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

[Big John]

^^ I've seen those for snowmobile trails.

[Scott5114]

I feel like the older sign was better because it was all capitalized. Now they replaced it with the one that has no flashing lights and is in lowercase letters. Not a huge fan of that.

https://goo.gl/maps/FGgdRfK34C9DoV2j8

Mixed-case text has been proven easier to read in visibility tests.

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 83-CA 66 on a uni-sign at Foothill Boulevard and Euclid Avenue.  Oddly both highways have been relinquished from Upland and CA 83 never was actually built north of Foothill:

0 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

[ClassicHasClass]

No, it's just relinquished. CA 83 extended originally to CA 30. Only the CA 30 to CA 210 portion is unconstructed, even though the alignment exists.

[jakeroot]

Chick Fil A created a new interstate in Lynnwood, WA:


Chick Fil A "5 North" sign by Jacob Root, on Flickr

[tolbs17]

Chick Fil A created a new interstate in Lynnwood, WA:


Chick Fil A "5 North" sign by Jacob Root, on Flickr

almost looks like a detour sign.

[zachary_amaryllis]

I feel like the older sign was better because it was all capitalized. Now they replaced it with the one that has no flashing lights and is in lowercase letters. Not a huge fan of that.

https://goo.gl/maps/FGgdRfK34C9DoV2j8

lowercase is always nice.

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/127mEECp57XB88jq5
A leftover US 1 WEST shield in Norwalk, CT.

https://goo.gl/maps/wkCSFYJsudJG4wcj6
Another one that hasn't been changed also in Norwalk.

[tolbs17]

I feel like the older sign was better because it was all capitalized. Now they replaced it with the one that has no flashing lights and is in lowercase letters. Not a huge fan of that.

https://goo.gl/maps/FGgdRfK34C9DoV2j8

lowercase is always nice.

Then they should do the same for STOP signs and other warning signs.

[jlam]

I feel like the older sign was better because it was all capitalized. Now they replaced it with the one that has no flashing lights and is in lowercase letters. Not a huge fan of that.

https://goo.gl/maps/FGgdRfK34C9DoV2j8

lowercase is always nice.

Then they should do the same for STOP signs and other warning signs.

So a passive-aggressive stop sign.

"I would like it if you stop, but you don't have to."

[Big John]

^^ That reminds me of an old urban legend that stop signs with borders are optional.

[tolbs17]

I can say this WEIGH STATION sign is unique for North Carolina. Never IN MY LIFE seen an extruded sign in this state. Unless I think it's a different construction company, but who knows.....

And yes, odd indeed.

https://goo.gl/maps/hWRmKAjVFZXGP6R58

[jakeroot]

I can say this WEIGH STATION sign is unique for North Carolina. Never IN MY LIFE seen an extruded sign in this state. Unless I think it's a different construction company, but who knows.....

And yes, odd indeed.

https://goo.gl/maps/hWRmKAjVFZXGP6R58

That's definitely the kind of sign that really makes you wonder either how it got manufactured. The squared edges are the really standout feature.

Like you, I'm not used to seeing extruded panel signs (WA uses incremental panel signs), but we don't round the edges of our signs, so you have to pay attention to spot anything unusual.

[CoreySamson]

Saw these absurdly undersized LGSs on TX 146 this past week:
Southbound is just small...


but northbound is also a bit more squished...

[LilianaUwU]

An older picture (2017) of a rare Québec stop ahead sign with "STOP" instead of "ARRÊT" on a snowmobile trail in my hometown.



While it is a standard sign in the Tome V, sharing D-10-1 with the "ARRÊT" variant, the stop sign in question was a standard "ARRÊT", and all other stop signs say "ARRÊT" too (with matching stop ahead signs), so this is a strange outlier.

[J N Winkler]

An older picture (2017) of a rare Québec stop ahead sign with "STOP" instead of "ARRÊT" on a snowmobile trail in my hometown.



While it is a standard sign in the Tome V, sharing D-10-1 with the "ARRÊT" variant, the stop sign in question was a standard "ARRÊT", and all other stop signs say "ARRÊT" too (with matching stop ahead signs), so this is a strange outlier.

