Question: I’m on a road trip right now and I’ve seen the letters JCT on a few road signs so far. I can’t figure out what that could mean! Usually, the abbreviations are pretty easy to figure out, but I’m totally stumped.
Answer: When you see JCT on a highway sign, it stands for “junction.” A junction is a place where two or more roads meet. The roads could be above or below each other (which is called an interchange), or they could intersect (which is called an intersection).
You will generally see these signs as you approach areas where decisions need to be made about changing directions or choosing lanes. These junction signs are crucial for helping you prepare to exit or merge, guiding you towards your destination efficiently.
Reading JCT signs
The most basic JCT sign involves a “JCT” sign with a numbered highway or Interstate.
Say you are driving on Minnesota’s State Highway 13 and you see a sign that says “JCT 65” with the symbol of a U.S. Route shield.
That means the next junction will be U.S. Route 65. If you plan to get on this highway, you might need to change lanes in order to be in the correct lane to make the turn.
This is the most basic JCT sign. The biggest variation is the symbol surrounding the highway number – if it’s the outline of a state, that means you are going to intersect with a state highway.
If it’s the U.S. Route shield, then it’s a U.S. Route highway. Sometimes, it can also be an Interstate shield, which means you are going to intersect with an Interstate highway.
Multiple highways on one JCT sign
There are more complex JCT signs that give you more information. Some JCT signs have multiple highways listed. For example, you might see a sign that says “JCT INTERSTATE 410” and “JCT 16” while driving in the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas. In this case, if you continue straight, you will get onto Texas State Highway 16. If you turn left or right, you will enter Interstate 410. In the case of this sign, the direction to go becomes clearer as you near the junction because there are arrows telling you which direction is which highway.
Other times when you see a JCT sign with two or more highways, it might be because one stretch of road has two highway numbers. For example, a stretch of Texas State Highway 21 is also designated as U.S. Route 190, which is why you will see a sign that says “JCT Texas 21” and “JCT 190” when driving south from Wixon Valley, Texas.
Other variants
On divided highways such as Interstates, you might see these signs tell you that “JCT 2 MILES.” For example, a sign might say “Detroit, Chicago-Niles, JCT 2 MILES.” This means you need to exit if you are headed to these destinations. Since divided highways generally do not allow you to make a left-hand turn, these signs instruct you to get into the rightmost lane if you want to exit the highway in two miles.
Xuyun Zeng is a content strategist with a wide-ranging content background including tech, journalism, cars and health care. After graduating with highest honors in journalism, Xuyun led a newspaper to win eight awards, helped start an award-winning film industry podcast and has written over a hundred articles about cars repair, state laws and insurance. Prior to joining Jerry, Xuyun worked as a freelance SEO consultant with a mission to create the best content that will help readers and grow organic traffic.
Kevin Berry is the Senior Director of Content at Jerry and has been working in the digital content space since 2011 across the car insurance/repair, personal finance, travel and sports industries. Prior to Jerry, Kevin was a content team lead at NerdWallet overseeing the Multimedia Production and Travel Rewards teams. Previously, he worked for NBC Sports, Comcast Cable and Nike. He has a Master`s Degree from Arkansas State and a Bachelor`s from Oregon State University.
