What style of street blades are in current use in the City of Los Angeles? If the city puts up a new street blade, what style will it use?
I live in LA and pay pretty close attention to signage, new street blade installations have escaped my notice. Miltant Angeleno wrote the definitive article on the subject, (http://militantangeleno.blogspot.com/2011/03/signs-of-times.html) but it's over a decade old at this point. I'm afraid it may be out of date.
There are three types of signs that have seen recent use. Which is/are the city currently installing?
First, we have the 2009-era eyesore. The signs these days aren't all that common. Is the city still installing them? If not, when were they discontinued?
(https://i.imgur.com/yA7WOXx.jpg)
Next, we have the blue blade. Militant Angeleno says that these were installed from 1973-85, but take a look at the pic below. Obama Bl was renamed circa 2019, so these signs have been in the mix recently.
(https://i.imgur.com/3AH6i4Y.jpg)
Finally, the trapezoid, which for my money, is the best-looking of the bunch. It's a design unique to LA. Militant Angeleno says these were being installed from 1985 through to the time he wrote his article (2011). Are these still going up?
(https://i.imgur.com/JA1keb0.jpg)
See http://militantangeleno.blogspot.com/2011/03/signs-of-times.html . I still see the shotgun style and the blue blade around (in fact, I want to say there are some on our street out here in the valley -- I'm in Northridge).
Last I checked, the regular blue street blade is still the standard install.
Example: this video showing the install of the new signal at Oxnard and Variel in Woodland Hills (ignore video title, it's not "Oxford"), which just occurred a couple months ago. It uses the standard blue blade:
https://youtu.be/0MAFEii6t3A
Vancouver, BC also uses (https://goo.gl/maps/SW2Bd1hvtubn9Gsd9) that trapezoid-style blade, but sadly it's not cutout like the LA example.
I wish they'd go with backlit street blades.
Well the UFO style is pretty much only used in newly reconstructed areas. For example, the newly constructed Jordan Downs Century Blvd extension uses the new signage. Not discontinued.
(https://i.imgur.com/wRpVIxgl.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/T4WrXxvl.png)