The Best of Road Signs

[vtk]

Ah! Another exemplary case of Best Of and Worst Of on the same assembly!

You think so? Personally I thought the Alan Wood Rd sign looked quite nice, albeit not quite "Best Of".

It's nice-ish, but a far cry from accepted design standards.  I interpret it as a guide sign, so it should be white on green.  The font is way off.  The border should be a little thicker.  There isn't nearly enough spacing between or around the two lines of text.  It just doesn't look like an official road sign at all; more like a fake, meant to look like a road sign, but designed by someone who clearly doesn't look at road signs all day.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I know it's far from any sort of highway standards. I just don't think that alone makes it a terrible sign.

(Also, I'm somewhat biased, being a Helvetica fangirl and all.)

Let's say someone sets out to write a fan-fic of a TV show like 2½ Men, and the result is a dramatic lesbian love tragedy about some Vegas prostitutes Charlie once knew.  It may be a great story, but folks judging it as a 2½ Men fanfic would tend to say it's one of the worst they'd ever read.  The same applies here: it's a pretty sign, but it's a fairly bad road sign.

[Kacie Jane]

Welp.  That's the best analogy I've seen in quite some time.

[Central Avenue]

See, what I'm not getting is this idea that only standard road signs can be good road signs. It's non-standard, but it's aesthetically pleasing and it serves its intended purpose, so why does its lack of standardization make it an inherently bad road sign?

[Kacie Jane]

See, what I'm not getting is this idea that only standard road signs can be good road signs. It's non-standard, but it's aesthetically pleasing and it serves its intended purpose, so why does its lack of standardization make it an inherently bad road sign?

Because road signs are supposed to follow standards, ergo a sign that doesn't follow standards is naughty and should be punished.  Also, since black on white is supposed to be used for regulatory signs (How am I supposed to simultaneously use both lanes?  Does that mean if I straddle the lane line, I won't get a ticket?  And if I'm properly in a lane, I will get a ticket?), one could argue that it's not serving its intended purpose.  And "aesthetically pleasing" is subjective; since Jake finds the font to be a terrible blight, I'm assuming he would argue that it's not.

As an aside, I was looking through the beginning of this thread for my own amusement, and was in fact highly amused when I found this very photograph waaaay back on page 2, complete with a comment from Jake that the Alan Wood Rd sign should be in the Worst Of.

[RJ145]

I need to find a higher resolution version of this. I have it somewhere.

[Central Avenue]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I understand the value behind standardization. There's a need to give drivers a certain expectation of what they should see, and if everyone who posted a sign just made up their own rules we'd quickly get an inconsistent and confusing mess.

But when I look at an individual sign, I try to judge it on its own merits. After all, the standard is only one way of doing things, and just because it's the accepted standard doesn't mean it's the only good way of doing things, or that other ways of doing things are inherently inferior. That's why I, personally, will criticize signs for being ugly or unclear or other such faults, but not merely for not conforming to the standard.

Of course, you're free to disagree, but that's my take on it.

[kphoger]

Let's just all keep looking at the other sign.

[ctsignguy]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I understand the value behind standardization. There's a need to give drivers a certain expectation of what they should see, and if everyone who posted a sign just made up their own rules we'd quickly get an inconsistent and confusing mess.

But when I look at an individual sign, I try to judge it on its own merits. After all, the standard is only one way of doing things, and just because it's the accepted standard doesn't mean it's the only good way of doing things, or that other ways of doing things are inherently inferior. That's why I, personally, will criticize signs for being ugly or unclear or other such faults, but not merely for not conforming to the standard.

Of course, you're free to disagree, but that's my take on it.

So, Ms Central, how would you judge this sign?  Definitely not standard....

[kj3400]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I understand the value behind standardization. There's a need to give drivers a certain expectation of what they should see, and if everyone who posted a sign just made up their own rules we'd quickly get an inconsistent and confusing mess.

The sad thing is, even with standards, somehow that still ends up being the case with some signs.

[vtk]

Let's just all keep looking at the other sign.

Cropped with Jpegcrop to preserve quality

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Button copy "EXIT ONLY" tabs anyone?

