In the early 1900s, road signs were an unorganized mix of shapes, sizes and colors. Along with the rise in auto traffic, standardization efforts increased in the 1920s, gained traction with the publication of the first Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), published by the American Association of Highway Officers (AASHO) in 1935.

Arizona, for whatever reason, has a colorful history when it comes to road signs. From 1957 to about 1965, certain road signs were color-coded, according to the direction of travel. Specifically: blue for westbound; brown for eastbound, orange for north, and green for south. The program came to an end with the expanded standardization brought about by the new interstate highway system.

As for color, “Highway Green” was set as the standard color for directional signs, in 1958. 1 According to the Federal Highway Administration records, Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) administrator Bertram Tallamy preferred blue for roadway signage, “the color of the signs on the New York State Thruway he had helped to build,” while other officials preferred green. “To resolve the issue, the BPR, in cooperation with AASHO, staged a 2-week test on an unopened section of the Capital Beltway near Greenbelt, Maryland. The results were clear, with 58 percent picking the green background… Tallamy approved the white-on-green design in January 1958.”

The text font appearing against the highway green background, is known unofficially as ‘Highway Gothic,’ and officially as the: Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices. It was first developed in the 1940s by engineering psychologist and highway engineer Dr. Theodore Forbes. The font was developed to maximize legibility at a distance, and at high speed.

More recently, designers Don Meeker and James Montalbano created the font ‘Clearview’

  1. Federal Highway Administration. “Shields and Signs.” Highway History – Interstate System – 50th Anniversary. U.S. Department of Transportation. https://highways.dot.gov/highway-history/interstate-system/50th-anniversary/shields-and-signs ↩︎