Damaged Signs

[agentsteel53]

having GIANT ORANGE GARISH ARIAL banner taped across the sign counts as sufficient damage by my standards.  It's never a good sign when Clearview is not the ugliest font on a given sign.

[Scott5114]

having GIANT ORANGE GARISH ARIAL banner taped across the sign counts as sufficient damage by my standards.  It's never a good sign when Clearview is not the ugliest font on a given sign.

You cannot hope to be a font elitist if you confuse Arial for Helvetica! Also your second sentence is a pun.

[agentsteel53]

You cannot hope to be a font elitist if you confuse Arial for Helvetica! Also your second sentence is a pun.

whatever, they're both ugly.  the difference between them is about as much as the difference between Highway Gothic D and Roadgeek D.

[Scott5114]

You cannot hope to be a font elitist if you confuse Arial for Helvetica! Also your second sentence is a pun.

whatever, they're both ugly.  the difference between them is about as much as the difference between Highway Gothic D and Roadgeek D.

Not true, sir!

[agentsteel53]

I'm too lazy to dig up Highway Gothic D digit 5 vs Roadgeek D digit 5.  But they're different. 

[Scott5114]

Probably not as divergent as "G" and "R" above.

"1" is also a greatly divergent character.

[agentsteel53]

I just don't care.  they're both awful fonts and completely inappropriate for road use (or, really, any public display in any context anywhere).  They're about as awful as when I send someone a .svg and forget to convert my fonts to vectors and (since they don't have the fonts installed), everything appears in Verdana, Times New Roman, or something equally default and inappropriate.

[Brandon]

Here's one I'd been meaning to get a picture of the last three times it blew over, but caught it finally on the fourth time.


It's for Exit 267, IL-53, Bolingbrook/Romeoville - 2 miles on I-55 nbd.  The original was FHWA font.  After the first time it blew over, IDOT replaced it with Clearview.  Then it blew over two more times and was replaced, albiet damaged from the fall.  This time, they replaced the whole sign again (with Clearview again).

[vtk]

EB Hayden Run Rd, just before Scioto River bridge:

Full size: http://vidthekid.info/misc/damaged33.jpg

I think this was probably a City of Columbus job, not sure how long ago it was posted.

[nyratk1]

A couple of pics from a fatal tanker crash early last year that took out a gantry on the Long Island Expressway around exit 48. Looks like it also took out one of the DOT electronic INFORM signs:

[WolfGuy100]

A couple of pics from a fatal tanker crash early last year that took out a gantry on the Long Island Expressway around exit 48. Looks like it also took out one of the DOT electronic INFORM signs:

[pics removed -DTP]

All I have to say is holy shit!

[national highway 1]

On I-678 in New York:

[vdeane]

And to think I thought this was bad:

[Duke87]

On I-678 in New York:

Yeah, that sign got mauled by a construction truck a year or two ago. I recall it being discussed here. For a while it was simply removed with the twisted side supports left standing (it's still like that on Street View), but there's a new sign in place now.

[nyratk1]

And to think I thought this was bad:

Just proof the NYC metro area knows how to do it bigger and better than that.

[r-dub]

A couple from Colorado...

On SH 14 in the North Park area. Don't think I've seen sign rot like this anywhere else in the state.

The Elephant Man of speed limit signs

And, the doozie I've found in my travels...

Old wooden sign that used to block SH 86 westbound from I-70 during bad weather. It was laying on the side of the road.

[r-dub]

Oh yeah, one more:

Look closely and you can see where someone tied up the gate so it wouldn't come down!

[national highway 1]

A couple from Colorado...

On SH 14 in the North Park area. Don't think I've seen sign rot like this anywhere else in the state.

Shame this has happened to CO SH shields... 

[Kacie Jane]

Oh yeah, one more:

Look closely and you can see where someone tied up the gate so it wouldn't come down!

They also appear to have turned it into a palm tree. 

[myosh_tino]

CA-85 in Sunnyvale.  I got this photo off Flickr...

Sorry for dredging up an old topic but Caltrans is going to finally replace the Fremont Avenue exit sign (pictured above) that was destroyed when a dump truck hit the sign some 5 years ago.  According to the sign plan, here's what the new sign will look like...


The original sign looked like this...

[PHLBOS]

Random question, why are older Rhode Island BGSs tilted upwards?

More likely answer would be that someone had or read the sign attachment specs./details upside down and placed the the top-member mounting brackets (with the offset to angle the signs slightly downward) on the bottom-member of the sign structure. 

RI isn't the only offender of the above.  Many older overhead sign gantries along I-95/Route 128 from Dedham/Westwood, MA to Newton, MA erected during the early 70s sport similar.  To add insult to injury, when the signs were replaced in the 1990s, MassHighway didn't even bother to swap the upper and lower mounting brackets.  As a result, many of these newer signs are still angled slightly upwards.

[blawp]

CA-85 in Sunnyvale.  I got this photo off Flickr...

Sorry for dredging up an old topic but Caltrans is going to finally replace the Fremont Avenue exit sign (pictured above) that was destroyed when a dump truck hit the sign some 5 years ago.  According to the sign plan, here's what the new sign will look like...


The original sign looked like this...

I hate it when control cities disappear.

[Scott5114]

Keeping up with the times... I think the MUTCD disallows control cities and street names on the same signs now.

[vtk]

Random question, why are older Rhode Island BGSs tilted upwards?

More likely answer would be that someone had or read the sign attachment specs./details upside down and placed the the top-member mounting brackets (with the offset to angle the signs slightly downward) on the bottom-member of the sign structure. 

RI isn't the only offender of the above.  Many older overhead sign gantries along I-95/Route 128 from Dedham/Westwood, MA to Newton, MA erected during the early 70s sport similar.  To add insult to injury, when the signs were replaced in the 1990s, MassHighway didn't even bother to swap the upper and lower mounting brackets.  As a result, many of these newer signs are still angled slightly upwards.

Are you sure it's not intentional? I'd expect downward-tilted signs to suffer glare problems at night due to specular reflection of headlights.

[PHLBOS]

Are you sure it's not intentional? I'd expect downward-tilted signs to suffer glare problems at night due to specular reflection of headlights.

To be clear, we're referring to overhead sign mountings being tilted not ground-mounted signs. I don't believe there are any vehicles that have headlights that high from the ground.

If it was intentional, more overhead signs and ground-mounted signs would have been erected in such a manner.