Exit Tabs

[Mergingtraffic]

What is the best way to display exit tabs on highway signage?

I know I'm going to get a lot of grief here, but I actually like the way CT does their exit tabs.



But, I like how CT doesn't have a liner around the exit tab. I've seen states where the liner goes all the way around the exit tab and it seems too much for a small tab. 

I also like how there is no gap between the sign and the exit tab.
 
As of the last two years, new signage finally has it on the right or left depending on where the exit is and not in the middle as evidenced by the NE Roads pic on I-384.  (I also like the pipe gantry)

Edited to set image width at 800

[wytout]

i dont like center mounted tabs.  Funny you mention the 384 righ aligned sign, over on 84 near the 384 interchange.  Just noticed it this week. and before that sign, on 84 EB, there is a bordered exit tab for exit 58, but center mounted.  It's MA-style in that there is no border of separation between the BGS and tab.  The border actually traces the overall outline of the BGS and Tab together. Personally prefer side mounted, and with a border including separation between the BGS and the tab.

[Ian]

I think its interesting that in Massachusetts, there is no separation line between the exit tabs and the sign itself.

I also think its interesting how Maryland uses gigantic exit tabs.

[wytout]

not always the case.  some ma signage has separation between the sign and the tab, some does not.  A lot of new signage down on i 195 and I 495 towards the Cape has a separation and the tabs are extra tall too.  There are 2 and a half sign strips in height used to make these new tabs.

Borrowed this example of new signage being placed on I-195 back in '04-'05 from alpsroads.


An aside, there is a ma-style bgs in CT on I84 eb in east hartford, for exit 58 with a bordered exit tab, END it is not separated from the bgs by a line border traces the entire overall shape of the sign including the exit tab.  However it is typical, CT centered exit tab.

[Scott5114]

I like the way KDOT does it.



Oklahoma gives the tab its own border on all sides. It looks kinda stupid, I think.

[andytom]

An example of WA's exit 'tabs' (I-90 WB headed into the I-5 interchange).

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=47.592743,-122.311569&spn=0,359.994255&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=47.592829,-122.311633&panoid=kvbxu1UsFYwSDjMs3a6gIg&cbp=12,334.53,,0,5

--Andy

[UptownRoadGeek]

I like the way Georgia does it.  Their signs just all seem to be neat and tidy.


I also like how all the signs on a gantry are usually uniform in height in GA.

[J N Winkler]

Scott--the KDOT example you posted is out of date.  The current KDOT standard still uses a 1" border (main sign panel border is 2") with 3" corner rounding, but the border now runs along the bottom as well as the other three sides, and all four corners are rounded.  This solves the problem that the edge side of the tab (usually the right side) had a white border which seemed to "float" in green space, but at the cost of thickening the sign border under the tab.

I rather wish KDOT had instead thickened the tab border to 2", perhaps changed corner radius to 4", and eliminated corner rounding on the main sign panel immediately underneath the tab.  This is the approach Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan follow.

[CL]

Utah used to do it similar to Georgia (the center-aligned, full-width tab). Then in the mid-90s they aligned the exit number to the right but still full-width. A few years ago, this happened:

And although I may be a little biased, I find this slightly rounded design to be my favorite of any I've seen. However, when UDOT simply pastes a new sign over an old one, a right-aligned full-width tab will still be made.

[Scott5114]

I hate full width exit tabs. Try going west while the sun's setting on a road with them. You'll find they're pretty useless for the purpose of showing what side of the road the exit is on; by the time you're close enough to see what side the text is on, you're too close to act upon the sign legend. The silhouette of the tabs is much easier to see when they're correctly done.

Scott--the KDOT example you posted is out of date.  The current KDOT standard still uses a 1" border (main sign panel border is 2") with 3" corner rounding, but the border now runs along the bottom as well as the other three sides, and all four corners are rounded.  This solves the problem that the edge side of the tab (usually the right side) had a white border which seemed to "float" in green space, but at the cost of thickening the sign border under the tab.

Darn. I like the way that sign I posted does it.

[hbelkins]

I hate full width exit tabs. Try going west while the sun's setting on a road with them. You'll find they're pretty useless for the purpose of showing what side of the road the exit is on; by the time you're close enough to see what side the text is on, you're too close to act upon the sign legend. The silhouette of the tabs is much easier to see when they're correctly done.

Darn. How did we ever survive without exit tabs telling us which side of the road the exit is on?

Actually, they are pretty handy if you are traveling in unfamiliar territory, but this seems to me to be another example of dumbing things down to the lowest common denominator. IMNSHO we do too much of that in society already.

[Scott5114]

The MUTCD says that's a feature that should be around for the benefit of road users, and if it says that, by golly I'm going to use it. If that little exit tab helps prevent me from missing my exit, then it serves its purpose. Considering the fact that most non-roadgeeks don't know about the exit tab trick, how is that "dumbing things down"?

[Ian]

not always the case.  some ma signage has separation between the sign and the tab, some does not.  A lot of new signage down on i 195 and I 495 towards the Cape has a separation and the tabs are extra tall too.  There are 2 and a half sign strips in height used to make these new tabs.

I guess I should have said older signs. Older signs used to do it. I now know that newer signs do have the separation tabs, much like the Mass Pike.

[Duke87]

The MUTCD says that's a feature that should be around for the benefit of road users, and if it says that, by golly I'm going to use it. If that little exit tab helps prevent me from missing my exit, then it serves its purpose. Considering the fact that most non-roadgeeks don't know about the exit tab trick, how is that "dumbing things down"?

