Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere, but when did single route sign (uni-sign?) displays, as opposed to using several individual signs, become the standard? It's been a few years since I've been to Wisconsin, and I don't remember seeing any then. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, IDK.
But anyway, I kinda like them, even though they're probably somewhat a pain in the ass since most of them have to be fabricated individually. Thoughts?
I've seen them since the 1990s, when I was going through Wisconsin to college at Tech.
I'd say well over 30 years. There's some Michael Summa photos dating to his travels in Wisconsin in 1986, and the signs from then could have been from at least the late 70's/early 80's. However, it can't be over 50 years old, as there was a photo of the old style of County routes, and that's not a uni-sign. So I'd place them between late 60's to early 80's.
I wouldn't say 30 years. There may have been some one-offs back then, but really it's only been in the past 15 years or so that they've became standard - (the standard I'm talking about is a single sheet design affixed to a board). However before that I did occasionally see individual plates mounted on a single backboard.
I remember noticing the switch-over slowly happening in my teen years, so I'd say 1980s.
I first remember seeing them along the duplexes of the fairly new US-51 (now I-39) freeway between Portage and Stevens Point. (It's duplex with WI-23 for instance.) That would have been in the late 1980s.
Quote from: invincor on November 03, 2016, 11:53:30 AM
I remember noticing the switch-over slowly happening in my teen years, so I'd say 1980s.
I would say that's accurate. I remember them In Milwaukee when I-43 was extended down to Beloit with the duplex with I-894 and I-94.
Really? I must not have been paying attention! :-D
I know in Green Lake County by WisDOT, they started using the unisigns at Wis 23 and 73 in Princeton as early as 1987 or so. They did it to coincide with the previous rehab of Main St some 25 years ago.
I seem to remember seeing a few unisigns in Wisconsin when I drove up to Road America from Chicago in the summer of '89