How do engineers make ROAD SIGNS look the same?
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
- What makes traffic-control devices uniform from coast to coast? It's all thanks to a magical book engineers use called the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).
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Sources cites:
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"Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD)," Federal Highway Administration. mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009r1...
"CA Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (CA MUTCD)," California Dept. of Transportation. dot.ca.gov/programs/safety-pr...
"A Century of Traffic Control Devices and What Lies Beyond," Transportation Research Board; Hawkins and Carlson. onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs...
"Sign Legibility," California Highways and Public Works Magazine (Jan. 1951); Moskowitz and Morgan. cdm16436.contentdm.oclc.org/d...
"The Stop Sign Wasn't Always Red," The New York Times Magazine (Dec. 9, 2011); Greenbaum and Rubinstein. www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/ma...
"Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices," Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_...
"Road signs in the United States," Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_si...
"Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals," Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_...
"Convention on Road Traffic," United Nations. treaties.un.org/doc/Publicati...
"Fluorescent Strong Yellow-Green Signs For Pedestrian/School/Bicycle Crossings: Results of New York State Study," N.Y. State Dept. of Transportation; Dhar and Woodin. ntlrepository.blob.core.windo...
"I-10 Tune Up Pavement Rehabilitation," California Dept. of Transportation. dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/d...
"Federal Government Does Not Heart Cuomo's 'I Heart NY' Signs," The New York Times (Feb. 1, 2018); Sarah Maslin Nir. www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/ny...
"I (No Longer) Love New York? Feds Make State Take Down Tourism Signs," CBS New York (Nov. 9, 2018). newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/11/...
"Business Sign Eligibility," State of California (via Westlaw). govt.westlaw.com/calregs/Docu...
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Time sections:
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Introduction (0:00)
History of the MUTCD (3:15)
Red Signs (6:19)
White Signs (8:14)
State Variations (10:38)
Yellow Signs (11:28)
Green Freeway Signs (15:00)
Green Street Signs (18:55)
Blue General Signs (21:26)
Blue Specific Signs (22:54)
Brown Signs (25:27)
Conclusion (26:48) - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Every time I think we’ve reached “Peak Road Guy Rob”, you outdo even yourself. Your videos just get better and better! Keep it coming!
There is no such thing as Peak Road Guy Rob!
The pictures for road signs in Europe are important because of all the different languages being spoken. Pictures are easier to figure out once you know what each one means. Took a day or two to get the hang of it when we drove around Europe a couple years ago but once you get it, its great.
I'm also glad we are getting a new MUTCD and can get it published before 2024.
This is one of the major benefits of the Vienna Convention route. Icons are international, think the Olympic pictograms.
The MUTCD relies too heavily on English. Imagine being an Asian tourist hiring a car in California. Enjoy understanding all those warning signs in time and safely. Your experience as an English speaker would be the same if non English language nations decided to adopt MUTCD.
There’s a similar rule* about icons in the dash of cars in Canada. Look at a GM user manual : in the US car it’s gonna be written parking, traction control, seatbelt, etc. while in the Canada car it’s gonna be icons. European cars seem to already use icons no matter where they are in the world.
*I’m not actually sure it’s a rule as Honda’s in Canada still use English text instead of icons…
Agreed. When that kid got munched by an alligator in Disney World and warning signs went up after, I was very surprised that they used words instead of pictograms. In a place full of foreign tourists, including children, it seemed like an odd choice.
The stop signs in Europe are all octagon and say 'STOP', even when their language doesn't use that word, although elsewhere, the equivilent is used. But I don't get why Japan had to be completely different, because the stop sign is in the shape of a yield sign, and often only display japanese, altho new signs also display stop, to make most foreigners understand the meaning of the sign.
At least the prepare to stop sign, no left/right/u turn, are all pictographs, and brown road signs are related to tourism.
@@6yjjk It is called Tourist Control...
or how to get rid of German, Japanese and French kids.
Rob, you’re great, everything you make is fantastic and your enthusiasm has legitimately made me more appreciative of public infrastructure.
MonotoneTim is also a great guy, so he knows one when he sees one!
I never had any interests in roads until I stumbled upon this channel
wow tim you're still alive
That and his sexy red beard…🤩
@@CloroxBleach-ms7eo same
I love this channel so much. Material is so pure and concentrated on the advertised topic. Such high quality production that is better than actual educational TV.
