# What were they thinking with these road signs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799 "2011-06-25T04:32:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/1 "2011-06-25T04:32:07Z")
When driving east on I-88 (AKA the East-West or “Name Anything That Doesn’t Move After Ronald Reagan” Tollway) in Hillside, Illinois, there’s a split exit for I-294 north (Tri-State Tollway) and I-290 west (Eisenhower Expressway). Since it gets a little hairy in there, they’ve painted neat signs on the road indicating which lane is which ([satellite view](http://maps.google.com/?ll=41.867628,-87.919174&spn=0.000889,0.001306&t=k&z=20)). As you can see, their painted all stretchy so they look normal to drivers. It’s a pretty cool idea, except for one thing: they’re on the backside of a hill. You can’t tell from above, but when you’re actually driving, you can’t see them until you’re right on top of them. If they had just painted them 20 feet in either direction, they’d be highly visible and actually helpful. Does anyone have any insight into why they picked that exact placement? Or does anyone find them to be well-placed? Is this level of road painting used anywhere else (to, hopefully, better effect)? ---
**Author:** ![Blackhawk441](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/76d3ee/32.png) [@Blackhawk441](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackhawk441)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/2 "2011-06-25T06:01:09Z")
Never seen something like that before in my life. IME, it’s always just the normal green signs suspended over the highway. WAG, but maybe there is some federal regulation that states that the signage must be x amount of distance before the actual offramp/splitting of the highway. Federal regulations are not known for their adaptability to the real world. Failing that, there does seem to be some sort of dirt pulloff right there in the satellite view- maybe the people who painted it wanted a nice convenient place to park their trucks while they were at work, and picked right there without thinking of how it would look actually coming down the highway. Highway departments are also not terribly well known for their adaptability to the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/3 "2011-06-25T08:06:14Z")
They painted some useful stuff like that in my area but it quickly wore off. It was to help with road construction so maybe it was different quality material. I personally like them because some of the overhead signs don’t always line up to the road. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/4 "2011-06-25T13:51:09Z")
I would guess that there is a regulation distance from the intersection that signs like these are usually painted, and the grunts who were dispatched to paint them merely measured the distance and painted without any thought to context… Grim Edit: On preview, what **Blackhawk441** said. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/5 "2011-06-26T02:39:51Z")
I don’t think there are specific location requirements for these in the MUTCD. They were just logically put halfway between the exit and the underpass. Once you get under the underpass you can see the overhead gantry signs. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/6 "2011-06-27T19:30:15Z")
You can see them [here.](http://maps.google.com/?ll=41.867628,-87.919174&spn=0.000889,0.001306&t=k&z=20) It’s just past the Tappan Zee Bridge in Tarrytown, a busy roadway where it divides into I-87 and I-287, the painted road is used to great effect, it’s as clear as day what road you’re going to wind up on, even with heavy traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/7 "2011-06-28T13:50:54Z")
Are those type of road markings not used much in the US? Over here (UK) they’re all over the place. [Example](http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.33221,-0.774016&spn=0.000705,0.001561&t=k&z=20), and same place in [Street View](http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.3326,-0.773542&spn=0,0.001561&t=k&z=20&layer=c&cbll=51.332546,-0.773658&panoid=cl8_LMYlC-d4Qlpz7nBEFg&cbp=12,250.47,,0,26.29). ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/8 "2011-06-28T14:15:17Z")
We have those on-the-road painted signs everywhere here. I love them. Sometimes our highways are 6 and 8 lanes wide with lots of overhead signage when there is a big interchange coming up. Having the sign in/on the lane helps you know you are in the correct lane very easily. I don’t know why they seem to be placed in a weird spot for you. Does it matter much? It’s only 2 lanes in the map. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/9 "2011-06-28T14:20:06Z")
error ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/10 "2011-06-28T14:30:05Z")
error, again ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/11 "2011-06-28T15:31:18Z")
Here’s one on the road I drive to work everyday here in [San Antonio](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=San+Antonio,+TX&hl=en&ll=29.439418,-98.479055&spn=0.001041,0.001023&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.664131,67.060547&t=h&z=20). It looks odd from the air, but “normal” on the road, but the sign is painted immediately at the point of the exit, so I don’t think it’s meant to help direct people to the exit but to confirm that they are in the exit lane. I think this is a relatively new idea on US roads…this only appeared within the last two years or so. I’m pretty sure there is now a similar painted sign in the northbound lanes of the same freeway but they don’t show up on this aerial shot. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking-with-these-road-signs/586799/12 "2011-06-28T15:45:46Z")
> [@J\_Cubed](#): > > It’s a pretty cool idea, except for one thing: they’re on the backside of a hill. You can’t tell from above, but when you’re actually driving, you can’t see them until you’re right on top of them. If they had just painted them 20 feet in either direction, they’d be highly visible and actually helpful. I’m familiar with this ramp, and I’m not sure what your complaint is. Even if, as you say, “you can’t see them until you’re right on top of them,” you also can’t possibly miss them once you _are_ on top of them, and at that point you still have probably close to a half-mile to move over if you find yourself in the wrong lane. (And in fact, if you’re getting on 294, either of the two lanes will do; a new lane splits off to the right for 290.) If I didn’t already know which lane to be in, I’m sure I’d find the signs quite helpful where they they are. There’s plenty of time to react.