What does BGS mean?

[SoCal Kid]

Big Giant Sign?

[oscar]

Big Giant Sign?

Big Green Sign.  You'll see BBS (Big Brown Sign) sometimes used for similar (except for the color) signs on National Park Service roads.

[webny99]

And sometimes LGS for little green sign.

When I was new I didn't know what it meant either because it's not used much outside the roadgeek community, hence a Google search proved unsuccessful.

[SoCal Kid]

And sometimes LGS for little green sign.

When I was new I didn't know what it meant either because it's not used much outside the roadgeek community, hence a Google search proved unsuccessful.

A dictionary website i found via Google gave me a bunch of weird results, and yeah no actual answer. A result was Big Green S-word

[jp the roadgeek]

Funny you mentioned this.  This was one of the screening questions I had to answer to join the Roadgeekery FB discussion group.  Guess I got it right since my request was accepted.

[Duke87]

Yeah, "BGS" is a term that was invented back in the usenet days, by people in the roadgeek community who had no insight as to what the correct technical terminology might be.

There is now a greater level of awareness that "guide sign" is the proper technical term, but "BGS" has stuck around for casual use.

[J N Winkler]

Guide sign is the MUTCD term for any sign whose principal purpose is to convey directional information, regardless of size.  If you go to official sources from various state DOTs, you can see a variation in terminology used to refer to signs of the type discussed in MUTCD Chapter 2E (guide signs for freeways/expressways):  large guide sign, large panel sign, sometimes just panel sign (if the agency uses single-sheet substrates for all other guide signs), etc.  This is all tied to the forms of substrate construction the state DOT specifies in its standard plan sheets and for which it has created bid items.  (Most state DOTs buy their large guide signing by the square foot, but not all do.  Florida DOT, for example, counts signs desired for each of several categories based on range of square footage:  so many signs with square footage between 25 and 40, so many signs with more than 40 square feet, etc.)

[hbelkins]

Kentucky's semi-official terminology for the large guide signs found on freeways is "panel sign." Kentucky uses extruded panel signs for its big guide signs on freeways, as opposed to other states (North Carolina, up until recently Virginia, New York, etc.) that use increment panel signs.

I'm unaware of any official term for the smaller signs found on surface routes. One engineer I work with calls them "green boards."

[skluth]

No big deal. It took me a while to figure out what BGS means. Then again, I'm used to deciphering new acronyms. I'm a retired government employee. I've had entire conversations in acronyms.

[roadman]

Funny you mentioned this.  This was one of the screening questions I had to answer to join the Roadgeekery FB discussion group.  Guess I got it right since my request was accepted.

One of the screening questions I had to answer to join a HO Model Railroading FB group a friend invited me to was "What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?"

[1995hoo]

Funny you mentioned this.  This was one of the screening questions I had to answer to join the Roadgeekery FB discussion group.  Guess I got it right since my request was accepted.

One of the screening questions I had to answer to join a HO Model Railroading FB group a friend invited me to was "What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?"

Is it an African swallow or a European swallow?



I think "BGS"  is a perfectly good and appropriate term because it's descriptive. I use the term (spelled out the first time I use it) when I give directions–I'll say, for example, "The Big Green Sign lists Manassas and Front Royal"  or whatever.

[froggie]

^ Appropriate when speaking strictly within the roadgeek community.  Using it with DOT folks at public meetings may get you a blank face.

And on that note, I've noticed that my preference over the years has gravitated towards using proper/official terminology..."guide signage" in this case.

[1995hoo]

If I were to say it out loud I'd say "Big Green Sign,"  not "BGS,"  regardless of the person to whom I might be speaking.

[kphoger]

BGS is definitely a roadgeek term, not an official one.  I remember a bridge engineer friend of mine was once impressed when a text message of mine included the term "SPUI", but he had no clue what I meant later by "BGS".

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I think Kurumi was the one who coined BGS, LGS, and BBS back on MTR.

[roadman65]

Why is NJDOT one to use LGSes for supplemental guides on freeways and not large ones? 

[jakeroot]

I have long feared that people may not know what "BGS" means, so I try to spell it out.

Lately, I've found myself gravitating towards "guide sign", as it's fewer syllables and a bit more well understood, even by non-roadgeeks. Day-to-day, I'm not conversing with roadgeeks, so using "BGS" would only serve to confuse people, so I don't find myself using that term anywhere except here, and even then, pretty rarely.

[roadman]

Is it an African swallow or a European swallow?

That was my answer.  And I was admitted to the group.

[lepidopteran]

Don't forget the other members of the BGS family.

