The Worst of Road Signs

[Alps]

I wonder what the cost difference between full-size shields (materials) and cutouts (labor) is.

You don't save anything on materials. What are you going to do with the scraps/

Melt them down and make a new blank out of them, theoretically. But I'm sure most sign shops don't have the equipment for that. You might be able to make an extra blank out of a sheet of metal with cutouts by being able to place the shields more closely together on the sheet, though.

You'd save a little bit by recycling all the scraps, but at the same time you spend more having to cut out things that aren't just straight lines with rounded corners. I think all things considered, those having to do the cutting vastly prefer non-cutouts, while most states prefer cutouts for at least I-routes. Whether it's related to costs, aesthetics, or just always having done it that way, who knows.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Not sure if this has already been posted in this thread before, so here it is again. One of many along the I-5/US-12 duplex:

It's typically a Washington thing to have a white square around some of their interstate shields:

There is one sign along the I-5/US-12 corridor that has a blue background around the I-5 shield. I don't have a picture because that got me off guard.

[Roadsguy]

I say always carry a camera in your glove compartment. Even if it's a little cheap thing that you'll hardly use.

I'm just lucky my dad could catch a full set (five shields!) of PA 13 sign goofs near Glenolden. Not sure exactly where it was, though. (A "full set" is the junction sign, the cornered left-right arrows, and then the straight left-right arrows.)

[PHLBOS]

I say always carry a camera in your glove compartment. Even if it's a little cheap thing that you'll hardly use.

I'm just lucky my dad could catch a full set (five shields!) of PA 13 sign goofs near Glenolden. Not sure exactly where it was, though. (A "full set" is the junction sign, the cornered left-right arrows, and then the straight left-right arrows.)

The ones you speak of are along Amosland Road in Norwood/Prospect Park.  Those have been there for a few years.  What's even weirder is that those signs replaced a set of correct US 13 shields (though those had the PennDOT font rather than FHWA) that were erected a year earlier.

A recent PA 13 shield was erected (it replaced a 3-trailblazer assembly knocked down in an accident) along PA 420 northbound in Prospect Park just south of Chester Pike (US 13).  The erroneous PA 13 shield (w/the narrow PennDOT font) directs southbound 13 traffic.  A separate trailblazer assembly for northbound 13 traffic displays the proper US shield and FHWA Series D font but if one looks closely; it's an old shield that probably sat wrapped-up in a PennDOT garage for several years because the shield itself is an off-grey/beige and it displays the old-style PennDOT logo at the bottom-cnter of the sign.

[agentsteel53]

You'd save a little bit by recycling all the scraps, but at the same time you spend more having to cut out things that aren't just straight lines with rounded corners. I think all things considered, those having to do the cutting vastly prefer non-cutouts, while most states prefer cutouts for at least I-routes. Whether it's related to costs, aesthetics, or just always having done it that way, who knows.

I think the reason interstates remain cut out is because there's always gonna be a need to continue signing interstates, so the blanks can be scrubbed and reused easily.

I believe that if the 1948 MUTCD had specified cutout oversize route markers, as opposed to the white square, we would still see cutouts today for US routes.  but so many states adopted the oversize for all contexts, including where the 16" reassurance was proscribed by the MUTCD, and realized that those signs could be had from the general 24x24 inch scrap pile, that they didn't want to maintain a separate cutout inventory.



the 1961 black square was just a contrast-enhanced version of the 1948 white square.  had the 1948 not been a white square (a moderately poor choice, as visibility at a distance of the shield outline isn't as good as either the black square or the cutout), but instead a cutout, I believe the 1961 would've remained a cutout as well, and the 1970 would've been a bloated cutout instead of a bloated black square.

[AsphaltPlanet]

Very specific:

[Special K]

Very specific:

So, Dryden is a motorist service?

[kphoger]

I rather like the sign.  It's simple, I'm a fan of white on blue, and I prefer to write large numbers with a space rather than comma.

Best of!

[agentsteel53]

where is that?  I'm assuming somewhere in Canada, but can't remember offhand which jurisdiction uses blue town boundary signs.

[kphoger]

where is that?  I'm assuming somewhere in Canada, but can't remember offhand which jurisdiction uses blue town boundary signs.

The population figure sounds about right for Dryden, Ontario.

[jeffandnicole]

Speaking of being specific:

I have a picture on an older computer, but there's a sign on a PA roadway that mentioned a Weight Limit for a bridge.  The distance is something like 1,648 feet away.

I didn't measure it to determine if it's correct.

[agentsteel53]

there are some like that in Oakland.  I believe it is 658.

[myosh_tino]

Very specific:

So, Dryden is a motorist service?

Dryden is not the only town/city to use that color scheme...

[Alps]

Speaking of being specific:

I have a picture on an older computer, but there's a sign on a PA roadway that mentioned a Weight Limit for a bridge.  The distance is something like 1,648 feet away.

I didn't measure it to determine if it's correct.

I went on a massive 51-bridge tour around SE PA, and a LOT of bridges have the precise distances given. It's very amusing. Sometimes we worried that if we drove along the edgeline instead of the centerline, we may get there a few feet off.

[national highway 1]

Weird custom font, white square and incorrectly sized 90^o arrow banner:

[Scott5114]

All the arrow banners are that size in OK

[Brandon]

^^

1. That also has a sticker over whatever was previously under the "5".
2. Arrow banners seem to come in two different sizes.  This is a unique picture as they're both there.

[1995hoo]

I can't decide whether I think this sign should go in "Best of," "Worst of," or neither.

It's on a portion of Mill Road in Alexandria, Virginia, that on the whole gets relatively little traffic due to road reconfigurations over the years. The sign itself is relatively new due to the reconstruction of Telegraph Road (VA-241 mentioned on the sign) and the Capital Beltway–Telegraph is beyond that sound wall to the right and that's where you're headed when you make the right turn referred to on the sign.

The sign is reasonably clear about the lane configuration after you turn the corner (essentially, there's a small curb separating I-95 South traffic from everyone else, sort of like a right-turn bypass lane at a roundabout), but the problem with the sign is that it contains a fair amount of information but it's the only sign anywhere along this stretch and it's hard to read it if you don't slow down. I stopped the car to take the picture since there was nobody else around. My experience with what happens after you turn the corner indicates that most drivers either don't read the sign or don't understand it, as I'd say 80% of drivers slam to a stop when they see the curb separating the bypass lane for I-95 South from the other lanes. (No doubt the fact that sat-navs don't have the configuration on their maps, since it's new, is part of the problem for your average directionally-challenged driver.)

So even though it conveys all the information concisely, I've put it in the "Worst of" thread because in my experience driving through there it doesn't seem to be helping people with getting into the correct lane.

[hbelkins]

[amroad17]

Atrocius! Cartoonish! Embarrassing to NCDOT.

[hbelkins]

I'm pretty sure that's Franklin Gothic. We used it for several years as the headline font at the newspaper I edited.

[national highway 1]

I'm pretty sure that's Franklin Gothic. We used it for several years as the headline font at the newspaper I edited.

In that case, there's this from California:

[national highway 1]

[NE2]

[generic Maryland guide sign]

Huh?

[kphoger]

[generic Maryland guide sign]

Huh?

My thoughts exactly.  I didn't exactly go, Holy crap, that's the worst of road signs, when I saw it....