Long Beach, CA

[formulanone]

See, what I'm not getting is this idea that only standard road signs can be good road signs. It's non-standard, but it's aesthetically pleasing and it serves its intended purpose, so why does its lack of standardization make it an inherently bad road sign?

Agreed; how boring would it be if every sign fit every conceivable standard? I'm kind of glad there's all sorts of tidy stuff and awkward semi-standard creations in Florida, because it makes things interesting and rather unique.

Look at photos of signs from 50+ years ago...no standards, and most of us go ape for them. But then again, there's bad and then there's different (and sometimes both makes for really bad).

[Scott5114]

The thing is that the standards don't specify everything. You can still be creative within the bounds of the framework the MUTCD sets up.

[formulanone]

Discovered this one yesterday.

[agentsteel53]

good to see that one's still there.  I photographed it on Jan. 20, 2010.  nearby was another 67 which was stamped 2/64.  Alex can tell you exactly where that one is.

[formulanone]

good to see that one's still there.  I photographed it on Jan. 20, 2010.  nearby was another 67 which was stamped 2/64.  Alex can tell you exactly where that one is.

Also found a C/S-67 from 1968, but the one I posted above had no date; I'm guessing it's in the range of 1978-82.

[cpzilliacus]

Unisign in the City of Fairfax, Virginia:

[Roadsguy]

Are "No turn on (dot)" signs common in Virginia? I've never seen one before outside that picture.

[cpzilliacus]

Are "No turn on (dot)" signs common in Virginia? I've never seen one before outside that picture.

Not especially.  I think the only place I have seen them is within cities.  Not sure I have ever seen one on a VDOT-maintained road.

[1995hoo]

Are "No turn on (dot)" signs common in Virginia? I've never seen one before outside that picture.

Not especially.  I think the only place I have seen them is within cities.  Not sure I have ever seen one on a VDOT-maintained road.

I think I passed one this morning on Nutley Street in Fairfax County, but I was more interested in the poor grammar on the sign underneath it that said "When Pedestrian Are Present." I'm going to have to go back out that way later this week and I'll try to get a picture then to confirm. The Street View image of that intersection is quite outdated.

There are a good number of "red dot"—style signs in Fairfax City, though.

[PHLBOS]

Unisign in the City of Fairfax, Virginia:

That unisign reminds me of the ones for US 1 & MA 3 that used to exist along Storrow Drive and the Central Artery in Boston circa the early-to-mid 1970s.

[agentsteel53]

That unisign reminds me of the ones for US 1 & MA 3 that used to exist along Storrow Drive and the Central Artery in Boston circa the early-to-mid 1970s.

with white backgrounds like that?  were they MDC products?

[PHLBOS]

That unisign reminds me of the ones for US 1 & MA 3 that used to exist along Storrow Drive and the Central Artery in Boston circa the early-to-mid 1970s.

with white backgrounds like that?  were they MDC products?

They could've been; although there were a few of them mounted along the Central Artery and its Storrow Drive access ramps as well.  For obvious reasons, the ones south of Storrow Drive were removed when the DPW relocated US 1 from the Sunmer/Callahan Tunnels to the Tobin Bridge circa 1975.

[Ian]

My favorite NYSDOT sign...


The "top hat" sign along I-87 northbound near Albany. New York has several of them scattered throughout the state.

[The High Plains Traveler]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I understand the value behind standardization. There's a need to give drivers a certain expectation of what they should see, and if everyone who posted a sign just made up their own rules we'd quickly get an inconsistent and confusing mess.

But when I look at an individual sign, I try to judge it on its own merits. After all, the standard is only one way of doing things, and just because it's the accepted standard doesn't mean it's the only good way of doing things, or that other ways of doing things are inherently inferior. That's why I, personally, will criticize signs for being ugly or unclear or other such faults, but not merely for not conforming to the standard.

Of course, you're free to disagree, but that's my take on it.

So, Ms Central, how would you judge this sign?  Definitely not standard....

Looks like a standard California curve warning sign from the 1960s, at least from the curve directions indicated by the arrow.