Highway signs are huge

The South Central Sign Shop in Union Gap, Washington, part of WSDOT, the Washington State Department of Transportation, has a Flickr stream.

[#1 posted by Jake0748 , December 18, 2008 4:45 PM]

They ARE huge, aren't they. There was a sign half a block from my old office that was a little more than head-high. (It said "no left turns" or some such). When driving by you'd just think it was a plain old road sign. But when you walked next to it, it was startlingly large.

[#2 posted by gabrielm , December 18, 2008 5:37 PM]

Are you saying that things which must be seen from far away are bigger then things that are seen close up?

Thank for the change of perspective :)

[#3 posted by jeffjonez , December 18, 2008 5:42 PM]

On the east coast, they've started using a different, more chubby font on the highway signs. I noticed it early this year. Anyone know what this new typeface is called?

[#4 posted by morcheeba , December 18, 2008 5:58 PM]

I took a shot of some highway signs in the parking lot ... from a unique perspective:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8728129@N05/3119630550/sizes/l/
It's not a pretty picture, but it helps show how big those signs are!

[#5 posted by Joel Johnson , December 18, 2008 6:23 PM]

JeffJones: http://clearviewhwy.com/WhatIsClearviewHwy/HowItWorks/developmentCriteria.php

[#6 posted by Clay , December 18, 2008 8:28 PM]

Actually, I'm curious that the production guys in the photo are working on a sign that still uses the old Interstate typeface -- I thought ClearView was now mandatory for any new signage that's part of the interstate highway system. Although I guess that's a state highway, so it wouldn't fall under that rule, but still, I'd think that as long as they had the new signcutter patterns, they'd use them everywhere.

[#7 posted by Anonymous , December 18, 2008 9:32 PM]

ZOMG that sign lives only a few miles from my house! What randomness.

[#8 posted by acb , December 19, 2008 4:00 AM]

Typographical trivia: They use the same Interstate typeface (also known as "Highway Gothic", which sounds like a vampire road movie) in Australia.

In the UK and some other countries (former British dependencies, as well as places like Iceland and the United Arab Emirates), they use a different one, named Transport, designed in the 1960s by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, who also did the UK road signage system and the Helvetica-like sans-serif used on railway station signage.

[#9 posted by Frank_in_Virginia , December 19, 2008 6:16 AM]

This is great; thanks for posting it Joel, and thanks for the aerial view morcheeba.

[#10 posted by Sekino , December 19, 2008 9:12 AM]

Neat! I had pondered on this before, but I was looking at street lights. I was thinking about them as large-ish lamps until I stared at one and tried to find reference points. Then it struck me that several poeple could comfortably stand atop one!

[#11 posted by kerns , December 19, 2008 12:43 PM]

Why, oh why, is Kneeling Checked Shirt Guy not Kneeling a few feet to the left.

[#12 posted by Mike in MD , January 30, 2009 2:04 PM]

I work with a company that has 30-40 of those signs in our yard. Does anyone know if there is a racking system or holder of some sort that i can put them in to organize them? Or even an idea of where i would look to find one, or make one. I was going to put down some wood & use rebar to make some kind of racking system.

Any help would really be great!!!