Signs With Design Errors

[Max Rockatansky]

Might as well just call it a bus lane.

It would be mildly amusing to see some older 60s whale car with front benches packed with 6 people just spit in the eye that silly HOV requirement.

[jakeroot]

I thought the 6+ HOV requirement was a design error as well, but apparently it's not. All of the other HOV signs along Willingdon Ave have "6+" on them.

Wow! A lot of cars don't even have 6 seats! The highest HOV I've personally seen in Ontario is 3+

Might as well just call it a bus lane.

It would be mildly amusing to see some older 60s whale car with front benches packed with 6 people just spit in the eye that silly HOV requirement.

The nice thing with the 6+ requirement is that it excludes most private vehicles, but it includes large vehicles that might otherwise be excluded from bus lanes. In other words, it's more of a bus + shuttle lane.

FWIW, Hwy 1's HOV lane is 2+ (as are most other HOV facilities in the Lower Mainland).

[jeffandnicole]

I thought the 6+ HOV requirement was a design error as well, but apparently it's not. All of the other HOV signs along Willingdon Ave have "6+" on them.

Wow! A lot of cars don't even have 6 seats! The highest HOV I've personally seen in Ontario is 3+

Might as well just call it a bus lane.

It would be mildly amusing to see some older 60s whale car with front benches packed with 6 people just spit in the eye that silly HOV requirement.

The nice thing with the 6+ requirement is that it excludes most private vehicles, but it includes large vehicles that might otherwise be excluded from bus lanes. In other words, it's more of a bus + shuttle lane.

FWIW, Hwy 1's HOV lane is 2+ (as are most other HOV facilities in the Lower Mainland).

It is a little ridiculous to say 6+...then use an image of a small car with 2 heads in it.

Across the street, I noticed there are a few signs that say Vanpools (with a picture that looks like a van or a small bus), and Motorcyclists can use the lane as well.

BTW, which lane?  The sign doesn't say!  Even in the link, turn the image around and you'll see the right lane appears to be for turning vehicles only as well...which makes the sign placement not valid anyway (at least without the "And Right Turns" supplement.

[kphoger]

FWIW, Hwy 1's HOV lane is 2+ (as are most other HOV facilities in the Lower Mainland).

I wonder... where outside North America is a car with two people considered "high occupancy"?

[lordsutch]

I wonder... where outside North America is a car with two people considered "high occupancy"?

Probably more places than you'd think. The commuter vehicle occupancy rate in England and Wales is 1.09 persons per vehicle - and England and Wales is (are) one of the densest, most transit-oriented jurisdictions in the world, with much better bus and rail transportation than the United States, even in rural areas. Even London - with terrible traffic, a virtually nonexistent freeway and expressway system inside its perpetually-jammed beltway, and a daily congestion charge covering the central business district - only has a 49.9% transit share.

[jakeroot]

It is a little ridiculous to say 6+...then use an image of a small car with 2 heads in it.

That's the standard "HOV" symbol, used by both WSDOT and the BCMOT (both use nearly identical signage). Always two heads, to indicate high-occupancy (then again, how many passenger vehicles permit more than two passengers up-front? -- definitely hard to illustrate exactly six or more people).

Across the street, I noticed there are a few signs that say Vanpools (with a picture that looks like a van or a small bus), and Motorcyclists can use the lane as well.

BTW, which lane?  The sign doesn't say!  Even in the link, turn the image around and you'll see the right lane appears to be for turning vehicles only as well...which makes the sign placement not valid anyway (at least without the "And Right Turns" supplement.)

The right lane becomes HOV (again) immediately after the right turn, so they put the sign up where it is warn drivers of the impending restrictions (should they choose to continue straight-on -- technically, those turning right are not driving in an HOV lane -- the HOV lane ended right before the right turn lane, and starts again immediately after). The lane does have the standard diamond markings before and after the right-turn-only lane, as well as longer, more closely-spaced white lines (used in Canada to separate lanes that are doing two different things). Could the signage be better? Sure, but it's consistent with the rest of the HOV signage in the area, so I'm not complaining.

[J N Winkler]

Probably more places than you'd think. The commuter vehicle occupancy rate in England and Wales is 1.09 persons per vehicle - and England and Wales is (are) one of the densest, most transit-oriented jurisdictions in the world, with much better bus and rail transportation than the United States, even in rural areas. Even London - with terrible traffic, a virtually nonexistent freeway and expressway system inside its perpetually-jammed beltway, and a daily congestion charge covering the central business district - only has a 49.9% transit share.

Britain now has a standard (still nonprescribed, IIRC) HOV symbol similar to the one used in Washington state, although the car outline looks like a Mini viewed from behind.  By default it says "2+."  (There are some examples, with drawings, in the online DfT signs authorizations database.)

I am not aware of any examples of motorway HOV lanes analogous to what we have in the US, but in some places HOV signing has been used to allow high-occupancy vehicles to share bus lanes on surface roads.

[jakeroot]

It is a little ridiculous to say 6+...then use an image of a small car with 2 heads in it.

That's the standard "HOV" symbol, used by both WSDOT and the BCMOT (both use nearly identical signage). Always two heads, to indicate high-occupancy

Need to clarify here. WSDOT, generally, does not use the vehicle shape with heads. The BCMOT does use the vehicle shape with heads, but also uses the vehicle shape with passenger restrictions inside of it. Seems to be about half and half. The symbol with the heads is used on the freeways, with supplementary signs listing the exact restriction. Urban HOV lanes generally use the shape with the restriction inside of it.

