Pentagon paradises

[US 89]

Utah has a federal-aid route system that is signed with what I like to call "fake pentagons". Signage on these routes is by no means consistent and is pretty much absent in urban areas, but drive around enough in rural Utah and you'll see several of them, almost always at the beginning or end of the FA routes. They look like this:



Funny enough, there is at least one instance of a FA route being signed on a full pentagon in Tooele County, but this is an error as that road is maintained by the city of Tooele.

Outside of the FA system, most Utah counties don't have signed county routes. Duchesne is one of the few that does, and there are plenty of pentagons to be found there (but I'm not sure I've ever seen one that isn't a reassurance shield). Washington County signs CR 91 on the old alignment of US 91, but I haven't seen any pentagons elsewhere in that county.

Uinta County, Wyoming signs its county routes quite well with pentagons, and those are even signed from the state roads like WYO 150.

[hbelkins]

Virginia is consistent in not using it. Theoretically, the two counties that maintain their own roads could use it (and I presume the independent cities would be treated like counties for this purpose if they chose to post route numbers), but insofar as I'm aware, that shield is not used anywhere in the Commonwealth.

Don't VA and WV use circles for their county routes instead?

Virginia's "county" routes are actually state secondary highways.

Although West Virginia calls its routes "county" routes, they are state highways as well.

[kphoger]

Minnesota seems to be mix n match 

It very much is. Some counties (e.g. Ramsey, Anoka) only use pentagons. Other counties (e.g. Isanti, Stearns) use pentagons to designate county state-aid highways, and white squares for regular county roads. Yet others (e.g. Carver, Itasca) only use the squares.

I've even seen places in Minnesota that use one shape for JCT assemblies and a different shape for reassurance markers.

[MNHighwayMan]

I've even seen places in Minnesota that use one shape for JCT assemblies and a different shape for reassurance markers.

Usually, that's a result of MnDOT and the county in question not being on the same page. MnDOT tries to sign county routes (in JCT assemblies, etc) on its roads with the same markers that the county itself uses on its own roads, but that is not always done right.

If you have an example of it happening on two county roads, I'd love to see it, since I can't think of an example of it happening that I know of.

[cl94]

Expanding on New York, the following counties do NOT use the pentagon:

Cayuga
Erie (formerly signed sporadically with custom shields featuring the county outline)
Genesee (numbers on blades)
Monroe
Montgomery
Nassau (Formerly signed with orange hexagons)
Niagara
Onondaga
Ontario (Road name is often "County Route XX")
Orleans
Schenectady (Numbers on blades, a few NYSDOT-installed pentagons exist)
Seneca
Wayne
Westchester
Wyoming

These plus the five in New York City (no CRs) make 20 counties that do not install pentagons. Some other notes:
- Herkimer County uses the pentagon, but only on blades.
- Warren, Tompkins, and Oneida started signing county routes within the past 15 years.
- Franklin formerly used a white-on-green square shield
- Orange and Ulster formerly used a diamond shield with the county outline (many examples remain).
- Albany County assigns a block of 50 county routes to each town. Most county routes have 3 digits and, even for 2-digit routes, 3-digit pentagons dominate.
- Suffolk County has multiple expressway-grade county routes signed as such. CR 97 (Nicolls Road) is mostly freeway between NY 27 and NY 25.

[kphoger]

I've even seen places in Minnesota that use one shape for JCT assemblies and a different shape for reassurance markers.

Usually, that's a result of MnDOT and the county in question not being on the same page. MnDOT tries to sign county routes (in JCT assemblies, etc) on its roads with the same markers that the county itself uses on its own roads, but that is not always done right.

If you have an example of it happening on two county roads, I'd love to see it, since I can't think of an example of it happening that I know of.

I'm not sure if you meant a junction of two county roads, or if you just meant more than one example.  If the former, then I can't come up with an example, although I suspect I've seen a case or two when the county highway I was on runs along a county line.  However, if the latter, then see below.

This was Kandiyohi County ... Here are specific examples, in northeast—southwest order.  Notice that some of them match and some of them don't, for no reason apparent to me.

1 Advance junction assembly using white squares, even though...
...both highways (CR-6 & CR-143) use blue pentagon markers.
MN-6 is >100 miles away, MN-143 does not exist.

2 Advance junction sign using a white square, even though...
...CR-2 uses blue pentagon markers.
MN-2 does not exist.

3 Advance junction sign using a blue pentagon, which...
...matches what CR-40 actually uses.

4 Advance junction sign using a blue pentagon, which...
...matches what CR-10 actually uses.

5 Advance junction sign using a blue pentagon, which...
...matches what CR-127 actually uses.

6 Advance junction sign using a white square, even though...
...CR-25 uses blue pentagon markers.
MN-25 is >50 miles away.

