Road-Geeky Things Of The Past That You Miss...

[Vaulter]

I get why they replaced it, but the elevated I-93 through downtown Boston

[thenetwork]

The Art Deco Jersey Turnpike gantries...

The various trapezoid signs along various toll roads and bridges.

The various shades of green different states used for their BGSs. 

[Max Rockatansky]

The Alaskan Way Viaduct.

[Rothman]

I get why they replaced it, but the elevated I-93 through downtown Boston

Having been stuck on it multiple times and walked under its depressing shadow, I wouldn't say I miss it.  Miss the signage on it, as horrible as it was, though...

[kurumi]

The BGS on CT 72 EB in New Britain where an I-291 shield was peeking out (this would have been the SR 506 connector that's now part of CT 9)

All the I-86 signs

I-84 in Willimantic

The cloverleaf (1938 style) at CT 58 on the Merritt Parkway

[pderocco]

The few remaining flashing greens in Massachusetts. That said, they're not quite gone yet...

How about the red+yellow combination for pedestrian crossing?

Does the 27.9¢ gas from the local Mutual station in 1971 count?

[pderocco]

I get why they replaced it, but the elevated I-93 through downtown Boston

I always hated that, but as much of a bottleneck as it was, I liked the Charlestown High Bridge at the north end of it.

[lepidopteran]

Four-way traffic signals, for the win.  Also known as "pagoda" signals, or technically 4-way non-adjustable. Especially those with an audible, electro-mechanical controller. Bonus points if there is a dark half-second between phases.

New York City's 2-section traffic signals.  The yellow phase was denoted by a simultaneous red-green sequence.

Unusual traffic signal sequences and setups found in different states.  Such as an R-Y-G-GA in Indiana where the GA just disappeared, Michigan's flashing reds for left turns, continuously-lit green forward arrows for certain T-intersections (or constant right-turn green arrows), the rare all-forward-arrow R-Y-G signal, Pittsburgh's yellow-green phase, or Delaware's flashing greens. Also, worded ped signals with DONT and WALK in separate windows, in which case WALK changes color from red to lunar white (or in some older installations, green) when the indications cycle.
Even New Jersey's signature double mast-arms are starting to disappear. Same with the trombone horizontal signals in the northern part of the state.
To be fair, what I don't miss are R-Y-GA installations, other than the PennDOT variety where the red stays lit with the GA.  Also flashing WALKs.

Unique signage on the NJ Turnpike, including the neon road-condition assemblies. Which included neon speed-limit signs before they switched to flipboards.

Other nonstandard signage found when traveling.  Such as those blocky fonts found in Pittsburgh, or this RR crossbuck. Or a holdout "Yield Right of Way".

Old forlorn railroad spurs that wended their way from the main line to serve light industrial customers. Some of these ran in tight labyrinthine routes between small factories and warehouses or through older residential neighborhoods. Often they had quite a bit of weeds, hugged an adjacent road, or even street-ran on the road. (Some are still around, but with de-industrialization and RR deregulation over the past 40 years, most have been ripped out.)

Certain business signs, e.g. the Holiday Inn Great Sign, especially when lit up at night.  And some businesses themselves; Howard Johnson's comes to mind. 

And let's not forget the backlit, hanging blade signs with corporate logos that marked many a mom-and-pop store.  The signs with Coca-Cola and other soft-drink logos were the most common, but there were also appliance-brand signs such as Zenith on repair shops, or beer logo signs on bars (many used soda-pop signs, though, due to local or state ordinances?)  Less common were ice-cream logo signs, though it seems there were an awful lot of Hershey's Ice Cream signs within a good 2 hour radius of Harrisburg, and for all manner of store types.

[pderocco]

From my rather long life:

When I was a kid in Massachusetts, I still remember roads that had white lines down the center, rather than yellow.

Then there were the three-lane highways with a shared passing lane down the middle, rather than a shared left turn lane. I was good at those. Some weren't, and paid with their lives.

The sign at the beginning of US-6 in P'town informing us it was 3533 miles to Long Beach.

Service areas with all-night Howard Johnson's restaurants, as mentioned in another thread.

The smell of raw bus exhaust 50 years ago was pretty awful, but every now and then I catch a whiff of that from a clapped-out diesel vehicle, and memories come rushing back.

I remember a couple of parking garages in Boston that took your car away on an elevator in a shaft that moved sideways on a track. Do those exist anywhere in the US any more?

The Mass Pike signs that featured a pilgrim hat with an arrow through it.

In more recent times, the last bit of non-controlled-access road on certain routes. CA-99 lost its last one in 2017 I think, and I-5 in CA lost its last one in 1991 up north of Shasta Lake where there was a stretch with a concrete median and no barrier.

[ozarkman417]

The Alaskan Way Viaduct.

And the authentic button-copy US 99 signage that went with it.

[Max Rockatansky]

The Alaskan Way Viaduct.

And the authentic button-copy US 99 signage that went with it.

Still the cover of our US 99 page.

https://www.gribblenation.org/p/gribblenation-us-route-99-page.html

[Rothman]

There are still some around, but I will miss NJ Turnpike squiggly arrows and hate that they're being replaced.  Same with the longer dashes in their pavement markings.

[Rushmeister]

Smudge pots at construction sites.  In the late '60s I was a young boy who saw them as cartoon bombs.

[Scott5114]

12-8-8 signals.
3M programmable visibility signals.

How about the McDonalds over I-44?

As far as I know, it's still there.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

M.T.R.

[kphoger]

Calculating trip distance by adding up the red numbers in Rand McNally.

Estimating how far you can drive in a day by using a compass to draw a large circle on the map.

[JayhawkCO]

Calculating trip distance by adding up the red numbers in Rand McNally.

Estimating how far you can drive in a day by using a compass to draw a large circle on the map.

On that note, using the back page in the atlas to estimate total time between large cities.

[RobbieL2415]

The few remaining flashing greens in Massachusetts. That said, they're not quite gone yet...

When I saw those in Danvers about 10 year ago, I thought they were the bee's knees.

[epzik8]

Getting the tickets at the various toll roads.

In Maryland, this is about to be tollbooths altogether.

[cwf1701]

Cutout us and state highway shields.
White on Black signs for distance
Yellow Stop Signs (there was a number of them up at RR crossings in Alabama when i was growing up in the 70s)

[IMGoph]

Amen to this one.

M.T.R.

[Max Rockatansky]

I doubt that sentiment about MTR is universal.  It feels like the fondness versus angst ratio towards MTR is at least 50/50. 

[JayhawkCO]

MTR was fine. Basically just nostalgia once I found out there were other people like me out there that got nerdy about highways. The amount of spam in there was pretty bad when I frequented.

[SEWIGuy]

Moderated discussion groups are way better than USENET. I agree that any fondness now is more nostalgia.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'd think the way a lot of people talk about Calrog would be enough to knock MTR down a couple pegs.