The Best of Road Signs

[cpzilliacus]

Was this mast possibly installed upside down?

I don't think so.  This seems to be the way that these ares supposed to be installed in Falls Church (maybe they screwed them all up, but I think that is unlikely - Falls Church is very much a "good government" place, and its municipal workforce is generally well regarded).

Not every signalized intersection within Falls Church uses these - some intersections use span wire.

[1995hoo]

Was this mast possibly installed upside down?

I don't think so.  This seems to be the way that these ares supposed to be installed in Falls Church (maybe they screwed them all up, but I think that is unlikely - Falls Church is very much a "good government" place, and its municipal workforce is generally well regarded).

Not every signalized intersection within Falls Church uses these - some intersections use span wire.

Some also use a simple curved mastarm–indeed two sides of that intersection in that photo have that sort of simpler design.

[Alps]

Was this mast possibly installed upside down?

I don't think so.  This seems to be the way that these ares supposed to be installed in Falls Church (maybe they screwed them all up, but I think that is unlikely - Falls Church is very much a "good government" place, and its municipal workforce is generally well regarded).

Not every signalized intersection within Falls Church uses these - some intersections use span wire.

Bergen County NJ also uses this "upside-down" mast arm style. I suppose it technically works either way, it's just that this requires a taller pole.

[corco]

Here's a great old sign at the north end of BC 43- of course it was raining when I got up there. These old custom signs are getting nuked in favor of Arial/Clearview signs, so good to see this.

[1995hoo]

Passed this nice sign this afternoon in the parking area next to what used to be Springfield Mall in Virginia. In case it's unclear from the photo, the sign is embossed. There's at least one other like it on the property. I've passed this dozens of times and for some reason I never noticed its embossed nature before....I wonder if the new eyeglass prescription I got really makes THAT much of a difference!

[kphoger]

I have a hard time accepting a speed limit of 15 as "˜good' in any sense. 

[1995hoo]

I hear you. The sign itself is spiffy, though.

[agentsteel53]

I have a hard time accepting a speed limit of 15 as "˜good' in any sense. 

looks to me to be a parking lot.  15 seems quite sensible there.

[1995hoo]

I have a hard time accepting a speed limit of 15 as "˜good' in any sense. 

looks to me to be a parking lot.  15 seems quite sensible there.

It is. Notice my prior comment about it being "in the parking area." I phrased it that way because the road is sort of a little beltway around the mall with parking on both sides.

I'd post a link to a map with a placemarker but I can't figure out how to drop a pin in Google Maps on the iPad. But if you find Springfield Mall in Virginia, the satellite view will give a sense of the area. The sign in my photo is in the northeast corner sort of between the Target store and the Sunrise retirement home located across Frontier Drive.

[1995hoo]

Been meaning to get a picture of the street sign here for awhile and I always forgot. It used to say "Larkspur Dr" with an arrow pointing left. (I'm putting it here in the spirit of the original post in this thread that talks about photos of older signs that have hung on for a long time.)

[NE2]

You know, you can get out of your car...

[1995hoo]

You know, you can get out of your car...

Maybe, but there was an SUV to my right and I remembered the sign at the last second, as usual.

[kphoger]

I have a hard time accepting a speed limit of 15 as ‘good' in any sense. 

looks to me to be a parking lot.  15 seems quite sensible there.

It is. Notice my prior comment about it being "in the parking area." I phrased it that way because the road is sort of a little beltway around the mall with parking on both sides.

I'd post a link to a map with a placemarker but I can't figure out how to drop a pin in Google Maps on the iPad. But if you find Springfield Mall in Virginia, the satellite view will give a sense of the area. The sign in my photo is in the northeast corner sort of between the Target store and the Sunrise retirement home located across Frontier Drive.

Fair enough, point taken.  My general idea is that streets shouldn't have a limit of lower than 20 mph.  If there's something there that necessitates lower limits (e.g. parking), then I generally find speed limit signs aren't needed to keep drivers' speed in check:  they tend to assess things correctly and moderately their speed accordingly even without them.  Maybe it's just me (and it probably is).

Anyway, back on topic...

[vtk]

For the fans of old-spec US shields...

Saw this today:
https://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.95501,-82.844642&spn=0.00105,0.000882&t=k&deg=180&z=20&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=39.954842,-82.84457&panoid=IPe0izDZ3JZEk8Gd5mteWA&cbp=12,240.82,,1,-24.14
It's not obvious from that angle (and more straight-on views from GSV are too blurry) but that US 40 shield is of an older spec, slightly wider than it is tall, like the ones agensteel53 is fond of.

https://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.875962,-83.008189&spn=0.005945,0.00706&t=m&z=17&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=39.876001,-83.00832&panoid=wOXTnada70Xw871B0FzHdg&cbp=12,123.34,,2,-7.11
Here's something I pass semi-regularly, and I'm glad GSV has a decent shot of it.  70-spec and (I think) 61-spec US 23 shields side by side. 

I-270 features a lot of really old BGS on the south and east sides.  They're not quite original, but very close: I think they're the result of retrofitting reflective green backgrounds onto the original sign structures.  I'm not sure to what extent the original foreground elements were re-used, though I think it's probably less than half if any.  In some places, those newer background panels have fallen off, revealing the original non-reflective green background, and sometimes, hints of where foreground elements were originally attached.  Examples on GSV:

https://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.888451,-83.031685&spn=0.011887,0.014119&t=m&z=16&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=39.888502,-83.031795&panoid=klk090PL_44wRr0OAUrqMQ&cbp=12,321.43,,0,-25.99 Not much to see here...

https://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.873574,-82.932449&spn=0.002972,0.00353&t=m&z=18&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=39.873524,-82.932498&panoid=GmWWlRCOP-tRbcDx3HkfHA&cbp=12,337.09,,1,-1.37 This one's more interesting, but you'd have to go see it in person, because the panel hadn't fallen off yet when GSV came through.