You took the words right out of my mouth. It’s so hard to find content nowadays that’s fun and truly educational.
yea, i like watching his road videos, as im trying to be a road guy.
You know, I‘ve always wondered why Oregon speed limits signs only said speed. Now I finally know the answer I‘ve been seeking since I was 8!
Haha what a weird place to find you in
You were intrigued with road signs as a kid just like I was. Nice
12:06 the "Obey warning signs state law" is only used in advance of construction zones to remind people that the orange work zone signs have the force of normal regulatory signs. If you look in the TMUTCD, that sign is only found in part 6 (Temporary Traffic Control). Outside of construction zones, yellow signs don't typically carry the threat of a ticket.
And until a few years ago, they said "Observe warning signs" instead of "Obey warning signs."
You can slide the rear axle on trailers. You do this to control the "weight per axle," as moving this axle (a.k.a. 'the tandems') moves load weight onto or off of the rear axle of the tractor (a.k.a 'the drives'). This is another set of vehicle weight limits you have to maintain, aside from the typical 80,000lb "weight per vehicle."
The kingpin is the linking pin on the trailer which connects to the tractor.
They are saying, they recommend you slide your rear axle up enough so that the distance between the kingpin and that axle is no greater than 30 feet. You've correctly identified why. It's so they can make that tight turn. However, doing so may temporarily put them over the "weight per axle" restriction, hence the stern warning.
California also has a general "kingpin to rear axle" limit, due to the age of many of our farm roads.
Anyways.. love your videos.
Thank you for the explanation!
@Seph Harrison Is it even possible to slide the fifth wheel even if the trailer is attached? Should trucker should detach the trailer first before moving it?
Thanks for explaining this! Very well put.
@@automation7295 He's talking about sliding the tandems on the trailer. As far as I know it's a pin that keeps the tandems in place. You can pull that and move the tandems back and forth using the trucks own power.
The MUTCD also has an entire section in metric for every road sign speed or distance. It's only used in Puerto Rico, Guam, other territories, and Interstate-19.
I had no idea that there was a freeway in the US mainland with metric signs (even if it is just for distances) - I looked at it on Streetview, thats so cool!
I’ll never forget the first time I drove on I-19 and saw the metric signs. It was trippy living in Tucson where I-19 is signed in kilometers and meters, and I-10 is in miles and feet.
I will add this was on the MUTCD manual in 2005.
In the 1980's-1990's, Interstate 10 in El Paso, Texas (and the North-South Freeway, AKA US 54) had some metric speed limit signs on it (in addition to Imperial signs).
For the very little it's worth, when I lived in northern Virginia, 1998-2000, VA State Route 3000 had _kilometre_ markers instead of _mile_ markers, and when I lived in the San Francisco Bay area, 2000-2002, the Sunol Grade, IIRC, on I-680 had some destination signs that had both miles _and_ kilometres.
7:00 retro reflectivity actually means "where it came from". i.e. it reflects back to its origin. i.e. your headlights. You see it because they have a certain dispersion built in, that reflects light back in a cone.
Incoming angle is outgoing angle. Or else it would reflect only for a second while driving.
@@dutchman7623 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroreflector
The Technology Connections channel has a good video about retroreflection.
I thought they were talking about fluorescent socks like my brother was wearing in the 80s.
@@dutchman7623 - incoming/incident angle is not exactly the same as the "outgoing" angle of reflection. There is also a certain level of diffusion/diversion/scattering (AND coloring) so that you don't have to have your headlights integrated into your eyeballs (or vice versa) in order to see the retro reflected light (and color so that the colors you see during the day can be evident to your thinking meat, even at night). So the incoming light is reflected in a cone shape, that is very close to the incoming angle
The lovingly crafted knockoff brands are choice. I appreciate the attention to detail.
It's lunchtime and I'd like to go to Trendy's!
I want to visit Neoclassical Park
Possum Park is a really nice place. 👌
In Oregon they added the word "LIMIT" to the sign during the meth epidemic people were thinking the number was the listed cost in that area.
I would be so down for an entire hour-long video on freeway signs, those big green signs are what got me interested in roads and highways in the first place!
