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

[Scott5114]

I mean, precision isn't really of any concern there. The point is "put a big scary number on the sign to make people look at their gas gauge before they leave town".

I doubt there's anyone in the world that would stop for gas if the next services were 116 miles but wouldn't stop for gas if it were 103 miles. Or 100.

[kirbykart]

^I was just thinking of that sign on the Thruway that tells the distance to the next service area in different directions. But thinking about it, yes, precision doesn't make a difference here.

[kphoger]

I like the abbreviation that NYSDOT uses for Niagara as seen in this GSV image.
https://goo.gl/maps/patygRNupbXGF5K5A 

Why not just add the two extra letters by using smaller fonts.

Not sure about anyone else, but I don't see any abbreviations in that GSV image. Can you double check the link? I see "Niagara" on the street name sign, but it's fully spelled out.

Same here. Not sure what you're referring to, roadman.

Sorry wrong link.

Try this.
https://goo.gl/maps/nEL2mBEpQf63LSs86

Niagar Falls?

[kphoger]

I mean, precision isn't really of any concern there. The point is "put a big scary number on the sign to make people look at their gas gauge before they leave town".

I doubt there's anyone in the world that would stop for gas if the next services were 116 miles but wouldn't stop for gas if it were 103 miles. Or 100.

I probably would, all else being the same.  I generally know how many miles I can get on a tank of gas, and DTE displays on the instrument panel make that even easier.  I'm perfectly happy to schedule my fill-up for a place where the light will have already come on.

[Scott5114]

Eh, you do you, but having that much faith in the instrument panel when a miscalculation results in you breaking down in the Nevada desert is...ballsy, to me.

[Amaury]

Unique reassurance shields with a black background and white text in Monitor, Washington: https://goo.gl/maps/MVwR2Pwk3p5Jc8p68

For comparison to the normal ones: https://goo.gl/maps/XcdgGcSe6xM8UFkT9

[jakeroot]

Unique reassurance shields with a black background and white text in Monitor, Washington: https://goo.gl/maps/MVwR2Pwk3p5Jc8p68

For comparison to the normal ones: https://goo.gl/maps/XcdgGcSe6xM8UFkT9

By itself I would have assumed it was a junction sign. Which are also very rare, but at least the colors are correct.

[US 89]

Eh, you do you, but having that much faith in the instrument panel when a miscalculation results in you breaking down in the Nevada desert is...ballsy, to me.

Yeah, I would never do that. When I was a kid, my dad's car had a faulty gas needle. I think he knew something was up with it based on the mileage, but he definitely didn't realize how bad it was until he ran out of gas on I-15 in Salt Lake City and my mom and I had to drive a gas can out to him. That was in a major metropolitan area with plenty of services nearby. It easily could have happened out in the deserts where there is no cell service and no towns for many tens of miles, which would have been a very different situation.

[Scott5114]

Also, there's no really guarantee other than NDOT's say so that the gas station at the end of that 113-mile stretch will be open when you get there. (Maybe it closes on Sundays. Maybe the owner couldn't get anyone to work that day. Maybe it went out of business, etc.)

[kphoger]

meh.

As I said, I have a good idea how many miles I get on a tank of gas.  I regularly drive ten miles or more after the DTE display on the dashboard stops counting down and just goes to 'LOW FUEL LEVEL' instead.  I've never run out of gas on the road.  I have been stranded on the side of the road in 100°F heat with no cell phone coverage before, but not because I'd run out of gas.

And I plan my gas stops ahead of time, so I already have a good idea starting out if the station is likely to close unexpectedly or not.  So I'd already know that there are multiple gas stations in Bishop (or Hawthorne) and that, if one of them closed unexpectedly, I'd be extremely unlikely to find the others closed as well.  And I generally don't plan my fill-ups in towns with only one gas station, for precisely that reason.  So yeah, if I figured I had 120 miles left in the tank, and the sign said 116 miles to town, then I'm sure I'd stop early and fill up, just to be safe–but if it said 103 miles to town, then I doubt I would.

For the last fifteen years or whatever, I've kept track of mileage with every fill-up.  I record how many miles I got on that tank of gas, and I calculate the miles per gallon.  I pay attention to fluctuations in the mileage, and I try to figure out if it was due to weather conditions, a different proportion of city/highway driving, more lead-footed driving, low tire pressure, etc.

