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National Boards => General Highway Talk => Traffic Control => Topic started by: hbelkins on May 11, 2019, 09:42:51 PM

Title: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: hbelkins on May 11, 2019, 09:42:51 PM
Trying to think which states have recently ("recently" being a relative term) changed their state route markers.

North Dakota is the most recent. Others in recent memory are listed, in no order. If anyone wants to supply other entries, or dates for the changes, feel free. I'll probably leave one out. I'm not counting Louisiana's color scheme change in this list.

South Carolina
Oklahoma
Vermont
Tennessee (early 1980s, not exactly "recent" but it's the first change I personally became aware of, I was familiar with the triangles used for all state routes).
Title: Re: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: formulanone on May 12, 2019, 12:18:28 PM
Florida changed rather gradually from 1945 to 1978. There's a lot of resemblance to them all, but the angular state outline without the Florida Keys has been the standard for over 40 years. Before 1945, they used a blue diamond with a white legend.

It seems a few states modified them a lot around 1970. I wonder if that's because the US Route standard changed, or a greater emphasis on standards?

Alabama switched to the current design in 1970; the 1950s-60s used an outline marker with a white background

South Dakota switched to the green background in 1970 - before that, it used Mount Rushmore at the top.

Colorado - seems to be around 1969 since they used the current format with the state flag.
Title: Re: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: Avalanchez71 on May 12, 2019, 12:40:30 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on May 11, 2019, 09:42:51 PM
Trying to think which states have recently ("recently" being a relative term) changed their state route markers.

North Dakota is the most recent. Others in recent memory are listed, in no order. If anyone wants to supply other entries, or dates for the changes, feel free. I'll probably leave one out. I'm not counting Louisiana's color scheme change in this list.

South Carolina
Oklahoma
Vermont
Tennessee (early 1980s, not exactly "recent" but it's the first change I personally became aware of, I was familiar with the triangles used for all state routes).
I wish Kentucky could come up with something better.  Likewise for North Carolina and Mississippi.
Title: Re: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: Revive 755 on May 12, 2019, 12:44:49 PM
Didn't Tennessee recently changed back to one marker, this time using the square with the state outline and name at the bottom for all routes?  Wondering about it due to this old thread, (http://https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=16469.msg2094058#msg2094058) but I may very well be wrong here.
Title: Re: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: Rothman on May 12, 2019, 12:52:40 PM
Quote from: Avalanchez71 on May 12, 2019, 12:40:30 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on May 11, 2019, 09:42:51 PM
Trying to think which states have recently ("recently" being a relative term) changed their state route markers.

North Dakota is the most recent. Others in recent memory are listed, in no order. If anyone wants to supply other entries, or dates for the changes, feel free. I'll probably leave one out. I'm not counting Louisiana's color scheme change in this list.

South Carolina
Oklahoma
Vermont
Tennessee (early 1980s, not exactly "recent" but it's the first change I personally became aware of, I was familiar with the triangles used for all state routes).
I wish Kentucky could come up with something better.  Likewise for North Carolina and Mississippi.
Nah.  KY's white circles with whichever font was convenient at fabrication are classic.
Title: Re: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: Eth on May 12, 2019, 01:10:21 PM
Does Georgia's constant indecision about what the state outline looks like count?
Title: Re: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: oscar on May 12, 2019, 01:17:43 PM
Quote from: Revive 755 on May 12, 2019, 12:44:49 PM
Didn't Tennessee recently changed back to one marker, this time using the square with the state outline and name at the bottom for all routes?  Wondering about it due to this old thread, (http://https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=16469.msg2094058#msg2094058) but I may very well be wrong here.

Still lots of triangles around. The transition to square markers is uneven at best.
Title: Re: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: Max Rockatansky on May 12, 2019, 02:25:55 PM
Michigan started removing the "M"  from shields on theft prone highways line M-22.  Somehow this is supposed to make people want to steal them less?  California recently moved from largely reflective paint based signage to vinyl which includes the shields.  There are still a surprisingly large amount of reflective signs and button copy in my area that isn't even twenty years old. 
Title: Re: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: Highway63 on June 06, 2019, 12:42:22 AM
It's not a complete change design-wise but Iowa has been moving exclusively to wide shields for all 3-digits routes. There's a blog post I drafted a year ago but have yet to finesse.

South Dakota may not have changed markers, but the state outline is much less crisp on some newer ones I saw in 2015.
Title: Re: Recent changes to state route markers
Post by: US 89 on June 06, 2019, 01:03:52 AM
Utah went through a whole bunch of minor design changes starting around 2005 before settling on a newer version (for the most part, since signage installed even today is still inconsistent). Personally I liked the old one a lot better. Old one is on the left, modern version on right:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Utah_SR_68.svg/240px-Utah_SR_68.svg.png) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Utah_68.svg/240px-Utah_68.svg.png)