Me too for the most part. (Except I always liked the other signs also, it was never just the green ones)
That's what I thought this would be about!
Worth noting that California's freeway signs are a bit different than the other 49 states, since it seems like most of your examples here are in California. First, California seems to mostly use "integrated" exit tabs for exit numbers, while most other states attach the exit number tab on the top of the rest of the sign. And control cities vary by state; some only use the next large city, while some others use almost every town on a highway. For example, Ohio posts "New York City" as the next destination on eastbound I-80 in Youngstown (since there's not really any medium-large cities between Youngstown and NYC on 80), but once you get to Pennsylvania, signage for NYC disappears, and instead, you're greeted with a bunch of small cities in-state until you get close to the New Jersey border.
California actually is moving away from the nested exit number signs; the latest California MUTCD now requires E1-5P signs just like every other state. Of course, budget woes will prevent them from being common for a while.
i do find that kinda weird... i dont know why they use wheeling as the control city for I-70 east in columbus when zanesville is about the same size and actually in the state
Isn't there a rule that the next city listed should have a population of over 5,000?
@@brandonlink6568 no... not even close to 5,000. maybe 50,000, but not 5,000
@@UserName-ts3sp the NY thruway uses Buffalo, Albany, Boston, NYC, Montreal, and Canada as the primary control cities. (Canada = Northbound) And the only time you get towns of say 5,000 as control cities is when you are in the boonies like my hometown thats an hour away from the interstate and the entire county has a total population of 100,000 with the largest town just over 10,000. (Basically only using timy towns in am area where thats all that exists so the only people using the roads already know the town names because why else would you be in "Canada NY")
PS: it was nice growing up far, far away from the stupid interstate. After becoming a regular user of it i definitely don't want it need my hometown, even if I understand why it exists. (Military defense, they just let us wear it out for them)
If you went over everything in the MUTCD I’d happily watch all of it. Great video as always!
That would take, like, 50 hours of video...
@@jovetj good 50hrs
That's just 3 minutes per page, not bad if you don't want to read@@jovetj
"This video is a incredibly long." ?? This video is incredibly entertaining! You have really kicked it up a few notches. So many edits in this! Amazing! "We could easily spend over an hour just talking about freeway signs." Bring it on!! (Or make it it two parts.)
I barely even noticed it was 30 mins long.
I’d love to see a video about state routes, their signs, and their histories/differences, and perhaps as well about their connection to US Routes and Interstates!
I dig how almost every state has its own unique state route sign
@@danieldaniels7571 Yeah the shields fascinate me!
Wisconsin started it all for state highway signs back in 1926 while it became standard nationwide in 1928 or 1929.
Me too
White Gastle ⛽️
🤦♂️
Never disappointed, thanks for the chipmunks cover at the end. 👍
Ever since I was a small kid, I have always had a fascination with traffic signs, signals, cones, etc. Now I even collect them! I can't stand to see them knocked down or have a bolt fall out of them. Like if I see a stop sign in a parking lot that is hanging upside down because the top bolt fell out, I have to buy a new bolt/nut to refasten the sign to the post or else it drives my OCD nuts. My local Meijer store knows I often take care of their stop signs and even gave me one of their old stop signs they were replacing as a reward, which was pretty cool!
I don't have OCD but I get a good laugh out of upside-down signs missing a bolt. I've seen a disturbing number of Divided Highway warning signs in this state, though...
I expect - and _respectfuly_ request - a video, on road markings.
Especially the new(ish) orange road markings for construction zones.
That the stop sign is the first sign in the book says a lot about US road design. In the Netherlands and Belgium for example, yield comes before stop. Stop signs are relatively rare here anyway. Certainly not something you'll find on every corner.
Most people treat most stop signs as yield signs anyway.
I think most of the EU uses predominantly yield sign instead of stop sign, stop sign only exist when it absolutely needed
@@Banom7a Stop signs are generally less common in Europe, as you said they do only exist when absolutely needed.
In my country, yield signs are everywhere on intersections with no traffic signals.
@@automation7295 exactly, that's what i'm saying.
its ironic for country that design for driver yet it make driving like a chore.
