The Worst of Road Signs

[Eth]

Saw this at the corner of Middlesex CR 614 and Campus Road in Plainsboro, NJ:

What's wrong with this sign? I don't see how this is "worst of".

- Upper/lowercase heights mismatched
- Hard to tell, but I suspect that "RD" is likely too small to be reasonably read
- Thick white border on the county road shield instead of the proper border
- Also, that number in the shield doesn't look quite right. Is that...Blue Highway?!

[roadfro]

Going back to the last page...

What's wrong with the last signs?

I believe the yellow "Exit Only" tab is supposed to go across the entire sign if there's just one lane exiting.  Looks like the DOT couldn't make up their minds if it should be one lane or two.  Definitely a design error.

Not necessarily a design error. I don't see anything that says the entire bottom of the sign has to be a yellow exit only panel.

This could be a re-use of existing mounting hardware that has resulted in a sign too wide for the destination legend, or it could be that a future option lane is planned and the sign was designed so that white arrows could be added when needed.

[freebrickproductions]

What happens when you have a marina that's strapped for cash and they need some speed limit signs? Well, let me just say it ain't pretty.

Re-used Speed Limit Signs by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Re-used Speed Limit Signs by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Re-used Speed Limit Signs by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Here are some more from southern Madison County, AL:

Faded Stop Sign by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Signs in need of repair by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

An abandoned stop sign along Derrick Street for a road that was supposed to come off of Derrick Street that was never built. This is right next to the Norfolk Southern Main Line. Amazingly, it still stands.

Abandoned Stop Sign by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Faded crossbuck on Lanier Road in Madison, AL.

Faded Crossbuck by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Faded signage at the Huntsville City Schools annex building next to Huntsville High School.

Faded Stop Sign by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Faded Stop Sign by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Faded No Left Turn Sign by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

There's faded signage at other schools in the area too. I'll see about getting some pictures soon.

[OracleUsr]

That one speed limit sign looks like it's okay to go 310 mph.

[jakeroot]

What is the point of lowering the speed limit in a parking lot? Was it enforced to begin with?

[1995hoo]

 At least with the faded stop signs it's obvious what they are since no other sign ordinarily uses that shape. (I say "ordinarily" because I am aware of a stop sign—shaped "Do Not Enter" sign on federal property in Southwest DC.)

[spooky]

Signs in need of repair by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Reminds me of this sign on my evening commute.

[Kacie Jane]

What is the point of lowering the speed limit in a parking lot? Was it enforced to begin with?

I'm assuming the speed limit wasn't lowered.  Rather, the sign used to be posted somewhere else entirely where the speed limit was 30, then got repurposed here and patched.

[national highway 1]

[jakeroot]

^^^^ Seems decent enough . . . what's wrong? Then again, I'm not overly familiar with Australian design standards.

[sammi]

^^^^ Seems decent enough . . . what's wrong? Then again, I'm not overly familiar with Australian design standards.

The large spacing is the only thing I see.
Australian signs are generally good, or at least those I've seen, so this may as well be the worst sign in Australia.

[national highway 1]

^^^^ Seems decent enough . . . what's wrong? Then again, I'm not overly familiar with Australian design standards.

The large spacing is the only thing I see.
Australian signs are generally good, or at least those I've seen, so this may as well be the worst sign in Australia.

Queensland has the most consistently terrible signs of all states in Australia. The Northern Territory is not far behind. New South Wales and Western Australia usually have similar and very consistent signage.

[PHLBOS]

^^^^ Seems decent enough . . . what's wrong? Then again, I'm not overly familiar with Australian design standards.

The large spacing is the only thing I see.
Australian signs are generally good, or at least those I've seen, so this may as well be the worst sign in Australia.

Queensland has the most consistently terrible signs of all states in Australia. The Northern Territory is not far behind. New South Wales and Western Australia usually have similar and very consistent signage.

It's a reasonable assumption that most of us here (myself included) are not familiar enough w/Australian sign standards to know what makes a sign there good or bad (best or worst).

That said, could you care to elaborate why you believe the sign pic you posted warrants being posted in this particular topic thread (Worst of..)?

IMHO, that BGS doesn't look bad at all.

[Zeffy]

@PHLBOS: I'm going to say that it's the extra spacing in between each of the lines as well as the large amount of spacing after the FEDERATION WAY line that he wants to call it the worst of. If you want my opinion - it's fine.

[jakeroot]

@PHLBOS: I'm going to say that it's the extra spacing in between each of the lines as well as the large amount of spacing after the FEDERATION WAY line that he wants to call it the worst of. If you want my opinion - it's fine.

Perhaps that's a sign (no pun intended) that our contractors are a bunch of knobheads?

[vdeane]

If that's Australia's "worst of", then they're light years ahead of the US.

[SSOWorld]

From the pointless requirements section of the MUTCD, NYCDOT, and the Department of Redundancy Department



This sign needs an overhaul - NJ Turnpike



Cardinal direction technicality - thanks to NYCDOT



Welcome to Long Island - here's your daily ugly county route shield and E series font.

[PurdueBill]

From the pointless requirements section of the MUTCD, NYCDOT, and the Department of Redundancy Department

There are quite a few similar signs in Ohio thanks to the standard prior to the new tabs being LEFT in black on yellow inline with the distance.  Now they have replaced the old with the new tabs and the result is yellow LEFT boxes everywhere!  Sigh.  (I liked Ohio's treatment much better than the enormous new tabs.  If we do have to stick with the new tabs for left exits, I wish we'd go with the Mass style ones, and definitely not the Louisiana all-yellow ones [how do they get away with that?!?!])

[freebrickproductions]

Here are some more from my area. All of these were taken along I-565.

Exit 3 by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Exit 14 by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Exit 17B by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

[hbelkins]

That exit gore sign is actually pretty common in a lot of places.

[Brandon]

That exit gore sign is actually pretty common in a lot of places.

It's standard in Nebraska, and used to be in Missouri.

[freebrickproductions]

It sure looks ugly to me.
Here's another one that could use some work:
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.631016,-86.875552&spn=0.000002,0.002064&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=34.631024,-86.87566&panoid=Wo0QDMyEp13uCJE0bTp0wQ&cbp=12,294.07,,2,2.32

[PurdueBill]

Here are some more from my area. All of these were taken along I-565.

Exit 3 by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

MUTCD even allows such a layout (E5-1 plus E5-1bP), specifically when numbers are added to previously unnumbered exits (although they want such signs to convert to standard layout (E5-1a) when replaced):


The other two in the same post are maybe more Design Errors than Worst Of?  There are way worse out there.  Were the signs in question edited for lane configurations?

[freebrickproductions]

The Exit 14 one looks more like it was damaged and ALDOT did a patchwork job. The sign should've said "Exit Only" instead of "Only" in my opinion though.

[Eth]

That exit gore sign is actually pretty common in a lot of places.

It's standard in Nebraska, and used to be in Missouri.

Also used to be standard in Georgia for 3-digit exit numbers, though that's no longer the case. I think that died out in the 1999-2000 exit renumbering.