The BEST Transportation Agency in the U.S. (2021 Edition)

[Rothman]

With horizontal traffic lights, kind of curious, do drivers generally know that the order of the light is reversed in left side driving countries, like in Japan and Singapore, the green light is on the left and red on the right? If not, this may be an issue for colorblind drivers.

If I were red/green colorblind enough to not tell stoplights apart, and I were planning to drive in a RHD country, then you can bet your sweet bippy I'd be looking into that kind of thing ahead of time.

But also, wouldn't they figure it out after, say, their first one or two intersections?

^This.

I'm with whoever said the non-colorblind have no clue about the colorblind.  The misperceptions -- and sometimes bad policies as a result -- abound.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Lack of control cities in MSP isn't ideal, but many places choose very poor control cities within urban areas so this is challenging to some extent.

One question I suppose is what's worth signing at some of the urban interchanges. The two core cities are both generally signed very well at interchanges where roads lead to those, but the makeup of the freeway system generally means you need to transfer freeways at least once to get to any given suburban point. For example, the major traffic shift point of MN 62/100 in Edina. To get to Eden Prairie, you'll have to take 62 to 212. Minnetonka, 62 to 494 to 7. To get to Bloomington, you'll probably have to get on 494 from 100 in order to get where you want to go in Bloomington, but you're in Bloomington as it is so it's pointless to put it on the signs at 494/100. As for cities on those routes, are Richfield, St. Louis Park, Golden Valley, Robbinsdale worth putting on signs? I don't really thunk so.

[MillTheRoadgeek]

Where does DDOT (District of Columbia) go on this?

Absolutely awful, borderline Tier 6 for me. They've never heard of FHWA standard fonts, which to me is just such a fail all on its own. Literally everything is Arial. And sometimes, stretched and compressed Arial.

Helvetica, actually. Although it looks like some newer signage uses FHWA fonts.

I have seen some mediocre signs, especially their rather strange Highway Gothic compositions. I do quite wonder as to why it doesn't slot in here. Perhaps any other U.S. territories as well, or is that getting specific to county/city levels?

[JoePCool14]

Where does DDOT (District of Columbia) go on this?

Absolutely awful, borderline Tier 6 for me. They've never heard of FHWA standard fonts, which to me is just such a fail all on its own. Literally everything is Arial. And sometimes, stretched and compressed Arial.

Helvetica, actually. Although it looks like some newer signage uses FHWA fonts.

I have seen some mediocre signs, especially their rather strange Highway Gothic compositions. I do quite wonder as to why it doesn't slot in here. Perhaps any other U.S. territories as well, or is that getting specific to county/city levels?

You can address major city/county DOTs if you want. Stuff like Chicago DOT that's well known enough.

For the record, where does CDOT belong? Definitely not on top but they're not the worst...

[TheHighwayMan3561]

For the record, where does CDOT belong? Definitely not on top but they're not the worst...

Good: pavement quality

Bad: machete treatment of US routes, poorly signed speed limit reductions

[JoePCool14]

For the record, where does CDOT belong? Definitely not on top but they're not the worst...

Good: pavement quality

Bad: machete treatment of US routes, poorly signed speed limit reductions

Another bad is that they consider 5-light towers acceptable for protected only lefts. See Michigan Avenue for examples.