No Passing Zone Pennants

[Ian]

I don't think I've ever seen a "NO PASSING ZONE" pennant anywhere in Maine.

[Duke87]

I've seen both pennants and "DO NOT PASS" in Connecticut. I believe that generally the former are newer while the latter are older.

New York uses pennants.

[jakeroot]

Washington uses "No passing zone" pennants, but not all the time, only when there's an apparent reason to provide additional reminders, such as where they've had head on collisions or something. I'll update this post once I remember where they hide.

Rather than update (because no one will see it), I found a "No Passing" penant in Washington.

SR 162 near Orting



There was also this one near Spanaway on SR 7

[froggie]

New York uses pennants.

Only VERY RARELY.  Traveled across Upstate from Niagara to Rouses a few days ago, mostly on 2-lane roads.  Can count the number of pennants I saw on one hand.

[KEK Inc.]

Oregon is wrong.  I think you confused ODOT with Ohio's ODOT with vtk's post. 

US-101 (Credit: AARoads)




US-97


I could swear I've seen No Passing Zone pennants in Oregon, but if they exist, they're so fucking rare.  I spent 20 minutes on Google Maps trying to find one and can't find one.

[vtk]

Yeah, I often say ODOT forgetting there's more than one. My bad. Although Ohio was the original O.

Also, to clarify: I'm pretty sure current practice in Ohio is (and has been for a couple decades) to use stripes only.  While I remember regularly seeing a pennant when I was a kid, there's a good chance it was the same pennant every time.

[1995hoo]

Virginia uses the pennants on some roads. I passed a good number of them this past Friday on US-301 between Bowling Green and the Richmond suburbs, including one instance where they were on the wrong sides of the road (I'll post a screenshot when I find that particular dashcam clip). But Virginia doesn't use them on all roads where passing is permitted and I couldn't tell you how they decide when to use them and when not to do so.

Edited to add: Here it is. Going through the videos to find this reminded me that the use of the pennants was inconsistent even on this road. Some of the no passing zones had them, some didn't. Weird. I had not been on this particular portion of Route 301 since July 1985 (that time was a Boy Scout trip heading from Kings Dominion up to Fort A.P. Hill for the jamboree), so I have no idea what the sign status has been over the years.

[WashuOtaku]

In North Carolina, the pennants are present when you take the vision/sign test to renew your drivers license.  However, beyond that, they are exceedingly rare finds on North Carolina highways.  Most spotted are old, as they seemed to be added during the disco '70s; but newer signs also exist, like this one along NC 38, south of Hamlet; it also had a white "no passing" sign on right (which are typically used as well as "pass with care" signs), my guess that this passing zone had some bad history and NCDOT wanted to reinforce the passing zone end there.



In South Carolina, they have never used pennants.  They also typically use the white "no passing" or "pass with care" signs.

[sdmichael]

I've seen quite a few pennants on Los Angeles County roadways. San Francisquito Canyon Road, Soledad Canyon Road, and Sierra Highway come to mind.

[CrystalWalrein]

I don't think NJDOT uses any signage, but Atlantic County definitely uses a combination of pennants and 'DO NOT PASS' signage. Brigantine has several 'DO NOT PASS' signs installed by the city on the main thoroughfares.

[CANALLER]

N.Y.S. does use all 3 signs, but sparingly.  Of the 5000+ locations on my last few sign contracts, the total of all of them was less than a dozen new ones.   The one very unfortunate installation of "DO NOT PASS" & "PASS WITH CARE" was at a location where a kid a couple houses on one side of my property killed a lady a couple houses on the other side of my property, and she wound up dying in the front lawn of her parents' house.

The correct location for the pennants is on the left side of the road, as that's where a driver would be if he was passing at the beginning of a no passing zone.  This particular arrangement was a common question on permit tests, and might still be.

[TEG24601]

I don't believe they are mandated by WSDOT, but some counties do post them when they have a surplus sign budget.  There are a couple in Skagit and Island counties, but usually only when the status of a road as changed to prevent passing.  I remember them being very common at one time, but alas, they have disappeared, and instead we get Watershed signs, speed limit signs, and ugly neon-green signs everywhere.

[on_wisconsin]

Yep, the pennant has been standard in Wisconsin for as long as I can remember (now with fluorescent yellow sheeting), however I have seen the regulatory DO NOT PASS and PASS WITH CARE sprinkled about the state (mainly in the SE region, Milwaukee and Waukesha counties especially).

