The Best of Road Signs

[Alps]

This sign is neither old nor falling apart or otherwise absurd, but this thread still seemed like the best place for it. I've passed it many times, but earlier today was the first time I got a good chance to stop the car (since there is no shoulder) to take a picture. Driving the convertible with the top down helps make that easier, of course! This sign is on the George Washington Parkway just south of the Alexandria Avenue overpass (visible in the distance) and it was posted a few years ago after a bus collided with the overpass in the right lane. The clearance in the right lane is just over 10 feet.

I love the graphic on this sign.

From my website:
"One of my top 5 unique signs is this one. Caution, bridge monsters may reach down and eat your truck. Do Not Enter Fireplace. Keep both wheels on the ground to avoid collisions."

[6a]

No, that's not it at all. I'm talking about places that are hardly even recognizable as hiking trails. Places that you can't be 100% sure are even paper roads or even driveways.

Why yes, yes I have

[yakra]

http://maps.google.com/?cbp=11,266.39,,2,0.95&cbll=44.680409,-63.576124&layer=c&ie=UTF8&ll=44.680402,-63.576121&spn=0.003799,0.016544&z=16&panoid=q2cFSKUxQGI8tbss8ElRLA

[Quillz]

Not sure how many outline 101 shields are left, I can't imagine too many. This pic is from 2001, and a year later, it was replaced with this:



Which I think looks fine. Uses modern reflective signage and the most recent Caltrans shield specs, while conveying the same information and layout as before.

[agentsteel53]

Not sure how many outline 101 shields are left, I can't imagine too many.

one overhead porcelain sign from 1960:



and then there are several out there that are much newer than the outline-shield standard, but are put up by city governments, and occasionally even Caltrans, like this overhead retroreflective sign which is a City of San Jose job, from 1966 or so:



or like this Caltrans piece in Thousand Oaks (there's a counterpart on the other side of the overpass)



and here is a random one which is, I believe, an Atascadero job:



plus there's this wonky construction stuff that turns up every so often:



that intersection in Ojai had a side-of-the-road outline shield, C-63 date, until about 2007.  it was at the end of 33.



interestingly, I know of no outline shields for any route number but 101 ... except for a single 395 street blade about a mile from its southern terminus, of which I really need to get some pictures for the shield gallery.  but, no 50, 95, 6, 97, and certainly no 199.  (there are scraped off or greened out examples of 99, 60, 70, 66, etc if you know where to look)

[Quillz]

I really like this one for some reason:



I think it's the button copy numerals, they just look really well proportioned within the shields.

[Scott5114]

Ah yes, back in the days when Oklahoma knew what they were doing with signs....

[Ian]

Wheeling, WV and the surrounding area...

[agentsteel53]

not a field shot - but just a really cool and unique design from Texas, circa 1946.



I owned this one for a few days recently, before selling it to a friend of mine.  Texas used the "crown border only" style from 1935-1948 or so, but only after 1946 did they switch to their custom round fonts.  The older shields were block fonts.  this 83 is the only known example of that style.  it's a good-looking sign.

[Quillz]

More from Oklahoma:



Now I know where Rice Signs got that sign from.

Another classic button copy shield:

[myosh_tino]

and then there are several out there that are much newer than the outline-shield standard, but are put up by city governments, and occasionally even Caltrans, like this overhead retroreflective sign which is a City of San Jose job, from 1966 or so:

Is that the photo I sent to you awhile back or is it a more recent photo?  If it's a more recent photo, then I'm afraid that sign may be replaced soon because the legend and shield are becoming badly faded.

Not to nitpick but that sign is located in the city of Santa Clara, not San Jose.

[agentsteel53]

Is that the photo I sent to you awhile back or is it a more recent photo?  If it's a more recent photo, then I'm afraid that sign may be replaced soon because the legend and shield are becoming badly faded.

Not to nitpick but that sign is located in the city of Santa Clara, not San Jose.

I took the photo about 3 weekends ago.

