New, Microscopic Sign on I-590

[vdeane]

Recently NYSDOT replaced the sign for Highland Ave on I-590 with... this:


Here's what used to be there:

[mapman]

Doesn't NYDOT have any kind of policy regarding use of overhead versus side-mounted guide signs?  Caltrans only uses side-mounted exit signs like your Exit 4 in rural areas, but is upgrading more and more to overhead signs.

[vdeane]

NYSDOT usually uses signs by the side of the road where possible, but in this situation side-mounted is more appropriate since there isn't much space; the new sign is very small in order to fit next to the noise barrier, and I'm sure more than a few people don't even notice it.

Since everything is done in regions in NY, I can't say for other regions, but for region 4 (Rochester area), the current trend in in favor of side-mounted signs in favor of overhead in many places.  Here's a new sign on I-490 showing this (the old overhead sign has not yet been taken down):

[cu2010]

You know, that Exit 4 sign on 590 wouldn't look so bad if the exit tab wasn't so big...and if the sign were a little more rounded.

I don't have pictures of any of the signs, but I still remember when NYSDOT Region 3 replaced an old overhead button copy sign on I-81 southbound at exit 25A for the NY Thruway (which, as much as I love button copy, the buttons had fallen off of the old sign, making it near impossible to read anything other than the I-90 shield on the sign at night, making it in dire need of a replacement) with a side-mounted sign, complete with "RIGHT LANE EXIT ONLY" copy at the bottom...then they replaced that side-mounted sign no more than a year later with another overhead one, this time with the Thruway logo and Buffalo and Albany listed on the new sign!

I love my home state. 

[vdeane]

You know, that Exit 4 sign on 590 wouldn't look so bad if the exit tab wasn't so big...and if the sign were a little more rounded.

Thinking about it more, it's not too much smaller than a regular sign, but the nearby noise wall, trees, and a light pole make it hard to see (that shot of the sign that I used is the only one where the view isn't obstructed by something).

[Alex]

Perhaps its a temporary sign?

Looking at that Interstate 490 example, how many of the signs and/or assemblies have been replaced recently? I know there was a bunch of button copy from the Inner Loop leading west last I drove it (2005).

[vdeane]

Who knows.  What I assume was a perfectly good sign was taken down right before it was put in.

As for 490, almost all of those signs were replaced last year with the construction, though one sign for exit 11 remains unreplaced.  Pretty much every sign between I-390 and the eastern end of the Inner Loop is either new or about to be replaced now.

[thenetwork]

That I-590 sign is HUGE, compared to some of the BGSs found along I-469 in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Case in point:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ft.+wayne,+IN&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.396866,53.789062&ie=UTF8&ll=41.097962,-84.995733&spn=0.000449,0.001642&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=41.097962,-84.995732&panoid=Ju3M8sDKig4o_e5dtlyRLw&cbp=12,5.35,,0,5

[iwishiwascanadian]

Occasionally in CT they replace overhead signs with signs on the side, but that is when they are replacing the gantry.  I've seen it on 84 in West Hartford/Farmington.