Florida's Colored Shields

[Quillz]

How did they assign the colors? Did each US Route get its own color, or was it based on orientation? (Was one color for north-south routes, another for east-west?) From what I've seen, a few had the standard black-on-white, US 98 was white-on-black and then the other approved colors like red, blue, green and brown were used.

[Andrew T.]

The colors seem to have been assigned with these guidelines in mind:

Red:  Two-digit north-south
Green:  Two-digit north-south (Alternate color)
Yellow:  Three-digit
Brown:  Three-digit (Alternate color)
Blue:  Two-digit east-west

The rule that tended to trump all others was that duplication of colors along routes that touched was avoided...which is why 17, 192, and 331 deviated from these "guidelines," and why 41 and 98 were assigned unique colors of their own.

[roadman65]

The colors seem to have been assigned with these guidelines in mind:

Red:  Two-digit north-south
Green:  Two-digit north-south (Alternate color)
Yellow:  Three-digit
Brown:  Three-digit (Alternate color)
Blue:  Two-digit east-west

The rule that tended to trump all others was that duplication of colors along routes that touched was avoided...which is why 17, 192, and 331 deviated from these "guidelines," and why 41 and 98 were assigned unique colors of their own.

The three brown routes were not alternating.  US 221, US 129, and US 441 are in a linear alignment.  US 319 and US 231 were in line of each other for North-South routes as well.

[formulanone]

It's funny to me, because for years I thought there were more colors (orange, burgundy...for example), but they were just faded colors on those signs. And now they're almost all gone.

[Alps]

There are definitely orange... http://www.us-highways.com/flausa.htm is your definitive source.

[formulanone]

It's nice to know my memory hadn't faded, either!

Cannot say I've seen an orange US 41 sign in over a decade.

[agentsteel53]

Cannot say I've seen an orange US 41 sign in over a decade.

they're still out there - mainly on county-road junctions with 41 in the northern part of the state.

I believe this spectacular overhead assembly, stamped 1983 on the back, still exists, south of Tampa no less.

[Daniel Fiddler]

Looks like Sarasota to me, one of my favorite cities to visit.

[agentsteel53]

Looks like Sarasota to me, one of my favorite cities to visit.

correct.  not too far from I-75.

[ctsignguy]

Glad i landed this one a few years back....orange is very hard to keep looking nice in the Florida heat

[deathtopumpkins]

Topic's been dead for a bit, but has anyone compiled a list of known colored US shields left in Florida? I stumbled across one in Walton County on a side road on streetview, and was wondering if it was known already or not.

[Alex]

Topic's been dead for a bit, but has anyone compiled a list of known colored US shields left in Florida? I stumbled across one in Walton County on a side road on streetview, and was wondering if it was known already or not.

I have a list in my head of them, and between flaroads and myself, there is a Florida Rand with dots highlighted of where we have found both colored US shields and Keys state roads shields.

If the Walton shield you found was the reverse black/white US 98 on CR 83, it is now gone.

[deathtopumpkins]

Nope, it's a blue JCT 90 sign. Not sure what the side road its on is numbered because streetview imagery is not clear enough and I don't trust Google's labels. It's near Mossy Head.

[DeaconG]

Does a colored one on a BGS count?  There's one on the Beachline for the US 1 Cocoa/Titusville exit eastbound...

[Alex]

Does a colored one on a BGS count?  There's one on the Beachline for the US 1 Cocoa/Titusville exit eastbound...

Yes they count:



There were two still remaining in downtown Miami for U.S. 1 until their recent replacement...

[agentsteel53]

Does a colored one on a BGS count?  There's one on the Beachline for the US 1 Cocoa/Titusville exit eastbound...

really?  I don't think I've seen that one.  can you grab us a photo?

[realjd]

Does a colored one on a BGS count?  There's one on the Beachline for the US 1 Cocoa/Titusville exit eastbound...

Are you sure? I've taken that exit multiple times and would have remembered seeing it. I've never taken the WB exit off of the beachline at US1 though so perhaps it's there?

[DeaconG]

Does a colored one on a BGS count?  There's one on the Beachline for the US 1 Cocoa/Titusville exit eastbound...

Are you sure? I've taken that exit multiple times and would have remembered seeing it. I've never taken the WB exit off of the beachline at US1 though so perhaps it's there?

I checked Google Earth and it's not there.  Guess I'm gonna have to take my camera out there later on this week-I know it was there years past, but that's what you get when you drive a route so many times you take for granted what's there.

[Aerobird]

Arise, arise, fallen thread of yore...

Reviving the topic as relevant, I discovered a pair of (completely-faded, because yellow) colored US 319 shields on County Road 370 (JCT and trailblazer) in Franklin County, just south of the Ochlocknee River.

[jwolfer]

Does a colored one on a BGS count?  There's one on the Beachline for the US 1 Cocoa/Titusville exit eastbound...

Are you sure? I've taken that exit multiple times and would have remembered seeing it. I've never taken the WB exit off of the beachline at US1 though so perhaps it's there?

I checked Google Earth and it's not there.  Guess I'm gonna have to take my camera out there later on this week-I know it was there years past, but that's what you get when you drive a route so many times you take for granted what's there.

Even in the heyday of colored shields the only one i recall on BGS was at the end of i95 in Miami having a red 1 shield.

When i was real little my earliest memories, mid to late1970s, i recall in Florida the BGS did not have shields but text "U.S. 17" or "Fla. 228" etc. When shields were put on BGS they were white.

If colored US shields are forbidden, or at least not paid for, why are colored SR shields allowed in states like California, Minnesota and Kansas on federally funded projects

LGMS428

[Alex]

Arise, arise, fallen thread of yore...

Reviving the topic as relevant, I discovered a pair of (completely-faded, because yellow) colored US 319 shields on County Road 370 (JCT and trailblazer) in Franklin County, just south of the Ochlocknee River.

There is one more north of the Ochlocokonee River on County Road 299 leading east to U.S. 319. Was still there in January 2016.

[1995hoo]

I thought in today's world you were supposed to call them "shields of color."

[jwolfer]

I thought in today's world you were supposed to call them "shields of color."

LMAO

LGMS428

[compdude787]

I thought in today's world you were supposed to call them "shields of color."

LOL 

[DeaconG]

I thought in today's world you were supposed to call them "shields of color."

So is Florida now "chromatically challenged?"