[MNHighwayMan]

I'm not sure if you meant a junction of two county roads, or if you just meant more than one example.  If the former, then I can't come up with an example, although I suspect I've seen a case or two when the county highway I was on runs along a county line.

I very much meant the former; sorry if that wasn't clear. Some of those examples you linked are very good examples of what I was talking about, though, where MnDOT wasn't on the same page as the county signing their own route.

[kphoger]

I'm not sure if you meant a junction of two county roads, or if you just meant more than one example.  If the former, then I can't come up with an example, although I suspect I've seen a case or two when the county highway I was on runs along a county line.

I very much meant the former; sorry if that wasn't clear. Some of those examples you linked are very good examples of what I was talking about, though, where MnDOT wasn't on the same page as the county signing their own route.

Yeah, every spot where I think I might have seen that turns out to be correctly signed according to GSV.

[TheGrassGuy]

San Juan County, CO?

[cjk374]

You can add Columbia County, AR to the list. I am there 5 days/week.

Up here in northern Louisiana, Webster Parish uses both pentagons (number) and blades (name) to label their roads.

[TheGrassGuy]

Mississippi County, AR, as I learned while searching for unusual signs.

[Buck87]

Seneca, OH

Seneca County, Ohio does not use shields, just green and white sign blades that either have "CR" or "TR" preceding the number.

There is another Ohio County not mentioned yet that does have a custom shield, Scioto:



This design is used all over the county, with the exception of the new OH 823/CR 28 interchange, which has pentagon shields on the big green exit signs, end of ramp trail blazers and nearby reassurance markers. 

[US 89]

I realize other places (NJ) may do this, but the only place I've ever seen a county route pentagon signed from an interstate was on I-70 in Jefferson County, Colorado.

[TheGrassGuy]

I realize other places (NJ) may do this, but the only place I've ever seen a county route pentagon signed from an interstate was on I-70 in Jefferson County, Colorado.

There are tons of them in Michigan too

[MNHighwayMan]

I realize other places (NJ) may do this, but the only place I've ever seen a county route pentagon signed from an interstate was on I-70 in Jefferson County, Colorado.

Must have never been on an Interstate in Minnesota or Iowa.

[GaryV]

I realize other places (NJ) may do this, but the only place I've ever seen a county route pentagon signed from an interstate was on I-70 in Jefferson County, Colorado.

There are tons of them in Michigan too

If by "tons" you mean maybe a dozen at best, then sure.  Many of the inter-county highways are not marked in the field at all, but some are and are signed on exits from Interstates.

But even where the county has erected roadside markers, some don't quite make it to the Interstate - there's a short portion of a state highway or an unnumbered county road between the exit and the inter-county route.

[kphoger]

I realize other places (NJ) may do this, but the only place I've ever seen a county route pentagon signed from an interstate was on I-70 in Jefferson County, Colorado.

There are tons of them in Michigan too

If by "tons" you mean maybe a dozen at best, then sure.  Many of the inter-county highways are not marked in the field at all, but some are and are signed on exits from Interstates.

But even where the county has erected roadside markers, some don't quite make it to the Interstate - there's a short portion of a state highway or an unnumbered county road between the exit and the inter-county route.

You called it.  Unless I'm missing one, I count 11 Interstate exits in Michigan signed with pentagons.

I-69
none

I-75
Roscommon County – Exit 227 – Pentagon F97 (on supplemental signage)
Cheboygan County – Exit 301 – Pentagon C58
Cheboygan County – Exit 322 – Pentagon C64
Cheboygan County – Exit 326 – Pentagon C66
Mackinac County – Exit 348 – Pentagon H63 (signed northbound only)

I-94
none

I-96
Ottawa County – Exit 10 – Pentagon B31
Ottawa County – Exit 16 – Pentagon B35
Livingston County – Exit 137 – Pentagon D19

I-194
none

I-196
Allegan County – Exit 30 – Pentagon A2
Allegan County – Exit 36 – Pentagon A2
Allegan County – Exit 41 – Pentagon A2 (because two just wasn't enough)

I-275
none

I-296
none

I-375
none

I-475
none

I-496
none

I-675
none

I-696
none

[formulanone]

Looks like South Dakota uses them outside the cities, but I can only confirm their use in Pennington, Custer, and Fall River Counties.

I also noticed several on BGS' along I-29 south of Fargo, in Cass and Richland Counties, so North Dakota uses them a fair bit as well.