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Regional Boards => Great Lakes and Ohio Valley => Topic started by: TheHighwayMan3561 on August 09, 2017, 03:10:44 PM

Title: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: TheHighwayMan3561 on August 09, 2017, 03:10:44 PM
I'd appreciate help since I haven't been to all 87 counties, but my observation is:

Blue pentagons exclusively or largely dominant:
Chisago
Twin Cities 7-county area, except Carver
Wright

Mix of blue pentagons and white rectangles:
Cook (wave of blue pentagons installed in last three years)
Freeborn
Goodhue?
Isanti
St. Louis
Stearns

White rectangles exclusively or largely dominant:
Everywhere else

I'd love to discuss the history of the two shield designs and their usage.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: hockeyjohn on August 09, 2017, 04:42:22 PM
Polk County seems to use blue/white/yellow pentagonal signs on County Secondary Aid Highways (generally  lower numbered, more significant roads), while the white squares are for the remaining county roads.    I have seen recent installations, however, where white squares show up on CSAH.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: tman on August 09, 2017, 05:09:52 PM
Nicollet county: white square exclusively

Brown county: blue pentagons exclusively

Sibley county: mixture

I think that, from what I've seen, the blue pentagon seems to be more popular. But there are a bunch of counties using the square.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: hbelkins on August 09, 2017, 08:45:10 PM
Fillmore-pentagon.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: bschultzy on August 09, 2017, 08:55:39 PM
Dakota is a mix, both on signs along 35E and marked on the roads themselves.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: US71 on August 09, 2017, 10:22:10 PM
I found one advance intersection with a pentagon and a square together

SM-G930V

Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: froggie on August 10, 2017, 07:01:36 AM
I've been meaning to compile a full list for my website...just haven't done anything about it yet.  From my own observation, there are four different categories:

- Blue pentagon exclusively
- White square exclusively
- Blue pentagon for county state aid highways and white square for other county roads
- A more general mix of blue pentagon and white square

An example of that last one is Chippewa County.  I noticed a couple weeks ago that eastern Chippewa County is blue pentagon while the western half of the county is white square.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: US71 on August 10, 2017, 11:03:23 AM
I saw several TWP white squares along 71 and mostly whte square county, though many of the county roads themselves use the pentagon.
Koohkoning (sp?) Is predominantly white squares.

SM-G930V

Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: dvferyance on August 10, 2017, 12:14:30 PM
I have never been a fan of Minnesota using the blue and yellow Pentagon. It looks too similar to their state shield which also uses the same colors. I can see the confusion.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: Brandon on August 10, 2017, 12:44:21 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on August 10, 2017, 12:14:30 PM
I have never been of Minnesota using the blue and yellow Pentagon. It looks too similar to their state shield which also uses the same colors. I can see the confusion.

WTF?  They're entirely different shapes.  At that rate, you'll mix up state route and interstate shields.  Hell, the Wisconsin marker is closer in shape to the US marker than that!
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: hbelkins on August 10, 2017, 06:01:04 PM
Quote from: Brandon on August 10, 2017, 12:44:21 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on August 10, 2017, 12:14:30 PM
I have never been of Minnesota using the blue and yellow Pentagon. It looks too similar to their state shield which also uses the same colors. I can see the confusion.

WTF?  They're entirely different shapes.  At that rate, you'll mix up state route and interstate shields.  Hell, the Wisconsin marker is closer in shape to the US marker than that!

So much so that I never noticed that I had photographed a "WIS 61" sign during my first foray into Wisconsin until much, much later, when I was reviewing my photos. Normally a state-US mixup will jump out at me like a sore thumb, but that one didn't because of the similarity of the route marker shapes.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: MNHighwayMan on August 11, 2017, 10:55:47 AM
Both Renville and Norman counties use a mix of both.

I'm pretty sure Aitkin and Itasca counties use white squares exclusively.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: DandyDan on August 12, 2017, 03:39:25 AM
Freeborn County is a mixture of both, with the CSAH's getting the blue pentagon. I believe Nobles County is the same. Mower County is exclusively blue pentagon. Rock County is exclusively white square and I believe so are Rice and Steele Counties.
Title: Re: Minnesota county route shields
Post by: DandyDan on August 21, 2017, 04:39:01 AM
Quote from: dvferyance on August 10, 2017, 12:14:30 PM
I have never been a fan of Minnesota using the blue and yellow Pentagon. It looks too similar to their state shield which also uses the same colors. I can see the confusion.
On the flip side, the white square, IMO, too closely resembles a speed limit sign. I made the trip up to Rochester and Olmsted County, which uses the white square, likes to put the county route shield and the speed limit sign side by side, or at least they do on county route 22, Rochester's loop route