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[DandyDan]

I was in my almost-original hometown of Cottage Grove, MN today. I made my way south from US 61 to the 3M plant there and after crossing the railroad tracks and making a right onto 100th Street, saw what looked like a bunch of signs and traffic lights all in a field. Is what they are doing just testing road signs? What goes into that? I thought it was weird, especially since it is in the city I used to live in and had no idea it was there.

[Max Rockatansky]

I seem to recall ADOT did that on segments of Interstate and would sign them with “Sign testing zone.”  There was also segments of pavement with various shades of lane marking paint that were usually in the same area.  I want to say that ADOT also has a sign testing yard in Phoenix where they leave a bunch of signs facing them midday sun to test fade. 

[roadfro]

Nevada DOT has a short frontage road (FR WA45) along the east side of I-580/US 395 in Washoe Valley at the Eastlake Blvd interchange, that has nothing on it and goes nowhere. This road has served as a testing facility for signs and striping—as you turn onto this road, it has a blue sign that says "NDOT TEST SECTION".

A while back, NDOT was doing some research on tilting the installation angle of signs downward in increments of 3° to see if it could help decrease snow accumulation. You can still see some of the test signs in recent street view from the northbound I-580 lanes.

[kphoger]

What, are you telling me these school crossing warning signs aren't legit?

Or that all these stoplight structures aren't necessary for that parking lot?

 

[1]

In Abington, MA, there's a driving course taking the place of a former airport. Could the place in Minnesota be a place for driving tests?

[kphoger]

It's on 3M property.

[deathtopumpkins]

In a similar vein, a former runway at Moore AAF in Ayer, MA was used to test the toll technology for MA's All Electronic Tolling conversion, complete with gantry, markings, barriers, etc.: https://goo.gl/maps/ACe9Zm1ihdw2vRM47

The rest of the runways are used as the MA State Police driver training facility.