The Old Dominion.

Here are some suggested route marker signs for Virginia. The present State Primary route markers are a kind of rounded shield in a black square, and the State Secondary is the boring circle sign.

Here's the present Primary route marker.

(Grey represents sky, which is typical throughout)

This one can be for limited-access free roads like Quebec's Autoroutes.

This one can be for toll roads.

This one can be for the Primary roads.

And this one can be for Secondaries.

The Magnolia State.

Remember when Mississippi had the Magnolia auto registration plates? Well I think the state ought to model its route markers after it. In my suggested scheme, the surround and numerals are blue, and the magnolia is a green, yellow and grey watermark. I think it would be great for tourism.

One and two-digit.

And three digit. 

(1xx 3-digit signs can be a little bit narrower.)

Smaller versions at RV Droz's website.

US Routes on Expressway.

By Expressway I mean what "road geeks" call Freeway. They are for the non-Interstate highways that are fully-controlled access (no traffic lights or intersections, no driveways) that are up to interstate standards* or otherwise.  Here are some examples.

Route US 1, no tolls.

Various sections in New England, 

the Northeast, North Carolina and Florida. 

Where Route US 1 is a toll road:

Tobin Bridge, Boston; GWB Bridge, New York;

and Delaware River Bridge, Trenton NJ - Morrisville PA.

Small size shown here.

Route US 19 in Pinellas County, Florida,

and in Metro-North Atlanta, Georgia.

Small size shown here.

Route US 93 in Vegas.

Route US 101 in California.

Bud Schuster Freeway in PA.

Unless they use the scheme for US Route Interstates in my previous post.

* Interstate standards: 12-foot travel lanes, a full 10-foot right hand breakdown lane, full left hand breakdown land for highways three travel lanes or more in one direction, 16'-6" clearance underneath the overhead bridges (overcrossings and sign bridges), no more than 6 percent grade.. 

More Louisiana Highway Signs.

I have two other schemes. One is a five-sided cutout shape with the point down, the other is knockoff on the Florida state outline highway route marker.

First the five-pointed cutout scheme.

Purple, gold and green: Mardi Gras colors.

This can be for primary State Highways.

And this can be for the secondaries.

Now the state outline scheme.

This first one can be for the primary State Highways.

Again, Purple, gold and green.

This second one can be for the secondaries.

This third one can be for the Parish (County) Roads and State Highways given back to the Parishes.

Or, it can be used instead of the ones above for the State Highways.

And this is an example of a hyphenated route in the same colors.

More Louisiana Signs

Here are some ideas for a new color Louisiana state route marker sign. Presently the green-and-white ones are being replaced by black-and-white ones, and the route markers on the overhead directional signs have microscopic typeface! 

Credit: Codyg1985 at aaroads.com forum

The offence is on an overhead signbridge. 

Note the sign on the left is a "double Clearview." 

It directs to Clearview Parkway, and the typeface is Clearview.

Now the closeup of the offence.

Look how tiny the typeface is on the sign!

Who can see the route number going by at 50 miles an hour?

Epic beancounting FAIL, Gov. Jindal!

Now I have some better ideas:

The first idea and the one I like best is to copy Quebec's designs but use purple, gold and green -- Mardi Gras colors!

This would be for regular State Highway routes.

Not Mardi Gras colors, but ----
this would be for County Roads including devolved State Highways.
Use Canary Yellow for the number for better visibility at night!

And these would be for the limited access State Highways that aren't interstates:

Rte. 25 (extended south) Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.

Rte. 3132 Inner Loop Expway.

Rte. 3139 Earhart Expwy.

I have some other ideas, too. Next post.

Still More Florida Signs.

This time they're for Florida expressways: freeways and turnpikes.

Freeways. 

Turnpikes.

There are other designs I have submitted to RV Droz's Great International Highway Makeover, but I don't like them as much. I think these are best.

More Florida Signs.

Here are some other signs, small versions of which can be seen at R. V. Droz's The Great International Highway Makeover Florida page.

The first three are one-digit, two-digit and three-digit signs that can be used for state highways of primary importance. The tourist-friendly colors used are azure blue and tropical sea green.

The grey fields represent sky, i.e., the signs are cut-out shapes, not rectangles.

Here we have a state secondary classification and I chose coral red, bright red, dull gold and white with a black border.

And at last we have the county roads ("Pasco" is misspelled. Sorry.) I have a two-tone blue, warning sign Spanish orange, and goldfinch yellow for better visibility especially at night, although Spanish orange is okay in full sunlight.

Come to think of it, white letters with black outline would work better on the primary state route markers above, too.

Florida Blue Diamond Revival

Before Florida did its state road reorganization in 1945, it had a different network with different route markers.

Unfortunately, the route markers had the route number in smaller type than the abbreviation "FLA." inside a blue diamond. Of course, that meant the number was not very legible to a motorist passing at 50 miles an hour.

But it's a nice marker and if you shrink the abbreviation and enlarge the number, you can have a uniquely recognisable icon for the state of Florida. Here below are examples for the state and county roads.

An Idea for Tennessee

Recently I came across a webimage that was a cut-out of the shape of the State of Tennessee on its unique red, white and blue flag.

So I figured, why not make a route marker out of it?

Welcome!

I used to send possible highway route signs to the owner of The Great International Highway makeover website, Mr. R. V. Droz, a while back. Well I found out recently that his email link at his website is inoperable. Rats. I hope it'll work well in the future. 

Well, here's a sample sign:

This one is based on a concept of a "Geauxpass" toll tags only toll collection system for the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway from Metairie to Mandeville in southern Louisiana. Of course, if one crosses without the toll tag the owner of the car will receive a bill for the toll plus a nominal handling fee. But then I think the color purple should be used for all toll roads, not just the toll roads and discrete toll lanes where there are no toll takers or exact change lane machines. The type face looks kind of like Clearview but it isn't. Can you guess it? It's on UK overhead directional signs on their motorways.

And here's an enlargement of the possible route marker for the road that crosses it.It's plagiaristically based on the Quebec Autoroute route marker design. Which I think is a very nice design for non-interstate freeways, expressways and tollways in North America. Kind of classy, I think.