Overhead Sign Gantrys -- The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

[roadfro]

What bugs me about California gantries:
- all signs forced to same height, regardless of content
- exit "tabs" jammed into sign panel

Nevada also does this. There may be some small fluctuation, but for the most part every sign on a gantry is the same height. To me, the signs just look better that way.  Pictures of signs in other states, where one sign on a gantry might be twice as tall as another, seem odd to me. Signs mounted at various heights seem like it would be harder for a driver to quickly glance at the signs and glean their information, because the eyes have to dart up and down to different heights.  I don't know...maybe it just what I'm used to.

I understand the reasoning behind CalTrans drawing the tabs within the main sign panel. I do think, though, that they should start using separate tabs where possible. Right now, I think there's a lot of places where they could use standard tabs but just choose not to.