Wyandotte Street Sign Question

**mtburb** · January-30-14, 07:23 PM

There's this question that has been hitting me for some time now. When exactly did the city of Wyandotte stop installing the old white-on-green signs and start installing the green-on-white ones and when exactly did they start using the Helvetica font for street names?

I seem to recall Wyandotte going on a huge agressive campaign to replace the remaining white-on-green signs with the green-on-white ones during the late 1990's, but the last white-on-green sign I've seen was at Goddard Road and Lindbergh Street circa 2005 [[in addition to two newer green-on-white signs at that intersection), but that one has been removed shortly after too.

Plus, I believe that the first green-on-white signs used the same font as the white-on-green signs, but the numbered streets were spelled as numbers on those original signs [[like they currently are, one example of this still stands a few steps from my house) and used a border that had a couple curves on the left and right sides. I believe the Wyandotte PD mandated spelling the numbered streets as numbers sometime in the mid 1980's and that was according to a Department of Public Services employee I emailed.

**mtburb** · May-29-14, 06:27 PM

I know this is a huge bump, but I think I may have solved part of this puzzle myself. I think this is how it went [[note-almost all of this was all in upper-case):

before 1970: black-on-white, words for numbered streets, FHWA Series C
1970-1984: white-on-green, words for numbered streets, FHWA Series C
1984-1995: white-on-green, numbers for numbered streets, FHWA Series C
1995-2007: green-on-white with green curved border, numbers for numbered streets, block font for numbers and FHWA Series C for everything else
1999-present: green [[black on newer, relective signs)-on-white with green [[black on newer, reflective signs) straight borders, numbers for numbered streets, Helvetica

Below is an example of the two most recent designs: current design is at the top.

Some intersections actually have an unusual type, which is the current design with it's predecessor's border. An example of this is the top sign in the picture below.

One street sign of the current design that has been recycled still shows visible scars of the original sign-which used the 1984 design.

**RO_Resident** · May-29-14, 07:22 PM

Street signs are being standardized under recent [[~last 5 years) changes to sign retroreflectivity.

First, signs will have to be of mixed case, e.g., Initial Cap.

Second, the standard background color for street signs is green. The only acceptable alternatives are blue, brown, and white. For signs with dark backgrounds, the lettering must be white. For signs with a white background, the lettering must be black.

Changes for street signs was supposed to happen by 2018. But, the regulations have been pushed back at least once.

That's a long way of saying that Wyandotte's signs are out of compliance for the new standards.

Still, many localities are replacing knocked-down signs with signs that meet the new standards.

**takascar** · May-29-14, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by mtburb

There's this question that has been hitting me for some time now. When exactly did the city of Wyandotte stop installing the old white-on-green signs and start installing the green-on-white ones and when exactly did they start using the Helvetica font for street names? I seem to recall Wyandotte going on a huge agressive campaign to replace the remaining white-on-green signs with the green-on-white ones during the late 1990's, but the last white-on-green sign I've seen was at Goddard Road and Lindbergh Street circa 2005 [[in addition to two newer green-on-white signs at that intersection), but that one has been removed shortly after too. Plus, I believe that the first green-on-white signs used the same font as the white-on-green signs, but the numbered streets were spelled as numbers on those original signs [[like they currently are, one example of this still stands a few steps from my house) and used a border that had a couple curves on the left and right sides. I believe the Wyandotte PD mandated spelling the numbered streets as numbers sometime in the mid 1980's and that was according to a Department of Public Services employee I emailed.

Don't know about the green and white ones, but I have an old BIDDLE sign from the downtown area from the 1980's [[pole got hit by a drunk after the art fair and the flat sign piece was laying in the gutter). Those were white letters with a brown background. I'm looking right at it now.

**mtburb** · May-30-14, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by takascar

Don't know about the green and white ones, but I have an old BIDDLE sign from the downtown area from the 1980's [[pole got hit by a drunk after the art fair and the flat sign piece was laying in the gutter). Those were white letters with a brown background. I'm looking right at it now.

I would like to see a photo of that-I think these types of signs were used around the downtown area up until sometime very late in the 1990's, when they were replaced by the current black-on-white signs with a decorative font.