Well, that's just it. If the vast majority of people don't know about it, it isn't really helpful in the greater scheme of things. It's also a rule which obviously isn't always followed, so you can't necessarily take what side the tab is on as reliable information.

Besides, you don't need anything telling you an exit will be the right. The vast majority of exits are to the right and drivers will generally thus assume an exit is on the right unless told otherwise.
So, the MUTCD standard practice of putting "LEFT EXIT" labels on signs for them is far more obvious and unquestionable, and works far better. With that in place, where you put the tab is effectively pure aesthetics.

And the tab standard doesn't work for exits that don't have posted numbers, anyway.

[Hellfighter]

Tabs in michigan...

[SSOWorld]

I've seen some exit tabs in Milwauke that say "Left Exit ###" (insert number where that ### appears) - Talk about dumbing down!?

[CL]

^
Yes, Utah does this as well.

[OracleUsr]

I hate that LEFT EXIT wording thing.  There's one in New Hampshire, where the Spaulding Turnpike exits left from I-95 North in Portsmouth, and in NC, where I-240 begins at I-40 Eastbound and I-26.  And, YET, the new alignment of I-40 in Death Valley, NC (Greensboro) has a left exit to Business I-85 and DOESN'T have that wording.

And, as my sig shows, I am not a center-tabbing fan at all.

Also, the new bordered tab in MA is a growing trend.  I-84 in Sturbridge (from the MA Turnpike westward to the CT line) has this new tab style.

[hbelkins]

The MUTCD says that's a feature that should be around for the benefit of road users, and if it says that, by golly I'm going to use it. If that little exit tab helps prevent me from missing my exit, then it serves its purpose. Considering the fact that most non-roadgeeks don't know about the exit tab trick, how is that "dumbing things down"?

Well, we survived for years with center-mounted exit tabs. They were good enough for my father (when my grandfather drove, I don't even think Kentucky had numbered exits except for a handful on I-75 in Lexington that were sequentially numbered) so why aren't they good enough for future generations of drivers?

Kinda like the larger first letter of directional indications. What's the point? We did fine for years with all letters the same size.

[roadfro]

HB, I think it's one of those things where if you can give an added visual cue to the driver, it allows quicker recognition and reaction as a result. Same thing with the larger first letter of cardinal directions.  Seems negligible to the average person, but it probably helps subconsciously and it doesn't make a big difference to implement.

For those talking about left exit tabs, I think adding the word "left" into the tab became a requirement in either the 2003 or Millennium MUTCD. The proposed MUTCD takes it one step further, requiring the word "left" be written in warning (black on yellow) style--new images show a taller exit tab with "left" in the upper half in black on yellow, with the remaining exit legend white on green.  I think the change is appropriate, but would design it differently.

To reply to the original topic of the thread, I like any state that uses appropriately aligned exit tabs. Nevada's tabs tend to have a thinner border than the main sign that omits the bottom edge, although some newer signs wrap the entire border and/or have the full size border.

[SSOWorld]

Great, not only are we idiot-proofing left exits, we're polluting them now

[OracleUsr]

One thing that gets me is this BGS, taken from AARoads itself, but an occurence I saw in person (no photos from me...sorry, was in kind of a hurry):

http://www.interstate-guide.com/images395/i-395_me_wt_12.jpg

You have this HUGE guide sign, appropriately so, so why is the tab with the numbers so small?  Especially compared to this assembly 1 mile northward:

http://www.interstate-guide.com/images395/i-395_me_wt_14.jpg

[Alex]

The MUTCD says that's a feature that should be around for the benefit of road users, and if it says that, by golly I'm going to use it. If that little exit tab helps prevent me from missing my exit, then it serves its purpose. Considering the fact that most non-roadgeeks don't know about the exit tab trick, how is that "dumbing things down"?

Well, we survived for years with center-mounted exit tabs. They were good enough for my father (when my grandfather drove, I don't even think Kentucky had numbered exits except for a handful on I-75 in Lexington that were sequentially numbered) so why aren't they good enough for future generations of drivers?

Kinda like the larger first letter of directional indications. What's the point? We did fine for years with all letters the same size.

Well put, I could not agree with you more!

[rickmastfan67]

PennDOT Style for Left Exits:

[myosh_tino]

Being a native Californian, I couldn't resist adding our "unique" style of exit numbering on guide signs to this topic.  Instead of posting pictures that are in the AARoads galleries, I though I would instead use the signs I created for my Silicon Valley Roads webpage.  These are nearly identical to the real signs with respect to layout and legend.  Sorry about the purple background, it's what I'm using on the site...


The left sign (I-880/CA-17) features a tab that puts the word "EXIT" and the number (5B) on two lines in an internally drawn box.  The right sign (Winchester Blvd) features a more traditional exit tab with the tab located above the sign but within a borderless green field.


Once again, the left sign features the internally drawn box with "EXIT" and number on two lines.  The right sign (Downtown/N First St) features the traditional exit tab but it is also internally drawn.


Of course there are a few signs that use an independent tab but I've only seen this on ground-mounted signs (not on overhead signs).  One exception is in downtown Los Angeles where in the 1970's Caltrans experimented with exit numbers and the tabs were centered on overhead guide signs

In Oregon, all exit tabs are centered on the guide sign.


Washington uses full width exit tabs with the exit number being centered on the sign.