Favorite state route shields?

[bugo]

I forgot to mention Penna.  Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New York are the holy trinity of unique shield-looking route markers.

[SP Cook]

I don't like Utah's because the sentiment behind it

???

I'm guessing it has something to do with the Mormon church? Or do you just hate bees that much?

Utah is the Beehive State, and the SLC minor league team is the "Bees".   It goes back to Brigham Young, who used a beehive as an example of being hardworking and everyone working together in a sermon.  Young's home was called "the Beehive".   Mormons wanted to call Utah "Deseret" which means "honeybee" or "place with honeybees" in a language they believe was spoken by pre-Columbians, but the government would not let them.  (Utah comes from Ute, a local Indian tribe.) 

Many among the non-Mormon minority in Utah have an issue with the use of the beehive iconography, and particularly the use of "Deseret", since many, but not all, historians believe that bees were unknown north of southern Mexico in pre-Columbian times.

Doesn't really bother me.  To each his own.

[mukade]

My favorites are California and Kansas. I also like New Mexico's and Idaho's. I may like South Carolina's new one. I like relative simplicity, but something to dress it up may be good (Alaska is another example). On the colorful ones, I generally like Minnesota's and Wyoming's, but I go back and forth on Colorado's - sometimes it looks gaudy to me, but it can look good at times.

I most dislike two types. They are 1) shapes that do not scale when additional width is needed (Washington and Alabama may be worst, but any state shape that gets distorted for 3 digit routes looks really bad and 2) the signs with linear state outlines like Florida, Oklahoma, and DC - what's the point for the extra expense?

For rectangle/square marker states, I like the way Maryland does it best with a horizontal line, and I don't like the state markers that don't have the state name (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts). Other states I can take it or leave.


Pet peeves are:
- poor maintenance: states that have non-reflective markers, rust dripping from bolts, or an abundance of bent/damaged signs.
- poorly marked highways: I have seen this in several states
- lack of consistency: for example, all 3 digit routes should be either alway a square or always a rectangle not different in various areas of a state (Illinois)
- way too many variants: Texas
- lettered routes: Missouri's secondary routes are confusing


Most of the states have marker designs that I neither love nor hate - they get the job done, and I guess that is the point.

[cpzilliacus]

I don't like Utah's because the sentiment behind it

???

I'm guessing it has something to do with the Mormon church? Or do you just hate bees that much?

Utah is the Beehive State, and the SLC minor league team is the "Bees".   It goes back to Brigham Young, who used a beehive as an example of being hardworking and everyone working together in a sermon.  Young's home was called "the Beehive".   Mormons wanted to call Utah "Deseret" which means "honeybee" or "place with honeybees" in a language they believe was spoken by pre-Columbians, but the government would not let them.  (Utah comes from Ute, a local Indian tribe.) 

Many among the non-Mormon minority in Utah have an issue with the use of the beehive iconography, and particularly the use of "Deseret", since many, but not all, historians believe that bees were unknown north of southern Mexico in pre-Columbian times.

Doesn't really bother me.  To each his own.

I strongly agree.  Complaining about that sounds like potential anti-Mormon bigotry (and note that I am not a Mormon, and I do not especially agree with some of the teachings of the LDS Church).

It's a historical fact that the first European settlers in what is now Utah were Mormons, and the use of the beehive there bothers me no more than my own state of Maryland having the colors of the Calvert (Lord Baltimore) and Crossland families displayed "in diagonally opposing quadrants of the flag." 

Somewhat like Brigham Young and his Mormon followers settling by the Great Salt Lake, Lord Baltimore established the colony of Maryland to provide a place in the British Empire where his fellow Catholics could practice their faith without harassment from the Crown.

[hobsini2]

Pet peeves are:

- lettered routes: Missouri's secondary routes are confusing

I disagree. Having county highways or secondary highways being numbers like the primary state highways IS more confusing. For instance in Wisconsin, you could say "Hwy 23 and Hwy J" or "23 and J" instead of "State Hwy 23 and County Hwy 44".  Fewer words leads to less confusion.

[cpzilliacus]

Pet peeves are:

- lettered routes: Missouri's secondary routes are confusing

I disagree. Having county highways or secondary highways being numbers like the primary state highways IS more confusing. For instance in Wisconsin, you could say "Hwy 23 and Hwy J" or "23 and J" instead of "State Hwy 23 and County Hwy 44".  Fewer words leads to less confusion.

