New (short-lived) Idaho Highway Shield

[SpudMuffin]

So, I'm new to the forums. And I thought this might be interesting - a new style of Idaho highway shield was temporarily among us.

I commute on Eagle Road (SH 55) on a pretty regular basis, and I pay attention to things like these signs. Recently the Idaho Transportation Department finished putting a cement median in the middle of the highway between I-84 and US 20-26, and once it was all said and done, I noticed these new all-black signs scattered around:


As opposed to the traditional black and white:


But I also saw these all-white signs scattered around before the median project:


As of a couple of days ago I noticed that the all-black and all-white signs have been replaced with the regular black and white ones normally found on state highways. If you're curious, the font used on the all-black for the word "Idaho" is similar to the font used on the all-white sign (my cell phone camera isn't the best).

Your vote? Yea or nay on the all-black? The all-white?

[amroad17]

The all-black looks great with the contrast to the cardinal direction, however, could this be seen at night very easily?

Boise seems to be a fairly busy city.  Were these photos taken during evening rush hour?

[corco]

Heh, interesting. And then on the other side of the state where the recently completed Sandpoint Bypass is, we've got inverted shields that recently popped up.

Boise seems to be a fairly busy city.  Were these photos taken during evening rush hour?

My sister lives just off Eagle Rd- it's a disaster most times of day. Making a left turn off her street is stupidly dangerous. I remember just 15 years or so ago it was a two lane farm road, but now it's Boise's main bedroom arterial (Boise has grown very quickly in the last 15 years, with a huge chunk of it out there)- it's kind of an underplanned, sprawly type of road. Rumor has it they're going to at least prohibit left turns soon to help things out and kind of convert it to an expressway-lite, but I've been hearing that since 07.

[J N Winkler]

I don't think anything on urban SH 55 can be taken as indicative of a new shield design--it is fairly close to ITD headquarters, true, but I suspect the relevant factor is local control.  I travelled on it in 2000 and photographed a monumentally off-spec shield with a complete border around a tiny state outline.

As for traffic in Boise:  lots of new subdivisions, no talk of opening new freeway corridors to allow geographic depth of traffic distribution.  Instead all the talk is of ten-laning I-84.  Boise is well on its way to becoming the northern Tucson.  Oy vey!

[agentsteel53]

now that I saw a photo of an outline Idaho shield which is black background, white foreground, I have seen all eight possible variants of {"outline or solid state shape" x "positive or negative contrast" x "brown or black"}

the original Idaho shield is an outline state, white background and black text.  this dates to the embossed era. the 1961 MUTCD specified that shields should be solid, and have a black background, which is - I believe - when the standard black/white shield was introduced.  however, the older style remained the standard for guide signs, and they have seen independent-mount applications quite often.

now throw in the colored scenic route shields, and the tendency for Idaho DOT to invert the scheme sometimes, as seen on corco's 200, and a 41 which I know of in Coeur d'Alene, and you get eight possibilities, all of which now have been photographed to exist.

outline - white background, black number: standard overhead guide sign, occasional independent mount
outline - black background, white number: see ID-55 here, the last variety to be found
outline - brown background, white number: seen on side road to I-90 in 2009
outline - white background, brown number: seen on guide sign on I-90 in 2009
solid - white background, black number: 200 and 41 as mentioned
solid - black background, white number: standard shield for independent mount
solid - brown background, white number: standard scenic route shield
solid - white background, brown number: seen on guide sign on I-90 in 2009

I've also seen a white outline shield on a green background but we're not gonna talk about that...

[SpudMuffin]

The all-black looks great with the contrast to the cardinal direction, however, could this be seen at night very easily?

Boise seems to be a fairly busy city.  Were these photos taken during evening rush hour?

I never drove by it at night to see before they took it down. Maybe that's why they got rid of the black ones. And those two bottom photos weren't taken by me, so I can't take credit, but yes Eagle Road is a very busy highway, for most of the day.

Rumor has it they're going to at least prohibit left turns soon to help things out and kind of convert it to an expressway-lite, but I've been hearing that since 07.

