BGS or BBS?

[US 41]

For those that don't know.

BGS Example (common in the USA, Canada, and Mexico)


BBS Example (common in the EU, US Airports, and certain Canadian toll roads)

[CapeCodder]

BGS

[jakeroot]

Just pure aesthetics, I like the way blue stands out from the environment.

[Pink Jazz]

I think a potential reason for the MUTCD specifying green is due to the fact that the human eye is most sensitive to the green and yellow parts of the spectrum (mid-wavelengths), thus they are more visible to the average human.

In countries that use blue guide signs, I wonder what color are their service signs?  Here in the U.S. blue is the standard color for service signs (most commonly logo signs).

[english si]

(which shows that more EU countries use green than blue: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czechia, Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy is 15/28, with Malta having no motorways and Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Austria, UK and Ireland being the other 12)

Though, of course, some countries have both BBS and BGS - eg here's green ones from Britain and Ireland respectively that I grabbed off SABRE's gallery (and with a bit more effort I could have found some BBS from green-coloured countries on the above map).



In Britain, I prefer, aesthetically speaking, the Green directional signage to Blue directional signs, for reasons that have nothing to do with background colour (I prefer the yellow numbers to the different font numbers).

[Thunderbyrd316]

Just for the record, I would like to revise the MUTCD colors as follows; Blue: Guide, Green: Recreational, Brown: Service, School Zone: Purple, Construction: Lime Green. other colors as they are. Just my 2 cents but I really like blue guide signs and not just for freeways but for all roads, though I would be OK with doing it like the UK and having blue for freeways and green for other routes.

[xcellntbuy]

I am old enough to remember blue signs on the New York State Thruway (both big and little ones) and the last days of the blue signs on Quebec autoroutes.  I believe a small number of old blue signs still stand in isolated places in Quebec to this day.

I like our green ones.

[jakeroot]

In countries that use blue guide signs, I wonder what color are their service signs?  Here in the U.S. blue is the standard color for service signs (most commonly logo signs).

The UK uses blue for their services. If I remember correctly, they are blue because "services" are seen as a motorway commodity (and motorway-related context has blue backgrounds, be it an entire sign or a patch on an alternatively-colored sign).

Just for the record, I would like to revise the MUTCD colors as follows; Blue: Guide, Green: Recreational, Brown: Service, School Zone: Purple, Construction: Lime Green. other colors as they are. Just my 2 cents but I really like blue guide signs and not just for freeways but for all roads, though I would be OK with doing it like the UK and having blue for freeways and green for other routes.

I would reserve purple for toll roads, and leave orange as construction and reserve lime green for school. The other changes I would be okay with.

[1995hoo]

I like the way Ontario uses both on the quad-carriageways.

[Pink Jazz]

Brown: Service

Somewhere online I think I have actually seen a photo of a brown Attractions logo sign.  Not sure where.

Here is my scheme:

• Guide - Green
• Recreational - Gray
• Services (including logo signs) - Pink
• School/Pedestrian/Bicycle Crossings - Light Blue
• Electronic Toll Collection - Mint Green
• Construction - Orange
• Warning - Yellow
• Stop/Wrong Way/Yield/Do Not Enter - Red
• Incident Management - Purple
• Regulatory - Blue

[Quillz]

I liked the older white-on-black guide signs. Those should make a comeback.

[english si]

Just my 2 cents but I really like blue guide signs and not just for freeways but for all roads, though I would be OK with doing it like the UK and having blue for freeways and green for other routes.

We have white for most roads' direction signage.

The different colours for differently important roads (or, in France, green signs for important destinations, rather than important roads) is helpful - you can see what is the main route without have to read anything - just follow the green. The monochromatic nature of the Netherlands (the cartouches for road numbers are different colours though) or the USA flattens the hierarchy of routes for navigation and doesn't (which some countries do, but only use two different colours) treat motorways as a special class of road that needs to be highlighted.

The UK uses blue for their services. If I remember correctly, they are blue because "services" are seen as a motorway commodity (and motorway-related context has blue backgrounds, be it an entire sign or a patch on an alternatively-colored sign).

Other than a handful like this sign for Cambridge services (which are officially motorway services despite not being near a motorway), where "Cambridge services" is in a blue patch, outside of flag signs pointing into the services (which are blue for official MSAs, IIRC, but can be green or white, depending on the road), green is perfectly acceptable on a primary route (eg Oxford services) and white on non-primary routes.

[jakeroot]

I liked the older white-on-black guide signs. Those should make a comeback.

If it was an option, I would have selected black-on-white. I shouldn't like them (with their negative contrast and what-not) but I do anyways.