I like Virginia's system of numbering:

• (with very few exceptions) the primary system highways are assigned numbers from 1 to 598 (I don't think there's a 599, is there?); and
• secondary system highways with route numbers of 600 and above (secondary system numbers can (and do) repeat in different counties - I think most counties in the Commonwealth probably have Routes 600, 601 and 602, for example).

[national highway 1]

- way too many variants: Texas

Actually I am fascinated by the different SH types in Texas. But I do agree that there needs to be a better Texas shield.

[Road Hog]

- way too many variants: Texas

Actually I am fascinated by the different SH types in Texas. But I do agree that there needs to be a better Texas shield.

<-------  Oh hai!

[myosh_tino]

I most dislike two types. They are 1) shapes that do not scale when additional width is needed (Washington and Alabama may be worst, but any state shape that gets distorted for 3 digit routes looks really bad...

As far as I know, there is no "wide" Washington state route shield.  Washington uses the same shield whether the route number is 1, 2 or 3 digits.  Instead of using a wide shield, Washington uses Series D numerals for 1-2 digit routes and Series C numerals for 3-digit routes...


Shields taken from the AARoads Washington Guide.

[agentsteel53]

the classic Nebraska.



for functional in a modern context, the black square and black rectangle Nebraska are quite nice.

[wphiii]

New Mexico, simple without being totally boring like the standard circle/rectangle signs, and still incorporates something pertinent to the state into the design. And nice splash of a color other than black or white without being overly distracting.

Plus, New Mexico is one of my favorite states so whenever I see those shields on the road, I know I'm somewhere I really enjoy being 

[Henry]

As a former L.A. resident, I am strongly biased toward the California miner's spade. Although the George Washington outline for Washington State doen't look too bad, it could use a better color scheme than the generic black-and-white.

[hobsini2]

Pet peeves are:

- lettered routes: Missouri's secondary routes are confusing

I disagree. Having county highways or secondary highways being numbers like the primary state highways IS more confusing. For instance in Wisconsin, you could say "Hwy 23 and Hwy J" or "23 and J" instead of "State Hwy 23 and County Hwy 44".  Fewer words leads to less confusion.

I like Virginia's system of numbering:

• (with very few exceptions) the primary system highways are assigned numbers from 1 to 598 (I don't think there's a 599, is there?); and
• secondary system highways with route numbers of 600 and above (secondary system numbers can (and do) repeat in different counties - I think most counties in the Commonwealth probably have Routes 600, 601 and 602, for example).

That may be the way Virginia does it, which sounds quite reasonable, but most states that I have been to that have the blue pentagons for county highways are not like that.
For example, there are actually 2 different types of those blue shield used in Illinois.

In Cook County and Lake County, the route number is a letter with a 1 or 2 digit number. The letter corresponds to where in the state the road is with A in the north and W in the east and the numbers increase from north to south and west to east.  So Russell Rd/State Line Rd in Lake County is County Hwy A1.

In other counties like DuPage and Kane, there is only a number, no letter, that is assigned. There is no rhyme or reason for the number assigned to such a highway.  So Orchard Rd in Kane County is just County Hwy 83.

The other thing that Illinois does that is annoying is that with few exceptions, mostly in Lake and Cook County, there is no "Jct County Hwy" signs when you are coming up to such a road. Even then it is just easier to call the highway by it's road name and not route number.

Recently, i saw that Winnebago County 9 was actually added to a BGS on I-39/90 for Rockton Rd. But again, us locals call it by the name and not the number.

The only other states I can think of off hand that actually use the blue pentagons with an actual grid are Iowa and Michigan.

[NE2]

The only other states I can think of off hand that actually use the blue pentagons with an actual grid are Iowa and Michigan.

California has an alphanumeric grid. Florida's county roads fit the state road grid, since they are mostly former state roads.

[hobsini2]

NE2, I was not aware of either state's system. Thanks.

[agentsteel53]

California has an alphanumeric grid.

I think the word grid is stretching it somewhat.  the letters start at A in the north and end at S in the south, but within each region, the numbering is pretty disorganized.  Imperial County is the only one, for example, which has odd numbered Sxx north-south routes, and even-numbered Sxx east-west routes, and this isn't strictly obeyed either... S34 is north-south, for example.

then there is San Bernardino County 66, which does not follow the grid, and also several counties do not use letter-number combinations in general, like Lassen County and I think several others (Del Norte?)

[NE2]

California has an alphanumeric grid.

I think the word grid is stretching it somewhat.

As I understand it, it's also stretching it for Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan.

