The Best of Road Signs

[Brian556]

EDIT: Went back there today. Guess what's still there:

Did you notice the round wood stop sign at this location?

[blawp]

Drove past this one today, but snagged the photo from aaroads. Looks like the pavement was redone in the area recently, and many signs have been replaced, but this one still stands. I love it.

[Sanctimoniously]

EDIT: Went back there today. Guess what's still there:

Did you notice the round wood stop sign at this location?

This one?

[empirestate]

I took a picture of this sign myself, but it's easier if I just link to this one at Dale's US Ends site:


I think it's great; it's part road sign and part Southwestern interpretive roadside art like you find so often in Arizona. It evokes for me some kind of stylized crested desert chicken, gazing off over the horizon toward Kingman.

[Duke87]

A decidedly nonstandard pedestrian crossing sign, courtesy of NYCDOT:

[Brian556]

 

This one?

The one on the right.
The million dollar question is: Where the heck did it come from?

[vtk]

I took a picture of this sign myself, but it's easier if I just link to this one at Dale's US Ends site:
[Desert chicken roundabout diagrammatic]

I think it's great; it's part road sign and part Southwestern interpretive roadside art like you find so often in Arizona. It evokes for me some kind of stylized crested desert chicken, gazing off over the horizon toward Kingman.

That's already been featured and discussed at great length, possibly in the Worst thread. It's not without its problems.

[agentsteel53]

[business and fwy 101]

Drove past this one today, but snagged the photo from aaroads. Looks like the pavement was redone in the area recently, and many signs have been replaced, but this one still stands. I love it.

I believe the only other surviving one is Eureka.

[empirestate]

I took a picture of this sign myself, but it's easier if I just link to this one at Dale's US Ends site:
[Desert chicken roundabout diagrammatic]

I think it's great; it's part road sign and part Southwestern interpretive roadside art like you find so often in Arizona. It evokes for me some kind of stylized crested desert chicken, gazing off over the horizon toward Kingman.

That's already been featured and discussed at great length, possibly in the Worst thread. It's not without its problems.

Oh yeah, I posted it over there too, didn't I?  I either a) am getting old, or b) have a flexible opinion on whether it belong under Worst or Best. 

[Sanctimoniously]

The million dollar question is: Where the heck did it come from?

I'm not sure. It might have been used to close the bridge in the past if it ever needed to be, and was just hanging around when they permanently closed it to traffic, so LADOTD just decided to use it as well. Then, they could have realized the railroad portion still needed to be inspected, so they moved it aside to open part of a lane to get an inspection crew through. Or something like that.

I also want to know what used to be to the left of the word "VEHICLES" on the sign in my OP. From some angles, it looks like letters were removed, but nothing can be seen on the closeup.

[agentsteel53]

my guess, based solely on word width, is that the missing word is COMMERCIAL.  I figure they realized non-commercial vehicles (RVs, mainly) can be more than 8 feet wide as well and took off the copy.

[Sanctimoniously]

my guess, based solely on word width, is that the missing word is COMMERCIAL.  I figure they realized non-commercial vehicles (RVs, mainly) can be more than 8 feet wide as well and took off the copy.

That sounds about right. I was guessing something along those lines, but for some reason could never find the actual word.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

When my family and I went to Tahoe last month, I spotted some really nice signs in the Sacramento area.

The signs on this gantry along US-50/Business 80 in Sacramento looks really nice in my opinion. I like how the control cities are placed on the middle sign. Looks very neat in my opinion. The 50 east pull-through doesn't look bad either.


Less than a mile away is my first arrow-per-lane diagrammatic sign. Looks very nice in my opinion. Never saw one of these in the Bay Area.


Further up the freeway at Exit 9 (CA-16 Howe Ave./Power Inn Rd.) is this arrow indicating a cloverleaf that needs to be taken to get to Cal State.

[kphoger]

I totally dig that arrow-per-lane-ish sign.  Better than the MUTCD one, IMO.

[formulanone]

Love that "reload" arrow on the Cal State BGS.

[Kacie Jane]

I totally dig that arrow-per-lane-ish sign.  Better than the MUTCD one, IMO.

I agree with that statement, but perhaps only in that specific situation (three lanes, two straight, two exiting).  How would you execute that design with more than three lanes, or more specifically, more than two lanes in a given direction?  Would you repeat the legend between the second pair of arrows, or leave it up to drivers to figure it out?

[CentralCAroadgeek]

I just noticed that I have seen an arrow-per-lane in the Bay Area.

This is located on SB 101 just before 380 in San Bruno, near SFO:


I have to say, looks as good as the one in Sacramento. Sorry for the terrible quality: dirty windshield, sitting in the middle row, bad lighting.

[KEK Inc.]

Not sure if this has been posted yet.



Source:  My Flickr

[Quillz]

In my opinion, the only thing that would improve those Sacramento BGS is if CalTrans would sign CA-51 in place of Business Route 80. It just seems unnecessary to me, when that entire stretch of freeway is already shared with US-50 and CA-99 anyway.

[Takumi]

Some of my favorite finds from Richmond last weekend:




(white-border sign on the right)




"The Ogre"

[Ian]

Williamsport, MD (taken just last week):

[NE2]

That's not one of Jake's Fakes, is it?

[agentsteel53]

That's not one of Jake's Fakes, is it?

nope. original 1960s.  there's a 13 surviving just like it.

[Kacie Jane]

Not sure if this has been posted yet.



Source:  My Flickr

I've gotta say, while the button-copy panels on either side are obviously the cream of the crop, the middle line of the middle panel should make that photo ineligible for that thread.  Can you really have the Best Of and the Worst Of on the same assembly?

[Takumi]

Can you really have the Best Of and the Worst Of on the same assembly?

I think this shield qualifies.