Other than a handful like this sign for Cambridge services (which are officially motorway services despite not being near a motorway), where "Cambridge services" is in a blue patch, outside of flag signs pointing into the services (which are blue for official MSAs, IIRC, but can be green or white, depending on the road), green is perfectly acceptable on a primary route (eg Oxford services) and white on non-primary routes.

Very interesting. I had always thought that services were restricted to motorways, although now that I think about it, the A-road network is far more extensive than the motorway network, so I can see how A-road services would exist. Though I assume motorway services far outweigh A-road services?

[english si]

Very interesting. I had always thought that services were restricted to motorways, although now that I think about it, the A-road network is far more extensive than the motorway network, so I can see how A-road services would exist. Though I assume motorway services far outweigh A-road services?

Depends how you count it.
Cambridge North is (I think) unique as it is an official MSA about 10 miles from the nearest motorway, but services that don't have official status though basically provide the same service are many, though the ones that appear on road atlases probably don't quite outweigh the number of MSAs
And then a regular petrol station with a shop might be signed as services - there's way more of these than MSA

(MSA = Motorway Service Area).

[jeffandnicole]

Somewhere online I think I have actually seen a photo of a brown Attractions logo sign.  Not sure where.

I think VA had a brown sign like this somewhere.

[Mapmikey]

Somewhere online I think I have actually seen a photo of a brown Attractions logo sign.  Not sure where.

I think VA had a brown sign like this somewhere.

I-295 in Richmond...

https://goo.gl/maps/cz9qPkDPTWr

Mike

[cpzilliacus]

Somewhere online I think I have actually seen a photo of a brown Attractions logo sign.  Not sure where.

I think VA had a brown sign like this somewhere.

Virginia also has a (somewhat unusual) big brown sign on I-66 westbound in Prince William County here.

Curiously, nothing of the sort on the eastbound side approaching the same interchange here  and here.

[Quillz]

White-on-brown isn't too bad, either. Associated with national parks, and I don't find them any less readable than white-on-green.

The 5 near the Newhall Pass still has a few white-on-black guide signs remaining, mainly conveying information for truckers.

[Pink Jazz]

White-on-brown isn't too bad, either. Associated with national parks, and I don't find them any less readable than white-on-green.

Note that one disadvantage to brown sheeting is that it is more prone to fading than green or blue.  Here in Arizona, ADOT used to use color coded shields for its Phoenix area loops, with Loop 101 in blue, Loop 202 in brown, and Loop 303 in black.  The brown Loop 202 shields faded badly, which is why the colored shields were discontinued.  I would think green would have been a better choice for Loop 202.

[peterj920]

Somewhere online I think I have actually seen a photo of a brown Attractions logo sign.  Not sure where.

I think VA had a brown sign like this somewhere.

Virginia also has a (somewhat unusual) big brown sign on I-66 westbound in Prince William County here.

Curiously, nothing of the sort on the eastbound side approaching the same interchange here  and here.

I've seen big brown signs like that before.  That was put up because it's an exit to a national park.  Along Wis 29 at County X near Chippewa Falls, WI, a brown sign was placed because it leads to Lake Wissota State Park.  I have also seen them used for exits to national parkways.

[Big John]

Stone Mountain Park east of Atlanta: here

[CNGL-Leudimin]

BBS! Since it is what we use here. I've also seen BWSs (Big White Signs). We used to have BGSs, which were posted on Super-2s, but we phased them out in favor of BWSs.

[cpzilliacus]

Somewhere online I think I have actually seen a photo of a brown Attractions logo sign.  Not sure where.

I think VA had a brown sign like this somewhere.

Virginia also has a (somewhat unusual) big brown sign on I-66 westbound in Prince William County here.

Curiously, nothing of the sort on the eastbound side approaching the same interchange here  and here.

I've seen big brown signs like that before.  That was put up because it's an exit to a national park. 

Though it also leads to destinations beyond the battlefield park as well, including the amusingly-named Catharpin.

Along Wis 29 at County X near Chippewa Falls, WI, a brown sign was placed because it leads to Lake Wissota State Park.  I have also seen them used for exits to national parkways.

Virginia is inconsistent about that. Sometimes they are posted in regular white-on-green, other times they are brown-on-white.

[Mapmikey]

Virginia will even give the BBS treatment to commercial entities that are not natural or historic parks

https://goo.gl/maps/fr4SWAPwZS72

Mike

[roadman]

Somewhere online I think I have actually seen a photo of a brown Attractions logo sign.  Not sure where.

MassDOT uses blue background on the main Attractions sign panels, but allows white on brown for individual logos within those panels for state parks and historical sites.