Big Green Sign -- General guide signs for exits or control cities.
Big Yellow Sign -- Used for warnings, such as a lane drop not associated with a ramp, e.g., "Right Lane Ends 1 Mile"
Big Blue Sign -- Less common, since the services signs tend to be smaller -- though I have seen larger ones with 9 logos.  But some larger, overhead blue signs exist for rest areas. (Were these once used in lieu of BGSs in Connecticut?)
Big Orange Sign -- Used in construction zones, particularly those of a large enough scale that "oranging-out" parts of a BGS is not sufficient, and the traffic pattern change is significant.  The recent Goethals Bridge rebuild used some of these.  Most if not all have black lettering.
Big Brown Sign -- Used for tourist attractions, especially historical sites.  Perhaps not coincidentally, highways run by the National Park Service use brown signs instead of green ones, usually with a different Palatino-like font.  (The Southern State Parkway on Long Island used to use brown signs, but did they use the conventional highway gothic font?)  Also used at some airports.
Big White Sign -- Presents information that doesn't neatly fit into the other categories, like transit info.  Color of the lettering may vary depending on application.  Also formerly used in places like the New York City expressways, with a dark grey lettering, before BGSs took over.
Big Black Sign -- Rare, might be an alternative to white signs.  Sometimes used for upcoming weigh station instructions. (Did South Jersey use these for local roads at one time?)
Big Purple Sign -- Are these a new standard for routes with automatic toll collection?  Also, Disney parks seem to use some of these on their access roads.
Big Red Sign -- Perhaps the rarest of all, indicating a stop ahead or a route to be avoided.  One of the contraflow HOV lanes in Northern VA (Shirley Hwy?) used to have a red overhead sign reading "Do Not Enter" with white lettering posted over the wrong-way entrance ramps (in addition to the multiple lighted crossing-gate arms).  Newer installs, however, use an oversized MUTCD Do Not Enter symbol/sign instead.   Not sure if the recent reconstructions have replaced the older signs.

[MNHighwayMan]

Big Red Sign -- Perhaps the rarest of all, indicating a stop ahead or a route to be avoided.  One of the contraflow HOV lanes in Northern VA (Shirley Hwy?) used to have a red overhead sign reading "Do Not Enter" with white lettering posted over the wrong-way entrance ramps (in addition to the multiple lighted crossing-gate arms).  Newer installs, however, use an oversized MUTCD Do Not Enter symbol/sign instead.   Not sure if the recent reconstructions have replaced the older signs.

Or to indicate prohibitions on restricted routes, e.g. hazardous materials from the Lowry Hill Tunnel on I-94.

[1995hoo]

The Shirley Highway Big Red "Do Not Enter"  sign is still there but isn't long for this world. It, and its neighbor on the same assembly, will be replaced this summer as part of construction.

There are similar signs on I-66 outside the Beltway, BTW, at the two HOV on-ramps because of how they enter in the center of the highway. Edited to add Street View links at Stringfellow Road and Monument Drive. Good chance these may come down sometime in the next several years due to HO/T lane construction.

Big Blue Signs are relatively common in Ontario. Route 401 uses them in place of BGSs over the Collector Lanes in Toronto to distinguish signage from the BGSs over the Express Lanes. Tolled highways (407 and 412) also use Big Blue Signs, and signs on other highways guiding drivers to the toll roads are usually blue as well.

[kennyshark]

In terms of Big Black Signs, when I was a kid (early '70s), as God is my witness, I noticed those were used on in place of Big Green Signs on a stretch of freeway in the Webster Groves/St. Louis (MO) area, which I found strange, since I was used to green.  (I guess even then I had a hard-wired accountant's brain.)  Could have been I-44.

[BrianP]

Big Brown Sign -- Used for tourist attractions, especially historical sites.  Perhaps not coincidentally, highways run by the National Park Service use brown signs instead of green ones, usually with a different Palatino-like font.  (The Southern State Parkway on Long Island used to use brown signs, but did they use the conventional highway gothic font?)  Also used at some airports.

And some military bases:
https://goo.gl/maps/XnT7FYZf4nibg7h78

[1995hoo]

In terms of Big Black Signs, when I was a kid (early '70s), as God is my witness, I noticed those were used on in place of Big Green Signs on a stretch of freeway in the Webster Groves/St. Louis (MO) area, which I found strange, since I was used to green.  (I guess even then I had a hard-wired accountant's brain.)  Could have been I-44.

Your comment reminds me that there used to be Big Black Signs over the Shirley Highway HOV lanes in Virginia. They were directional guide signs given a different color to clarify that they were for the center carriageway. The signs were replaced with boring green ones in the late 1980s or early 1990s; the only one remaining is a southbound "ALL TRAFFIC"  pull-through sign at the Turkeycock ramp complex, and it will be replaced this year because it's for two lanes and the rebuilt road will have three lanes.



Some Big Brown Signs use Clearview for some of the text instead of the fancier NPS typeface. The GW Parkway in Virginia and DC has some brown signs with "NEXT EXIT"  or similar text in all-caps Clearview.

[wxfree]

What's the difference between BGS and LGS?  What makes a sign big?

https://goo.gl/maps/F5w7qRZYiudAfznc6

The two on the left are big green signs.  The one on the right is a white sign that tells truckers to stay out of the left lane.  Is that a big white sign or a little one?  I'd have to say that the ones with three vertical supports are big and the one with two are little.  Similarly,

https://goo.gl/maps/8FLASKpw2CbbnbCp7

That's a big sign.

https://goo.gl/maps/VNFzW13rXuZJGuTB7

That's a little sign, with only two legs.

Is that the standard, 3+ makes a sign big?  I like the childlike simplicity of the term "big green sign," but do we really need a size differentiation?  Where does that differentiation happen?  Is it a distinction without a difference?  If a sign 72 inches wide is little and 73 inches wide is big, is there any reason for distinguishing?  I'd rather distinguish between ground-mounted and overhead, because that affects how the sign is looked at, and sometimes whether or not it's seen.  But I don't think we really need that, either.  To me, they're all big green signs, because they're all bigger than street blades, and how big doesn't really make a difference to what they are.

Edit: Did I just write a self-esteem speech for short people?