Erroneous road signs

[Mr_Northside]

I think the question refers to the fact that the signal shown in the sign has an "orange phase" instead of a yellow one.  I'd venture a guess that the manufacturer has a template for signs with a signal pictured that doesn't fill in the yellow circle since most signs start with a yellow background.

[thenetwork]

I didn't even think to notice that the "middle lens" could be orange.  I still think it's a dull yellow lens, but compared to the hairpin sign and the orange background on the construction sign, it looks more orange than yellow.  I just took the error as an upside-down sign.

[jakeroot]

I didn't even think to notice that the "middle lens" could be orange...I just took the error as an upside-down sign.

Don't worry, that's the both of us, and 99.99% of drivers.

[Jim]

I didn't even think to notice that the "middle lens" could be orange.  I still think it's a dull yellow lens, but compared to the hairpin sign and the orange background on the construction sign, it looks more orange than yellow.  I just took the error as an upside-down sign.

And I didn't notice it was upside down until I was organizing my pictures, now 4 months later...  I was just going for the "Hair Pin Turn" sign that was new since my last ride through there.

[okroads]

I spotted this sign goof yesterday while driving in SE Nebraska along U.S. 73:

DSC03008 by okroads, on Flickr

[okroads]

Here's another sign goof from my travels in Nebraska this past weekend, where NE 83 is signed instead of U.S. 83:

DSC02633 by okroads, on Flickr

[PHLBOS]

One has to wonder whether those two signs you posted were from the same contractor/fabricator/designer?

[Brandon]

A few in Manteno, Illinois.

Wrong Illinois route shield, someone thought he was in Iowa:



Wrong color banners for interstate:

[1995hoo]

Saw this today in Woodbridge, Virginia, at the Ospreys Golf Club. I'm sure someone will say it's not MUTCD-compliant. I don't care about that because it's on private property. What struck me is how it's in the wrong place. This sign is on the cart path next to the fifth green and there is no sign on the street warning of the crossing. It seems to me it'd be a lot more important to post these signs on the street to warn drivers of the crossing than it is to post them on the cart path.

[formulanone]

Located just south of Thomasville, this should be US 43:

[okroads]

DSC06555 by okroads, on Flickr

RI 44 instead of U.S. 44. Photo taken by me in Providence, RI on 7-17-14

[roadman65]

Here is an assembly on NB US 27 Alternate in Chiefland, FL at the junction of US 19 & 98 where US 27 A joins NB US 19 & 98 for a 68 mile concurrency.  Yet this sign cluster manages to get in a US 27 NORTH shield in with the overlap despite US 27 being yet 68 miles away.

[freebrickproductions]

Don't forget the "North US 98" on that set-up!

[J N Winkler]

One has to wonder whether those two signs you posted were from the same contractor/fabricator/designer?

They are.  NDOR does nearly all of its small signs work in-house.  The traffic engineering unit keeps a book of junction layouts at the central office in Lincoln.  Every so often a junction layout is revised and updated, new signs are ordered if necessary, sign panel details are confected for them, and the signs themselves are fabricated by the NDOR sign shop and installed by NDOR maintenance forces.

The junction layout book was probably originally a looseleaf binder with actual paper diagrams, but I suspect "book" is now used entirely figuratively since the junction layouts now exist as PDFs, with one PDF file per layout.  Older layouts are scans of paper originals that either have the signs sketched in or drawn separately (frequently pattern-accurately), cut out, and affixed to the layout with rubber cement.  Over time these drawings have been remastered in CAD, with SignCAD used to produce the sign sketches.

Randy Hersh obtained a complete copy of the junction layout book from NDOR in 2007 through a request under the Nebraska open records statute, and passed on a copy to me.  What I have in my files now is therefore a snapshot of the book as it existed at the time of Randy's request.  It is hard to tell from OKRoads' photos whether the error signs have microprismatic sheeting and are therefore brand-new, but I suspect they result from recent re-drawings of the relevant junction layouts.  I also think the confusion between US and Nebraska shields occurred in the sign shop, not the design office, since whoever re-drew the junction layouts would have had the old ones in front of him or her, and the sign sketches would almost certainly have been copied and pasted to the sign orders.

