States with the best and worst BGS designs

[jbnv]

Then there's the matter of being able to recognize a state's outline for AL & AR & FL & GA & OH & OK (!) & SD.  I suspect a lot of drivers wouldn't be able to identify half of those states by outline.

Louisiana wins here. Drivers get three cues: the state shape, the state abbreviation, and the potholes in the road. 

[vdeane]

I think ND and SD are an interesting case.  Both states now use their state outline, but they're both rectangle states.  Sure, SD's shield has a green background, but that won't do squat on a guide sign, unless ND plans to be the next NJ.

[kphoger]

Enough state shield nonsense.  Let's get back to BGSes.

I think Missouri is up there with Kansas as far as good BGSes go.

And Oklahoma is schlock.

[plain]

^ that GIF tho 

[Eth]

GA is moving away from the Unisign

Yep, and they're going to disappear fast because virtually all of them date from the conversion to mileage-based exit numbering and are at their end of life. The ones on GA 400 and Loop 10 might stick around longer, though.

Some of them on 400, especially near I-285, have already been replaced. Don't know about Athens, though those signs are probably newer since they renumbered those exits at a later date (switched to mileage-based, and I believe also changed the progression from clockwise to counterclockwise).

(For those not familiar with the GA exit renumbering, that was done back in 1999-2000, so the signs referred to here are approaching 20 years old.)

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To throw my opinion into the ring, NC and FL are among the best, and I think GA's new ones are also nice when done properly (big caveat there). Meanwhile, VA and MD were fairly bad around the time I lived there, which was when they were just starting to use Clearview. (Not because it was Clearview, but because it was badly-done Clearview.)