More Street Signs

Okay, still more about street signs. Are you getting bored with it? This is an example of how Houston has changed from the standard green signs to special signs for different parts of town. Each district is distinct from the others, and this example is from the Upper Kirby area, but actually on S. Shepherd.

This brings me to another thought. The block numbers on Houston's street signs are quite useful. This sign tells me the sign is in the 3500 block of S. Shepherd and the 2100 block of Colquitt. The number goes with the street name, and helps you know which direction to turn at the intersection to get to where you are going.

When I first moved to Colorado, Denver's signs were quite confusing. They do it just the opposite. The name of the cross street appears with the hundred block of the street you are currently driving on. Very odd, and after 13 years here, I still have trouble with it. It just is not very intuitive. There should be a standard, and I would vote for Houston's method to be adopted nationwide. Easy to use, and makes more sense, at least to me.

Back to the Past

In my previous post below, we took a look at a very futuristic, chrome circle street sign from Houston's Galleria area. So it is only fitting that we now take a trip back in time to another era in the Bayou City's developmental history.

In the 1960s, developer Frank Sharp was building his community of the future, Sharpstown. While the subdivision has been through a number of ups and downs over the years, it was at one time a very happening place. It was home to the long gone Sharpstown Drive-In Theatre, the still existing Sharpstown Center, one of America's early air-conditioned indoor shopping malls, and lots and lots of houses! Sharp had such sway that the routing of the Southwest Freeway was largely due to his lobbying to have the new limited-access highway act as an express route between Sharpstown and Downtown.

The street sign you see here is a concrete obelisk at the corner of Langdon Lane and Bintliff Drive. These street signs were all over Sharpstown at one time, but have one-by-one disappeared to the ravages of time until there are only a few left standing. Still, they are a part of my childhood memories. I don't know if these were common anywhere else, as Sharpstown is the only place I have ever seen them.

Now, let's all sing the Sharpstown Center advertising jingle from the 1960s! Remember it? Sure you do!

Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall,
Stroll in the air-conditioned mall.
With one stop to shop for all,
At Sharpstown Center!

Big, Shiny Signs

Street signs come in a variety of types. I will be posting more about them in a few posts to come. In any case, this is a good photo to see a very unique type of street sign. This photo was taken going eastbound on Westheimer approaching Sage Rd. in Uptown Houston, also known as the Galleria area.

That big, chrome-like circle suspended above the intersection is actually a street sign. To the best of my knowledge, these signs are unique to the Uptown Houston district, being deployed along Westheimer and Post Oak, and maybe a couple of other thoroughfares. If you click on the photo, you will get a much larger version. The one thing these signs don't have that standard signs do, is the block number. Still, they give a very striking and futuristic look to one of the busiest areas of town.

Not far from this location, just a few blocks to the southeast, is the Williams Tower, formerly Transco Tower. It is the tallest skyscraper outside of a central business district. It is a very interesting building, made of dark, reflective glass; and shaped like the classic art-deco design. On top is a rotating beacon that can be seen for many miles at night. While it was being built in the early 1980s, I worked across the freeway, and watched as it got taller and taller.

As an aside, take a look at the traffic lights. The backplates are elliptical, and have a convex shape to them. They are mounted on highly-polished chrome posts that match the street sign. You don't see that everyday either.

More street sign postings to come!

Is it a Bump or a Hump, Chump?

Being the road geek that I am, it is high time that I start a series of entries about roads. Specifically, this series of posts will be about road signs. I have always loved travel by automobile, and even as a small child, could navigate the highways by map. I also used to pass time by drawing street maps of non-existent cities (yeah, I was a weird kid I guess). Now I enjoy a somewhat similar passtime in the form of the computer city simulation, SimCity 4.

Anyway, here is the first picture we will talk about:



Now this looks like a typical suburban neighborhood, and it is definitely that. This is a street in my parents' subdivision. A quick glance will tell you that this is not a new street, as the sidewalk at the corner ends at the curb, rather than a ramp compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA. Also, the mature trees are an indicator that this neighborhood has been around for a few years. In fact, this subdivision was built in the mid-1970s.

Along this street, the city has installed a type of what traffic engineers call a traffic calming device. The one used here is usually known in the United States as a Speed Bump. Traffic calming is a way to divert or slow traffic in an area. Other traffic calming devices include the Traffic Circle (known in some places as a Roundabout), rumble strips, and curb extensions. Speed bumps are effective, but have a number of drawbacks, especially in that they can slow emergency response vehicles. Before one gets to a speed bump, there is typically a sign to warn about it, giving the driver the opportunity to slow down before hitting the bump.

Why is the sign above a bit of an anomaly? Let's take a closer look:

Notice, the sign says nothing about a "Speed Bump", but rather warns of "Road Humps". Now my readers from places like the United Kingdom and others may think, "So what"? That is the term that is used in many parts of the world. However, here in the United States, it usually isn't used.

It has always been a source of humor to me, as I think of "hump" as what a dog will do to your leg! I don't associate it with a road, so it just comes off as an odd way of wording it. Still, if one doesn't have the mental snap to figure it out, it will probably only take them one time hitting the "Road Hump" at full speed to get the idea!