MUTCD Correct or almost-correct signage at airports

[index]

As many of us know, the majority of airports have signage that, in MUTCD terms, is complete, unadulterated garbage. However a few airports have managed to do it right (or almost right), such as Baltimore-Washington airport:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1826113,-76.6699445,3a,15y,322.19h,94.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sy5n3uK-lHMENrBygTWEQgw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
They got it pretty much right except for the exit tabs.

FLL airport used to have correct signage, too, according to somebody I know...until they replaced it with garbage.
Any other airports with good signage? There has been a thread for airport signage before but that is old (2012) and it was for the topic overall - this is specifically for well-designed stuff.

Edit: I just realized I did not place this in the Traffic Control board as I intended to. Moving the thread is more than welcome

[stevashe]

Signs at Sea-Tac are generally pretty good I'd say, they seem to follow the MUTCD's guidelines well enough: https://goo.gl/maps/8hfMm3zUePTPzhvn9

Only real complaint is the signs heading towards the airport that don't really match up great with the lanes anymore due to a realignment: https://goo.gl/maps/8hfMm3zUePTPzhvn9 You can tell the Arrivals/Parking sign was originally for two lanes and looks a little funny being that wide.

[sprjus4]

Corpus Christi airport's signage is generally MUTCD compliant, though the font is a bit off.

Raleigh-Durham airport's signage is fully MUTCD compliant.

The Piedmont-Triad airport in Greensboro also has fully compliant MUTCD signage, and even was replaced in the last couple of years to reflect the completion of the I-73 northern extension and the I-840 beltway.

[Bobby5280]

I wouldn't call the Corpus Christi example MUTCD compliant. The sign panel is too small, causing many of the elements to be crowded. The Clearview-based copy looks terrible because someone applied a severe negative tracking value to the kerning. It's either that or the sign company used a low quality clone of Clearview. Some of the letters are almost touching each other. The default, built-in spacing of Clearview doesn't behave like that at all.

Also, what's up all the flood lights? It looks like overkill for a panel that size. Worse yet, the placement of those flood lights actually obscures some of the lettering when a motorist gets close enough to read the lettering on the panel.

Overall it's a pretty poorly designed sign, IMHO.

[Brian556]

DFW uses blue guide signs, but they are clearview and otherwise look right
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.9251885,-97.0395916,3a,39.6y,355.95h,88.46t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sgZ0ASo8n5l2pSgocd74HLw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DgZ0ASo8n5l2pSgocd74HLw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D142.86891%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

[formulanone]

Overall it's a pretty poorly designed sign, IMHO.

It's probably one of the closer-to-compliance side of airport signage examples. Mostly the lack of panel separation makes it tricky to figure out, but Corpus Christi isn't going to massive amounts of traffic entering/leaving that regional airport. There's a pretty good run-up from airport exit to any actual major routes.

The worst is when the exit of the airport property dumps you off quickly and the sign just lists every possible scenario or major route, and those are never crafted for quick responses, especially when many travelers are clearly not from the area.

If it's a major hub or in the top-50-sized airports, I expect the signage to be done properly, but I'm not expecting miracles, especially at some regional airport.

[US 89]

While the Salt Lake City airport generally produces ugly signs (black background and Helvetica, just to start), it now features MUTCD-compliant interstate shields. They're also huge.

[Rothman]

While the Salt Lake City airport generally produces ugly signs (black background and Helvetica, just to start), it now features MUTCD-compliant interstate shields. They're also huge.

Huh.  I seem to remember that the signage wasn't as ugly leaving the airport 25 years ago or so.

[formulanone]

Raleigh-Durham airport's signage is fully MUTCD compliant.

Green backgrounds for routes outside the airport, and gray for options related to the airport. Perfect!





Does Milwaukee still have those button copy signs? Not perfect, but not bad. Borders on the signs would seal the deal. Signs are from 2014.







Have give a shout-out to Huntsville for getting some of the signs right; there's a few blue/green guide signs that aren't that bad, but use the wrong font. The signs on the approach to the exit are nice:



Also, this is the only shield with Clearview numbers I've seen in the whole state...

[Bobby5280]

Also, this is the only shield with Clearview numbers I've seen in the whole state...

While I don't mind Clearview for message copy on big green panels, I don't like it in route markers. Regardless of the typeface used I really dislike lettering and numerals to be artificially distorted out of their normal proportions. The I-565 shield looks like it has Clearview 3B or 4B numerals squeezed to fit the shield when Clearview 2W lettering would have looked better.

[djlynch]

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport's last signage replacement was promoted as meeting TxDOT standards (or some wording like that; I assume they meant the TMUTCD), but the subsequent patches haven't paid attention to text size.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.2100715,-97.6651949,3a,88.3y,282.21h,101.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLS-RiYxE4aDLnFsde2Jsyw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[Brandon]

Raleigh-Durham airport's signage is fully MUTCD compliant.

Green backgrounds for routes outside the airport, and gray for options related to the airport. Perfect!

For a moment, I thought those were CalTrans signs that had been left in the sun (as usual) too long.  They look a lot like faded California signage on the gray.

[KEVIN_224]

This is how one of their sign bridges looked in August of 2010...the lone time I was ever in NC.

[Bobby5280]

Looks like a whole lot of Helvetica.

[sprjus4]

This is how one of their sign bridges looked in August of 2010...the lone time I was ever in NC.

That one still remains further in the airport lot.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.8731331,-78.7968573,3a,38.4y,228.09h,86.71t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sbWz7aZxVDYd1DVQYEEZGYg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e1

The ones posted above were closer to the split between To I-40 and To I-540.

[KEVIN_224]

The bottom of the middle sign is different from my photo of 2010. I didn't know that.