Blue, White or Green?

[74/171FAN]

In Blacksburg off Virginia Tech's campus I've seen all green signs; however, on campus is all brown signs.

[BigMattFromTexas]

Here in "College Hills" (a neighborhood in Angelo that all the street names are colleges) due to theft of the street signs (which I don't get, there are't any good colleges, just fancy ones like "Oxford, Dartmouth, A&M, and sucky ones like that). But due, to the theft, they have these "stickers" on the curb that have the street names, and I guess it works, so.. Any other places do this?
BigMatt

[Revive 755]

How about purple instead?

From Griggsville, IL (it's hard to tell in person that these are purple, but they are)
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=39.708293,-90.723971&spn=0.005761,0.013733&z=17&layer=c&cbll=39.709699,-90.722845&panoid=waCm3-lUYPTo2f4zI2S0Ww&cbp=12,242.03,,1,0.39

Or maybe modern, yet vertical (from Carthage, IL)
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=40.416363,-91.118546&spn=0.005702,0.013733&z=17&layer=c&cbll=40.416054,-91.122665&panoid=fKEXBYhQ57ZoMZEs8llGXQ&cbp=12,197.38,,0,0.01

[golden eagle]

Jackson uses green signs. Ridgeland uses black signs and Pearl uses a mix of both black and green signs.

[yakra]

Portland uses mostly green, but downtown ("Arts DIstrict"; Old Port) they use blue. I don't know man, I didn't do it.

[US71]

How about purple instead?

I think purple is no longer allowed.

[TheStranger]

How about purple instead?

I think purple is no longer allowed.

Hmm...I know Citrus Heights, California using purple street signs in some areas dates back to less than 10-15 years ago...so something must've changed after they adopted the color.

[rawmustard]

Hmm...I know Citrus Heights, California using purple street signs in some areas dates back to less than 10-15 years ago...so something must've changed after they adopted the color.

The city of Bronson (where I attended high school) installed purple street signs with yellow legend in order to match the school colors. In fact, several area municipalities have made similar changes, some of which would be invalid now under the current MUTCD.

[corco]

Laramie generally follows the green=public, blue=private convention, but all the street signs immediately surrounding campus are white on brown

[iwishiwascanadian]

The City of Richmond mainly uses green signs on its streets. However, some areas (Shockoe Bottom and the Fan) have brown signs, and there are blue signs in a few places near I-195.

Henrico and Chesterfield Counties use green signs for public roads and white ones for private roads. This leads to some interesting developments because there are roads with white signs that you'd expect to be public, and roads in apartment complexes and the like that should be private but are actually county- (or state-, in the case of Chesterfield) maintained.

As a whole, the state of Virginia (where VDOT maintains the streets, that is) is not consistent and usually leaves the decision up to the local residencies. Northern Virginia tends to have a lot of blue signs, while central and southern Virginia usually have green ones.

Doesn't Arlington have White signs?

I like how Alexandria does their street signs (although you only see them hanging off the poles holding traffic lights) they are green, but they are lit up.  They look very nice when the bulb isn't dead.  I've seen them mostly in the Mark Center area. 

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

How about purple instead?

I think purple is no longer allowed.

Except around the Louisiana State Univ. campus.

[flowmotion]

Minneapolis uses several sign colors: blue to indicate major streets, green for North-South streets, and brown for East-West. (IIRC, the colors were originally introduced to indicate a snow plowing scheme, which was later abandoned for an odd-side/even-side plan.) Even the overhead signal mast signs are colored accordingly.

Some examples here:
http://www.johnweeks.com/highway/citysigns-presidents/index.html

[Scott5114]

NE 18½ Ave.

[Coelacanth]

I used to live within walking distance of 18 1/2th and Fillmore. Now I live right near 40 1/2th.

I think, nominally, that Blue is still supposed to be used for snow emergency routes.

I've also noticed that the color scheme isn't always observed on overhead signal-mounted signs. Often they will just be green no matter what the cross street is.

I must say I prefer the St. Paul style of including the street number, but the Minneapolis signs are far superior for readability.

[froggie]

My personal favorites are the old embossed variety.  The North Country region of NY still has many of these in the field,

...as do numerous towns in the Upper Midwest.

Northern Virginia tends to have a lot of blue signs, while central and southern Virginia usually have green ones.

Arlington and Prince William counties are noted exceptions.  PWC uses green, while Arlington uses white as canadian thought.

I want to say I've seen red in one of the western counties (Floyd, maybe?), but I don't remember where.

I like how Alexandria does their street signs (although you only see them hanging off the poles holding traffic lights) they are green, but they are lit up.  They look very nice when the bulb isn't dead.  I've seen them mostly in the Mark Center area.

Yep...mostly Mark Center and the West End area.  You don't see them in Old Town, and I've only rarely seen them here and there between Old Town and I-395.

Virginia Beach is another user of this style.

Minneapolis uses several sign colors: blue to indicate major streets, green for North-South streets, and brown for East-West.

Correct on green and brown.  Not quite so on blue.  As Coelacanth noted, blue is used for snow emergency routes.

[The Premier]

Akron, Kent, Ravenna, and other cities and counties in the area uses green for their street signs. Springfield Township (South of Akron) and Brimfield Township (East of Akron, South of Kent) uses blue.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Most of Duluth uses green, but in West Duluth there are some black on white signs along Superior St.

[KEK Inc.]

San Jose (navy blue/green on traffic signals):



Santa Clara County (blue/green on traffic signals):


Vancouver, WA (green)


Clark County, WA (yellow) 

[6a]

Within Franklin County, Ohio (Columbus) it seems every municipality just has to have its way.  Columbus proper has green, capital letters.  Unincorporated areas use green, lower case.  Dublin is brown, Hilliard blue, Grove City and Gahanna black, Ohio State red (duh).  Most of the suburbs that use green have some identifying feature on the sign to separate themselves.

[roadfro]

In Nevada, its white on green virtually everywhere. There are some exceptions:

*North Las Vegas uses white on Blue for post-mounted street name signs. (NLV uses white on green for signs on signal poles though, but these are not internally lit like other Vegas municipalities.)
*For a while, Henderson was using white on brown in some areas. I don't think they do this any more.
*The city of Las Vegas now uses white on brown for privately-maintained streets.
*Street signs on the UNR campus in Reno use blue on white and a non-standard font (many signs on campus are non-standard).
*Some older signs in Sparks are the embossed type in black on white.

[D-Dey65]

Hillsborough County, Florida used to have white on red for private roads. Now they have white on blue for them. The rest are white on green.

[MDOTFanFB]

Wyandotte, MI uses white (as does Southgate).
Riverview, MI uses green (their older signs are embossed!).
Ecorse, River Rouge, Trenton and Taylor, MI all use blue.
Lincoln Park, MI used to use green (they switched to blue around 5-10 years ago)
Detroit, MI used to use white 50 years ago (they now use green). Same for Wayne County, MI.

[Ace10]

How about purple instead?

I think purple is no longer allowed.

Except around the Louisiana State Univ. campus.

Don't think so. All signs in Baton Rouge as well as on campus (I believe) are white on blue.

[cjk374]

The non-incorporated areas of Lincoln Parish use white-on-blue blades.  The towns use white-on-green (except Grambling--black-on-white).

Jefferson County, AR uses (or used...it's been awhile since I've been there) both blades and concrete pylons to label its roads.  Most of the blades were white-on-blue, but a few were white-on-red (no sure why).  All of the pylons were (as far as I know) repainted in 1997...blue-on-white.

[RJ145]

My town switched from 6" green signs to 9" blue.


Personally I prefer brown.