NON reflective button copy & Pipe gantries

[Mergingtraffic]

I had a chance to drive I-84 in CT at night and noticed that the few dark green non-reflective button copy BGSes are easier to read than the reflective ones.  How about your area?

If you have a chance drive I-84 in Waterbury, only 5 or so left. (WB Exit 24 & Exit 23)  (EB signs on C&D road and CT-69 off Exit 23)

Also,

CT has been putting up pipe-style gantries lately like there is no tomorrow.  That is great, but a lot of the signs barely stretch out over the right shoulder and a lot are obscured by trees or not that noticable.  Are they being cheap and by not paying for the extra pipe to extend it over the travel lanes at least?  

[Alps]

I sorta agree - the reflective background can wash out the button copy letters.  On the other hand, that requires the button copy to be clean.  If it's dirty, which happens a lot in snowy states like up here, then the reflective background helps because the letters themselves are non-reflective.  And this is why reflective lettering is taking hold. (:

[TheStranger]

I sorta agree - the reflective background can wash out the button copy letters.  On the other hand, that requires the button copy to be clean.  If it's dirty, which happens a lot in snowy states like up here, then the reflective background helps because the letters themselves are non-reflective.  And this is why reflective lettering is taking hold. (:

Isn't button copy not supposed to be used with a reflective background in the first place?  (i.e. CalTrans classic forest green underneath button copy)  That way, at night, the non-reflective portion doesn't brighten up anywhere as much as the button copy legend, while at day, the contrast is much better than an all-reflective surface (something that makes the new reflective signs in Sacramento frustrating at times - severe glare at the wrong sun angles).

[J N Winkler]

There was never a specific prohibition against using button copy with retroreflective sheeting and in fact that was the Arizona DOT standard for many years.

[Alps]

CT and NJ are largely still signed with reflective button copy.  Ohio is slowly losing its tremendous amount of same.  Non-reflective backgrounds were almost completely out by the mid-80s.

[SignBridge]

New York traditionally signed with button-copy and reflective sheeting and I never noticed any problem reading the legend at night. New Jersey years ago did the same as Calif. At night the button-copy would contrast well with what appeared  to be a "black" background. Both were effective, though I always preferred NY's bright green.

[KEK Inc.]

I-680 in Walnut creek has a combination of pipe gantries and dark green signs.  They're being lazy about adding exit tabs, so there's a reflective exit tab on a dark green button-copy sign. 

[cu2010]

I-680 in Walnut creek has a combination of pipe gantries and dark green signs.  They're being lazy about adding exit tabs, so there's a reflective exit tab on a dark green button-copy sign. 

That's not lazy; that's cost-cutting. No sense in replacing a perfectly good sign.