Prevalence of illuminated street signs

[STLmapboy]

I couldn't find a thread on this (lots of possible wording combos), so I thought I'd make one.

Around St Louis, illuminated street signs aren't too common but are also not extremely rare if you know where to look. Wealthier suburbs like Creve Coeur and Ladue have them on plenty of installs or replacements of old signs: here are a few examples (the latter being the oldest illuminated sign in the area AFAIK). Newer suburbs in St Charles County heavily use these signs (as seen here), often in shades other than green and sometimes with a logo thrown in. Some inner-ring suburbs have them as well. Even the city of St Louis has them in important spots, like this (subsequently replaced, and I'm not 100% certain it's illuminated).

I know NV and CA lean heavily on illuminated signs, and that they're less prevalent out east. Do these signs reflect wealth of a municipality or simply aesthetic choice?
How about your area? How common are illuminated signs where you live?

[paulthemapguy]

There's been an older thread on this subject a few years ago: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=19899.0

[Scott5114]

Norman seems to be pretty selective with where they place theirs, seeming to deploy them in areas specifically likely to attract traffic at night. That is, Downtown and the Campus Corner area. Oddly, there is also a batch of them in the University North Park development, which is basically a glorified high-end pack of strip malls, but I guess the West Side wanted to pretend they were interesting, or appear more wealthy, or something.

[Ned Weasel]

I still find it odd that Wichita took down most of theirs (maybe all by now) while other cities were starting to put up more of them.

[Scott5114]

Were Wichita's the old fluorescent type that was so thick they hand to hang under the mastarm? Norman never had those; we only started getting them whenever the new LED ones started coming out (probably because they're a lot cheaper).

[Ned Weasel]

Were Wichita's the old fluorescent type that was so thick they hand to hang under the mastarm? Norman never had those; we only started getting them whenever the new LED ones started coming out (probably because they're a lot cheaper).

I think so.  They did hang under the mast arm.  I think I even saw one hanging from a wire-span (at Woodlawn and Lincoln?).

They looked like this (and yes, even this one is gone now):


I had another photo of one (13th and Woodlawn) somewhere, but it's not on my Flickr.

[Revive 755]

Illuminated street name signs are common in Cook, DuPage, and Lake Counties of Illinois.  Off the top of my head I would go with rare for McHenry County, to very rare for Kane County.  Possibly uncommon for Will, excluding municipalities like Bolingbrook and Joliet.

I don't recall many elsewhere in Illinois.


There's some around Valparaiso, IN, including one mounted on span wires.  I don't recall them too much elsewhere in Indiana - somewhere else will have to confirm or deny that.

[Pink Jazz]

Very common in Arizona, especially in the larger metropolitan areas. Most cities though prefer to side-mount them instead of mounting them under the mast arm.

[EpicRoadways]

In Minnesota as far as I know the only two cities that have ever used them are the adjacent communities of Fridley and Columbia Heights. Fridley has a couple of examples installed over the past few years so it seems like they're still installing them to this day; as for Columbia Heights a quick Google Maps search didn't turn up any new signal installations in the past decade so I guess it's anyone's guess if they're still installing and maintaining those signs.

[STLmapboy]

In Minnesota as far as I know the only two cities that have ever used them are the adjacent communities of Fridley and Columbia Heights. Fridley has a couple of examples installed over the past few years so it seems like they're still installing them to this day; as for Columbia Heights a quick Google Maps search didn't turn up any new signal installations in the past decade so I guess it's anyone's guess if they're still installing and maintaining those signs.

Here's a Columbia Hts example installed between 2011-2013.

[mrsman]

Were Wichita's the old fluorescent type that was so thick they hand to hang under the mastarm? Norman never had those; we only started getting them whenever the new LED ones started coming out (probably because they're a lot cheaper).

I think so.  They did hang under the mast arm.  I think I even saw one hanging from a wire-span (at Woodlawn and Lincoln?).

They looked like this (and yes, even this one is gone now):


I had another photo of one (13th and Woodlawn) somewhere, but it's not on my Flickr.

Signals like this were once very common in parts of L.A. County outside the city of Los Angeles.  Here's one in El Segundo, CA:

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9166265,-118.3907617,3a,75y,178.52h,88.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s65_PFDtfIEJhrlWPymfndg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

They are a little harder to find now, because there was a push to change these to reflective signs as an energy saving measure.  That was done in many cases before LED signs were rolled out. 

I'm not sure if there are any LED signs in So Cal.  If the reflective signs are good enough, there may not be a need for the sign to be illuminated, even with more efficient LED lighting.

[STLmapboy]

Were Wichita's the old fluorescent type that was so thick they hand to hang under the mastarm? Norman never had those; we only started getting them whenever the new LED ones started coming out (probably because they're a lot cheaper).

