Unique, Odd, or Interesting Signs aka The good, the bad, and the ugly

[ethanhopkin14]

Not a bad sign, but just incorrect.  This sign makes it seem like if you turn right onto this road you will eventually have a junction with Colorado State Highway 41, when reality is that is Colorado State Highway 41.  Greening out the JCT from the top would correct this error.

[kphoger]

An erroneous "JCT" is fa-a-a-a-a-ar from unique.

[wanderer2575]

More Great Moments in Project Planning, May 2022:

Detour sign:  Turn Left Here

Traffic signal:  No Left Turn

[LilianaUwU]

TO R.I. 146

I'm surprised it's not in one sign like Woonsocket usually does.

[roadman65]

This one gives directions to both US 101 and Crescent City two different ways despite it takes the use of US 101 to reach the city from US 199.

[D-Dey65]

Don't forget Colorado.

Looks more like an old-fashioned park sign.

Hey, did NYSDOT Region 10 get rid of this stupid thing yet?
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WB_NY_25A;_NB_(Non)_NY_110_in_Huntington.jpg

[roadman65]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54480415@N08/52064897131/in/photostream/
I am always partial to the existence of cut out shields.

[Scott5114]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54480415@N08/52064897131/in/photostream/
I am always partial to the existence of cut out shields.

I mean, it's cool, but that's statewide standard for California.

[D-Dey65]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54480415@N08/52064897131/in/photostream/
I am always partial to the existence of cut out shields.

I mean, it's cool, but that's statewide standard for California.

So, they're not just leftover from "olden times?"

[roadman65]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54480415@N08/52064897131/in/photostream/
I am always partial to the existence of cut out shields.

I mean, it's cool, but that's statewide standard for California.

So, they're not just leftover from "olden times?"

Not in California. That's the norm for US routes.




https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52021931631_3d00a5520f_k.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52021931811_6b18b9564f_k.jpg


Love how Oregon uses one pole freeway guide supports near Grants Pass on I-5.

[ethanhopkin14]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54480415@N08/52064897131/in/photostream/
I am always partial to the existence of cut out shields.

I mean, it's cool, but that's statewide standard for California.

So, they're not just leftover from "olden times?"

No, in fact they are an updated design.  They are a hybrid of the current US highway shield standard with text on it to give it an "faux" old shield feel.

I don't really like the current national standard US highway shield.  I always feel putting the shield on a black square field "demotes" the highway a bit.  Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway or some county road, when in fact it's the second line of defense when it comes to highways. 

[kphoger]

Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway ...

I mean, they basically are.

[ethanhopkin14]

Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway ...

I mean, they basically are.

Yes...and no.  Sometimes they are just slight step above state highways.  It's small potatoes, but in Texas on two lane highways, its not uncommon for a state or farm to market road to have 0.0 shoulders (like white stripe and on the other side of said stripe, grass), but US-highways will always have a shoulder.  Yes I know they do it on 4-lane undivided highways so that's another story.

By literal definition, yes they are.  They are state highways that the states agree to sign with a US-highway shield with a common digit.  There is nothing saying a state has to participate, so it can be US-50 in State X, enter state Y become Y State Highway 44, then cross into state Z and pick up the US-50 name and shield again. 

All that said, I do feel like there is a slight hierarchy.  Maybe it's because they are nation wide so I don't feel like, for the most part, a US highway is going to abruptly end.  Maybe because of that they feel a little less regional.  Whatever the reason, I still do have a feeling they are a cut above a state highway, even if that cut maybe paper thin. 

[kphoger]

Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway ...

I mean, they basically are.

Yes...and no.  Sometimes they are just slight step above state highways.  It's small potatoes, but in Texas on two lane highways, its not uncommon for a state or farm to market road to have 0.0 shoulders (like white stripe and on the other side of said stripe, grass), but US-highways will always have a shoulder.  Yes I know they do it on 4-lane undivided highways so that's another story.

By literal definition, yes they are.  They are state highways that the states agree to sign with a US-highway shield with a common digit.  There is nothing saying a state has to participate, so it can be US-50 in State X, enter state Y become Y State Highway 44, then cross into state Z and pick up the US-50 name and shield again. 

All that said, I do feel like there is a slight hierarchy.  Maybe it's because they are nation wide so I don't feel like, for the most part, a US highway is going to abruptly end.  Maybe because of that they feel a little less regional.  Whatever the reason, I still do have a feeling they are a cut above a state highway, even if that cut maybe paper thin. 

You do realize there are more states than just Texas, right?  Plenty of US Route mileage in the county looks like this and this and this and this.

Also, US-377 would like to have a word with you:  Texas, Texas.  So would US-183:  Texas

[hbelkins]

Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway ...

I mean, they basically are.

Well, they definitely aren't federal routes.

Whatever happened to Calrog anyway? He doesn't even post on MTR anymore.

[ethanhopkin14]

Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway ...

I mean, they basically are.

Yes...and no.  Sometimes they are just slight step above state highways.  It's small potatoes, but in Texas on two lane highways, its not uncommon for a state or farm to market road to have 0.0 shoulders (like white stripe and on the other side of said stripe, grass), but US-highways will always have a shoulder.  Yes I know they do it on 4-lane undivided highways so that's another story.

