The actual Worst of Road Signs

[fwydriver405]

Something I just noticed on the Tulsa sign: the use of lowercase letters for the cardinal directions. How often does that happen?

Happens with some signs at Exit 15 W on I-93 in Concord NH:

I-93 (northbound), Exit 15 W
I-93 (southbound), ¼ mile (0.4 km) sign for Exit 15 W

[okroads]

Hopefully the sign on the left is bad enough for this thread...

DSC01643 by Eric Stuve, on Flickr

[formulanone]

Hopefully the sign on the left is bad enough for this thread...


DSC01643 by Eric Stuve, on Flickr

oKl_ah^oMA, naturally.

I would have assumed that Google Street View was messed up, but now we have proof.

[kphoger]

Hopefully the sign on the left is bad enough for this thread...

DSC01643 by Eric Stuve, on Flickr

I think it just barely qualifies.  At first glance, it's not really "actual worst of" material.  But then you notice the inexplicably oversized letter o.  And then you notice the exit number suffix that's been elevated for no fathomable reason.  Those two things alone put it in the "what were they thinking" realm.

[odditude]

Hopefully the sign on the left is bad enough for this thread...

DSC01643 by Eric Stuve, on Flickr

I think it just barely qualifies.  At first glance, it's not really "actual worst of" material.  But then you notice the inexplicably oversized letter o.  And then you notice the exit number suffix that's been elevated for no fathomable reason.  Those two things alone put it in the "what were they thinking" realm.

plus, the undersized "O" in "NORTH" and the almost-correctly-sized "o" in "Nowata" (contrasting with the undersized "wata")... did they swap those two?

[Brandon]

Hopefully the sign on the left is bad enough for this thread...

DSC01643 by Eric Stuve, on Flickr

At first glance, it looks "normal". Then you see some fool swapped the "o" in North with the "o" in Nawata, and couldn't align the "C" properly. Plus, is that supposed to be a right exit with a tab on the left?
Yeah, it belongs here.

[kphoger]

It's funny how so many errors can look halfway normal for a few seconds, so long as they're minor ones.

[Scott5114]

And, of course, you have a perfectly fine (even good-looking!) sign just to the right of it that nobody bothered to try to match in any way, shape or form. Not even the same font size.

Of course it's not the same font size–looking at it again, on top of all of the other errors, the messed-up sign has the classic 3/4 error as well! (Compare the stroke width of the capital letters with the lowercase ones.)

[StogieGuy7]

Why does Oklahoma have such piss poor quality control as far as signage goes? Many of the very dumbest sign errors seem to originate there.

[kphoger]

Why does Oklahoma have such piss poor quality control as far as signage goes? Many of the very dumbest sign errors seem to originate there.

They use cheap contractors.  A lot.  At least, that's my understanding from time reading on this forum.

[Scott5114]

Why does Oklahoma have such piss poor quality control as far as signage goes? Many of the very dumbest sign errors seem to originate there.

Probably because we have a piss poor government in general.

[hotdogPi]

Why does Oklahoma have such piss poor quality control as far as signage goes? Many of the very dumbest sign errors seem to originate there.

Probably because we have a piss poor government in general.

Before Laura Kelly was elected governor in the 2018 midterms (and maybe even after – I haven't checked since), Kansas had a whole bunch of issues, including extreme school funding issues. Their road quality, both pavement and signage, is one of the best.

[Brandon]

Why does Oklahoma have such piss poor quality control as far as signage goes? Many of the very dumbest sign errors seem to originate there.

Probably because we have a piss poor government in general.

So does Illinois, so that doesn't fully explain it...

Or maybe it does.  Look at the lack of capacity and pavement quality here in Illinois.

[Scott5114]

Why does Oklahoma have such piss poor quality control as far as signage goes? Many of the very dumbest sign errors seem to originate there.

Probably because we have a piss poor government in general.

So does Illinois, so that doesn't fully explain it...

Illinois doesn't have a constitutional amendment that requires a supermajority in both houses of the legislature to raise taxes (but not to cut them, natch). It also has a huge media market with investigative journalists that actually expose corruption in the statehouse (the largest OKC paper is mostly a corporate cheerleader that has been caught publishing press releases under their reporters' bylines without making any changes). We also have legislative term limits and low legislative salaries, so being a state legislator is basically a side job for rich business owners who want a feather in their cap and/or their trophy wives.

Other fun enterprises of the Oklahoma government include forcing everyone to buy a new license plate, not because there was anything wrong with the old ones, but because they needed the revenue from the associated new-plate fee (not a tax so they didn't need the supermajority in the legislature), and more recently, starting a strategic hydroxychloroquine stockpile, which they are now trying to return to the company they bought it from (big surprise, they say all sales are final, so the state AG is getting involved).

Basically imagine Illinois, but replace the people who try to at least keep the system clunking along with some that don't actually give a damn about their jobs because the pay sucks and they could make more working the floor in a casino.

[kphoger]

But that isn't really why the signs are bad, though, right?

[Scott5114]

I don't know the exact reason. My point is that you can find similar-quality work throughout all the executive departments of the Oklahoma government, not just Transportation. So while there are individual ODOT policies that I'm sure are the direct causes of bad signage, the policies are probably a product of the general governmental environment in Oklahoma. (I have seen speculation on this forum that it is a belief by ODOT management that enforcing QA will make DOT contracts too costly for small business contractors to bid on.)