The NW Region uses them sporadicly as well. Pepin, Pierce, and Dunn counties seem to be where the majority of them are up here.

[luokou]

I could swear I've seen No Passing Zone pennants in Oregon, but if they exist, they're so fucking rare.  I spent 20 minutes on Google Maps trying to find one and can't find one.

The only pennants I recall seeing are at the Bridge of the Gods - one on the Oregon side and one on the Washington side.

[jbnv]

Louisiana uses the pennant regularly as well as DO NOT PASS/PASS WITH CARE signs.

Frequently, but not consistently. I recall seeing lots of them on the old US 90 and LA 1 between Morgan City(*) and Golden Meadow when I was young. I'm tempted to say that there is one somewhere out here in central Tangipahoa Parish, but I can't tell you exactly where. Perhaps we use them only on primary highways.

I'm tempted to say there may be one in the scene in Easy Rider where they cross the bridge east of Morgan City. I definitely recall there being pennants on that stretch of the highway and particularly at that curve.

[ctsignguy]

I've seen both pennants and "DO NOT PASS" in Connecticut. I believe that generally the former are newer while the latter are older.

New York uses pennants.

DO NOT PASS signs go back to the wood era of STC signage.....


But from wayyy back at least in the 40-50s into the early 70's they also used "NO PASSING" like this one (Mike Summa collection)...

[JoePCool14]

Anyone see "SPEED 45" on that one?
Also another image used the pennant on the wrong side of the road.

[freebrickproductions]

There are a few in Alabama, but they are steadily disappearing.
I've also seen "Do Not Pass" signs here in Huntsville.

[hockeyjohn]

In addition to the pennants, Indiana uses three small round white reflectors above eye level instead of the pass with care signs at the start of a passing zone.  I did not see any of those when I was in Ky this morning.

Indiana used the regulatory "DO NOT PASS" signs along with the pennants until the mid 1980s when they quickly began to disappear.   A handful of them are still posted along turnback routes, like Old SR 37 in northern Johnson County.   "PASS WITH CARE" signs were used occasionally, too - SR 37 between 46th St and 75th St in Indianapolis had them prior to be being widened in 1976.   For the most part, the three white reflectors have been the norm here.

As a kid living in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the early 1970s, both once used the "DO NOT PASS" sign, but removed them in the 1980s.   Minnesota did not use the "PASS WITH CARE" sign as I recall, while Wisconsin did.

North Carolina also uses combinations of all three in some isolated cases.   For example, "DO NOT PASS" and "PASS WITH CARE" signs were used along the 3-lane portion of US-19/23 between Clyde and Enka-Candler, while "NO PASSING ZONE" signs were used along NC 16 between Newton and Denver.

[Takumi]

Virginia uses the pennants on some roads. I passed a good number of them this past Friday on US-301 between Bowling Green and the Richmond suburbs, including one instance where they were on the wrong sides of the road (I'll post a screenshot when I find that particular dashcam clip). But Virginia doesn't use them on all roads where passing is permitted and I couldn't tell you how they decide when to use them and when not to do so.

It seems to be by county. Prince George definitely uses them, but I can't think of ever seeing any in any of the other counties around me.

[hockeyjohn]

I'm curious when the yellow "NO PASSING ZONE" pennant first appeared.   This YouTube video shows it in Iowa in 1960 (first appearance at the 1:05 mark).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MD_WuK1b8E

Many State driver's manuals and maps only begin to show it in the early 1970's concurrent with the introduction of warning and regulatory signs with picture depiction instead of words.

[paulthemapguy]

A bit parochial, but I think it's interesting that Kankakee County, IL uses "No Passing Zone" pennants AND "Do not pass" rectangular signs in tandem at the start of every no passing zone on all of their county roads.  I'm going to go ahead and call that downright excessive.  Here's an example https://goo.gl/maps/fMT2gc7v7932

[hockeyjohn]

A bit parochial, but I think it's interesting that Kankakee County, IL uses "No Passing Zone" pennants AND "Do not pass" rectangular signs in tandem at the start of every no passing zone on all of their county roads.  I'm going to go ahead and call that downright excessive.  Here's an example https://goo.gl/maps/fMT2gc7v7932

Not only that, but it looks like the County also uses the larger sized pennant on two posts like IDOT (and also MnDOT) utilizes on State highways.   Indiana, like many other States, prefers a smaller version on a single post.