What highway exit does "Next Exit" refer to?

Solution 1:

I would take "next exit" to always mean the first exit you come to after this point - in other words, junction 5 in your example.

The only exception is if someone made the distinction really clear, by saying something like "not this exit but next exit". But that would only make sense if you were already passing, or very close to passing, the current exit.

Solution 2:

I agree with Waggers.

The trick with highways is that you're moving fast. If you compare this with sitting at a stop sign and you say, "It's next left", I would presume that it would not be "this left" (at your current location) but the succeeding one.

On a highway, though, you are only at the location of an exit for a short period of time. So, if the sign says "this exit", it would have to be at location of the exit rather than preceding the exit.

So, if the sign says "next exit", it generally refers to the next possible exit.

As a side note, anytime I hear "next weekend", it always turns into a discussion. ("Do you mean two days from now or nine days from now?")

Solution 3:

"Next" always refers to something that you are not able to choose right now. "This" always refers to whatever you can choose right now. The confusion arises because there may or may not be a this or a next (whatever) at any particular moment. And if things are changing fast, as on the highway, "next" can become "this" while you are debating it, or "this" can become "you just missed it" while someone was puzzling out your usage. I disagree that "this Friday" only has meaning if it is Friday. It means: the Friday that is not in question. Next Friday means, the one after that, just like next exit means, the one after this exit. If there is not a "this" at the present moment (hard to imagine with a day of the week) then it gets confusing. For a day or two after the weekend, "this weekend" actually refers to the weekend that just passed, as in: "What did you do this weekend?" Or: "it must be this exit" as you pass the point of being able to choose it.