The Worst of Road Signs

[WillWeaverRVA]

At first glance this looks like it'd go in the Best of Road Signs thread, but the sign's not that old; it's from 1986.



Some slightly NEWER (edited) signs have also been losing their numbers at times. For example, this one, which was replaced in 2009:

[agentsteel53]

what is with the digit "3" being seemingly consistently shoddy?

[WillWeaverRVA]

No idea. Richmond has never done a good job when it comes to creating its own signage; they tend to lose digits (the number 1 is fairly fragile too), and they fade pretty badly over time compared to standard VDOT signage. A Richmond sign can become unreadable within 25 years, when the VDOT cutouts still up in parts of the city are perfectly readable even after nearly 40 years.

[xonhulu]

[formulanone]

^ That shield has some seriously large jouwls; all it's missing is the muttonchops.

[1995hoo]

I was thinking that looks like the Eric Cartman of highway shields. Now if someone could Photoshop the sign to say "Screw you guys, I'ma going home".....

[agentsteel53]

I just cannot imagine what thought process went through the mind of the Illustrator jockey that took the standard template and reduced it to ... that. 

now, I have had some assumptions about bounding boxes before I really learned the shapes of various route markers and I have made some distorted shields, but this is the worst I came up with:

[Quillz]

Is that 97 shield using a Series E(M) 9 and a Series D 7?

[agentsteel53]

E on the 9, D on the 7

[texaskdog]

Has there been an "I-99" sign posted here yet?

[Quillz]

[texaskdog]

HA HA good one...thats a worse abomination than the real one.

[Quillz]

At least it's a nice 21''×18'' shield, its lone saving grace.

[Mr. Matté]

I spotted this Internet ad today: 

[Scott5114]

So their surgery makes you see double, and also see things in the wrong font? Blech.

[mjb2002]

That new sign seems so massive compared to what I see here in California.  I hope that sign never detaches from the sign bridge because it looks like it can do some pretty hefty damage to anyone or anything below it.

These in NC are massive also:


Fixed your quote tags. A slash ends a quote, not begins it. -DTP

Gezz, I always wanted to know how to get to Asheboro!

[mjb2002]

All-caps "SALINA":

Actually, I think that's "small-caps".  They appear to have given it the same treatment as the cardinal direction banner on the top line.

Come on, sign design people, it's not that hard:  mixed-case for names of places and roads; all-caps for everything else!  I don't think there are any exceptions to that rule anywhere in the MUTCD, so it should be easy to follow!

Actually, the only signs that are mandated to be in mixed-case in the new (2009) MUTCD are street name signs. It is recommended (but not mandated) that all <i>other</i> guide signs be in mixed-case.

We can howl and complain about the 'Salina' sign in the photo being in all caps, but it is still complaint with the new MUTCD as long as it is retroreflective.

[roadfro]

Actually, the only signs that are mandated to be in mixed-case in the new (2009) MUTCD are street name signs. It is recommended (but not mandated) that all <i>other</i> guide signs be in mixed-case.

We can howl and complain about the 'Salina' sign in the photo being in all caps, but it is still complaint with the new MUTCD as long as it is retroreflective.

Actually, your statement is incorrect...

Standard:
10 All sign lettering shall be in upper-case letters as provided in the "Standard Highway Signs and Markings" book (see Section 1A.11), unless otherwise provided in this Manual for a particular sign or type of message.

11 The sign lettering for names of places, streets, and highways shall be composed of a combination of lower-case letters with initial upper-case letters.

The MUTCD now requires text such as Control Cities on BGS to be mixed case. This was an option statement in the revised 2003 MUTCD edition.

[wytout]

Either way, small caps looks so out of place for anything other than cardinal direction...



And the next one is NOT smallcaps related, just a "WORST OF..." that happened to be in the same folder so I thought I'd include it.

[Mergingtraffic]

And the next one is NOT smallcaps related, just a "WORST OF..." that happened to be in the same folder so I thought I'd include it.

Isn't this sign relatively new?   What's with all the patches already?

[rickmastfan67]

This was installed recently on I-376 (former PA-60)......

[Brandon]

^^ Epic Clearview upward arrow FAIL.  Not only is it ugly, but the arrows are way too long, the capital first letters are too big, and the sign is taller than it need be.  Did I mention the sign in the background that follows the same formula?

[rickmastfan67]

Did I mention the sign in the background that follows the same formula?

Yep, hope to get a picture of it the next time I'm out there.  My camera battery (is rechargeable) literally died right after it saved the picture above.  But I'm planning on going out that way on the 28th, so I'll get a picture of it then.

[vtk]

This was installed recently on I-376 (former PA-60)......

Is that a poor execution of the arrow-per-lane sign in the newest MUTCD, or is it an independent PennDOT invention?

[Ian]

This was installed recently on I-376 (former PA-60)......

Why are these 2 separate signs? Couldn't PennDOT have combined the 2?