ITD just wrapped up the first part of your rumor - a massive construction project where they installed a raised median which prohibits left turns onto Eagle Road, except at signals. It runs from I-84 to just north of Chinden / US 20-26. So now it's all full of people taking U-turns against 55 MPH traffic, which can be sketchy sometimes. But the new asphalt is super nice and smooth, so I'm content 

[SpudMuffin]

As for traffic in Boise:  lots of new subdivisions, no talk of opening new freeway corridors to allow geographic depth of traffic distribution.  Instead all the talk is of ten-laning I-84.  Boise is well on its way to becoming the northern Tucson.  Oy vey!

This is the closest the Ada County highway district has come - basically saying that Kuna Mora Road should be preserved as an expressway and alternate route for I-84. But due to budget constraints it's on hold... http://www.achdidaho.org/Projects/PublicProject.aspx?ProjectID=127

But I agree - there needs to be more freeway corridors here. Traffic is getting more and more ridiculous every day.

[agentsteel53]

This is the closest the Ada County highway district has come - basically saying that Kuna Mora Road should be preserved as an expressway and alternate route for I-84. But due to budget constraints it's on hold... http://www.achdidaho.org/Projects/PublicProject.aspx?ProjectID=127

how is it a budgetary problem to preserve a road in its current state of limited access?  wouldn't it be more expensive to build driveways and abutments and whatnot?

[NE2]

how is it a budgetary problem to preserve a road in its current state of limited access?  wouldn't it be more expensive to build driveways and abutments and whatnot?

You have to buy access rights from landowners. Because freedom or something.

[Bickendan]

I don't think anything on urban SH 55 can be taken as indicative of a new shield design--it is fairly close to ITD headquarters, true, but I suspect the relevant factor is local control.  I travelled on it in 2000 and photographed a monumentally off-spec shield with a complete border around a tiny state outline.

As for traffic in Boise:  lots of new subdivisions, no talk of opening new freeway corridors to allow geographic depth of traffic distribution.  Instead all the talk is of ten-laning I-84.  Boise is well on its way to becoming the northern Tucson.  Oy vey!

I remember a family trip out to Utah to drop my sister off at BYU back in 2004, and we cleared Ontario just in time for Boise's morning rush hour.

And Portlander's complain about bad traffic.

(Ten lane I-84? It's really grown up since its baby I-80N days!)

[SpudMuffin]

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2104/img20121216145606.jpg

Here is a copy of the original, uncropped picture to get a better look if you download it or zoom in on the sign. Personally I kinda like the all-black look.

[corco]

That's at the office park all the way up by State Street, right? So not where they did the median raising?

[SpudMuffin]

That's at the office park all the way up by State Street, right? So not where they did the median raising?

Correct, but they actually did put a short raised median between the light at State Street and Riverside Drive (the signal in the picture), while keeping the left-in access at the Chevron station in the middle - I think that's Inlet Bay Drive or something. Between Riverside Drive and just north of 20-26, there is no median raising because the city of Eagle didn't want it there.

[corco]

Interesting- my sister lives between Riverside and Chinden closer to Chinden so I'll have to see if she got a median- I know she's wanted one.

[Molandfreak]

I like the all black one, but it would look a lot better if it had a black north sign to go with it...

[doorknob60]

Huh, I wes there about 5 weeks ago, must have been before they put them up (or you probably would have uploaded this sooner). I do kinda like the look of the black (and the white) sheilds though, although there nothing wrong with the standard ones. And yes, they need to do something about Eagle Rd. Meridian and Boise have grown way too fast for that road to handle, it's always busy. I-84 isn't all that bad. I've been on I-84 during rush hour a few times, and it's only slow between I-184 and Eagle, and not that terrible (adds maybe 5 minutes to Nampa? no more than 10). Not as bad as Eagle, anyways.

[SpudMuffin]

Well I actually took this picture a couple of months ago, but I got a new cell phone so I didn't find this picture till just recently on my SD card. But I'm excited for the highway 16 extension, which will hopefully ease up some traffic on Eagle Road.

Those all black signs aren't there anymore, and I trust your account that they were removed 5 weeks ago - that sounds about right, when I noticed they were gone.

[Quillz]

I've often wondered why we don't see all-black signs too often. The only time I see them in California is for very old guide signs, or chain installation points. I suppose it's a matter of both contrast (black is hard to see at night) and the fact that the darker the color, the quicker it tends to fade. I guess an all-black sign would have to be replaced more often than an all-white sign and thus it's not worth the extra cost.

Shame, because that all-black Idaho shield does look pretty nice. Should have had an inverted white-on-black cardinal direction banner, though.