Lack of hexagonal signs in North America

[Quillz]

Something I've noticed is North America seems to have very few signs that have a hexagonal shape. After squares, you'll see octagons. Australia has some hexagonal signs, but otherwise they seem uncommon, especially in North America. Is there a particular reason for this? Pentagon signs are used for county routes. Perhaps there's just not a clearly defined use case for them?

[jeffandnicole]

Construction signs in narrow medians had been allowed to be six-sided when necessary. Otherwise the MUTCD doesn't really have any option for them.

[Big John]

It is intended for the stop sign to be unique in the octagonal shape and is thought the hexagonal shape may confuse some people to it.

[jakeroot]

Hexagon shapes could be useful for route shields. Not sure if any place has used it for that purpose yet.

[Scott5114]

Hexagon shapes could be useful for route shields. Not sure if any place has used it for that purpose yet.

The Autobahn.

[jakeroot]

Hexagon shapes could be useful for route shields. Not sure if any place has used it for that purpose yet.

The Autobahn.

I was just referring to North America, which I think was the context of the thread (based on the OP).

Japan also uses hexagon route shields for their prefectural routes:


(image from Wikimedia Commons).

[JoePCool14]

Construction signs in narrow medians had been allowed to be six-sided when necessary. Otherwise the MUTCD doesn't really have any option for them.

I thought the upcoming MUTCD was going to crack down on that practice, or similarly just using rectangles.

As stated earlier, there's no defined purpose for them. It would be interesting to see more US route shields based on hexagons.

[-- US 175 --]

TX official state maps, as well as county maps shown in the Texas Almanac, show TX state loops and spurs with hexagonal shapes, but neither are actually signed in the field using hexagons.  The following map is an example illustrating Loop 456 in Jacksonville, TX, on Texas Almanac's county map of Cherokee County.
(click image for larger image)

[CtrlAltDel]

An idea might be to use a hexagon for an all-way stop, leaving the octagon for two-way stops.

[hotdogPi]

I would switch them around and rotate the hexagon 90°. An octagon has flat sides on the top, bottom, left, and right, while the hexagon only has two flat sides in the cardinal directions; the other two sides (top and bottom as you showed them) are pointy.

[Scott5114]

Oh, I just remembered, in driver's ed they gave us a sign test. One of the questions was "what does a six-sided sign mean?"

I was pretty sure it was a trick question, and I had just discovered MTR at the time, so I wrote "There is no six-sided sign in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices."

They marked it wrong. Apparently the answer they wanted was this thing.

[jeffandnicole]

Oh, I just remembered, in driver's ed they gave us a sign test. One of the questions was "what does a six-sided sign mean?"

I was pretty sure it was a trick question, and I had just discovered MTR at the time, so I wrote "There is no six-sided sign in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices."

They marked it wrong. Apparently the answer they wanted was this thing.

Sounds like an overly-specific roadgeek would've written a question like that.

[Scott5114]

Clearly not, or they would have been familiar enough with the MUTCD to mark my answer correct.

[MCRoads]

Oh, I just remembered, in driver's ed they gave us a sign test. One of the questions was "what does a six-sided sign mean?"

I was pretty sure it was a trick question, and I had just discovered MTR at the time, so I wrote "There is no six-sided sign in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices."

They marked it wrong. Apparently the answer they wanted was this thing.

What even is this? I have never seen this thing before.

[JoePCool14]

Isn't that technically not a sign? I thought it was something to attach to the back of an Amish wagon or put out behind your stalled vehicle on the shoulder?

I would switch them around and rotate the hexagon 90°. An octagon has flat sides on the top, bottom, left, and right, while the hexagon only has two flat sides in the cardinal directions; the other two sides (top and bottom as you showed them) are pointy.

I would rotate the hexagonal sign so that it would be flat on the top and bottom, but I would leave the hexagon for all-way stops. It goes back to the moniker of more corners equals more danger, and I think a stop sign where cross traffic doesn't stop should receive the higher number of corners, despite the fact that any old idiot can still blow right past a stop sign.

[hotdogPi]

I would rotate the hexagonal sign so that it would be flat on the top and bottom, but I would leave the hexagon for all-way stops. It goes back to the moniker of more corners equals more danger, and I think a stop sign where cross traffic doesn't stop should receive the higher number of corners, despite the fact that any old idiot can still blow right past a stop sign.

The way I described it, flat = stop, pointy = no stop.

[Scott5114]

Isn't that technically not a sign? I thought it was something to attach to the back of an Amish wagon or put out behind your stalled vehicle on the shoulder?

Thus why I answered the way I did. Here you're most likely to see them on the backs of tractors.

MCRoads: It's the slow-moving vehicle marker.

[CtrlAltDel]

I would switch them around and rotate the hexagon 90°. An octagon has flat sides on the top, bottom, left, and right, while the hexagon only has two flat sides in the cardinal directions; the other two sides (top and bottom as you showed them) are pointy.

I would rotate the hexagonal sign so that it would be flat on the top and bottom, but I would leave the hexagon for all-way stops. It goes back to the moniker of more corners equals more danger, and I think a stop sign where cross traffic doesn't stop should receive the higher number of corners, despite the fact that any old idiot can still blow right past a stop sign.

I put the pointy end of the hexagon at the top for two reasons. One is that I thought it would allow the word "STOP" to be bigger, although it turns out that it doesn't matter that much, and two is that it allows for greater distinction between the two signs. I feel that if the hexagon had a flat side on top, it would blend too much with the octagon. As far as which shape goes with which type of situation, I followed, as JoePCool14 surmised, the idea that more corners equals more danger.

Anyway, here's the other option:

[CtrlAltDel]

Another idea I've had is to use a hexagon that isn't regular, such as the following, which is based off the slow vehicle marker.

As you can tell, it looks terrible, but I don't know if that's because the design is unpleasing or just my implementation of it:



Here's a slightly better version:

[jakeroot]

Wait, even better. Make the corners pointier to make it easier for the sign shop to make. Then flip it upside down so that "STOP" can be in the top half of the sign rather than bottom half.

Oh, wait....


Japanese Stop Sign with English by Jacob Root, on Flickr

[Quillz]

I think states that use the otherwise standard circle or squares for their state routes could switch to hexagons, similar to the Japanese example posted earlier. Make them a bit more distinct relative to the myriad of other circular or square road signs.

[kphoger]

Hexagonal stop sign   

[ClassicHasClass]

Hexagon shapes could be useful for route shields. Not sure if any place has used it for that purpose yet.

The Autobahn.

I was just referring to North America, which I think was the context of the thread (based on the OP).

Japan also uses hexagon route shields for their prefectural routes:

Australian Metroads used a hexagonal shield, though those are all but defunct (except Brisbane). A couple pop up on old signage in Sydney.

[kphoger]

Hexagon shapes could be useful for route shields. Not sure if any place has used it for that purpose yet.

While I was looking into this, I ran across a "related" question:



Note the 37 upvotes...