Millions of Americans spend a considerable amount of time behind the wheel each year. In fact, 8.1 percent of U.S. workers who worked outside of the home had at least an hour-long commute in 2011, according to U.S. Census numbers.

Even though biking and walking are popular alternative forms of transportation for some, our vehicles are still the go-to method for getting around town. Get in, sit down, buckle in and fire up your smart phone’s navigation to figure out how to get to your office on the first day of your new job. Technology can definitely help us find our way on the road, but those green and white signs above the freeway are about as certain as death and taxes. Have you ever wondered who designed those, and why each traffic sign tends to look the same no matter where you go in the country?

Here are five things to know about our nation’s traffic signs:

1. Traffic signs are designed with safety in mind. In the early 20th century, the first mass-produced automobile made its debut in the United States. People were fascinated with the machine, and soon travelers began to set out and explore, only to end up confused and lost instead. So, a number of horseless carriage owners got together in New York City to form an automobile club, and help drivers get around by placing road signs along local highways.

In the 1920s, representatives from Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin decided to create a basis for uniform road markings and signs, and toured several states to report their findings to the Mississippi Valley Association of Highway Departments. This resulted in the first set of standards for sign shapes, many of which we still use today. In 1932, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) and the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety (NCSHS) formed the first Joint Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, in an effort to standardize the sign, shape and color of traffic signs across America. The first Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) was published in 1935, and state transportation departments across the country use this manual when creating their road signs. Road surface markings, traffic signals and signs in each state must conform to these national standards, including size, colors, shapes and fonts used in the devices.

2. Traffic signs are consistent no matter where you go. Isn’t that nice to know? If you’re taking a road trip from Seattle, Washington to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, each traffic sign is going to look the same, helping you reach your destination. Highway guide signs are green with white lettering, parking signs, including signs for parking meters and permits, are white with green lettering, and warning signs are yellow with black lettering.

3. Individual states can supplement the national standard for roadway markings. While the MUTCD plays an important role in dictating standards for the design, implementation and maintenance of traffic control devices, State transportation departments can supplement these standards for their own, unique purposes. Next time you’re driving along the interstate, take a look at those electronic message boards spanning across the lanes. While many major cities tend to use them, their purposes could be vastly different. In Utah, UDOT’s Variable Message Signs (VMS) display current travel times 24 hours a day. During times of poor air quality, these VMS will instead display a message to “Travel Wise”, by encouraging drivers to limit their driving, or to use public transit. The MUTCD provides a set of guidelines for messages displayed on these electronic signs, but it’s up to the state to determine what messages are displayed for drivers.

4. Figuring out the Interstate numbering system can help you get around. I-15, I-515, I-5 – do you know these freeway designations mean? If you take some time to understand the numbering system, your next vacation might run a little more smoothly.

Here are some facts to keep in mind:

• Even-numbered, one- or two-digit Interstates are east-west routes. The numbers increase from the south to the north.
• Odd-numbered, one- or two-digit Interstates are north-south routes. The numbers increase from the West to the East.
• Three-digit Interstates always connect to other major highways. A loop or circular “beltway” will begin with an even number, and will connect to another Interstate at both ends. A “spur” route will begin with an odd number, and will only connect with an Interstate at one end.

5. Other countries use their own standards for traffic signs and signals. In 1978, the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals came into force across many locations in Europe, in an effort to standardize road markings, traffic lights and road signs. Canadian road markings and traffic signage are similar to American road signs, but may include bilingual phrases in certain jurisdictions.

I spent some time working for the Utah Department of Transportation a few years ago, and learned quite a bit about what goes in to running an efficient transportation system. What struck me the most about traffic signs is the fact that consistency plays a large part in the safety and mobility of Americans. Signs are an important component to the economy, and whether it’s the “No Parking” sign in front of your business, or the Variable Message Sign on the freeway, a simple and clear message can make a world of difference.

