The Worst of Road Signs

[Takumi]

Yeah, my point of that was to say that was a good thing.

[agentsteel53]

Not in Virginia. Their MUTCD supplement completely bans them.
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=5061.0

we still get more accidental installs there than in, say, Tennessee.  how has Tennessee managed to not have one pop up even by accident since the early 90s?

[codyg1985]

Not in Virginia. Their MUTCD supplement completely bans them.
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=5061.0

we still get more accidental installs there than in, say, Tennessee.  how has Tennessee managed to not have one pop up even by accident since the early 90s?

They sort of did along I-24, but the contractor put Georgia in the shield instead of Tennessee.

[Zeffy]

On the one hand, state name interstate shield in Virginia likely created after the MUTCD banned it. On the other hand, everything else. Because Virginia Beach.

[codyg1985]

Not in Virginia. Their MUTCD supplement completely bans them.
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=5061.0

we still get more accidental installs there than in, say, Tennessee.  how has Tennessee managed to not have one pop up even by accident since the early 90s?

They sort of did along I-24, but the contractor put Georgia in the shield instead of Tennessee.

This was at Exit 152 in South Pittsburg, TN:

[PHLBOS]

Not in Virginia. Their MUTCD supplement completely bans them.
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=5061.0

we still get more accidental installs there than in, say, Tennessee.  how has Tennessee managed to not have one pop up even by accident since the early 90s?

They sort of did along I-24, but the contractor put Georgia in the shield instead of Tennessee.

This was at Exit 152 in South Pittsburg, TN:

That pic should be posted in the Erroneous road signs thread.

[Takumi]

Not in Virginia. Their MUTCD supplement completely bans them.
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=5061.0

we still get more accidental installs there than in, say, Tennessee.  how has Tennessee managed to not have one pop up even by accident since the early 90s?

I guess because Virginia has so many independent cities that, for the most part, do their own thing with signage. Most of it is terrible (see Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Suffolk since they took over their own maintenance in 2006, Hopewell, to name just a few), but then you have isolated moments of genius, like the normal-looking state-name I-264 shield at the oceanfront, and Newport News and Williamsburg still using cutout-era spec signage to this day, albeit on unisigns.

[agentsteel53]

damn!!!  that contractor error was this close to being a necessary thing in the state of Tennessee.

how is it that I know of two old-style TENN triangle shields, and three old-style TENN-US shields... and not a single interstate?

[hbelkins]

Last state-named Tennessee interstate sign I remember seeing was on the southbound approach to I-40's Exit 407, at TN 66 (the Gatlinburg/Sevierville/Pigeon Forge exit). The signs were there in the late 1990s but I didn't get a photo. They've since disappeared.

[vdeane]

Not in Virginia. Their MUTCD supplement completely bans them.
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=5061.0

we still get more accidental installs there than in, say, Tennessee.  how has Tennessee managed to not have one pop up even by accident since the early 90s?

They sort of did along I-24, but the contractor put Georgia in the shield instead of Tennessee.

Maybe that sign was meant to be further east?

[codyg1985]

^ It was installed as part of the rebuild of the interchange with US 72. I think either the contractor or TDOT has since either replaced the shield or taped over the Georgia part.

[agentsteel53]

Last state-named Tennessee interstate sign I remember seeing was on the southbound approach to I-40's Exit 407, at TN 66 (the Gatlinburg/Sevierville/Pigeon Forge exit). The signs were there in the late 1990s but I didn't get a photo. They've since disappeared.

the last one I saw was on I-640 westbound, at the western end as it merged with I-40.  the assembly said WEST 640 TO 40, and one (I can't remember which!) was state-named.  this was on January 1, 2005.

[hbelkins]

Where are the TENN triangles and the TENN-US signs you reference? I have personally seen the TN 99 in Hohenwald and the US 25E in Cumberland Gap.

[US 41]

Misspelled STOP sign. It actually is a stop sign for horses.

http://www.experience-ohio-amish-country.com/images/whoa-sign.jpg

[vtk]

Misspelled STOP sign. It actually is a stop sign for horses.

http://www.experience-ohio-amish-country.com/images/whoa-sign.jpg

That's got too much charm for Worst Of.

[AsphaltPlanet]

Poor sign layout on this sign:

[agentsteel53]

Where are the TENN triangles and the TENN-US signs you reference? I have personally seen the TN 99 in Hohenwald and the US 25E in Cumberland Gap.

the others:

Memphis.  mainline 78 eastbound, exactly where you'd think they are:


I forget which town, but it is on the old drag.  not tough to find.  since this photo was taken, they righted the gantry so it is all properly rectilinear.

[agentsteel53]

Poor sign layout on this sign:
[express]

is this implying that the ramp to the express lanes is the #1 lane, and (optionally), the #2?  because if so, the sign is indeed poorly done: it makes it look like the #2 is optionally the express (bear right) or who knows where (bear left).

[sammi]

Poor sign layout on this sign:
[express]

is this implying that the ramp to the express lanes is the #1 lane, and (optionally), the #2?  because if so, the sign is indeed poorly done: it makes it look like the #2 is optionally the express (bear right) or who knows where (bear left).

Lanes 1 and 2 go to Express. 1 is exit only (hence the bilingual panel), 2 is an option lane. Bear left, express; keep straight, collectors. Ontario always does it that way.

That said, AsphaltPlanet was probably referring to the other sign.

This is why the DVP needs an actual shield.

[404] [DVP]
Downtown
Newmarket

[Brandon]

^^ The MTO could take a page from MDOT and rearrange the sign to read:

{404} Newmarket
Don Valley Pkwy

on two separate lines.

[AsphaltPlanet]

^ I don't know why they didn't.  The current layout of the sign defies common sense.

[Alps]

Where are the TENN triangles and the TENN-US signs you reference? I have personally seen the TN 99 in Hohenwald and the US 25E in Cumberland Gap.

the others:

Memphis.  mainline 78 eastbound, exactly where you'd think they are:


I forget which town, but it is on the old drag.  not tough to find.  since this photo was taken, they righted the gantry so it is all properly rectilinear.

For the latter - Englewood Rd., Madisonville?
As for the 25E in Cumberland Gap, which I've seen in several iterations and I know to be in shitty condition - exactly where in the Gap is it? I'll be there fairly soon.

[NE2]

As for the 25E in Cumberland Gap, which I've seen in several iterations and I know to be in shitty condition - exactly where in the Gap is it? I'll be there fairly soon.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_US_25E_sign.jpg has lat/long.

[1995hoo]

Poor sign layout on this sign:
[express]

is this implying that the ramp to the express lanes is the #1 lane, and (optionally), the #2?  because if so, the sign is indeed poorly done: it makes it look like the #2 is optionally the express (bear right) or who knows where (bear left).

Others have hinted at it but haven't said it straight out: The Don Valley Parkway is not part of Route 404. They act as continuations of each other on either side of 401, but they carry separate designations. Yet the sign implies that 404 will lead you to the DVP somewhere downstream.

Regarding the sign for the express lanes, it's not really ambiguous if you know the road because they use European-style blue signs over the collector lanes (in the US we'd probably call them "local" lanes) and American-style green signs over the express lanes. So the blue signs tell you you're in the local lanes. Like so many things, it's a lot easier to follow in person than it is in a still photograph.

[agentsteel53]

The Don Valley Parkway is not part of Route 404.

sounds like CA-56 and the Ted Williams Parkway.  it would probably make more sense if they renamed the whole shebang as both 404 and the Don Valley Parkway. 

again, route naming and numbering is supposed to be an aid to navigation.  precisely whom does it help to have something abruptly change in the middle like that?