SomeExistite's Nonsense Jamboree

MUTCD Monday - The definition of "awful"

(Tumblr - 2025/01/20)

MUTCD Monday is an unscheduled weekly post where I review a (usually) nonstandard road sign that I'm (usually) criticizing.

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, or MUTCD, "defines the standards used by road managers nationwide to install and maintain traffic control devices [road signs and stuff] on all streets, highways, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and site roadways open to public travel".[1]

This week, I review a sign I saw on a Stanford professor's website.

Nearly everything about this sign is wrong. If it was more wrong, it'd be running for president (political joke funny).

NO
NO
FUCKING NO
DONT
DO
THIS
Nonstandard arrow shape
Street name printed on sign
"ST" smaller than "SHASTA" because they ran out of room
"900" with zero context that I couldn't figure out the meaning of
why? just why?

Thankfully, Mr. Stanford-Professor-Computer-Nerd-Probable-Autism-Haver included coordinates to where the sign is (N37°28.714' W122°13.271'), so I can see exactly where they though this would be acceptable.

Why do you even need the sign? "WATCH THE FUCK OUT! THE ROAD TURNS!" The sign is also in the middle of the end of the street, aka bad.

Also, on the other side of the underpass, there's ANOTHER one of these signs. It's not even the same! It's bad in different ways! It's ALSO at the end of the road, now on the other side of an intersection.