The Worst of Road Signs

Started by Scott5114, September 21, 2010, 04:01:21 AM

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Scott5114

And Oklahoma introduced such a shield in 2006, 45 years after the recommendation was made!
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef


national highway 1

Fail-(the sign is way long gone)
Parramatta, Sydney

Melbourne

"Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take." Jeremiah 31:21

agentsteel53

Quote from: Scott5114 on September 24, 2010, 09:26:18 PM
And Oklahoma introduced such a shield in 2006, 45 years after the recommendation was made!

more than that.  that is 1948 spec, not 1961.  1961 is the high contrast.
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

agentsteel53

good to see Australia using greenout ... even on black signs!  :-D
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

TheStranger

Quote from: agentsteel53 on September 25, 2010, 04:17:07 AM
good to see Australia using greenout ... even on black signs!  :-D

Time to cue up that late-1950s US 70 greenout-on-black sign photo that you and I have discussed for much of the last week!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/5006703733/
Chris Sampang

national highway 1

"Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take." Jeremiah 31:21

Michael in Philly

RIP Dad 1924-2012.

national highway 1

"Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take." Jeremiah 31:21

hm insulators

Quote from: Scott5114 on September 23, 2010, 09:15:57 PM
Quote from: SyntheticDreamer on September 23, 2010, 08:02:03 PM
Behold...Frankensign!



What the hell were they thinking?!

Did you look on the back to see if there was duct tape holding it together?
Remember: If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

I'd rather be a child of the road than a son of a ditch.


At what age do you tell a highway that it's been adopted?


Alex

#60


Vertically centered Clearview letters are really wretched...  :thumbdown:

Scott5114

Gross. Who even thought that was a good idea?
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

cu2010

The same people who thought Clearview was a good idea! PennDOT! :D
This is cu2010, reminding you, help control the ugly sign population, don't have your shields spayed or neutered.

thenetwork

Quote from: Scott5114 on October 07, 2010, 09:29:11 PM
Gross. Who even thought that was a good idea?

Probably the same person who gave us THIS one several years prior, just around the corner on I-90:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtual_freeway_tours/1329471181/in/set-72157601881959953/

cu2010

At least that one is properly justified (bottom justified instead of centered)...and in the proper font (and the numbers aren't obnoxiously huge). Still, though...I don't know what is up with the Extra Large Caps. I just don't.
This is cu2010, reminding you, help control the ugly sign population, don't have your shields spayed or neutered.

Scott5114

Kansas has done the same thing on occasion. We talked about it once, though I can't remember the thread. Theories were a misinterpretation of the MUTCD size guidelines or a need to quickly slap together replacement signage in the field.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

J N Winkler

The PennDOT sign being complained about was erected by contract (PennDOT ECMS 76853) and I actually have a copy of the plans.  The contractor faithfully reproduced the dimensioning mistake as shown on the plans.  (Scott--I think the thread you are looking for is on the Central States board and has my last name in the thread title . . .)  Here is the relevant plan sheet:



The sign as shown on the plans is technically not pattern-accurate, because the typeface shown on the plans does not match the typeface on the actual sign, although both are clearly Clearview-derived.  The dimensioning callouts (which are not easily readable because I have had to resample this plan sheet for display on this board) call for Clearview 5-W as used on the actual sign.  I think Clearview 5-W does not appear on the plan sheet because the sign design was developed in SignCAD and the wrong version of the signcad.rsc file (which contains the SignCAD fonts) was used to plot the CAD file.  Too-widely-spaced, compressed Clearview letters is a common mistake in SignCAD-generated signing plans and, in my experience, is nearly always attributable to a signcad.rsc file version mismatch.

However, the placement of uppercase and lowercase letters on separate baselines (giving the appearance of the lowercase legend being vertically centered on the uppercase legend) is not the result of a SignCAD problem, because dimensioning callouts are given separately for the uppercase and lowercase letters.  This implies that it was the engineer's intention to shift the baseline for the lowercase letters.  Someone spent a lot of time and effort in front of a SignCAD-equipped terminal in PennDOT District 1 to create this offense against good design.  Enough to make you cry, isn't it?
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

agentsteel53

Quote from: J N Winkler on October 11, 2010, 03:36:12 AM
blah blah horrific plan blah blah Clearview blah blah blah Clearview blah blah engineer with too much time on his hands and did I mention it's fucking Clearview?  Enough to make you cry, isn't it? Clearview

ahem, let's not lose sight of what the real problem is.
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

Scott5114

Someone at PennDOT is a MORON.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

mightyace

Quote from: Scott5114 on October 11, 2010, 11:03:31 AM
Someone at PennDOT is a MORON.

Only one person?

Given the history of PennDOT, I think it would be a shorter list of those who work there who aren't morons.
My Flickr Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyace

I'm out of this F***KING PLACE!

Scott5114

Well, this person specifically. If you would go through twice as much work to get a sign this ugly...
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

kurumi

Spotted this lovely specimen in Boulder City, Nev.:



(larger size here)

My first SF/horror short story collection is available: "Young Man, Open Your Winter Eye"

Michael

Here's a set of ugly I-395 shields I found in DC on Street View.

WillWeaverRVA

Quote from: Michael on March 10, 2011, 05:37:47 PM
Here's a set of ugly I-395 shields I found in DC on Street View.

I think Steve Alpert has photos of those on his site, but yeah, those are horrendously ugly.
Will Weaver
WillWeaverRVA Photography | Twitter

"But how will the oxen know where to drown if we renumber the Oregon Trail?" - NE2

froggie

There are several various signs of that font scattered around the central part of DC.



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