Street Signs - What you Thought You Knew

Did you know that an "aging population" is taking over the U. S. roadways? Check out these statistics:

• A person 65 years-old needs 4X the amount of light to see at night compared to a 25 year-old.
• By 2025, The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety projects that 1 out of 4 drivers will be 65 or older.
• The larger the sign, and increased retroreflectivity, allows for quicker decision-making for older drivers and faster response times by emergency personnel,  allowing them to more easily read and understand signs thus reducing travel times to emergency situations.
• More than 50 percent of traffic accidents resulting in fatalities occur at night. Increased retroreflectivity helps to address this issue.

Street Signs

There are no requirements to replace “perfectly good signs” with new signs because of the mixed case standard. The requirements for mixed case letters in street signs generally apply when signs are replaced because of normal wear and tear. Thus, there is no added cost associated with this requirement.

Many media reports are factually incorrect when they state that signs must be replaced by January 2012. The only requirement for this date is that roadway owners have a sign management plan in place.

In 2000, the MUTCD established recommendations for minimum letter heights on street name signs. The MUTCD recommends 6” initial letter height for roads with speed limits of 40 mph or less with an option of 4” initial letter height for streets with speed limit 25 mph or less. Agencies need to evaluate and decide by January 2012 whether or not to use the recommended letter height or use an engineering study or engineering judgment to decide that a smaller letter height is acceptable.

In 2003, the MUTCD added a recommendation for letter heights of street name signs on multilane roads with speed limits greater than 40 mph. The MUTCD recommends 8” initial letter heights for post mounted and 12” letter height for overhead street name signs. Agencies need to evaluate and decide by December 2018 whether or not to use the recommended letter height or use an engineering study or engineering judgment to decide that a smaller letter height is acceptable.

Brilliant Series Class 2 Heavy Duty Vest

The Brilliant Series vests from ML Kishigo provide maximum visibility with a high visibility background material and 2" wide VizLite reflective tape with contrasting color, making it ANSI/ISEA 107 Class 2 compliant. This vest also utilizes Brilliant Trim reflective edging which considerably improves the vest's low light visibility. The reflective piping improves recognition of the wearer by distinguishing their silhouette from the other stationary objects around them. The vest is constructed of a durable and breathable 100% polyester mesh. Vest features include: zipper closure, mic tabs on chest, 2-tier pencil pocket, flapped radio pocket, inside patch pockets, outside cargo pockets with adjustable flaps, and reinforced webbing for added strength. Available in both high visibility Lime or Orange. Sizes M-5XL.

HiVis Supply is a reseller of high visibility apparel including hivis vests, ANSI Class 2 and ANSI Class 3 for a variety of job duties like mining, surveying, forestry and power generator construction.

Minimum Sign Retroreflectivity Timeline

Deadlines were established in 2007 to implement minimum levels of retroreflectivity for signage per the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).

Maintaining Minimum Retroreflectivity

1. January 22, 2012: By this date, roadway owners must adopt a plan to ensure that their signs meet Minimum Levels of Retroreflectivity by the dates cited below. The FHWA lists 5 options, among which are simple visual inspection and blanket replacement of groups of signs at the end of their “useful life” as stated by the manufacturer.

2. January 22, 2015: Regulatory and Warning Signs and Post-Mounted Signs must meet retroreflectivity requirements.

3. January 22, 2018: Overhead and Street Name signs must meet retroreflectivity requirements. If street name signs meet retroreflectivity requirements and are all CAPITAL letters, they may remain in service for the remainder of their useful life. They never have to be changed out only because of the capital letter/mixed case issue.

FHWA estimated the cost for making these retroreflectivity improvements throughout the entire United States to be $37 million dollars over a 10 year period. The reason that this figure is lower than some estimates reported in the media is that the implementation timetable detailed above was designed to roughly coincide with the useful life of existing signs. Thus, it is likely that most of them would have been replaced anyway.

For more information, check out the Sign Retroreflectivity Toolkit.

Also, check out the FHWA Sign Visibility page.

Fleece Lined Bomber Jacket

The fleece lined bomber jacket from ML Kishigo is ANSI/ISEA Class 3 compliant, and features a durable, waterproof shell with a fleece liner and fleece lined hood. In addition to the high visibility color material, the jacket also utilizes black material in the areas which most commonly get dirty - helping the jacket maintain a bright and clean appearance. The fleece lined hood is both removable and can also be hidden. Also includes, 2" wide 3M Scotchlite reflective material, right chest wallet pocket, left chest radio pocket, zipper slash side pockets and drawstring hood. Available in high visibility Lime and Orange; sizes M-5XL.


HiVis Supply is a reseller of high visibility apparel including ANSI approved clothing, safety vests and traffic vests for a variety of job duties like roadside construction, manufacturing and plant assembly.