When lane assignment is desired, all exiting lanes at that location should be marked with down arrows and/or upward slanting arrows on overhead Advance Guide and Exit Direction signs.

Advance Guide signs, either with or without Exit Only panels, are located upstream of the gore and should have only one downward arrow per travel lane. In some cases, two destinations can be reached from one lane (an optional lane), and only one downward arrow should be placed for that lane on the Advance Guide signs. This arrow should be placed on the through Interstate Highway route. If the route ends at the split, or if both destinations are non-Interstate Highway routes, the downward arrow on the Advance Guide signs for the optional lane should be placed for the destination with the higher traffic volume or the route that favors a through movement.

Exit Direction signs, either with or without Exit Only panels, are located at the gore location and may have downward and/or upward slanting arrows depending on the lane geometry of the freeway lanes. The following general rules apply to the use of arrows on Exit Direction signs for freeway-to-freeway interchanges:

The number of arrows on the sign structure must be equal to the number of lanes underneath the sign structure, unless there is an optional lane. When there is an optional lane, the number of arrows on the sign structure may be the same as the number of lanes immediately downstream of the structure, if the structure is located within the lane-increase transition.