Styles of city/town-limit signs (non-state-DOT versions)

[txstateends]

As we've seen, there are many county-line sign styles.  I don't think there's been a thread about city/town-limit signage made by the local municipality instead of (or as well as) the state's DOT.  Some cities and towns don't bother (leaving the only representative sign(s) for the municipality up to the state DOT completely), while others do label and sign borders to an extent.

Highland Park, TX


These have only been around for a year or so.  Previously, Highland Park used a rectangular sign with brown text/design on a beige-white background, placed on brown metal poles.  The current one in the picture is decidedly more ornate and upscale-looking.

Richardson, TX: http://goo.gl/maps/WIECX
The blurred-out word on the sign is "Richardson".  The city is pretty good about signing all it's borders.

Dallas: http://goo.gl/maps/X5Hnv
I looked at 5 different Dallas city-limit signs on Street View, and all had the city logo in the middle blurred out.  The lettering, as you may notice, is very squeezed Clearview.  For many years, Dallas had slipped quite a bit on city-limit signage; but since the advent of Clearview on new city signage, mast street name signs, and the like, Dallas has started to catch up on a lot of the points that didn't have one or were there before but went missing.

Plano, TX: http://goo.gl/maps/0REsE
Very patriotic style, making extra sure *everyone* sees that they're an 'All-America City'.  Last time I checked, none of Plano is in danger of being over another country's boundaries.  And they haven't forgotten the red-light runners.  Apparently that is still a problem at times there.  For this to be a city-limit sign, the "city limit" part could sure stand to have some extra emphasis.  You can barely read that part, especially if you're going as fast as most people do where this sign is.

[doorknob60]

I really love California's, simply because every sign has the Population and Elevation listed on it I wish every state did that. (Yes this is Caltrans, not perfectly in topic with the thread, oh well)
Example:

They pretty much all look like that.

Oregon is pretty inconsistent, at least on the non interstates.

Here's a welcome to Bend on SB US 97:


Here's a completely different one only about 12 miles north, on the south end of Redmond:


On the Interstates, they usually always look like this, but are boring and don't provide useful info like the CA ones do:


I'm not sure if ODOT posts the ones on non Interstates, because they all look different, but maybe they do, I'd be interested to know that. On the Interstates, those are all ODOT.

[myosh_tino]

I will agree with doorknob60 that I do find Caltrans standard city limit signs aesthetically pleasing and I like the fact that population and elevation are included on the sign.

Here are some non-Caltrans city limit signs for cities in and around the San Jose area...


Somewhat typical San Jose City Limit sign and yes that's Arial but it doesn't really bother me.


This type of sign is found on major thoroughfares entering Cupertino.


More typical city limit sign for Cupertino.  The blue-on-white signs match the color scheme for the city's street blades.


Typical Sunnyvale city limit sign.


Unusual city limit sign mounted on a stone planter box.  Los Altos' street blades are brown with a white custom font.


Typical Mountain View city limit sign.  Mountain View has a habit of using Helvetica/Arial on it's speed limit signs.

All images are from Google Street View.

[Scott5114]

I usually don't trust population figures on signs because I figure they're probably generally out of date. I imagine they're only updated when the Census figures come out every 10 years.

Elevation is a particularly obscure thing to have on every sign. I guess it matters more in California, but here, I don't even know what my current elevation is, so I wouldn't really have a useful frame of reference in mind. Why not put latitude and longitude on the sign? That might help people pinpoint their location on a map if it doesn't have the location labeled (especially for CDPs), and I know my coordinates are roughly 94°W by thirty-something north.

The CA layout does look nice though!

[formulanone]

I've always wondered where in the city/town California takes their elevation from? City Hall, an average, or just a randomly surveyed point...because elevation varies greatly in much of the western part of the state? Travel just a half mile in any direction, and the terrain changes mightily.

[myosh_tino]

I usually don't trust population figures on signs because I figure they're probably generally out of date. I imagine they're only updated when the Census figures come out every 10 years.

Elevation is a particularly obscure thing to have on every sign. I guess it matters more in California, but here, I don't even know what my current elevation is, so I wouldn't really have a useful frame of reference in mind. Why not put latitude and longitude on the sign? That might help people pinpoint their location on a map if it doesn't have the location labeled (especially for CDPs), and I know my coordinates are roughly 94°W by thirty-something north.

The CA layout does look nice though!

I've always wondered where in the city/town California takes their elevation from? City Hall, an average, or just a randomly surveyed point...because elevation varies greatly in much of the western part of the state? Travel just a half mile in any direction, and the terrain changes mightily.

Oddly enough, where Caltrans gets the population and elevation figures are defined in the California MUTCD in section 2H.02/General Information Signs. 

