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Monday, September 02, 2024

All you ever wanted to know about Highway signs

This is an Interstate Highway sign.  

It's part of a system of standardized signage used on Interstate Highways in the United States.

You might just call them "freeways" but the network of roads is officially the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, named for the president who signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.
-WiscoDave

12 comments:

  1. Reminds me of a very old Texas joke: Houston's Hurricane Evacuation Plan
    Cajuns & LSU Tigers take I-10 East
    Yankees & Cowboys fans take I-45 North
    Hispanics take I-10 West
    Texas Aggies take the 610 Loop.

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  2. The type face used on interstate signs is Helvetica, for ease of reading.

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    1. Not universally, at least not anymore. Illinois is just one example, and has used a different sans serif typeface (it definitely isn't Helvetica) on most interstate signage for years now. Not sure if the rules requiring visual uniformity were relaxed, but IDOT is definitely doing their own thing regarding the typeface used.

      I've not noted other nearby states (I'm in MO) deviating though, pretty sure Kansas, Iowa and Arkansas still use Helvetica.

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    2. I can't say for certain as it's been a few years since I stored that bit of info. Looking on Street View it looks like Illinois is using a modified Helvetica. Maybe they have a grudge against the Swiss

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    3. Sign W of Green River UT I-70 goes thru Spotted Wolf Canyon, across the San Rafael Swell, over Emigrant Pass, to Salina.

      NO SERVICES NEXT 100 MILES

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    4. Nicely played. Couldn't agree more. Was also my post above about Illinois chosen typeface for interstate signs, and forgot to add my handle when posting. Don't know that I've seen "clearview" yet.

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  3. except that godawful new "Clearview" font with the curleycue lowercase l and uneven baselines - that Texas (Texas!!!) and Alabama have gone all-in on, as well as Pa. and some others. The Texas photos in that article were good old style lettering. The Hawaii signs he showed, those were clearview.

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  4. aaroads.com is a good source for sign photos. And chat about road design, signs, etc. But reading between the lines, they seem to be kind of bigguvvish.

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  5. It was not mentioned, 1st image w/ "EXIT 2G" on the top left of sign, that indicates the exit is a "Left lane exit," and exit "2E" is top right of sign and therefore a Right Lane exit.

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  6. The author left out the fact that fallout shelters were to be built into highway overpasses. The 1 in 5 for use as an airstrip is not an urban legend. That was the intention. But like the fallout shelters, it fell by the wayside. There are still stretches of the interstate system that can be used a airstrips, however.

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  7. When the interstates really started a-building in the late Fifties instead of using green backing for the signs to tell you where you were going, etc., they were black. IIRC the guy in charge of the Federal Highway Admin. was color-blind and green backgrounds appeared as white to him so he couldn't read squat.

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