@@Banom7a Stop signs are considered safer here because they enforce a stop and force the driver time to actually look for conflicting traffic. While many people do fail to properly stop at Stop signs, they do, at least, look. Yield signs might not even have drivers slow down, and are often ignored by the public. There are places where Yields signs are used in neighborhoods instead of Stop signs, though, which is fine in my book. Most quiet neighborhood intersections don't have signs at all. Stop signs are used where a minor road connects to a superior roadway. This includes a little residential street coming to an arterial street, to two highways in the middle of nowhere forming a T intersection.
I like the relatively new practice of painting the route options in each freeway lane as you approach interchanges.
The amount of quality and effort put into this video is incredible! Keep it up Rob
This is exceptional. As a Brit with family in the US, I never knew some of the nuances, and always found signage more challenging than the very uniform standards we have in the UK.
WAY more! It's just too much text
Agree. Compared to the UK, watching this video, they come across as a mis-mash with little standardisation even though there’s lots of rules for them 🤨
@@jackb7705 It's because we have 50 different states that all like to pretend they are their own countries and make up their own rules.
Fun Fact: Australia is closest to the US and Canada when it comes to road sign practices.
@@jackb7705 Nah, signs and signals in the US are very standardized, and we're lucky for it. Some states or areas like to put in their weird flairs, but most are conforming.
Not all traffic engineers are created equal, however, so there are poorly-designed intersections and poorly-designed traffic signs out there.
Funny that you mention 50 different sets of road signs early on. The standard one that seems to vary the most is the bridge icing warning sign. I grew up with "Bridges Ice First" and now live in a state who says "Bridge May Be Icy" (always a hoot in July.)
Rob, I love your mock fast food joint signs...the Trendy's One is gold! Please put that on merch!
Yes, those are all hilarious! I can't imagine how much time it took to make all of those...
Anyone else go through the beginning montage one frame at a time to see where he was?
Valencia Blvd & San Fernando Rd. Old stomping grounds for this watcher. ♥ Awesome vid as usual.
The sign editing was extremely well done.
I never though I'd be excited for a half hour video on road signs, but here we are
I'd argue that street sign text is too small, at least in my experience. If I'm driving to a new place, I have to be way too close to the intersection before I know if I'm supposed to turn or not. If I can't read the sign from the beginning of the turn lanes, then it's a failure in design. I have this problem even with a brand new glasses prescription, too.
Another great video Rob. What I would like to see are mandatory signs, at least a quarter mile prior to signalized intersections, that say something to the effect of "Main St, Next Signal". A few states already install these, but most don't. I think such signs would reduce intersection accidents if motorists, especially visitors, knew the name of the upcoming cross street before they arrive at the cross street as opposed to way it works now.
A lot of the size issues was actually addressed in the 2009 edition of the MUTCD. However existing signs are not required to be replaced with signs meeting newer standards until they reach the end of their service life or triggered by some other upgrade or replacement. Basically all existing signs are grandfathered until they're old or you need to change them so it can take quite some time for them to all get upgraded
yeah, directional signs should be in front of the crossing (unless for small intersections). Especially when there are turning lanes.
I've had it happen when you near an intersection, turning lane is there, but the directional sign is just after the turn.
How am I supposed to know to get in the turning lane when they don't give direction before?
Luckily that has improved with GPS, but still. (although that's more of a workaround and not a real solution)
@@Robbedem GPS is great, until it doesn't know that the lane it told you to be in is a left only and you need to turn right.
The point of the signs is that you theoretically don't need a GPS to navigate, but it is very helpful when in unfamiliar locations vs having a navigator. (I still act as a navigator as a passenger when the GPS is going because i can stare at the map without consequences unlike the driver so if the roads are particularly messy such as very close together intersections i can clarify for the driver "second right")
@@pickled51 I've seen a few of these in springfield mo
Highway signs are so important, there was one guy who made his own I-5 sign, climbed onto the overhead in Los Angeles, and nailed it down because the overhead was missing that sign!
czcams.com/video/Clgl63CWOkM/video.html
I saw that. They ended up keeping it up there because it was a good idea.
This video should be part of every drivers ed course. I have never been so excited about road signs. I will now be the annoying read signs out loud guy that says “X or you’re gonna get a ticket!”