What is really interesting is when you get down to the local level in Oklahoma and see what the cities are doing. Oklahoma City (and to a lesser degree, Moore) have a lot of the same slipshod signage issues that ODOT has. Norman, on the other hand, appears to have a higher standard; I have seen signs go up in the middle of a project that have horizontally compressed or off-center text that are replaced with a better product before the project concludes, as if some inspector came out and was like "Nope, I'm not signing off on that."

One thing that Oklahoma and Illinois has in common, which I would argue is a major cause of the problems that both states have, is a deeply entrenched political ideology that leads to effective one-party rule; any election is decided in the primaries, and the general election is a largely pro-forma affair. This means that competition of ideas is effectively eliminated, since the party primary structure tends to reward whoever squawks the prevailing ideology louder. One-party rule works about as well in America as it does in other countries.

[hotdogPi]

One thing that Oklahoma and Illinois has in common, which I would argue is a major cause of the problems that both states have, is a deeply entrenched political ideology that leads to effective one-party rule; any election is decided in the primaries, and the general election is a largely pro-forma affair. This means that competition of ideas is effectively eliminated, since the party primary structure tends to reward whoever squawks the prevailing ideology louder. One-party rule works about as well in America as it does in other countries.

Illinois had a Republican governor from 2015-2018, and neither the State House nor the State Senate had 2/3 Democrats.

AR, IN, OR, MO, MS, ND, NE, TN, RI, SC, and WY all seem to have one-party rule, and they don't have bad signs.

[kphoger]

Norman, on the other hand, appears to have a higher standard; I have seen signs go up in the middle of a project that have horizontally compressed or off-center text that are replaced with a better product before the project concludes, as if some inspector came out and was like "Nope, I'm not signing off on that."

I love how vague you make it all sound.

Come on, man, you know who that inspector is, you know where he lives, and you walk over in the middle of the night to drop a note in his mailbox whenever you see off-spec signs going up in town.  Just admit it.

[Scott5114]

Haha, I wish I knew the guys down at Norman Streets, I'd give them a high-five for making this awesome meat cleaver "cutout".

[formulanone]

One thing that Oklahoma and Illinois has in common, which I would argue is a major cause of the problems that both states have, is a deeply entrenched political ideology that leads to effective one-party rule; any election is decided in the primaries, and the general election is a largely pro-forma affair. This means that competition of ideas is effectively eliminated, since the party primary structure tends to reward whoever squawks the prevailing ideology louder. One-party rule works about as well in America as it does in other countries.

Illinois had a Republican governor from 2015-2018, and neither the State House nor the State Senate had 2/3 Democrats.

AR, IN, OR, MO, MS, ND, NE, TN, RI, SC, and WY all seem to have one-party rule, and they don't have bad signs.

Rhode Island is in the signage rouges' gallery along with New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi aren't far ahead. (Tennessee seems have inconsistent shield shapes, Arkansas is inconsistent, and Mississippi has a lot of repeated off-kilter alignment angles.)

[Scott5114]

When I visited TN in 2007, I found that signage quality on the freeways was pretty decent. It seemed pretty consistent in terms of layout and font sizes. Arkansas sucks in terms of concurrency posting and choosing unique numbers for routes, but again, the signage there isn't terrible other than that.

[STLmapboy]

One thing that Oklahoma and Illinois has in common, which I would argue is a major cause of the problems that both states have, is a deeply entrenched political ideology that leads to effective one-party rule; any election is decided in the primaries, and the general election is a largely pro-forma affair. This means that competition of ideas is effectively eliminated, since the party primary structure tends to reward whoever squawks the prevailing ideology louder. One-party rule works about as well in America as it does in other countries.

Illinois had a Republican governor from 2015-2018, and neither the State House nor the State Senate had 2/3 Democrats.

AR, IN, OR, MO, MS, ND, NE, TN, RI, SC, and WY all seem to have one-party rule, and they don't have bad signs.

Let's put this to bed. A state's political bent or which party leads it does not have a discernible impact on signage quality.

[Scott5114]

One thing that Oklahoma and Illinois has in common, which I would argue is a major cause of the problems that both states have, is a deeply entrenched political ideology that leads to effective one-party rule; any election is decided in the primaries, and the general election is a largely pro-forma affair. This means that competition of ideas is effectively eliminated, since the party primary structure tends to reward whoever squawks the prevailing ideology louder. One-party rule works about as well in America as it does in other countries.

Illinois had a Republican governor from 2015-2018, and neither the State House nor the State Senate had 2/3 Democrats.

AR, IN, OR, MO, MS, ND, NE, TN, RI, SC, and WY all seem to have one-party rule, and they don't have bad signs.

Let's put this to bed. A state's political bent or which party leads it does not have a discernible impact on signage quality.

You didn't read a damn thing I posted, did you?

[CoreySamson]

Just found this sucky attempt at a clearance sign near me on 288 Business near Clute:
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.0005701,-95.3865825,3a,15y,356.23h,88.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sREyQlcM6OPq8d09R5YuvPQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

This sign sucks for the following reasons:
1. The font on the sign is angled slightly in order to get the numbers to fit.
2. The sign does not have the arrows on the top and bottom of the sign. Also it uses '/" instead of ft/in. At least the sign got that notation right.
3. The sign is apparently erroneous, as the clearance sign on the bridge indicates the clearance is 18 ft, 8 in. No other overpass exists on this ramp for a while.
4. What's with the faded rectangles on the sign? Looks like a reuse.

I dare someone to find a worse clearance sign than this.

[kphoger]

I dare someone to find a worse clearance sign than this.

Challenge accepted!