Andrew James is the owner and managing editor of 24 Salt Lake, a Utah news and information site based in Salt Lake City. For a look at traffic incidents across Utah, click www.24saltlake.com/traffic.

Navigating America: How Traffic Signs Help Us Find our Way

Sign 1: Happy Kids

The first sign of Disneyland, of course, is extremely cute kids that are ready for an adventure. And since practically everyone has to travel to get to Disneyland, our first stop is the airport.

Sign 2: TSA

Next, you have to suffer through TSA signage and wish you were born before 1937. By the way, I don’t know if I get this policy. Don’t you just get meaner, scarier, and more volatile the older you get?

Sign 3: Airport Gates

On to the gates. This is a welcome sign after making it through security.

Sign 4: The Jetway

And now the jetway, with custom wall decals that attempt to make you feel not so claustrophobic. Hey, it’s better than nothing.

Sign 5: California Birth Defects Warning

Sunny California! We made it! Funny that this is one of the very first signs you see. Sunny … ridiculous … California! I’ll spare you my diatribe about how silly it was seeing these signs everywhere I turned.

Sign 6: Disneyland Main Entrance

The main sign at the main entrance. We’re in!

Sign 7: Walt Disney Placard

And onto Walt Disney’s famous quote and plaque over the tunnel as you enter Disneyland.

Sign 8: Toontown

One of our very first stops: Toontown. With a large Hollywood-type sign set up on the hillside. 

Sign 9: Toontown Traffic Sign

I thought this was a great traffic sign.  Toontown: where chaos is not only rampant, but welcomed and lawful. 

Sign 10: Tow Mater

One of the best places for signage in Disneyland was the new Cars Land. They did a fantastic job here. Here’s the entrance to Tow Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree

Sign 11: Nasca

One you’re in line, you’re entertained with a barrage of clever antiqued custom vinyl banners and traffic signs.

Sign 12: Mater the Greater Banner

Sign 13: Antiqued Traffic Signs

Sign 14: License Plates

I thought these antiqued custom license plates shaped up the post were a pretty good touch as well. Leave it to Disneyland to spare no expense.

Sign 15: Route 66 

Lizzie’s roadside souvenir and accessory shop, Radiator Springs Curios, sports some awesome route 66 signs

Sign 16: Hand Painted Signs

I thought this was a pretty cool retro sign on top of this building. I’m curious to know how they painted that and then antiqued it.

Sign 17: Carsland Traffic Signs

“Mind Your Speed … As You Go … Sheriff’s Old … But He’s … Not Slow”

Sign 18: Luigi’s Tires

Here’s a nice customized vinyl banner on the back of Luigi’s tires. The brand is Fettuccini Alfredo. 

Sign 19: Neon

Flos V8 Cafe. Not a great picture, but I couldn’t get anything better with my phone. Still, it was really neat to stand at the entrance to carsland at night and see how well they had reproduced the show. Do you think they plan this stuff out when they are first producing the movie?

Sign 20: Glass Guilding

Time for lunch! If you haven’t had a hand-dipped corn dog at Disneyland, it’s time to go back. Glass guilding is very custom and costly. I’m very impressed that they would do this on a food cart. Again, Disneyland sparing no expense. 

Sign 21: Tower of Terror

Okay, I only put this one in because it’s arguably my favorite ride in Disneyland. And, you could recreate the sign using our aluminum or dibond.

Sign 22: Coca Cola

Coca Cola is everywhere. They might as well have a nice billboard-sized sign out on the pier at Disneyland.

Sign 23: A Happy, Exhausted Family

After all the rides, princesses, lines, expensive food, and parades, it’s finally time to come home. The last sign of Disneyland: a happy, exhausted family (the one in the stroller is already cashed out).

The Signs of Disneyland

You know that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas (unless the paparazzi is watching). And you know that you’ve made it to Vegas when you see the iconic sign. But do you know these surprising facts about the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign?