I think so.  They did hang under the mast arm.  I think I even saw one hanging from a wire-span (at Woodlawn and Lincoln?).

They looked like this (and yes, even this one is gone now):


I had another photo of one (13th and Woodlawn) somewhere, but it's not on my Flickr.

Signals like this were once very common in parts of L.A. County outside the city of Los Angeles.  Here's one in El Segundo, CA:

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9166265,-118.3907617,3a,75y,178.52h,88.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s65_PFDtfIEJhrlWPymfndg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

They are a little harder to find now, because there was a push to change these to reflective signs as an energy saving measure.  That was done in many cases before LED signs were rolled out. 

I'm not sure if there are any LED signs in So Cal.  If the reflective signs are good enough, there may not be a need for the sign to be illuminated, even with more efficient LED lighting.

Oh, they're around.
Dana Point in Orange County erected this in 2014.

[wolfiefrick]

Some inner-ring suburbs have them as well. Even the city of St Louis has them in important spots, like this (subsequently replaced, and I'm not 100% certain it's illuminated).

West County seems to be holding out, but I've seen some recent installations. In Kirkwood, where I'm from, these signs and others up and down Kirkwood Road have very recently (like, only a few months ago) been replaced with much larger illuminated signs.

Some municipalities down Manchester have also begun installing illuminated signs, notably Ballwin, Ellisville and Wildwood. I'm not sure I like them very much; Ellisville seems to be especially terrible at keeping them illuminated because some of them don't glow at night.

[paulthemapguy]

Illuminated street name signs are common in Cook, DuPage, and Lake Counties of Illinois.  Off the top of my head I would go with rare for McHenry County, to very rare for Kane County.  Possibly uncommon for Will, excluding municipalities like Bolingbrook and Joliet.

I don't recall many elsewhere in Illinois.

Backlit street blades are the rule for the Cook County Highway Department.  In Will County, they're all over Bolingbrook, and up and down Weber Road.  Crest Hill is interesting in that they installed some blue ones.

[Pink Jazz]

I'm not sure if there are any LED signs in So Cal.  If the reflective signs are good enough, there may not be a need for the sign to be illuminated, even with more efficient LED lighting.

I've seen LED signs in Anaheim.

[Ned Weasel]

I had another photo of one (13th and Woodlawn) somewhere, but it's not on my Flickr.

From an older thread: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=6458.msg244102#msg244102

[US 89]

The only ones I'm aware of in Utah are all along the route of the TRAX light rail's Green Line in Salt Lake City, along 400 West and North Temple. When that line was constructed in 2013, all the traffic signals along it were replaced with a unique new design that occurs nowhere else in the state. Most notably, it features straight mast arms (most smaller Utah mast arms are curved) and lighted street signs:

[KEK Inc.]

Washington doesn't really use them too much, but Vancouver does have some NU-ART installations (much like the California ones people linked above) as well as these interesting ones for regulatory signs (and the I-5 sign):

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.6313178,-122.6637679,3a,35.3y,137.86h,96.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swuZGdECs08tKqCxh7Rqp2w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192



Seattle also uses them on some older installations (i.e., Ravenna Blvd).

[Ned Weasel]

Washington doesn't really use them too much, but Vancouver does have some NU-ART installations (much like the California ones people linked above) as well as these interesting ones for regulatory signs (and the I-5 sign):

Michigan has a lot of illuminated regulatory signs.  I love those!

[roadman65]

Florida is leaning more towards back lit signs in the past decade.

[STLmapboy]

Some inner-ring suburbs have them as well. Even the city of St Louis has them in important spots, like this (subsequently replaced, and I'm not 100% certain it's illuminated).

West County seems to be holding out, but I've seen some recent installations. In Kirkwood, where I'm from, these signs and others up and down Kirkwood Road have very recently (like, only a few months ago) been replaced with much larger illuminated signs.

Some municipalities down Manchester have also begun installing illuminated signs, notably Ballwin, Ellisville and Wildwood. I'm not sure I like them very much; Ellisville seems to be especially terrible at keeping them illuminated because some of them don't glow at night.

I drove through Ballwin on Manchester last night around 8:15. About half the electric signs weren't on and the sky was fully black.

[wolfiefrick]

I drove through Ballwin on Manchester last night around 8:15. About half the electric signs weren't on and the sky was fully black.

We must've barely missed each other! I came back home from school last night and drove down Manchester on my way home.

But, yes, having the backlights turned off, or allowing the lights to burn out and neglecting to replace them, defeats the purpose of having backlit signs in the first place, especially considering the fact that they use positive contrast typography (black on white) and are not retroreflective. They're the result of horrible design and engineering decisions that make the signs harder to maintain, which they have to do more frequently to replace the backlights every time they burn out, and probably a good deal more expensive to manufacture than standard retroreflective signs.