Dijkstra wrote a rather famous screed against 1-based indexing, so it's more of an inside joke. You're also wrong about there being no 0th mile. https://www.at

Dijkstra wrote a rather famous screed against 1-based indexing, so it's more of an inside joke. You're also wrong about there being no 0th mile. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/u-s-route-1-mile-0-sign https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/u-s-route-1-mile-0-sign