He didn't mention it, but Red and even Black signs are Regulatory signs, too. All Regulatory signs represent the law. If you don't stop, you're gonna get a ticket. If you go the wrong way, you're gonna get a ticket.
Nice video, as an armchair city developer I enjoyed it. Love the "or else you get a ticket" comments. I currently live in Poland (Europe), with the Vienna convention signage. Poland differs from her neighbours in that the warning signs have a yellow background as opposed to white. As a side note, South Africa (my residency 1990-2020) used blue background, white icon, red frame for warning signs in the past (pre-1990).
As an armchair world builder, I struggle with the guidance signs: how do I decide which destination to put on the sign. Which up-coming interchanges to feature... I guess that is a common sign design problem.
As a suggestion, perhaps make a video featuring signage from around the world...
Yellow is an acceptable alternative to white under the Vienna convention. Finland, Sweden and Greece also use a yellow background. It probably also helps when there's a lot of snow or sand, yellow shows up better on a white background.
Wikipedia does have a lot of information about road signs all over the world.
This alone explains how California signage is so distinct. This also explains one major gripe I have with those exit signs with those "one lane splits into two lanes" thing.
What's the gripe? Drivers can go either way. If the lane says "exit only" you have to exit.
Rob, if I were in charge of the curriculum for Drivers Ed classes across the country, I would have you create and star in every single video. Incredibly informative and humorous content! (Yes, I noticed the "No New Residents Allowed" text on the Huntington Beach sign at 20:10). Keep creating the great content! And I'm definitely interested in having you make more videos about the MUTCD.
Very interesting video! As a bit of a ‘road sign enthusiast’ myself I appreciate it. Greetings from Germany!
I thought I was weird being a sign geek. glad to know I wasn't alone!
@@mfaizsyahmi You're not alone. I'm one too!
The vienna convention warning signs can be accompanied by words if there is no sign for that specific situation, as you said, there aren't symbols for every single situation. Usually, this is a triangular sign with "!", which is general danger, and a text sign below specifying what the danger is. However, there are still a lot of symbols. A LOT. And most of them are pretty unambiguous.
Often it's a huge general danger sign, with small, short and often cryptic text beneath it. I do argue many north american signs are often _too_ wordy, but sometimes it's better to be a bit more descriptive than using the rather terse but technical language that many european signs often use.
@@Croz89 The reason for as few words as possible is of course there being so many different languages so close to each other. The fewer words there are, the easier they are to remember and look up and translate if you really need to. Otherwise you'd be translating entire sentences, aint nobody got time for that.
@@MrAronymous That can be a problem when the words are uncommon even in the native language outside of traffic signs. "Adverse Camber" for example in english. And many european countries share borders that have vastly different languages, France and Germany, Sweden and Finland, etc. Before the era of google translate, and probably even today, there are lots of drivers who may have a basic grasp of the language but probably wouldn't understand such a sign.
Also text signs very in how common they are between countries. I've found Germany uses them fairly regularly, whereas in France and the UK they are considerably more rare.
@@Croz89 for traffic signs, fewer words is almost always better. As shown in the video, the sign with an entire sentence made no sense, was hard to read, and got cut down to 4 words which made more sense and was easier to read. If you put a sentence on a sign you’re going to have gone past it before you’ve got half was through reading it. Pairing it with an icon makes it more noticeable at a glance to know if it’s relevant or not.
@@jackb7705 If you reduce the information complexity like in that example, sure. But if you just sub them out with more obscure and technical words to use less of them, it can be more confusing.
I almost got to make some highway-style road signs on private property until the quote came back for a total of around $50k. We went with much more boring 4x8ft metal panels for about $5k instead. But the files were fun to design!
I would assume that's mostly for regulatory reasons. A local silk screen print shop should be able to make something fairly decent, if perhaps not fully compliant.
@@Croz89 Most of the cost was in the size. The sign itself would've been several panels attached together, and the whole thing needed engineered concrete footings due to wind load. The cheaper option was just posts stuck in the ground like a fence post and then a standard size single panel attached.
Rob, I've taken a lot of pictures of road signs for projects of mine (including many non-standard and outdated ones, which I always enjoy seeing), so I've got a little input.