There is another way in which it is strange:  it uses Series C instead of D (Québec requires the latter for "STOP").

[LilianaUwU]

An older picture (2017) of a rare Québec stop ahead sign with "STOP" instead of "ARRÊT" on a snowmobile trail in my hometown.

(image)

While it is a standard sign in the Tome V, sharing D-10-1 with the "ARRÊT" variant, the stop sign in question was a standard "ARRÊT", and all other stop signs say "ARRÊT" too (with matching stop ahead signs), so this is a strange outlier.

There is another way in which it is strange:  it uses Series C instead of D (Québec requires the latter for "STOP").

(image)

I'm pretty sure Series C was specified before D was.

[noelbotevera]

What is a berm and why do I care if it's soft? This warning sounds like something they'd sell at Build-a-Bear Workshop.

[tolbs17]

What is a berm and why do I care if it's soft? This warning sounds like something they'd sell at Build-a-Bear Workshop.

Exactly what it says. A mound.

[Occidental Tourist]

What is a berm and why do I care if it's soft? This warning sounds like something they'd sell at Build-a-Bear Workshop.

Because if you pull your car off the pavement, you may not be able to get it back on.

[noelbotevera]

What is a berm and why do I care if it's soft? This warning sounds like something they'd sell at Build-a-Bear Workshop.

Because if you pull your car off the pavement, you may not be able to get it back on.

Then why not say "soft shoulder" or "soft ground"? Soft berm tells me nothing and has no significance, especially if I don't know what a berm is.

[Big John]

What is a berm and why do I care if it's soft? This warning sounds like something they'd sell at Build-a-Bear Workshop.

Because if you pull your car off the pavement, you may not be able to get it back on.

Then why not say "soft shoulder" or "soft ground"? Soft berm tells me nothing and has no significance, especially if I don't know what a berm is.

Soft shoulder is the verbiage in MUTCD W8-4.

[Occidental Tourist]

What is a berm and why do I care if it's soft? This warning sounds like something they'd sell at Build-a-Bear Workshop.

Because if you pull your car off the pavement, you may not be able to get it back on.

Then why not say "soft shoulder" or "soft ground"? Soft berm tells me nothing and has no significance, especially if I don't know what a berm is.

No idea.

[jeffandnicole]

What is a berm and why do I care if it's soft? This warning sounds like something they'd sell at Build-a-Bear Workshop.

Because if you pull your car off the pavement, you may not be able to get it back on.

Then why not say "soft shoulder" or "soft ground"? Soft berm tells me nothing and has no significance, especially if I don't know what a berm is.

I guess it depends how far one wants to consider the shoulder off the right travel lane, but in this case, there's definitely a hard shoulder.  For the most part, I would consider any grassy area to be possibly a soft area that one should probably try to avoid.

As for someone knowing the term of something, that's hard to predict.  I mean, there's a lot of people that ignore the "ONLY" portion of a sign, and will do whatever they want to do.

[J N Winkler]

I guess it depends how far one wants to consider the shoulder off the right travel lane, but in this case, there's definitely a hard shoulder.  For the most part, I would consider any grassy area to be possibly a soft area that one should probably try to avoid.

Wikipedia defines a berm as "a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way."  In this case, I think the sign may refer not to the area immediately beyond the paved shoulder (I don't know that American English has a specific term for it, but in Britain it would be called the verge), but rather to the flat-topped mound immediately beyond the shallow drainage swale.  Engineering practice in Ohio (certainly for Ohio DOT, possibly also for the Ohio Turnpike) tends to favor the provision of complex cross-sections to break up long slopes and prevent water acquiring significant velocity as it drains.  For example, the standard median cross-section is basically a "double dish" with a central mound instead of a single shallow ditch.

Most drivers would not seek to stop out of traffic by pulling onto the shoulder, traversing the drainage ditch, and stopping on top of the mound, but I can see a "Soft Berm" warning sign being useful for emergency responders who have to recover a vehicle that has run off the road and need to be advised of unusually boggy ground.

In contradistinction, the standard "Soft Shoulder" sign in the MUTCD (W8-4) is pretty unambiguously about conditions that begin where the paved surface ends.