Different color street blades downtown than other parts of a city

[txstateends]

(wish I had pic/graphics capability again, but the PC I'm using is at a library, so only text for now, sorry)

I don't think I've seen this segment of street blade usage in a separate thread before, but anyway...

I have seen several cities and spots where the downtown street blades are different than that used in the rest of town.

Examples I know of.....
Dallas: white-on-blue downtown, white-on-green elsewhere
Arlington, TX: white-on-black downtown, white-on-blue elsewhere
Garland, TX: white-on-black downtown, white-on-green elsewhere
McKinney, TX: white-on-brown downtown, white-on-green elsewhere (except the Stonebridge Ranch part of town, most I've seen there are white-on-blue)
Jacksonville, TX: a strange green-on-white downtown (not easily seen without squinting), white-on-blue elsewhere

Any you all know of where you are?

[Zeffy]

Trenton has a few different schemes for street blades:

* In downtown, the color of the blade is brown, with a pictogram of the capitol building positioned on the left side of the street name. Example: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.221084,-74.765845,3a,15y,206.66h,94.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOJJhJxRBjHAD-6L-_yUSjQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

* In a few other neighborhoods, the blades are brown as well (Chambersburg, for example) and there are special pictograms associated with the signs. Example:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.210426,-74.748139,3a,15y,121.92h,92.94t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-_g8amfSWAKsJkg6l64ZbA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
The pictogram here represents the many different restaurants in Chambersburg, which mostly used to be Italian, but are much more Hispanic/Latino now as the demographics of Trenton have changed.

*In most neighborhoods, street signs are a standard green blade. Example:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.223668,-74.739636,3a,23.4y,154.93h,87.56t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sr4wnWAAhfWTe-Aa1tQ2f8A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[empirestate]

Well, New York, but that's because of the coincidence that downtown is a historic district, so it gets white on brown.


iPhone

[Big John]

Green Bay:

most areas:  white on green
downtown:  white on blue
historic areas:  white on brown.

certain districts also have their logo on them left of the street name, or use different fonts.

[lordsutch]

New Orleans: French Quarter (Vieux Carré) signs are white on black with a Baskerville-ish serif font; outside the FQ, they're white on blue in one of the FHWA series or a reasonable facsimile thereof (C? D?).

[apeman33]

For about a couple of years, Fort Scott (Kansas) has had black blades downtown while the rest of city has green ones.

[Takumi]

Petersburg, VA has a general blade style different to its standard ones for some of its historic downtown districts, with different colors for the blades in different districts.

[Brian556]

Lewisville TX: Green elsewhere, Brown downtown. Downtown was previously maroon; white before that; standard green/white before that.
Allen. Black w/white letters downtown. Green elsewhere.
Grapevine: Maroon downtown; green elsewhere

[Pink Jazz]

Tempe, AZ
Standard - Green
Downtown - Blue

Chandler, AZ
Standard - Brown
Downtown - Teal

[roadfro]

Nevada:

Las Vegas and Henderson, the standard is white on green. Privately maintained streets are white on brown. (Las Vegas has a section of East Fremont Street downtown that uses white on blue lighted street name signs for the cross streets and specially designed signs to indicate Fremont).

North Las Vegas uses white on blue for normal signs, but blue on white for privately maintained streets.

Everywhere else in Nevada typically uses white on green for all applications.

[Pink Jazz]

Reading many of the posts here, it seems that many cities are still using non-compliant color schemes for street blades.  The 2009 MUTCD prescribes only the following color schemes:

• White on Green
• White on Blue
• White on Brown
• Black on White

Note that originally White on Black was supposed to be one of the acceptable color schemes in a draft version of the 2009 MUTCD, but it was later replaced by the reverse scheme (Black on White).  In this thread there are a few examples of cities using White on Black; I wonder why didn't the final version of the 2009 MUTCD include that color scheme as acceptable.

[roadfro]

^ The final rule for the MUTCD states that this option was dropped because black is a non-retroreflective color. It appears there was concern about less legibility of signs of this color scheme at night. Additionally, there was feedback submitted from various DOTs about having black on white as an option (likely because this style was still predominant in some places, such as San Francisco), so this was adopted.

[empirestate]

Reading many of the posts here, it seems that many cities are still using non-compliant color schemes for street blades.

That's likely because for many cities, the "U" in "MUTCD" is not merely a low priority, but downright antithetical.

[US71]

(wish I had pic/graphics capability again, but the PC I'm using is at a library, so only text for now, sorry)

I don't think I've seen this segment of street blade usage in a separate thread before, but anyway...

I have seen several cities and spots where the downtown street blades are different than that used in the rest of town.