You can measure any part of a sign by measuring a known reference either elsewhere on the sign (the border works great for that), or the width of the post, and then taking a picture as close to directly in front of the sign as possible. Then open the image in an image editor and use the selection tool to measure the known reference in pixels. Now, with a little math, you can measure any part of the sign. I use this all the time for 3D modeling all kinds of stuff (bridges are my main project now).
Stop signs, in spite of their high stature in the Manual, should really be used a lot more sparingly than they are now.
That little green horse sign under the Equestrian Center sign may have been green, or it may have started out life as a brown sign and faded to that color. I've seen several signs like that here in MN that have been out in the sun too long, and have either become a pale-greenish or have lost their color outright.
I love these videos, keep up the amazing work!
The brown pigment tends to decay into more of a yellow color. I don't think that sign was ever brown. The brown they use has the worst ultraviolet resistance... signs can be faded almost white in just a few years.
22:40 “Too much talk, not enough rock!” You crack me up.
Thanks for the informational entertainment.
I have been watching your vids non-stop for about a week now. Truly amazing, informative, entertaining, great editing, attention to detail, etc. I can’t imagine how long these videos take to make. And it’s the little things that make the difference. Example: for each regulation you gave, you cited it in the bottom left corner of the screen. This video would have been just as informative without that, but you did it anyway. Hats off to you sir.
In Idaho, many of our speed limit signs have the same font and design as the old Oregon "speed" signs, but they include the word "limit". I'm not sure why they do this but I think it looks cooler than the traditional speed limit signs.
"Road signs are awesome!" Truer words have never been spoken.
EU loves pictures thanks to many different languages. Come to Quebec, same signs as US but with a LOT more cute pictures!
I completely lost it when you tried to translate the overly long warning into the Vienna Convention version at 14:30 :D good one
Hands down, the absolute best quality video from a CZcams’er I have ever seen. Simply put, outstanding.
8:30 My favorite speed limit sign to drive on was the 85 mph limit on Texas State Highway 130. Never made it to Montana while they had a sort-of-unlimited speed in the 1990's.
Back then, the nighttime speed limit in Montana was 80 and the daytime "speed limit" was defined as "reasonable and prudent" for road conditions. The Feds didn't like the subjectivity of the "reasonable and prudent" standard or the ambiguity in the lack of a numeric speed limit, so they compelled Montana to adopt a numeric daytime speed limit (also generally 80 on rural portions of the interstates) on threat of losing highway funding.
I actually looked over the manual and there is a pretty good chunk still to go of it. I think there should be a part 2!
The tractor-semi sign basically says “fits some trucks” like the bridge height sign. Means something instant like a weight sign to a trucker. Note the truck seen turning had its trailer’s rear axle pulled forward
I grew up between three towns that shared borders. Street signs in my town were all red, another town's signs were all blue, and the third town used signs that were red on one side, blue on the other.
Thank you for another great informative video. Good work. If you want to make a one hour edition on highway signs, I’d be interested.
Watch Road Guy Rob … or get a ticket!
This is great, would like to see more on the road markings, construction rules. Very informative
"or else you'll get a ticket"
The comedy was on point in this one
A video going over some of the major or quirky differences with state specific MUTCDs would be cool
This channel's content and production is insanely good
Just watched this with my four kids ages 4-11. Really interesting and funny!
My guy. WHAT!! You are amazing. You've got this production quality and fun factor of Bill Nye the Science Guy's old show. So entertaining and educational
I could listen to you talk about signs for hours. You make what I thought was mundane into an engaging topic
Any day RGR releases a new video is a good day.
I *wish* they were all the same. A town near me has almost all of its speed limit signs made using the wrong font, and it drives me nuts. I've also seen plenty of signs that squash a three-digit highway number into a two-digit-sized shield, or use a state highway shield for a U.S. highway.
Yikes!
Wrong typefaces drive me up the wall. I don't understand the wont to use Arial or Helvetica or Calibri on a damn road sign.... UGH!!
This is too cute! Love your sense of humor. Also...the absolute BEST road sign of them all is...[drumroll]...SQUIGGLES!! You know the one: Yellow sign, big fat arrow, veers right--then left--THEN RIGHT!--THEN LEFT AGAIN!!! Bonus points if there's no speed recommendations and your decisions are purely between you and God. I absolutely love the squiggles signs; I legit smile whenever I see one. The best, most scenic roads tend to have lots of them.