[formulanone]

Inflated sense of directional tab:






Not sure if this was posted before, but...on our next episode of As The State Turns:



(Also, green background for the arrow used under the I-95 shield, but there's dozens of that error in Florida.)

[xcellntbuy]

Inflated sense of directional tab:






Not sure if this was posted before, but...on our next episode of As The State Turns:



(Also, green background for the arrow used under the I-95 shield, but there's dozens of that error in Florida.)

The map of Florida on the Florida's Turnpike sign is backward, too.

[formulanone]

Inflated sense of directional tab:






Not sure if this was posted before, but...on our next episode of As The State Turns:



(Also, green background for the arrow used under the I-95 shield, but there's dozens of that error in Florida.)

The map of Florida on the Florida's Turnpike sign is backward, too.

I was alluding to that...

[hbelkins]

I can see how it might be easy to get the Ohio outline backwards -- I've seen examples of that -- but FLORIDA????

[jwolfer]

This guide sign in Burnaby, BC has a black right arrow. The turn towards Hwy 1 West used to be to the left, and the sign featured a black-on-orange "construction" temp arrow, but once the construction ended, they removed the temp arrow, only to replace it with another black arrow, albeit one lacking an orange background.

https://goo.gl/PHqtUe

I thought the 6+ HOV requirement was a design error as well, but apparently it's not. All of the other HOV signs along Willingdon Ave have "6+" on them.

Restricted to commuter vans or huge families

[jwolfer]

I can see how it might be easy to get the Ohio outline backwards -- I've seen examples of that -- but FLORIDA????

I have seen some horribly misshapen Floridas on shields . I have to get some pics.  I liked the keys shields but that is going back 30+ years.. quite a few remain around Clay County

[mrsman]

This guide sign in Burnaby, BC has a black right arrow. The turn towards Hwy 1 West used to be to the left, and the sign featured a black-on-orange "construction" temp arrow, but once the construction ended, they removed the temp arrow, only to replace it with another black arrow, albeit one lacking an orange background.

https://goo.gl/PHqtUe

I thought the 6+ HOV requirement was a design error as well, but apparently it's not. All of the other HOV signs along Willingdon Ave have "6+" on them.

Restricted to commuter vans or huge families

I am grateful to see a lane like this.  Essentially a bus lane that is open to private buses and shuttles. 

In Chicago there is a lot of fights over private buses and shuttles between Union Station and Michigan Ave that they should not use the bus only lanes that are limited to public transit.  Other cities have similar issues.  IMO, private vehicles that take 6 or more people at a time do just as much to help congestion as the public transit buses and should be given similar priority.

[national highway 1]

From the 'Exit Number Challenge' thread:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=17867.msg2161152#msg2161152

The WY 218 shield digits are in Arial/Helvetica font.
The font weight of the legend for 'Harriman Rd' looks way off. Anyone who knows what font weight it is? Could be Series F, but I'm not 100% sure.

[SignBridge]

Wrong arrow too.

[jbnv]

The font weight of the legend for 'Harriman Rd' looks way off. Anyone who knows what font weight it is? Could be Series F, but I'm not 100% sure.

Whatever disease it has is in Baton Rouge as well.

[SignGeek101]

From the 'Exit Number Challenge' thread:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=17867.msg2161152#msg2161152

The WY 218 shield digits are in Arial/Helvetica font.
The font weight of the legend for 'Harriman Rd' looks way off. Anyone who knows what font weight it is? Could be Series F, but I'm not 100% sure.

Helvetica is the first thing that jumps out at me (the route shield I mean). So wrong arrow, and wrong fonts. Well done! 

[vtk]

From the 'Exit Number Challenge' thread:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=17867.msg2161152#msg2161152

The WY 218 shield digits are in Arial/Helvetica font.
The font weight of the legend for 'Harriman Rd' looks way off. Anyone who knows what font weight it is? Could be Series F, but I'm not 100% sure.

That's either Series F with condensed interletter spacing, or a wide bold species of the commercial font family Interstate.

The font weight of the legend for 'Harriman Rd' looks way off. Anyone who knows what font weight it is? Could be Series F, but I'm not 100% sure.

Whatever disease it has is in Baton Rouge as well.

My first thought was that "Main" is the PixSymbols version of Series D, but more likely it's Series C stretched out a bit horizontally.  The little "St" is probably either Series C horizontally squished a bit, or Helvetica horizontally squished a lot.

[ekt8750]

From the 'Exit Number Challenge' thread:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=17867.msg2161152#msg2161152

The WY 218 shield digits are in Arial/Helvetica font.
The font weight of the legend for 'Harriman Rd' looks way off. Anyone who knows what font weight it is? Could be Series F, but I'm not 100% sure.

Looks like someone took E Modified, reduced the kerning and added additional stroke to the characters in Illustrator.

[freebrickproductions]

Found this on Facebook, it's apparently in Cumberland, MD:


The acorn US shield strikes again!

[hbelkins]

Maryland must have borrowed one of PA's acorns!

[Quillz]

I often wonder how contractors can get so creative with their errors. And how brain-dead some of them must be.

[jbnv]

Downtown New Orleans has contracted a serious case of the oversized-capitals disease. This is just one example of many.


St. Charles Street Sign by Jay Bienvenu, on Flickr