Population figures are obtained from 4 possible sources...
* Federal Census
* Calif. Dept of Finance
* County Board of Supervisors
* County Planning Commission

The elevation may be that of the courthouse, post office, railroad station or benchmark in the central district of the city.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Redding has a variation of the regular CA city limit sign:


North Vancouver:


West Vancouver (which is on the other side of the North Vancouver sign):


Vancouver:

[roadfro]

Nevada's signs, at least for state highways, are very nondescript. Green sign with city/town name on one line (mixed case legend) and elevation on the lower line (smaller all-caps legend). For freeways, it's generally just the MUTCD standard "Reno Next # Exits"

Interestingly, NDOT must use a couple different elevation sources. Any road sign I've seen for Las Vegas gives the elevation of 2165, whereas the official state map produced by NDOT has shown 2026 for the last several years.

[iowahighways]

Most of Des Moines' suburbs have their own style of city limit signs, particularly on the west side of the metro where all the suburbs run into each other.

For example, Clive and West Des Moines:

(Clive uses a newer logo on some signs, but it's not universally used.)

Urbandale and Windsor Heights:


Grimes and Johnston:


City limit signs from the Iowa DOT are simply green signs with the city's name in mixed case (and, on newer signs, in Clearview). That's it.

[agentsteel53]

I would never parse that Clive as being a town boundary sign.  I'd probably glance at it and think the next segment of road was adopted by the Clive company.

[luokou]

Hillsboro and Beaverton:

185th Ave is the boundary between both cities, which are rather neck-and-neck in population (Beaverton would have been Oregon's second largest city had it followed through on its annexation plans)

Tigard:


Tualatin:


West Linn:


Oregon City:


Gladstone:


Gresham:


Troutdale:

[tdindy88]

Is there a sign for that one really big city in between Oregon City, Gresham and Beaverton...oh what's it called? Portland. Just curious

[luokou]

Is there a sign for that one really big city in between Oregon City, Gresham and Beaverton...oh what's it called? Portland. Just curious

From the County Line signs thread:
Portland! The rose is usually red, but it has faded to white over the years.

[sp_redelectric]

One trend I am seeing around here is fewer signs, more monuments:

[NE2]

(not my photo)

[vtk]

I don't like the signs Hilliard OH puts up at its borders.  Much like a standard town sign ODOT might put up, but possibly taller, blue, and has the legend "ENTERING HILLIARD CORPORATION LIMIT" with Hilliard of course appearing on its own line in bigger type and, most recently, in mixed case.

What bothers me is it's semantically wrong. Yes you are entering Hilliard.  Yes the sign marks the Hilliard corporation limit.  But you are not entering the corporation limit, you are crossing it!  They combine two correct messages in a Wheel Of Fortune "before and after" style to make an incorrect message!

They also post a corresponding sign for the other direction which says leaving instead of entering, which also bugs me.

[NE2]

I don't like the signs Hilliard OH puts up at its borders.  Much like a standard town sign ODOT might put up, but possibly taller, blue, and has the legend "ENTERING HILLIARD CORPORATION LIMIT" with Hilliard of course appearing on its own line in bigger type and, most recently, in mixed case.

What bothers me is it's semantically wrong. Yes you are entering Hilliard.  Yes the sign marks the Hilliard corporation limit.  But you are not entering the corporation limit, you are crossing it!  They combine two correct messages in a Wheel Of Fortune "before and after" style to make an incorrect message!

Since signs don't generally include complete sentences, it's impossible to say that it isn't meant as two separate phrases: "entering Hilliard" and "corporation limit".

[Brandon]

Let's go all out and include an electronic sign, concrete/stone blocks, and terrace them on a hill.



Did I mention landscaping?

[Road Hog]

Texas towns more and more include the monument in tandem with the green city limit sign, which more often than not is six miles from the center of town in order to give its police department more revenue-producing miles to patrol.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Gilroy, California:

But these older welcome signs are seemingly being phased out with this style (though there's only one that I know of):

[roadman65]

Florida uses CITY LIMITS at borders to incorporated cities and just the town name for non incorporated areas.

New Jersey now uses the community descriptor (city, town, borough, or township) followed by its name on its state road system.  Even at county lines the municipality is used over the county name thus NJ being a rarity of not marking county lines with the county names.  Only the Garden State Parkway marks county borders, but does not mention municipal ones.  The NJ Turnpike has no local or county boundaries posted at all, and I am not sure about the ACE.

[kphoger]

Texas towns more and more include the monument in tandem with the green city limit sign, which more often than not is six miles from the center of town in order to give its police department more revenue-producing miles to patrol.

I tend to doubt the notion that the location of a WELCOME TO... sign determines the extent of a particular police department's patrol area.

[Federal Route Sixty-Nine]

why do some communities write "city limits" on their green signs, with "limit" being plural? it makes sense if you're studying a map and looking at all of the boundaries to say "here are the city limits," but when crossing a border on a road, making it plural is baffling.

[Road Hog]

Texas towns more and more include the monument in tandem with the green city limit sign, which more often than not is six miles from the center of town in order to give its police department more revenue-producing miles to patrol.

I tend to doubt the notion that the location of a WELCOME TO... sign determines the extent of a particular police department's patrol area.

I was referring to the official city limits, not just the sign. Lots of cities have annexed highway rights-of-way only for many miles out.