Fixed quote. - rmf67

[agentsteel53]

More from Oklahoma:



Now I know where Rice Signs got that sign from.

no no no no NO!  that needs to go under "the worst of highway signs".  they were assembled using Oklahoma surplus parts, but were never an official Oklahoma issue.  The state never, ever put "US" above the number.  They've been sold as genuine 66es for too many years now, with a lot of people getting burned.

[US71]

Another classic button copy shield:

Long gone, though. I went back last year and it's been replaced.

[myosh_tino]

Is that the photo I sent to you awhile back or is it a more recent photo?  If it's a more recent photo, then I'm afraid that sign may be replaced soon because the legend and shield are becoming badly faded.

Not to nitpick but that sign is located in the city of Santa Clara, not San Jose.

I took the photo about 3 weekends ago.

Yeah, I suspected that the photo you posted is a fairly recent one.  I drive that road once a week going to the Santa Clara Costco and have watched it fade further and further into oblivion... 

[Quillz]

More from Oklahoma:



Now I know where Rice Signs got that sign from.

no no no no NO!  that needs to go under "the worst of highway signs".  they were assembled using Oklahoma surplus parts, but were never an official Oklahoma issue.  The state never, ever put "US" above the number.  They've been sold as genuine 66es for too many years now, with a lot of people getting burned.

I get it's not official, but I still like it. I think the "U. S." text works very well above the numbers. They look very similar to California's US route shields, but a bit more squared-off.

[thenetwork]

Not sure how many outline 101 shields are left, I can't imagine too many. This pic is from 2001, and a year later, it was replaced with this:



Which I think looks fine. Uses modern reflective signage and the most recent Caltrans shield specs, while conveying the same information and layout as before.

I hate the newer US 101 overhead since there is more spacing between the letters in San Francisco.  It's like they decided to stretch out the name because they had the space.  That is not a good reason to do that.

[Quillz]

They likely did it because the speed limit on that stretch of the 101 might have increased since the original sign was put up, and thus the wider spacing makes the text more legible from a distance.

[US71]

Here's a genuine OK Button 66 (to the best of my knowledge)

[Michael]

No, that's not it at all. I'm talking about places that are hardly even recognizable as hiking trails. Places that you can't be 100% sure are even paper roads or even driveways.

Why yes, yes I have

Now I get it.  County House Road just north of Auburn, NY used to go straight here, but the intersection was moved about 500 feet to the north.  This happened before I was born.

[formulanone]

Button copy? Three different fonts? So-green-it's-almost-black exit tab? Check, check, and check...so bad, it's good. (Southbound I-95 between SR 68 and SR 70 in Florida.)



These Crosstown Expressway signs were always my favorites...it has a pirate and a skull-and-crossbones on it for good measure. Was just in Tampa last week, and finally nabbed a few shots of some oldies...they're on their way out to be replaced with Selmon Expressway signs (and some Toll SR 618 signs as well); in all, there are four different signs used to denote location of the route.

[agentsteel53]

Button copy? Three different fonts? So-green-it's-almost-black exit tab? Check, check, and check...so bad, it's good.

the lowercase letters on the main sign are Series C, stretched to D width. 

too bad it's not Florida's custom C-equivalent lowercase alphabet, of which plenty of examples survive.

The federal standards for lowercase alphabets were not codified until around 2002 (except for Series EM, which the feds took straight from California in 1957).  So states made up their own lowercase alphabets, each generally converging on the same basic idea (a re-working of EM into the other widths).

too bad I don't have an example offhand - but many county roads feature pre-1977 signs with the old custom font - even white signs with black legend, which Florida switched away from in 1972.

[Ian]

A few more from the northern panhandle of West Virginia...

[nyratk1]

I dunno, couldn't they spare an H for the Steubenville sign? 

[agentsteel53]

I dunno, couldn't they spare an H for the Steubenville sign? 

the sign is, amazingly enough, old enough to date to "O." being the standard abbreviation for Ohio.

okay, maybe not quite - zip codes and standard postal abbreviations came about in 1966, and the shield certainly looks like it is newer than 1970, but it may be sufficiently old that the new abbreviation standard wasn't much in use yet.