"We could easily spend more than an hour just talking about freeway signs." SUBSCRIBED.
Kind of interesting: in Germany the stop sign is ranked as sign 206, while the very first sign ranked 101 is the general warning sign for a hazard
I'm somehow very happy that we really have the very same traffic signs all across Germany no matter in which state you're driving at. Some rather special signs are more common in some areas than in others, but apart from that they're indeed all the same in each state.
Let’s say we are very happy that in Europe every country has the same general signs (except Ireland for some reason…)
I am also happy that the signs are standardized across our 50 states. And Canada is very, very similar. In third place would be Australia, if you want to drive on the left.
Having a school bus license, my favorite is one of the yellow railroad crossing signs with a yellow sign underneath that says "exempt"
There's only one of these crossings left in my state I believe
Does that mean that school busses are exempt from being hit by trains? 😁
@ haha, hopefully.
Anyone that normally has to stop like school bus or hazmat won't have to stop. It's usually pretty rare for a train to be there. In this case it's where the tracks cross a 4 Lane divided highway with a 70mph speed limit.
@@AftermarketCRX It's the white crossbuck RAIL ROAD CROSSING sign that needs to have the EXEMPT placard, though. The advance warning sign is a courtesy but doesn't actually "mean" anything.
Another important note: The EXEMPT markings do not automatically mean that the track is no longer used. Trains may still run on that track! But, if they do, they are likely to stop and flag the crossing.
24:30 those parodies of logos made my day.
YESSS!!! A new Road Guy Rob video!!!! I can't believe I didn't see this 3 days ago. CZcams has failed me!!! One of my all time favorite channels.
18:50 "We could easily spend over an hour just talking about freeway signs." I'd watch it!
This is an excellent video. Like you, the most interesting part of my roadgeekness is the guide signs along our freeways and expressways. I'm old enough to remember all-text button copy signs in the Northeast and have watched the evolution of original generation interstate signs to what we have today. I'm interested to see what the next MUTCD brings. Thanks for sharing!
I love the local taste of dialect you get from a region from wording on the signs. Like Jake brake in N.J. or Thickly Settled and Rotary in MA, all the way to Texas Ranch and Farm road system
In Ontario Canada highway exit signs are white on blue for collector lanes while express lanes are white on green.
That was great! Now I'd love to see a video on how to engineer streets, roads and intersections in a way that you don't need an avalanche of signs, because the road layout makes you do the right thing. Like your video about turnlanes, and why raised medians are becomming more common, but about safer intersection designs for example
At first I thought "Brake Check Area" had something to do with the road rage maneuver, then I realized it's a place to make sure your brakes work.
A (road rage) brake check area will probably be a stunt area.
Super important for trucks before long descents. In the winter, these double for wheel chaining stations.
Hi Rob! I have a 4 year old son who has recently become obsessed woth road signs. He's watched this video 9 or 10 times. Future traffic engineer perhaps? Thanks, we're both big fans of your channel!
I never thought I’d watch a 30 minute infrastructure/roadway video, let alone back to back! Your content is incredibly great, I can’t stop watching your videos! Please keep it up
Another great video Rob. You make learning about rules, regulations, designs, and engineering or roadways enjoyable to watch. Great job.
I could watch rob go through traffic regulations for hours
This sign video was one of your best. Love hearing about all the rules federa vs state etc..
My younger self would be very intrigued with this video. Road signs as a kid were my favorite for some reason.
I didn't realise that Australia and the U.S. used such a similar system! Very useful, even on the other side of the world.
Yup. Australia adopted a lot from U.S. custom. The same for railway level crossings, too.
I hope you continue with the MUTCD series! This is a great tool for education.
Love your content rob. You're enthusiasm in these videos is contagious
You don't know how much I would love if you made another one of these for all the other things the book covers!
Keep up the great videos.
Never thought I would enjoy almost 30 minutes of street signs. But I did. Please cover the whole book.
This is so professional done. I love your work. Thankyou.
hello spider brother, i didnt know we were still around
Interesting fact about sign colors for street name signs in Minneapolis, MN. Blue is used to identify a snow emergency route, which are plowed first following snowfall and have different laws regarding parking during snowfall. Green is used to identify roads that are non-snow emergency and run north/south, and also parkways. Brown identifies non-snow emergency routes that run east/west.
