Highway shield
A highway shield is a sign used for denoting the route number of a highway. Used extensively in the United States and elsewhere around the world, highway shields usually come in the form of a symbolic shape with the route number enclosed. Since the route number should be the most visible element of the sign, it is usually large, while the other items on the sign are smaller or in contrasting colours. Highway shields are used by travellers, commuters, and all levels of government for identifying, navigating, and organising routes within a county, state, province, or country. Simplified highway shields often appear on maps.
Highway shield by country
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Malaysia
According to the Manual on Traffic Control Devices Standard Traffic Signs by Malaysian Public Works Department, a standard Malaysian highway shield consists of a yellow hexagon shield with black border line which resembles the Public Works Department's logo itself. The highway shield standard is used for all expressways, federal and state roads in Malaysia, which can be distinguished through the numbering scheme used (please refer to the Road signs in Malaysia article for details).
United States
The United States' Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices gives standard designs for highways in the Interstate Highway and U.S. route systems. The MUTCD also provides default designs for state highways (the circular highway shield) and county highways. However, states are free to use any design for their numbered routes; as of 2007[update] only five states use the default shield, with all others using a custom design. Many of these designs are other geometric shapes (like squares and diamonds), outlines of the state boundaries, or a design representing the state (like Pennsylvania's keystone design and Kansas' sunflower).
The Interstate shield is the only trademarked route shield in use in the United States.
Some U.S. counties also have unique shield designs, though most use the MUTCD default, a blue pentagon with yellow text.[1]
Alternatives to shields
Many countries worldwide, such as the United Kingdom and France, do not use shields, instead relying on plain-text representations of highway numbers. Road numbers (the term "highway" is not in general use in the UK) are prefixed by a letter indicating the type of road, for example M1, A1, B123 in the UK; A1, N1, D1 in France. These are sometimes highlighted with a different background color, depending on the class of highway and the context of the sign.
See also
References
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