[US 89]

meh.

As I said, I have a good idea how many miles I get on a tank of gas.  I regularly drive ten miles or more after the DTE display on the dashboard stops counting down and just goes to 'LOW FUEL LEVEL' instead.  I've never run out of gas on the road.  I have been stranded on the side of the road in 100°F heat with no cell phone coverage before, but not because I'd run out of gas.

And I plan my gas stops ahead of time, so I already have a good idea starting out if the station is likely to close unexpectedly or not.  So I'd already know that there are multiple gas stations in Bishop (or Hawthorne) and that, if one of them closed unexpectedly, I'd be extremely unlikely to find the others closed as well.  And I generally don't plan my fill-ups in towns with only one gas station, for precisely that reason.  So yeah, if I figured I had 120 miles left in the tank, and the sign said 116 miles to town, then I'm sure I'd stop early and fill up, just to be safe—but if it said 103 miles to town, then I doubt I would.

But what if about 70 miles out, there's been a huge storm or something and the road is washed out or otherwise closed for some reason? Now you can't make it back to where you started and you're stuck sleeping in your car surviving on whatever snacks are in it.

My margin of error would be more like 50-100 miles on that calculation. I find there's a huge amount of variation in the DTE display in my car compared to the mileage I actually drive, which depends on mountains, wind...

[kphoger]

But what if about 70 miles out, there's been a huge storm or something and the road is washed out or otherwise closed for some reason? Now you can't make it back to where you started and you're stuck sleeping in your car surviving on whatever snacks are in it.

The chance of that being the case (and our being unaware of it) is so exceedingly slim that it doesn't factor into my decision-making.  And, in all honesty, if that really did happen, I'd probably turn around and drive as far as I could, then hitchhike the rest of the way to get a gas can and find someone to drive me back out to our car (perhaps for a small fee).  But I'm 41 years old and never had anything like that happen yet.  As I said, I've been stranded before when I ran the radiator dry, and it's not like we didn't survive.

My margin of error would be more like 50-100 miles on that calculation. I find there's a huge amount of variation in the DTE display in my car compared to the mileage I actually drive, which depends on mountains, wind...

Yep, terrain and weather affect mileage a lot.

[JoePCool14]

I don't live out west, but even around here, I tend to be very conservative when I fill up. I like to fill up around half full/half empty, just for peace of mind. When I was at college, my motto was to have enough gas to be able to immediately drive home without stopping if there was an emergency (around half a tank). If I see a really good price, I won't be afraid to stop even if I only need a quarter tank.

If I saw that the next station was 100 miles away, I'd be filling up.

[flaminhotfrank]

This is my 100th post!

Hate to break it to you, but nobody cares.

You cared enough to tell me that.

He doesn't care about your post count; he cares about this forum not being full of talk about post counts.

Best not to dwell on a number that an admin with a mischievous streak can change to whatever they want...

Yall are just talkin about it more, therefore making more posts about it.

[kphoger]

I should point out that terrain and weather matter less in some vehicles than others.  When I used to drive an Isuzu cab-over turbodiesel box truck for work, I could count on exactly 300 miles per tank–no matter how full of cargo it was, no matter what speed I drove, no matter what the wind was doing, no matter if my route was mostly local or mostly rural, it always needed a fill-up right at the 300-mile mark.  Back when I had a Nissan Pathfinder, the factors that mattered most were air temperature and max revs while accelerating–while things like top speed and wind speeds only started to make a significant difference at speeds above 70 mph.

[roadfro]

This is my 100th post!

Hate to break it to you, but nobody cares.

You cared enough to tell me that.

He doesn't care about your post count; he cares about this forum not being full of talk about post counts.

Best not to dwell on a number that an admin with a mischievous streak can change to whatever they want...

Yall are just talkin about it more, therefore making more posts about it.

Says the guy who's commenting on a post from nearly four months ago when everyone else has moved on...

[Scott5114]

But what if about 70 miles out, there's been a huge storm or something and the road is washed out or otherwise closed for some reason? Now you can't make it back to where you started and you're stuck sleeping in your car surviving on whatever snacks are in it.