Reasons that I found this video awesome (1) as a former TV journalist, I know how much time and efforts had the team put in this video (2) As I have just relocated to the US, that's interesting to know the differences between American and British sign standard
Your ability to inject entertainment into these topics is truly impressive!
The MUTCD is like the bible for roadway engineers. Used to work doing ITS for a highway system in Florida. they love that book.
Road Guy ROB
is awesome and great. His career is what America can listen and change signs to be one... With understanding each specific location needs a little extra
I like that the orange signs always indicate that you're going to be late to wherever you're heading!
Such a well-done video, Rob! As a Canadian, I should point out that Canada has its own national MUTCD although provinces are not required to adopt it, unlike the US. Despite that, traffic control devices in the US and Canada are quite similar, with some minor distinctions of course. For example, crosswalk signs in Canada have a white background while in the US they have a yellow background (with the angled downward arrow). That is something I found interesting on my trips to the US, since stopping for pedestrians in a crosswalk is legally required, but the sign isn't on a white background!
I stand by the US round RR crossing advance warning signs and the yellow (or fluorescent yellow-green) pedestrian and school crossing signs, though. They're much more distinctive than their Canadian equivalents. The US's School Crossing sign even has its own shape (pentagon), shown but not mentioned in the video. The Canadian end-of-road or bend arrow (checkerboard) signs are attention-getting, though!
The pedestrian crossing signs, as warning signs, do not mandate any drivers to stop for people. They just warn that people may be crossing. Laws about giving way to pedestrians are what are supposed to encourage drivers to stop.
In Canada, instead of "speed limit" it says "maximum"
Which makes sense, because bilingually, it's the same word in French and English, so you don't have to write "Speed Limit" and "Limite de vitesse" both on the sign.
Of course, they could have just done what Australia does, and use the red rondel with the speed number in it.
@@jaycee330 i mean thats true but theres only 1 bilingual province. Also its weird cuz where i live the signs dont say km/h hour, but i know in some provinces it does say it. Its weird how its not standardized
The level of production value this actually impressive!
This video is one of my favorites, after watching this video I was inspired to buy an MUTCD for myself.
Dinoco fuel!! Great Cars plug.
Your production quality is top notch. If you're doing all this to make a reel to get a TV show, you're doing it right!
And I know that having a lav instead of a handheld makes it so you can use your hands, but boy do I miss that news reporter look.
Great job Rob!
Another AMAZING video Rob! The standardization manual for road signs made me a happy person. If only everything was so uniformly standard…
Also omg I have seen at least 2 accidents at that Moreno valley roundabout. Huntington Beach was my hometown so I appreciated that sign example!
The 11th Edition of the MUTCD was just released today (12/19/2023), any chance you'd want to do an overview of some of the additions/changes, maybe highlighting some of the reasoning behind making amendments? I'm particularly interested in the bicycling infrastructure changes that are outlined. You're ability to educate visually though the videos on your channel is excellent, keep up to good work!
I'm always impressed with the quality of your presentations!
Eagerly awaiting that hour-long video about guidance signs! Also, RIP Clearview. It was so much better than Highway Gothic. And somebody please tell New Jersey that there is a standard for signs, I'm pretty sure they have no idea such a thing exists.
I really liked Clearview font. It seemed like a nice modern update, especially on green overhead signage.
@@kaziu312 not only more modern, but I personally find it to be considerably more readable and from a further distance. If they found readability issues like they claim, I don't know why there was no effort to fix the issues and instead they just completely dropped it. Really disappointing.
Blegh I personally hated clearview, it looked really bad on the early signs especially. Tuned out the supposed improvements in legibility came from increased font sizes and better/new retro reflective sheeting and was never approved for inverse lettering (dark text) and was applied incorrectly on so many types of signs that I'll be happy to see the end of it
Clearview was ugly. Good riddance.
Great job Rob! You’ve got me decoding the road signs on my way to/ from work that I normally wouldn’t even have given a second thought. Keep it up!
Truly fantastic work and making a whole 30 minute video about signage entertaining! Hope you can cover more of the MUTCD in the future too!