"Fill in the blank" kind of signs

[Billy F 1988]

Basically, these were signs that had up to three destinations at one time, but later, one of them ends up greenout, patched over with another destination, or just simply removed leaving a fugly amount of green space.

This is just as you come off Exit 96 approaching Old US 10 heading east to the airport in Missoula.
https://www.google.com/maps/@46.949207,-114.132489,3a,15y,117.64h,89.93t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1siPVH872izQMzdEv-yz_qMQ!2e0

I'll give you a hint: there was a destination above the line "Smokejumper Center". Would you suppose the first line above it was "Airport"? "Missoula"? I mean, what was the first line above "Smokejumper Center" that the sign shop decided to remove?

[Scott5114]

My favorite type of sign in this category is the one where the entire legend has been removed, but for whatever reason the panel isn't removed. KDOT seems particularly fond of doing this.

[hbelkins]

There are a few of these westbound on Corridor H (US 48) in West Virginia. The bottom line is left blank, presumably to add Elkins or Weston once the road is complete.

Of course, at the rate things are going, the signs will need to be replaced before the road is finished. between the Davis/Thomas area and where it currently ends north of Elkins.

[SSOWorld]

Minnesota still uses the old-style "gas-food-lodging" style blue signs to this day and they have a set pattern of where the types of services are placed.  Even E-85 has made it into the template

The last of the three is on US-10, the others I-94.  They appear pretty much statewide outside metro areas.

[hotdogPi]

There is a sign on I-93 in northern Massachusetts that has a radio station missing (it's meant for alerts in the area).

[thenetwork]

My favorite one used to be a BGS on the 405 northbound around the Sunset / Wilshire Boulevard area over the center divider in L.A. -- completely blank.

For the handful of times I would drive by it in the 80's-90's-00's it remained untouched. 

Anyone know what it once said or what it was supposed to say?

[PHLBOS]

When BGS' like this one were first erected along I-95 for the I-676/US 30/Vine Expressway interchange; all the BGS' for I-95 South included Phila. (or Philadelphia) International Airport as a listed control destination.  About 2 to 3 years later, the Airport destination references on all of the approach BGS' along I-95 South to this interchange were greened out.

Note: the subsequent diagrammatic BGS for the Columbus Blvd. interchange  (along with its collegues) does not have I-95 South's Airport destination greened out.

The only logical *cough* *cough* reasoning for this would be let motorists indirectly know that one could use I-676 West to I-76 East to PA 291 West as an alternate route to PHL (if I-95 South was closed due to an accident and/or jammed up).

Similar was done along I-76 East for this BGS (which also once listed Phila. Int'l Airport above the Sports Complex listing) at about the same time the I-95 South BGS'  were altered.

[Brandon]

Big Green Sign looking for Control City to complete it:

[hm insulators]

My favorite one used to be a BGS on the 405 northbound around the Sunset / Wilshire Boulevard area over the center divider in L.A. -- completely blank.

For the handful of times I would drive by it in the 80's-90's-00's it remained untouched. 

Anyone know what it once said or what it was supposed to say?

I remember that blank sign; it was there for years and years. There might even have been two or three of them, but as to what they said, I have no clue as I didn't drive that section of the 405 until I moved back to California from Hawaii in 1986. With all the major construction along that stretch of the 405 for HOV lanes, new braided ramps, etc., the blank signs are long gone.

[agentsteel53]

there was a blank sign in the median on I-5 southbound in Orange County.  may still be there.  I've gotten used to it from driving I-5 southbound so many times that I don't pay attention to it anymore. 

[Mr. Matté]

When I hear "blank signs," I think of NJ Route 18 after the reconstruction through New Brunswick was finished. All the speed limit signs were blank for the longest time until numbers suddenly appeared on them after a pedestrian was killed (though I don't think the lack of a signed limit was the direct cause).

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Confusion-Corridor-NJ-Highway-With-No-Speed-Limit-Now-Has-Four-80224057.html

[kendancy66]

there was a blank sign in the median on I-5 southbound in Orange County.  may still be there.  I've gotten used to it from driving I-5 southbound so many times that I don't pay attention to it anymore. 

It is still there, I drive by it all the time.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=33.609276,-117.700589&spn=0.004861,0.016973&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=33.609222,-117.700459&panoid=fiI2nJFHGHhAseH73BnjVw&cbp=12,109.5,,0,5.03

[Brandon]

How about the entire freaking sign?



This illustrious example was in Green Bay on US-41.

[mrsman]

My favorite one used to be a BGS on the 405 northbound around the Sunset / Wilshire Boulevard area over the center divider in L.A. -- completely blank.

For the handful of times I would drive by it in the 80's-90's-00's it remained untouched. 

Anyone know what it once said or what it was supposed to say?

I remember that blank sign; it was there for years and years. There might even have been two or three of them, but as to what they said, I have no clue as I didn't drive that section of the 405 until I moved back to California from Hawaii in 1986. With all the major construction along that stretch of the 405 for HOV lanes, new braided ramps, etc., the blank signs are long gone.

This stretch of the 405 has had a lot of changes over the years.  Back when I was a kid in the 80's, you had Wilshire as a full cloverleaf.  The next exit northbound was Montana Ave.  The ramp led directly to Sepulveda just south of Montana.  Montana was a great shortcut to the backside of UCLA, much less traffic than Wilshire and Westwood, but it led through a wealthy residential neighborhood, so there was pressure to remove the exit.

Check this out, a sign from the freeway exit, but the exit is no longer there: http://goo.gl/maps/98Uqz

Southbound, there used to be an exit and an entrance on Waterford Street.  This is a small two block residential street just north of the VA property.  It never made any sense to me to have an exit here, as it would just lead for a lot of traffic to get lost on a lot of the side streets here and backtrack significantly to reach Montana Ave.  Over the years, they got rid of the exit here and then later got rid of the entrance too.

Another interesting exit is over at Getty Center Drive.  Here, the 405 has northbound exits and entrances and southbound exits and entrances directly to Sepulveda Blvd a short distance north of Getty Center.  Before the Getty Center was built here, the southbound exit was named Moraga Ave and the northbound exit was named Chalon Drive.  What's odd about it, is that the northbound exit for Moraga was right at Moraga, yet this was far away.  Maybe both exits should have been named Chaon Drive, then?  But Chalon was ridiculous too!  It was a fairly important small mountainous street that had a small private college (mount st mary's), but the only way to reach Chalon, without going down to Sunset, was through fire roads that were closed to the public.  The only purpose for this exit, before the construction of the Getty Center, was to provide a bail-out point to Sepulveda Blvd in the midst of the Sepulveda Pass, there was no way to get to Chalon Drive.

[PHLBOS]

When the Philadelphia Civic Center became no more, the Exit 346B BGS' along I-76 West in Philly had all Civic Center listings greened out.  Scroll down for pics