By literal definition, yes they are.  They are state highways that the states agree to sign with a US-highway shield with a common digit.  There is nothing saying a state has to participate, so it can be US-50 in State X, enter state Y become Y State Highway 44, then cross into state Z and pick up the US-50 name and shield again. 

All that said, I do feel like there is a slight hierarchy.  Maybe it's because they are nation wide so I don't feel like, for the most part, a US highway is going to abruptly end.  Maybe because of that they feel a little less regional.  Whatever the reason, I still do have a feeling they are a cut above a state highway, even if that cut maybe paper thin. 

You do realize there are more states than just Texas, right?  Plenty of US Route mileage in the county looks like this and this and this and this.

Also, US-377 would like to have a word with you:  Texas, Texas.  So would US-183:  Texas

Yes I have driven on narrow US highways in other states.  I qualified Texas because, like it or not, most of the time we tend to gravitate toward what's most familiar.  It doesn't matter how many states I drive through, I still tend to keep in my head the way Texas does stuff because I am most familiar with that.

That's a stretch of 183 I have never been on.  Its enlightening. 

[vdeane]

Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway or some county road

Ironic, given the county route shield.

[kphoger]

Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway ...

I mean, they basically are.

Yes...and no.  Sometimes they are just slight step above state highways.  It's small potatoes, but in Texas on two lane highways, its not uncommon for a state or farm to market road to have 0.0 shoulders (like white stripe and on the other side of said stripe, grass), but US-highways will always have a shoulder.  Yes I know they do it on 4-lane undivided highways so that's another story.

By literal definition, yes they are.  They are state highways that the states agree to sign with a US-highway shield with a common digit.  There is nothing saying a state has to participate, so it can be US-50 in State X, enter state Y become Y State Highway 44, then cross into state Z and pick up the US-50 name and shield again. 

All that said, I do feel like there is a slight hierarchy.  Maybe it's because they are nation wide so I don't feel like, for the most part, a US highway is going to abruptly end.  Maybe because of that they feel a little less regional.  Whatever the reason, I still do have a feeling they are a cut above a state highway, even if that cut maybe paper thin. 

You do realize there are more states than just Texas, right?  Plenty of US Route mileage in the county looks like this and this and this and this.

Also, US-377 would like to have a word with you:  Texas, Texas.  So would US-183:  Texas

Yes I have driven on narrow US highways in other states.  I qualified Texas because, like it or not, most of the time we tend to gravitate toward what's most familiar.  It doesn't matter how many states I drive through, I still tend to keep in my head the way Texas does stuff because I am most familiar with that.

That's a stretch of 183 I have never been on.  Its enlightening. 

Besides US-377 and US-183, there's also US-67 and US-259.

[Scott5114]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54480415@N08/52064897131/in/photostream/
I am always partial to the existence of cut out shields.

I mean, it's cool, but that's statewide standard for California.

So, they're not just leftover from "olden times?"

Nope. That's still in their MUTCD. The most recent update to that particular standard was in 2002.

No, in fact they are an updated design.  They are a hybrid of the current US highway shield standard with text on it to give it an "faux" old shield feel.

This standard was actually in use in the 1950s, it just wasn't part of the federal MUTCD. I think AASHTO may have created it, actually. California is just the only state that didn't switch to the 1961 and 1970 (present-day) MUTCD designs.

For example, here's one from Colorado. Michael Summa took the picture in 1983, Jake Bear identified the shield as being from 1952:


Said Colorado 1952 standards. It looks like cutouts were to be used for reassurance shields, and everything else used non-cutout shields. (This was a distinction that the MUTCD made between 1948 and 1961 for some reason. Most states used smaller cutouts with the state name for reassurance during this time period.)

[hbelkins]

See? Even back then, Limon was in use as a control city. 

[J N Winkler]

The cutout US shield (in the current California style) was also in the 1958 Interstate signing and marking manual and, as such, was a national standard.

I think the old (late 1950's/early 1960's) California outline guide-sign US shields are pretty neat.  They all had the same basic design that could be stretched to three or four different widths to allow bolded Series D digits to be used with good all-around space padding.  In that sense they were sort of similar to the current FM/RM guide-sign shields in Texas, which are rounded rectangles of fixed height with width that can be varied in six-inch increments as required to fit normally kerned Series D digits with satisfactory space padding.

[ClassicHasClass]

I have a "California style" Ohio US 30S, too.

[kkt]

Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway ...

I mean, they basically are.

My understanding is states can't permanently reroute or abandon US routes without approval.

[hbelkins]

Without it being a cutout, the shield feels kinda like a state highway ...

I mean, they basically are.

My understanding is states can't permanently reroute or abandon US routes without approval.

Sure they can. AASHTO is a voluntary organization and there is no legal obligation for states to follow its directives. States make requests to AASHTO as a courtesy. If Kentucky wants to, for instance, swap KY 114 and US 460 between Salyersville and US 23, and AASHTO denies the request, Kentucky can sign the changes anyway with no repercussions.

Doesn't Oklahoma have a US route that is not AASHTO-approved but they've signed it anyway?

[LilianaUwU]

Doesn't Oklahoma have a US route that is not AASHTO-approved but they've signed it anyway?

Yes, US 377.