Letter case used on street blades

[Streetman]

MUTCD specifies mixed case, but upper case has been traditional. Wondering how the transition is progressing.

[mgk920]

MUTCD specifies mixed case, but upper case has been traditional. Wondering how the transition is progressing.

Been done for several years now, City of Appleton, WI.



Mike

[jt4]

Cincinnati seems to be fully committed to uppercase. Suburbs Fairfield and West Chester use mixed case on the street light mounted blades.

[freebrickproductions]

Overhead street blades have always been mixed case in Huntsville, IIRC, but started using it on all street blades in the mid-2010s and is still in the process of transitioning.

[1995hoo]

They seem to be posting new mixed-case signs here when the old all-caps ones wear out or otherwise need replacing.

[US 89]

They seem to be posting new mixed-case signs here when the old all-caps ones wear out or otherwise need replacing.

This seems to be the case for a lot of places across the US. Was true for the majority of jurisdictions when I lived in Utah.

Also the case for ground-level street signs here in Tallahassee. Most overhead ones have used mixed-case for a while, but a lot of them (along with several of the ground-level ones) use a different font, which is especially noticeable because its "a"  is almost indistinguishable from an "o" . Any new signs are in mixed case and FHWA font. There are also lots of lighted overhead street blades that use all caps, mostly on FDOT roads, and they seem to be committed to keeping those that way. Just last year a couple of particularly prominent ones by the Capitol were replaced with new lighted signs in all caps.

[andrepoiy]

There's a lot of variation in Ontario as municipalities are free to make their street blades however they wish. In addition, street blade designs often change from one part of the city to the next as they were either different municipalities in the past, or the developer for a particular area chose a particular design.

Aurora ON: Mixed case but no capital letter for the designation



https://goo.gl/maps/DU8UDor5NtNw78sG7

One certain part of Mississauga ON: all upper case.



https://goo.gl/maps/Pt44U8NTJLeZAc1y6


Ottawa, ON (new signs): standard mixed case



https://goo.gl/maps/kBsevxT9SDGLAorv5

[DTComposer]

San Francisco has been moving from upper-case to mixed-case as signs are replaced (still maintaining the tradition of not including suffixes).

San Jose has been doing a full replacement (moving from dark blue to green reflective blades); both are mixed-case.

[Rothman]

San Francisco has been moving from upper-case to mixed-case as signs are replaced (still maintaining the tradition of not including suffixes).

San Jose has been doing a full replacement (moving from dark blue to green reflective blades); both are mixed-case.

Huh.  The big green blades they used on arterials were mixed-case when I lived in San Francisco back in the late 1990s (not talking about the all-caps black on white, of course).

[1995hoo]

The "Longspur Rd" sign seen above is of the style that was the norm around here for many years as to both typeface and the sign itself. More recently, new signs have rounded corners and omit the two "ridges" (for lack of a better word) on the top and bottom, which I think is a shame–for some reason I think those make the sign look more complete. Here's one that uses the new style (as a bonus, the word "Kingstowne" is misspelled, too).

[DTComposer]

San Francisco has been moving from upper-case to mixed-case as signs are replaced (still maintaining the tradition of not including suffixes).

San Jose has been doing a full replacement (moving from dark blue to green reflective blades); both are mixed-case.

Huh.  The big green blades they used on arterials were mixed-case when I lived in San Francisco back in the late 1990s (not talking about the all-caps black on white, of course).

Sorry, I wasn't 100% clear. I was referring to the black on white blades, not the BGBs.

[ran4sh]

Athens-Clarke County in GA, as well as many of the metro Atlanta counties/cities (in particular Fulton County, DeKalb County, Cobb County, Gwinnett County), have used mixed case for as long as I'm aware of. As in, late 80s/early 90s and maybe even before then. Of course, these would have been unofficial fonts because most of these places didn't use Series E(M) - although some Atlanta signs did use E(M).

GDOT street name signage (usually seen at traffic signals), similarly, has been mixed case for that long.

Other north Georgia counties, such as Hall, Jackson, Walton, etc, only started using mixed case when the MUTCD started requiring it (i.e. as of adoption of the 2009 edition). Barrow County is an example of a county that still doesn't use mixed case (generally). Walton uses a non-standard font.

[WillWeaverRVA]

In Virginia, Henrico and Chesterfield Counties manufacture their own street blade signs and have been mixed case for decades. Powhatan County also used mixed case signage with a strange block font for a while.

The City of Richmond (and in fact, most other localities in Virginia) used all uppercase until the MUTCD started requiring mixed case signage.

Virginia Beach resisted going to mixed-case signage for a few years after the MUTCD started requiring it, but now uses mixed-case signage in new installations.

[roadfro]

Many Nevada cities embraced mixed-case SNSs for new installations when that requirement was adopted in the 2009 MUTCD–some areas (I believe City of Las Vegas was one) started using mixed-case before it became a requirement.

However, most communities still have plenty of all-caps SNSs around, but replace with mixed-case during street rehab projects or for one-off replacements.

[Hobart]

Milwaukee's replacing the uppercase signs with mixed case ones as the uppercase ones become unusable; it's in a state of "healthy blend" right now.

My hometown of Tinley Park, Illinois is doing the same thing, but I distinctly remember a time when everything was all uppercase about 10 years and earlier ago.

[jay8g]

Seattle must have been one of the first cities to switch to mixed-case signs, all the way back in 1962. However, overhead ones were all-caps until sometime in the 2010s, so basically the opposite of a lot of other places. 

[steviep24]

Here in Rochester/Monroe County, NY it's around 60% mixed case now. They replace the signs as they get worn out or damaged and there are many uppercase blades that were installed just before the mixed case ones became the standard. Most overhead street blades on mast arms are still uppercase.

Interestingly, Wayne County, NY has been using mixed case blades for as long as I can remember. NYSDOT installed blades in Wayne county were uppercase and are getting replaced with mixed case as needed.

[CtrlAltDel]

The street blades in my hometown were all replaced en masse about five years ago, replacing all upper case with mixed case. Curiously, the new signs are not double-sided like the older ones. They just put up two back to back on the pole. Also, some intersections now have more than one set of signs, which I think is a bit strange.

[bzakharin]

Morristown replaced all the blades with the red, white, and blue patriotic hat thing and all uppercase to generic white on green mixed case between 2013 and 2015, but they missed some:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7969236,-74.4797918,3a,16.3y,96.63h,91t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s30nyZ9DtZuh5jshRR-Hx-g!2e0!5s20211101T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.796864,-74.4760813,3a,20.6y,342.48h,93.02t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sCOkY1iyglDyXTIM-CGxcUQ!2e0!5s20230501T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8019708,-74.4817727,3a,15y,214.59h,95.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPNdp4iLCzHvUUXa_e13M_Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

[jakeroot]

Seattle must have been one of the first cities to switch to mixed-case signs, all the way back in 1962. However, overhead ones were all-caps until sometime in the 2010s, so basically the opposite of a lot of other places.

Thanks for sharing that photo, I was sure I had seen very old mixed-case street blades in Seattle before.

I'll have to find an archive photo, but Tacoma is similar, having adopted mixed-case street blades decades ago, with all-caps overhead street blades in use into the mid-2000s.