The Best of Road Signs

[agentsteel53]

neato Massachusetts find!  is that glass or Stimsonite reflectors?

[Duke87]

neato Massachusetts find!  is that glass or Stimsonite reflectors?

This is Stimsonite, right?

[agentsteel53]

it is.  in fact, those are Stimsonite deep socket red-back #5, intended to be a direct replacement for cateyes.

[Alps]

So I found this over the weekend:

Mass. 183 NB from CT. Glad they're still alive. www.alpsroads.net/roads/ma/misc/

[luokou]

A couple of I-405 gems in Orange County

Brand-new 21x18(?) shield at the Harbor Blvd. on-ramp. This replaced an ugly-ass bubble/angled shield hybrid, thankfully!


Near the Euclid St. exit. This seems to be a new assembly altogether, but the sign itself is a blast from the past! It may be a shield manufactured during the time the freeway was built, perhaps put in storage and then found again within the last year. There are still a lot of reassurance shields that look like this along the mainline, with all of the crowns faded from years of baking in the sun.

[agentsteel53]

how do you know that that mainline 405 shield is older?  more widely spaced INTERSTATE in the crown?

[luokou]

how do you know that that mainline 405 shield is older?  more widely spaced INTERSTATE in the crown?

That, plus D-modified numerals and the use of older reflective sheeting. Having to drive that stretch of 405 everyday for school for the past couple years, I definitely made a double-take when I saw that assembly when there wasn't one before. Just about 2000 feet prior at the Brookhurst street onramp, you can see a reassurance shield with the exact same specs, just with a faded crown.

[agentsteel53]

That, plus D-modified numerals and the use of older reflective sheeting. Having to drive that stretch of 405 everyday for school for the past couple years, I definitely made a double-take when I saw that assembly when there wasn't one before. Just about 2000 feet prior at the Brookhurst street onramp, you can see a reassurance shield with the exact same specs, just with a faded crown.

got it.  good eye!  I've always wondered what the more widely-spaced INTERSTATE meant.  I thought it was just a batch variation without too much telling of the age.

[1995hoo]

This obviously isn't a sign, but this thread seems like the most appropriate place for it. Passed this hundreds of times but never noticed it until this afternoon–a chromed fire hydrant on Columbia Pike in Arlington, Virginia, in front of the Air Force Memorial. I just found the chromed top to be neat-looking.

[Duke87]

Mass. 183 NB from CT. Glad they're still alive. www.alpsroads.net/roads/ma/misc/

Right route, wrong direction. Those signs are on the southbound side.

Nice to see someone found it before it got tagged.

[myosh_tino]

That, plus D-modified numerals and the use of older reflective sheeting. Having to drive that stretch of 405 everyday for school for the past couple years, I definitely made a double-take when I saw that assembly when there wasn't one before. Just about 2000 feet prior at the Brookhurst street onramp, you can see a reassurance shield with the exact same specs, just with a faded crown.

got it.  good eye!  I've always wondered what the more widely-spaced INTERSTATE meant.  I thought it was just a batch variation without too much telling of the age.

From what I've seen up here in the S.F. Bay Area, the older 3-digit interstate shields have the normally spaced INTERSTATE while the newer shields have the wide-spaced INTERSTATE.  By newer I mean shields produced since the mid-80's.

[luokou]

From what I've seen up here in the S.F. Bay Area, the older 3-digit interstate shields have the normally spaced INTERSTATE while the newer shields have the wide-spaced INTERSTATE.  By newer I mean shields produced since the mid-80's.

That is true... some 405 shields in Long Beach have the spaced out INTERSTATE yet were manufactured and installed in the early 2000s. I would think some of the main age indicators is with the type of reflective sheeting used and whether or not the digits have modified thickness.

[vtk]

Ohio's SDM specifies INTERSTATE in series D on 2-digit shields, vs series E on 3-digit shields.  Both specify per-letter width and per-gap inter-letter spacing, with the 3-digit version having about 50% more space between each letter compared to the 2-digit version; I suspect that's more than would naturally result from simply using the font's built-in spacing and changing from series D to series E.

On the other hand, all the shields I see on Wikipedia appear to have series D with the same spacing regardless of whether it's a 2- or 3-digit route.  I suspect many sign fabricators take the same shortcut.

[Sanctimoniously]

[architect77]

This may not qualify as a "best", but I've always thought this was an unusual "truck route" sign on I-85/I-40 in Burlington, NC. The white on green background theme has been kept over the years even as the signs were replaced:

[Alps]

Mass. 183 NB from CT. Glad they're still alive. www.alpsroads.net/roads/ma/misc/

Right route, wrong direction. Those signs are on the southbound side.

Nice to see someone found it before it got tagged.

Aha, I must have U-turned when I saw them. Thanks.

[Scott5114]

Ohio's SDM specifies INTERSTATE in series D on 2-digit shields, vs series E on 3-digit shields. [...] On the other hand, all the shields I see on Wikipedia appear to have series D with the same spacing regardless of whether it's a 2- or 3-digit route.  I suspect many sign fabricators take the same shortcut.

That specification is mirrored in the federal spec, going at least as far back as 2004. The Wikipedia shields originally followed the spec on that, but someone went through and redid everything to use series C at some point.

Interestingly enough, back in 2007 or so, all of the state-named shields on Wikipedia were 1957 spec! This is because the guy who drew them followed the metric version of the 2004 SHS book, figuring it would be easier... and apparently if you follow the metric specs, you get a '57 spec shield. Later, when the discrepancy was noticed (but before we knew that it was a copy of the '57 spec), some of those were moved to titles like "I-380 Illinois (Metric).svg".

[hbelkins]

Still standing as of two weeks ago in the Cincinnati suburb of Mariemont.


IMG_2835 by hbelkins, on Flickr

[kphoger]

The bottom sign means, I assume, only one bicycle is allowed up ahead.

[architect77]

North Carolina is making much use of painted shields on the roadway. This is I-85 North approaching Greensboro:

[kphoger]

   It's neutered!  Definitely not a candidate for Best of...

[agentsteel53]

The bottom sign means, I assume, only one bicycle is allowed up ahead.

the bike sign is new, as of Feb 2010 when I visited the cutout pair.  (there's one that is, I believe, visible if you stand at that 50 sign and look directly behind you.)

[Scott5114]

Sadly, not in the wild...but still a completely unexpected find! It's on the wall at the Service Station restaurant on Webster Avenue in Norman.

[vtk]

"The" ?

[formulanone]

The shield gallery shows that "The OK state -- highway" was standard issue.