The Best of Road Signs

[Dr Frankenstein]

I have always been a little bit partial to Connecticut's fully reflectorized button copy signage:

Love those!

[wytout]

I have always been a little bit partial to Connecticut's fully reflectorized button copy signage:

Love those!

I love older signage, but in this case, this stuff isn't too old.  None of the Reflectorized Button Copy is more than 25 years old, so I'm going to get right to the point and bash it.  Button Copy on Retroreflective backgrounds simply DOES NOT WORK. It's fine at first, but within a very short number of years, the buttons degrade significantly in brightness, while the sheeting retains most of it's brightness.  The result is essentially, text that LOOKS brown on top of a green background at night... and basically you can not read the signs period. 

The worst group of these in my area are currently still  in service in Hartford/W. Hartford on 1-84 E and W running between exits 44 and 48.  Almsot every signs buttons are so degraded the sign cannot be read at all at night becuase from a distance it's just a green glowing square/rectangle with brownish looking marks all over it.

I've often commented that if someone who is unfamiliar w/ the area is relying on those signs for for an exit, there's probably going to be a serious accident as that driver is suddenly challenged w/ having to put all his or her efforts into trying to see what the sign says.

[HighwayMaster]

Yeah, I love CT's old US and State shields on button copy.

Kinda looks like Florida's old SR graphics:


(Michael Summa's photo)

[Takumi]

This is on eastbound VA 10, dating back to when I-95 was tolled. It's one of three remaining I know of with the Toll banner covered. The other two are both at VA 144 and are both much less faded. The photo is grainy because it's uncompressed.

[yakra]

How recently were the tolls removed from VA I-95?

[Takumi]

About 20 years ago. The Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike consisted of I-95 from just north of Richmond to Exit 51, and the northernmost few miles of I-85, so not all of I-95 had tolls. This shield is probably about 25, maybe close to 30 years old. I don't know exactly when VDOT started using this style, other than sometime in the 1980s. When the last section of I-95 was completed in Virginia in 1980-81, the shields posted then looked pretty much identical to my avatar, with the state name and all. Almost all of them are gone now. I know of two left, at Exit 33 (secondary route 602): one is on US 301 just before the intersection for 602 and one is at the intersection itself.

[1995hoo]

Yup, it was in the early 1990s, I believe around 1992 after I-295 was completed. When I was in high school (Class of 1991) the tolls were still in place, as we encountered them on school trips down to the Richmond area. I remember that by the summer of 1993 they were gone because I was driving south to Myrtle Beach that May and was surprised not to encounter them. Sharp-eyed observers can still detect wider areas where the toll plazas used to be. One used to be just north of the Belvidere Street interchange in Richmond; a second was just south of the Chippenham Parkway interchange; and I believe the third one was just south of the Temple Avenue exit near Petersburg (I encountered that one far less often than the other two because when I was a kid we didn't normally go that far south). In all three cases if you look at a satellite view you can see how the pavement either still widens out (in the case of the middle toll plaza) or used to widen out (in the case of the Richmond one) where the toll plazas used to be. (The Petersburg one is less obvious because it's sort of in the middle of an interchange.)

[WillWeaverRVA]

There's another such sign on North 7th Street in Richmond, near the eastern I-95/I-64 interchange (it's just west of where VA 353 ends).

[corco]

[Takumi]

Best Clearview sign ever.

[mapman1071]

US93 (I-11) At or North of AZ89 Jct. ?

[corco]

Definitely not I-11, but it's on US-93 North at the railroad track crossing about 500 feet north of SR 89 around MP 193, so yes!

[agentsteel53]

I totally missed that one in October.  then again, I was driving southbound.

[ctsignguy]

Best Clearview sign ever.

Given how bad Clearview looks to me, improvement is hardly avoidable!

[Scott5114]

Clearview doesn't have to look terrible–that's pretty good. The font is not too big, kerning is correct, and the outline shield of course is too cool. If only more states would implement Clearview correctly.

[hbelkins]

Interesting that the numbers in the outline shield are not Clearview. Wonder why?

[corco]

Interesting that the numbers in the outline shield are not Clearview. Wonder why?

Arizona never does numbers in Clearview- in fact, I don't know of any state I've driven in that does normally do numbers in Clearview

[vtk]

Unless Jct is the name of a place or road, it should be written in all caps, preferably smaller than the city names.  Also, "never does numbers in Clearview"?  Those distances are in Clearview.  Perhaps you meant route numbers are never in Clearview.  By the way I've seen Clearview route numbers in Texas and Michigan, though in Michigan it's rarely done.

[national highway 1]

Interesting that the numbers in the outline shield are not Clearview. Wonder why?

Arizona never does numbers in Clearview- in fact, I don't know of any state I've driven in that does normally do numbers in Clearview

Doesn't Michigan have I-96 shields in Clearview?

[hbelkins]

[WillWeaverRVA]

Yeah. Michigan didn't get the memo that Clearview wasn't intended to be used for numerals in shields (as far as I know, anyway).

[corco]

Unless Jct is the name of a place or road, it should be written in all caps, preferably smaller than the city names.  Also, "never does numbers in Clearview"?  Those distances are in Clearview.  Perhaps you meant route numbers are never in Clearview.  By the way I've seen Clearview route numbers in Texas and Michigan, though in Michigan it's rarely done.

Hey, yeah, that's what I meant! I haven't seen any in Texas as far as I know, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

[agentsteel53]

it is non-standard, but shows up in Texas on occasion.  I think I've seen an independent-mount farm route shield as well with Clearview, but cannot confirm it.

[J N Winkler]

Hey, yeah, that's what I meant! I haven't seen any in Texas as far as I know, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

I haven't driven in Texas in (gasp) six years, but from time to time I see Clearview shield digits in TxDOT sign design sheets (11,923 collected to date).  Thankfully, this practice (which I think is fairly denominated as an error) is rare.

[Scott5114]

Yeah. Michigan didn't get the memo that Clearview wasn't intended to be used for numerals in shields (as far as I know, anyway).

The rule is not that Clearview is not to be used in shields, but rather that it is not to be used in negative contrast situations (dark text on light background) because, depending on the study, it is either just as good or worse than FHWA Series fonts in those situations. That rules out most shields, which are negative contrast applications. If states want to they can use Clearview on their Interstate shields to their heart's content, just not any other shield (except for CA and their positive-contrast state route shield). I imagine the reason you don't see it more often is a desire to use the same numbers on all shields or perhaps problems in getting Clearview to fit properly with the dimensions given in shield specifications.