Are the green highway signs we see everywhere made by one company? I’ve also seen them in Europe and I see them over where I am in Thailand, too. Are these just standards that governments follow, or is there one company that has a planet-wide monopoly on highway signage? And if it is the latter, are listed on the NYSE?
Thanks in advance,
Matt
I believe the 3M company had a patent on the reflective coating commonly used on road signs. The patent has probably expired by now.
Googling came up with…
Googling for the name of that company then gave the company website.
In Utah they are made by prisoners, as are license plates.
Follow the links and you’ll find more than you’ll ever want to know about US standards for signs.
As to who makes them, I know for sure that my state DOT has its own sign shops and I’d be willing to bet most states do the assembling, painting, and installing themselves.
I can’t really answer the question as asked in the OP, but I can say that my stepfather was a signwriter, and on occasion he’d do a job for an Australian government agency. He said they paid well, but the job was a pain in the arse because the specifications were so demanding. A certain expensive paint, a certain expensive backing material, templates with unforgiving margins for error. According to him, the only people worse than the government were the folks from Coca Cola.
Actually, he said the paint, as well as being expensive, was extremely hard to get. “Official” paint for signs like that needed all manner of security clearances, and often, having gotten the clearance, he’d only be given such a small amount of paint that a misplaced brushstroke would be a disaster. I think he ended up declining some of that work. I’ll have to ask him about it, as my memory may be hazy. I remember his doing black and yellow “WARNING HIGH VOLTAGE OVERHEAD CABLES” signs for a local govt agency to place on river banks, and it nearly drove him crazy the hoops he was required to go through.
Yep: I used to work for the Maryland State Highway Administration, and my first office was right next to the sign shop. They also made traffic lights, and out behind the building there were always a bunch of lights being tested.
In a similar vein I turned down a job doing some fairly lucrative work for a local PD because they specified a particular patented and trademarked laminate that Formica sells only to gov agencies, the hoops were just too much to deal with.
There was a story in the LA Times a year or so ago about a guy who made a sign to the CA code and placed it one night on one of the overpasses of either I-5 or I-10. Apparently, a sign was badly needed to warn to an upcoming merge or exit and this guy decided to put it there. It was so good its existence wasn’t even noticed for a while.
** The GREEN Sign Company! ? **
We don’t see them in Japan. Over here most of them have a blue background with white text/symbols.