Examples I know of.....
Dallas: white-on-blue downtown, white-on-green elsewhere
Arlington, TX: white-on-black downtown, white-on-blue elsewhere
Garland, TX: white-on-black downtown, white-on-green elsewhere
McKinney, TX: white-on-brown downtown, white-on-green elsewhere (except the Stonebridge Ranch part of town, most I've seen there are white-on-blue)
Jacksonville, TX: a strange green-on-white downtown (not easily seen without squinting), white-on-blue elsewhere

Any you all know of where you are?

Springfield, MO uses brown/white at several locations:

the old railroad district
Missouri State University
Drury University
southside Financial District

All incorporate a symbol on the signs.

Otherwise, it's white on green.


Fort Smith, AR is primarily White on Blue, except for White on Green for private streets.

[Bluenoser]

My hometown of Amherst does this as well...

Downtown (white text on green, mixed case):
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.834486,-64.212373,3a,75y,49.71h,86.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgyvT_tI-ZeGmkqjuQRfTSA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

Elsewhere in town (black text on white, all caps):
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.836594,-64.20967,3a,75y,57.56h,83.59t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1scWn9y0viWmn4UGysZCo-5Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
The sign on the bottom (yes, that is Clearview  ) is gradually replacing the one on top for streets outside the downtown area.

[SignGeek101]

My hometown of Amherst does this as well...

Downtown (white text on green, mixed case):
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.834486,-64.212373,3a,75y,49.71h,86.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgyvT_tI-ZeGmkqjuQRfTSA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

Ew, I don't know what font that is on the top, but Clearview is much better. Looks the same as in Winnipeg here, with Black (All caps Clearview) on White signs. I believe for major intersections here, white Helvetica on green is being replaced with Clearview.

[SSOWorld]

Platteville, WI - Black-on-white downtown, orange-on-blue on UW campus, white-on-green elsewhere

Speaking of UW campuses - Some of them have taken to changing their street blades to reflect school colors.  The above mentioned and UW-Madison have for sure.

Several cities/villages use Black-on-yellow for truck routes.

[JMAN_WiS&S]

Eau Claire, Wi has a few different color schemes for different areas. I'm not sure the defined lines dividing the areas, but here are the different colors I've seen in different areas:
White on Green
White on Blue
White on Brown
Green on White
Brown on White
Black on Yellow(New No Outlet --> Signs are mounted on street name blades)
In Altoona Wi, They have some rally old signs that are:
Black on White

[Eth]

The downtown area of Decatur, GA uses octagonal white-on-blue blades, which also feature a different font. The rest of the city is standard white-on-green.

Downtown Atlanta does something similar along the Peachtree Street corridor.

[Pink Jazz]

^ The final rule for the MUTCD states that this option was dropped because black is a non-retroreflective color. It appears there was concern about less legibility of signs of this color scheme at night. Additionally, there was feedback submitted from various DOTs about having black on white as an option (likely because this style was still predominant in some places, such as San Francisco), so this was adopted.

I can see.  Phoenix also uses black on white for non-signalized intersections (signalized intersections on the other hand use white on green).

[Bluenoser]

My hometown of Amherst does this as well...

Downtown (white text on green, mixed case):
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.834486,-64.212373,3a,75y,49.71h,86.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgyvT_tI-ZeGmkqjuQRfTSA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

Ew, I don't know what font that is on the top, but Clearview is much better. Looks the same as in Winnipeg here, with Black (All caps Clearview) on White signs. I believe for major intersections here, white Helvetica on green is being replaced with Clearview.

There's also a difference in what they are made of...the upper sign was made of wood (I think all Amherst DPW did was use one of those machines that etched letters into wood and painted the "blades"), the lower one is made of metal.

A similar sign is used in the small Saskatchewan community of Tugaske, this font was only used on a few signs in Amherst, but was eventually replaced by the version on the top blade of the E Victoria/S Adelaide post shown in the original post:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.874521,-106.285588,3a,28.3y,210.08h,84.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXDhyCiUI0PZbi7BT0-8XqA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

[M3019C LPS20]

Well, New York, but that's because of the coincidence that downtown is a historic district, so it gets white on brown.


iPhone

Don't forget, too, that others exist in the other boroughs outside of Manhattan.

[empirestate]

Well, New York, but that's because of the coincidence that downtown is a historic district, so it gets white on brown.


iPhone

Don't forget, too, that others exist in the other boroughs outside of Manhattan.

I haven't forgotten; indeed, that's why I say it's just a coincidence.


iPhone

[M3019C LPS20]

In continuation with NYC street signs, in the past, if a street was dedicated to an individual, an additional street sign was located below the one that had the name of the street. The color scheme was white on blue. Some still linger, but, today, the DOT uses the universal white on green for that purpose.

Also, in lower Manhattan, you could find some white on black street signs that represent the financial district.

[freebrickproductions]

Huntsville, AL:
Standard street sign for a public road: white on green
Standard street sign for a private road: white on blue
Street sign for historical areas: white on brown

Gurley, AL uses white on black street signs in a certain part of the city.