:

wow - long way to go

(source)

It's worth noting that while a sign outside Novosibirsk in Russia shows a large number (3146) it's in kilometres, so is less than the other ones mentioned.

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  • I'm still wondering if there isn't a sign to Moscow somewhere in Siberia at more than 5000 km distance. For example, it's 5179 km from Irkutsk to Moscow according to Google Maps. Unfortunately, Google Streetview presently doesn't go further east than Krasnoyarsk (and I haven't found any road signs there either).
    – gerrit
    Commented Mar 17, 2013 at 15:41
  • @gerrit yeah I've been hunting for Russian ones, but aside from that one of about 3000km, no luck :/
    – Mark Mayo
    Commented Mar 17, 2013 at 20:48
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    When I visited the USSR back in the late 1980s there were very few roadsigns directing traffic, in large part because travel was discouraged no doubt and those that need to travel know where to go. Maybe the reason there's still no or very few such signs (when visiting Uzbekistan a few years ago there were still almost no long distance roadsigns for example). Another reason may be the scarcity of roads outside of cities in large parts of the former USSR.
    – jwenting
    Commented Mar 18, 2013 at 11:58
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The Argentinain Ruta 40 is 5080 kilometers long. It has signs on both ends, this one being the southern one:

enter image description here

enter image description here

"Here begins the National Route 40. La Quiaca 5080 Km".

enter image description here

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  • 3
    @hippietrail found the official one!
    – Yisela
    Commented Mar 17, 2013 at 0:32
  • 2
    @jwenting is it just me or 5171 - 5080 = 91km ?
    – Vince
    Commented Mar 18, 2013 at 13:09
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    @Vince depends on whether you've had breakfast yet >;=)
    – jwenting
    Commented Mar 18, 2013 at 13:57
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    Accepting this answer now, but if someone in the future finds a longer distance answer (still hoping for Russia), I can change the answer.
    – gerrit
    Commented Feb 3, 2014 at 10:22
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    Additional detail I found while researching my (new, late) answer: the signs in this answer are at the southern end of the longest road in the world, the Pan-American Highway (19,000 mi/30,000 km, including a 60-mile gap where South America meets Central America). Unfortunately, the distance marked is only to the country border, not the end of the road. The northern end, in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, doesn't have a distance marker sign, at least that I could find.
    – SOLO
    Commented Jan 10, 2020 at 23:02
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There are signs on US 50 that indicate distance of 3073 miles which is about 4945.51 kilometres.

There is a sign to Wilmington, North Carolina, which is about 2550 miles.

There are signs in Russia for distance to Vladivostok which in some places indicates ~10k kilometres but I'm still looking for images.

Found a sign though not exactly matching the first two but also showing distances.

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  • I'd probably remove the just signpost ones (the last distance one) as he is after 'ordinary road signs', and if we're counting the signpost ones we'll get a photo of the one that's at the south pole :)
    – Mark Mayo
    Commented Mar 15, 2013 at 5:34
  • @MarkMayo I think I'll leave it be. :) As far as South Pole is concerned. I think we should build a few roads there. :)
    – Karlson
    Commented Mar 15, 2013 at 15:32
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    At the western end of US 50 in Sacramento, there is a sign indicating the distance to Ocean City MD, which should be 3,008 miles, according to Wikipedia, but which actually show 3073 miles (via google image search). But this has been trumped by other answers.
    – The Photon
    Commented Mar 18, 2013 at 0:41
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    I love the way you say "about" and then give a transcontinental distance with a precision of 10 metres (33ft).
    – David Richerby
    Commented Jul 2, 2015 at 7:28
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    In Ocean City there is a corresponding sign back to Sacramento. capradio.org/media/6728929/us_50_sign_799x405.jpg
    – Andrew Lazarus
    Commented May 26, 2017 at 1:05
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This one seems to the longest. 7708 Km to Vladivostok from somewhere in (presumably) Russia.

enter image description here

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    Pretty sure that's in Bashkortostan somewhere. I thought it would be on the highway near Oktyabrsky, but it doesn't appear to be on that road. There's no GPS data since it was taken in 2006. And the photographer didn't mention specifically where he was. That could be hard to find, if it's still standing.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 2:59
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    Good find. I'm not sure whether it's an "ordinary road sign" or more like a signpost or something put up by local authorities.
    – gerrit
    Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 8:04
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    @gerrit A typical Russian road sign doesn't "wish you a happy journey!"
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 21:30
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Learned after idly following some Travel SE links earlier today: the current longest road in the US is US highway 20, which runs from western Oregon (just a few blocks from the Pacific) to Boston (close-ish to the Atlantic). Here's a sign from the start of the route, reading "3,365 miles" (5,415 km):

Sign at start of US highway 20 reading "[US 20 shield] East / Boston, MA / 3,365 miles"

There's a matching sign at the other start of the route:

Sign at start of US highway 20 reading "[US 20 shield] West / Newport, OR / 3,365 miles"

Both images taken from Wikipedia.

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    It's worth mentioning how long this is in metric (5415 km) as most people probably don't understand English units of measure.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Jan 11, 2020 at 0:54
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Honorary mention from Tashkent (Uzbekistan), indicating the direction to Karachi (Pakistan), Bandar Abbas (Iran), and Hamburg (Germany). Not a record holder because the distances are not indicated, but according to Openstreetmap, along the indicated routes, distances by road are:

  • Tashkent - Samarkand - Termez - Mazari-Sharif - Kabul - Karachi: 3114 km
  • Tashkent - Samarkand - Termez - Marari-Sharif - Herat - Bandar Abbas: 3547 km
  • Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara - Ashgabad - Bandar Abbas: 3284 km
  • Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara - Nukus - Astrakhan - Volgograd - Warsaw - Hamburg: 6264 km

Tashkent to Hamburg
Source: Doris Antony, CC-BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

This - barely - exceeds the 5976 km from Пеледу́й to Moscow, but alas — no distances are actually indicated on this sign, which is why I consider it an honorary mention and not a real answer to the question. But I think it should be mentioned here, because unlike the typical novelty signs showing the direction from a central European town to Australia or Alaska, the drive from Tashkent to Hamburg is actually possible, and probably the safest of all the routes indicated on the sign (as long as Astrakhan - Warsaw avoids Donbass/eastern Ukraine).

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