The chance of that being the case (and our being unaware of it) is so exceedingly slim that it doesn't factor into my decision-making.  And, in all honesty, if that really did happen, I'd probably turn around and drive as far as I could, then hitchhike the rest of the way to get a gas can and find someone to drive me back out to our car (perhaps for a small fee).  But I'm 41 years old and never had anything like that happen yet.  As I said, I've been stranded before when I ran the radiator dry, and it's not like we didn't survive.

Given that it's Nevada, I wouldn't necessarily count on the existence of anyone else driving by to hitchhike with. (Especially if the road is impassible–if it turns out you're the only guy in the county who doesn't know about that, who else would be on the road toward the blockage?)

[thenetwork]

You may have a vehicle that calculates distance until empty, but watch how often that DTE adjusts if you are driving into a strong headwind.  I've had times where a 100 mile cushion quickly became a 60 mile cushion.

Now I wasn't in a service desert, but I had to gas up quicker than I expected.

[PurdueBill]

You may have a vehicle that calculates distance until empty, but watch how often that DTE adjusts if you are driving into a strong headwind.  I've had times where a 100 mile cushion quickly became a 60 mile cushion.

Now I wasn't in a service desert, but I had to gas up quicker than I expected.

I noticed this exact thing driving from Ohio to Indiana on Friday against the strong winds and then back on early Sunday morning with winds at my back generally...the MPG was noticeably worse westbound (which normally is not that noticeable, but the strong winds made a difference this time).

[IowaTraveler]

The part about this sign that's interesting/unusual isn't the primary sign, but rather the supplementary distance sign below it. I don't know what the practice for this is in other states, but this is by far the most advanced warning I've seen for a 'pavement ends' sign in Iowa. Typically when a paved county road ends at gravel, the only warning you get is 500 feet in advance. Sometimes there's also a sign at 1500 feet if the county is feeling generous.

[thenetwork]

You may have a vehicle that calculates distance until empty, but watch how often that DTE adjusts if you are driving into a strong headwind.  I've had times where a 100 mile cushion quickly became a 60 mile cushion.

Now I wasn't in a service desert, but I had to gas up quicker than I expected.

I noticed this exact thing driving from Ohio to Indiana on Friday against the strong winds and then back on early Sunday morning with winds at my back generally...the MPG was noticeably worse westbound (which normally is not that noticeable, but the strong winds made a difference this time).

In my collegiate days, I had an 83 Nissan Sentra.  One time I filled up on I-80 near Joliet and by the time I made it to Toledo, I only used less than a ½-tank of gas, thanks to a strong tail wind. 

I'm sure if my Sentra had a DTE computer (my car's speedometer only went to 85MPH), the DTE reading at the time of fill-up would have way underestimated how far I could've gone on that tankful!

[kphoger]

You may have a vehicle that calculates distance until empty, but watch how often that DTE adjusts if you are driving into a strong headwind.  I've had times where a 100 mile cushion quickly became a 60 mile cushion.

I remember driving north from Marathon to Fort Stockton (TX) once, with bicycles on the roof of our 1997 Camry, and the headwind was so stiff that we drove in 4th gear for a lot of it.  Fortunately, we had filled up in Marathon.

[roadman65]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54480415@N08/52444478111/in/dateposted-public/
Considering that one use of the name could be controversial, I find it interesting the name here with Road 99W suggesting in a peculiar way that the two are connected.


https://goo.gl/maps/zXAs6QG3Rc7HD7x19
The fact no directional banners are used, but destinations instead.

[M3100]

Here's one from near Brawley in Imperial County, CA. 
This is on a 65-mph grade separated highway; the intersections were more like freeway on- and offramps, so I'm not sure what this is referring to

[J N Winkler]

Spotted on I-80 in Nebraska around MP 328 near Aurora--"Watch For Wind On Bridges Next 1 Mile":

Westbound

Eastbound

However, the actual phrase I remember for the eastbound sign from earlier today is "Watch for Ice and Wind."

The bridges in question include a double crossing of Beaver Creek (a minor drainage) as well as underpasses for the BNSF railroad and a county road.  All are on a low eminence.  There is a windsock and a mast that I suspect holds the traffic camera NDOT labels "Aurora Anti-Icing."