As an aside, the fact that NDOR does nearly all of its small signs and a fair number of its large signs in-house helps explain both their statewide consistency and their oddness.  NDOR does not even publish a sign drawings book--the alleged Nebraska "Standard Highway Signs" (included with the Nebraska MUTCD supplement) is actually a sign catalogue.  The sign drawings themselves have to be obtained through an open records request, which I filed in 2003, receiving in response a thick sheaf of 11" x 14" drawings.

[roadman65]

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Could be considered erroneous depending on who cares about the use of 3 digit numbers inside two digit shields unless you live in WI or LA where they are the norm. 

This here is New Jersey and they converted to three digit shields back in the early 80's, but this is a recent assembly (recent I mean within the past twenty years or so) long after NJ abandoned that practice.

[Central Avenue]

Just spotted last night, I think: I-270 NB at exit 37 guide sign (OH 317 / Hamilton Rd / Gahanna) has a US 317 shield.  I did a double-take on such a delayed reaction I'm not completely sure that's what I saw.  But an M1-H4-3 doesn't belong in central Ohio...

It's since been fixed, but you indeed saw what you think you saw:

[PurdueBill]

Don't forget the "North US 98" on that set-up!

Isn't US 98 north-south for much of its time in Florida? 

[Zeffy]

Don't forget the "North US 98" on that set-up!

Isn't US 98 north-south for much of its time in Florida?

For the most part it is. It starts going more E/W south of Tallahassee or near Panama City.

[FLRoads]

Don't forget the "North US 98" on that set-up!

Isn't US 98 north-south for much of its time in Florida?

For the most part it is. It starts going more E/W south of Tallahassee or near Panama City.

U.S. 98 switches cardinal directions from "East-West" to "North-South" and vice-versa twice: once at the U.S. 19-27 & U.S. 27 Alternate intersection in Perry and again between Okeechobee and Florida 76 (Port Mayaca Locks). The 293-mile Perry to Alabama state line run is signed as East-West with nearly 300 miles signed as "North-South". It returns to being signed "East-West" south of Florida 76 through to Pahokee and east into the West Palm Beach/Palm Beach areas, nearly a 60-mile stretch. Some GSV images dated May 2014 still show U.S. 98 as East and West through West Palm Beach, including its first westbound shield near its terminus at Florida A1A.

It used to be that all of U.S. 98 in Florida was designated as East-West, but it was decided (and approved) to change the section that ran northwest to southeast as "North-South" so as to avoid any confusion for drivers about which direction they were traveling. I tried to look to see when this change took place but had no luck in my research.

Personally I saw no problem with the East-West designation, as I grew up with it signed as such. And it does run east-west in some spots down in south central Florida (between Fort Meade and Frostproof and between Pahokee and WPB/PB). Hell, it even has more of an east-west component between Sebring and Okeechobee, but its still bannered as "North-South", just for consistency purposes.

[okroads]

While going through more of my pictures from my summer trip, I discovered this sign goof in New Jersey along U.S. 46 East. The exit ahead is for CR 639, but CR 646 is signed instead. CR 646 actually crosses U.S. 46 on the overpass just behind these signs.

DSC07231 by okroads, on Flickr

[roadman65]

https://flic.kr/p/oJYC5U This one taken in Colorado of Green River, Utah being misspelled as one whole word.

[Zeffy]

https://flic.kr/p/oJYC5U This one taken in Colorado of Green River, Utah being misspelled as one whole word.

Um...? This is what I get attempting to view that:

[Roadrunner75]

https://flic.kr/p/oJYC5U This one taken in Colorado of Green River, Utah being misspelled as one whole word.

Um...? This is what I get attempting to view that:

Maybe it was misspelled as a four letter word.

[roadman65]

Interesting on that one!  It does not come up that way to me.  It is from one user on here's flickr page and perhaps he has a filter on it of some sort, but why does it say that?  Since when is a common road sign considered xxx and not suitable for minors?

[1995hoo]

I got the same result as Zeffy, and I have no username or password to use to sign into that site.