I-270 near Dublin and Hilliard also has some older BGS, but not as old.  It's actually in pretty good shape, and looks a lot like the button-copy signs Connecticut is allegedly famous for.

Unfortunately, most of the time I pass these signs, I'm driving for work, and it's often night.  If I'm alone in the van, and I remember the photo op in time, I can get a picture on my cell phone but... cell phone photo.

[PurdueBill]

For the fans of old-spec US shields...

Saw this today:
https://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.95501,-82.844642&spn=0.00105,0.000882&t=k&deg=180&z=20&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=39.954842,-82.84457&panoid=IPe0izDZ3JZEk8Gd5mteWA&cbp=12,240.82,,1,-24.14
It's not obvious from that angle (and more straight-on views from GSV are too blurry) but that US 40 shield is of an older spec, slightly wider than it is tall, like the ones agensteel53 is fond of.

The slightly fatter US 40 shield immediately made me think of a similar US 68 shield on I-70 EB; the street view is terrible but as I recall, that one sign's shield is somewhat fat for its height, while all the others approaching both ways on I-70 are "normal" 1970-spec shields.  Steve's I-70 page has a better pic of the somewhat-fat shield on that particular sign.

[Central Avenue]

Better angle of the wide US 40 shield:



Interestingly, that's also the only sign through that stretch (IIRC) that spells out "Street" in "Main Street".

[roadman]

It's also interesting to see that the main sign is illuminated, but the exit tab isn't.  BTW, '41B' is my house number - so it's neat to see it on a BGS.

[PHLBOS]

It's also interesting to see that the main sign is illuminated, but the exit tab isn't.

My guess would be that the exit tab was erected sometime later.

[roadman]

My guess would be that the exit tab was erected sometime later.

That is indeed a distinct possibility.  However, both the main panel and the tab appear to me to be of similar age, which is what prompted the comment.

[theline]

Most likely both the main sign and tab were replaced since the lights were installed. Perhaps they couldn't go any lower to get both the BGS and tab under the lights, so they did the best they could. Just guessing.

[PurdueBill]

The wide shield, spelling out "Street", and the odd lighting arrangement seem to suggest that the sign was somehow a one-off.  Most overhead-lighted signs like that have the lights above everything including the tab.  Steve's I-670 pages have many examples; other highways around Columbus have had similar ones.

Most Ohio sign lighting was from below the signs, but a significant number of signs near Columbus have/had lighting at the top.  (Scattered examples persist elsewhere; one sign in Akron that still has lighting out of a rapidly-decreasing number has overlighting instead of underlighting for no apparent reason, but it's possible that it involves Columbus. A mis-made sign reading "Central Park" instead of "Canal Park" a few years ago was blamed on the sign shop in Columbus not being familiar with Akron's baseball park. (Hint: read the plans carefully!) Maybe the overlighted sign was designed and built in Columbus instead of being designed locally.  It's the only reason I can think of for one sign in town having lights at the top while hundreds of others around town were lighted from the bottom.)

[vtk]

I was told at a young age that the overhead lights were used to avoid shining up at aircraft at night.  Columbus's overlit signs are all on the east side (near Port Columbus Int'l Airport).  There are plenty of other city lights to make that consideration moot, but it might have seemed like a good idea in the 60's and 70's.

[PurdueBill]

I was told at a young age that the overhead lights were used to avoid shining up at aircraft at night.  Columbus's overlit signs are all on the east side (near Port Columbus Int'l Airport).  There are plenty of other city lights to make that consideration moot, but it might have seemed like a good idea in the 60's and 70's.

It must be something to do with that, although I wondered why signs near the CLE and CAK airports weren't similarly designed, for example.  Maybe the signs lined up the right way so as to be problematic.  (Admittedly there are/were few lighted signs near CAK, but there were a ton near CLE, all underlit.  Most have been replaced in the last couple years, sadly.)

[PHLBOS]

My guess would be that the exit tab was erected sometime later.

That is indeed a distinct possibility.  However, both the main panel and the tab appear to me to be of similar age, which is what prompted the comment.

Later doesn't necessarily have to mean years; that tab could've been erected a few months later as either a correction to either design or contractor oversight or the possibility of exit numbers being assigned shortly after the main panel & lights were erected (someone from OH can confirm that).

I was told at a young age that the overhead lights were used to avoid shining up at aircraft at night.  Columbus's overlit signs are all on the east side (near Port Columbus Int'l Airport).  There are plenty of other city lights to make that consideration moot, but it might have seemed like a good idea in the 60's and 70's.

It must be something to do with that, although I wondered why signs near the CLE and CAK airports weren't similarly designed, for example.  Maybe the signs lined up the right way so as to be problematic.  (Admittedly there are/were few lighted signs near CAK, but there were a ton near CLE, all underlit.  Most have been replaced in the last couple years, sadly.)

That's exactly the reasoning behind the top-mounted lights.  In 2000-2001, similar top-mounted lights were apllied on some 80s-vintage gantries (with some but not all replacement/updated BGS') along I-95 near the Philadlephia International Airport.

[jeffandnicole]

Yes.  The Stop sign is there.  Look...you can't miss it...we are pointing at it!  Really...it's a stop sign!!!

(The whole story: NJ Turnpike, Interchange 3 to NJ 168 North.  An intersection project at the next intersection involves some lane shifts.  The stop sign shown here was covered with plastic, the 'stop ahead' sign was posted, and a temporary stop sign was installed about 200' ahead.  The plastic has since ripped off, but the sign was never re-hidden.  Since it's just a ramp merge, it really should just be a Yield sign, which is how most people regard it as anyway.)