[cpzilliacus]

Pet peeves are:

- lettered routes: Missouri's secondary routes are confusing

I disagree. Having county highways or secondary highways being numbers like the primary state highways IS more confusing. For instance in Wisconsin, you could say "Hwy 23 and Hwy J" or "23 and J" instead of "State Hwy 23 and County Hwy 44".  Fewer words leads to less confusion.

I like Virginia's system of numbering:

• (with very few exceptions) the primary system highways are assigned numbers from 1 to 598 (I don't think there's a 599, is there?); and
• secondary system highways with route numbers of 600 and above (secondary system numbers can (and do) repeat in different counties - I think most counties in the Commonwealth probably have Routes 600, 601 and 602, for example).

That may be the way Virginia does it, which sounds quite reasonable, but most states that I have been to that have the blue pentagons for county highways are not like that.

Secondary numbered highways in Virginia are not county highways, they are state highways.  With two exceptions (Arlington County across the Potomac from D.C. and Henrico County just north of Richmond), the rest of the counties of Virginia do not maintain any of their public roads - all of them, down to the smallest subdivision street in Fairfax County and the narrowest (public) gravel road in Fauquier County are numbered and part of the state secondary highway network.

In Arlington and Henrico Counties, the state maintains the primary highway system (route numbers less than 600).

Cities (which, in Virginia, are essentially counties, as they are not part of any adjoining county) maintain all of their own streets and roads, except for those that have a functional classification of freeway.  Towns in Virginia are part of a surrounding or adjacent county, but they still maintain their own streets and roads, except freeways.

For example, there are actually 2 different types of those blue shield used in Illinois.

I have never, ever seen a blue shield in Virginia on any road.

In Cook County and Lake County, the route number is a letter with a 1 or 2 digit number. The letter corresponds to where in the state the road is with A in the north and W in the east and the numbers increase from north to south and west to east.  So Russell Rd/State Line Rd in Lake County is County Hwy A1.

In other counties like DuPage and Kane, there is only a number, no letter, that is assigned. There is no rhyme or reason for the number assigned to such a highway.  So Orchard Rd in Kane County is just County Hwy 83.

The other thing that Illinois does that is annoying is that with few exceptions, mostly in Lake and Cook County, there is no "Jct County Hwy" signs when you are coming up to such a road. Even then it is just easier to call the highway by it's road name and not route number.

Recently, i saw that Winnebago County 9 was actually added to a BGS on I-39/90 for Rockton Rd. But again, us locals call it by the name and not the number.

The only other states I can think of off hand that actually use the blue pentagons with an actual grid are Iowa and Michigan.

Virginia uses a circle (somewhat like Delaware and New Jersey do for their state highways) for its secondary system roads only.  Many secondary system roads are not large enough to warrant posting with shields (in suburban areas especially), but there are small square signs posted at most intersections with the route numbers on them.

[national highway 1]

The only other states I can think of off hand that actually use the blue pentagons with an actual grid are Iowa and Michigan.

California has an alphanumeric grid. Florida's county roads fit the state road grid, since they are mostly former state roads.

And Michigan has an alphanumeric grid, too.

[NE2]

The only other states I can think of off hand that actually use the blue pentagons with an actual grid are Iowa and Michigan.

California has an alphanumeric grid. Florida's county roads fit the state road grid, since they are mostly former state roads.

And Michigan has an alphanumeric grid, too.

So does Michigan.

[empirestate]

I forgot to mention Penna.  Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New York are the holy trinity of unique shield-looking route markers.

I agree with the preference for these, though I'd exclude Wisconsin because it too closely resembles the US shield at a distance. NY and PA both have my type of marker, and I don't think that's just because of native-state bias.

I've also always thought Alaska's was pretty great, and Idaho's is my favorite use of the state-outline motif; the black/white contrast is perfect. California should get credit too: there's no other marker quite like it, and if I were from there I'd be quite protectively fond of it, no doubt.

[NE2]

California should get credit too: there's no other marker quite like it

Sure there is

[kphoger]

Top 3
Wyoming
Michigan
British Columbia

Bottom 3
Standard county (serious legibility issues, especially on freeway signs)
Tennessee primary (looks like something I might draw on a piece of scratch paper)
Arkansas (I can't put my finger on it, but the state outline on a shield is not aesthetically pleasing to me)

[national highway 1]

Top 3
Wyoming
Michigan
British Columbia

I'm not sure about BC's shield, it's a bit busy and I don't like the font that they use for digits.

[agentsteel53]

the new BC font sucks (if it's not Arial, it's damn close) but the classic font is excellent!