I thought I remembered a topic on this but I don't see it. I discovered an Iowa state-shape route shield, brand new, on CR T17 northbound at IA 92. It beats the hell out of the circle. SB was a normal circle, though, and haven't seen any other state-shape errors. Any clue what's going on here? How would a contractor have mistakenly used a state outline - it's not exactly something available in a route shield size.
There was a contractor using Indiana-shaped shields a while back too.
Do you have a picture?
It must have been the Indiana ones I was thinking of. Picture has been acquired. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/alpsroads/6971542898/sizes/l/in/photostream/)
I had not known about the Iowa, so the other thread must've been the Indiana.
that Iowa is an awesome shield and needs to be made to happen.
in Iowa's defense, they've been using the circle since the mid-20s. against them, though ... it's still a circle. and their state outline is so perfect for route marker use, too...
they used state-outline shields back when "shields" were painted onto phone posts and whatnot, in the early 20s.
That's much better than a circle. It'd be even better if it were a cut-out!
At least the circles are legible and can't be mistaken for anything else.
How long has it been since Iowa has used square green county road shields? I found an absolutely ancient looking one in Guttenberg in 2003.
I'd like to see them adopt that, too. Hmmmm, maybe they are in anticipation that someday the USA will convert to the worldwide-standard 'red circle' style speed limit signs.
Mike
My best guess is that this was a Missouri contractor who naively assumed all states use the state outline as a shield and just downloaded an Iowa outline off Wikipedia or something.
But the problem is, the southbound sign was a regular circle. Both looked brand-new.