Ideas Exclusive To One State That Should Epand Cross-Country...

[roadfro]

I imagine there are a few other cities that are like this, so "exclusive" might be overselling it, but I really wish more cities would adopt backlit street signage to the extent Las Vegas has. I'm used to only seeing them in select corridors, but in Vegas they are used at just about every single signalized intersection.

As long as the backlighting is maintained!

We have some formerly backlit BGSes from the 1960s in San Francisco for I-80 east...that have not had their lighting adjusted at all in decades:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7779028,-122.4002709,3a,75y,348.73h,97.16t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sx_Jurvr-6005ShBiPvu65w!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3Dx_Jurvr-6005ShBiPvu65w%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D348.7255161774147%26pitch%3D-7.155781090405995%26thumbfov%3D90!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu

That sign must have looked amazing when it was brand new! I agree, the problem is that such signs are not maintained properly in the USA. Other countries, on the other hand, do take good care of backlit signs and they look sharp.

Vegas is pretty good at maintaining ours. I've only seen one or two signs not working in the time I've been living here.

Besides, these days, with LEDs, the maintenance required is pretty low.

The implementation and design may vary by jurisdiction, but internally lit street name signs at traffic signals seems to have become a standard statewide in Nevada. And most jurisdictions are using the thinner LED units for new installations/replacements now, instead of the fluorescent tube housings.

They are widespread in Reno, Sparks and Carson City...although not at every signal like in the Vegas area (some older ones don't have them, but any new installations always do). They're common enough in smaller urban environments like Elko, Fallon and Fernley, and NDOT & the counties do tend to use them when installing signals at rural intersections.

North Las Vegas had been a long a hold out on this, preferring a static sign attached to the mast arm...this was a tell-tale sign that a signal was maintained by NLV instead of LV or Clark County. But on my recent trip to the Vegas area last month, I recall going through one or two newer signals in NLV that had lit SNS's (similar implementation to the current Henderson standard) and I was quite surprised to see it.


But yes, I agree that this would be a great practice to expand elsewhere. Especially the current iteration in the Las Vegas area that uses really big lettering with direction & block number (example).