1) The sign might say, “Las Vegas,” but it isn’t actually inside the city limits.

It’s located at 5100 Las Vegas Boulevard South, which is in the neighboring town of Paradise. In fact, much of the old Vegas strip is technically located in Paradise. So all that time you thought you were in Vegas… you weren’t.

2) The sign is smaller than most Vegas signs.

It stands only 25 feet tall. Compared to the famous Vegas Vic sign, which stands 40 feet tall, it’s a dwarf.

3) The sign was placed in 1959.

Thanks to Hollywood, you probably think of the sign when you think of the gangsters that founded Vegas. But the sign wasn’t actually put into place until 13 years after Bugsy Siegel opened The Flamingo. And while the gangsters of early Vegas certainly were adept at marketing, the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign wasn’t their idea.

4) The sign was commissioned by a salesman.

Ted Rogich, a World War II vet, moved to Nevada and started a small neon sign company called Western Neon Co. He admired the neon signs of the city, but he noticed that, while there were tons of signs advertising the local casinos, hotels and restaurants, there wasn’t a sign advertising the city itself.

5) The sign is designed in the Googie architecture style.

Think you’ve never heard of “Googie?” Well, you’ve certainly seen it. This style of design was popular during the 40s and 50s. Remember The Jetsons? Their combination of futurism, the atomic age and space travel was a great example of Googie. When the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign was created, Googie was a typical design style used on motels, restaurants and diners.

6) The designer of the sign was female.

This was a big deal in 1959. Betty Willis, who had attended art school  in Los Angeles, was working in Vegas as a commercial artist before she began designing neon signs. In an interview, Betty once said, “Most people are surprised when they find out a woman designed the sign. It was a man’s business back then. It wasn’t a woman’s field because when you work with neon signs, you have to not only design them, but you have to learn the nuts and bolts of how neon, light and electricity work. You have to learn about pressure points and weight and wattage of lamps. You work with engineers as well as artists. Most women back then weren’t interested in such technical stuff.”

7) The sign was a bargain.

At only $4,000, the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign was a bargain. In comparison, the roadside sign for the Stardust Hotel and Casino was replaced in 1967 for $500,000.

8) There’s $7 on the sign.

Across the top of the sign are 7 white circles, each with a letter from the word “Welcome.” Those circles are actually designed to portray silver dollars, since Nevada is the “Silver State.”

9) The sign was never copyrighted.

Betty gave the design of the sign to the city of Las Vegas as a gift. As such, she never copyrighted her design. So now you can buy a Vegas keychain, Vegas magnet, Vegas bumper sticker, all with the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign and Betty doesn’t get a dime. Considering how many tourists go through the city every year and how many souvenirs they buy, Betty’s gift turned out to be worth a fortune.

10) People once risked their lives to have a photo with the sign.

Tourists stood in the middle of the road in order to get their photo with the legendary sign. The city eventually decided that the possibility of dead or injured tourists was bad for business, so in 2008, it installed a parking lot by the sign. Now it’s much easier to get a photo… you just have to wait your turn.

11) The sign is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Because… it’s historic. It was nominated and approved in 2009.

12) Brandon Flowers wrote a song about the sign.

The Killers lead singer wrote an album in 2010 called, “Flamingo” (referring to the iconic hotel that started Vegas). On the album is a track called, “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas,” which refers to the sign.

13) The original is one of three.

While driving around Vegas, you might feel like you keep seeing the sign. In different places. No, you haven’t had too much to drink (well, maybe you have… but that’s not why you keep seeing the sign). The city installed a replica on Las Vegas Boulevard in 2002, just inside the city limits. And in 2007 another replica was installed on the Boulder Highway.

14) You can buy a piece of the sign.

When the lights on the sign are replaced, they’re sold as commemorative souvenirs. The proceeds are donated to charity.

15) The sign is going green.

You might want to get your commemorative light bulb while you can. Earlier this year, the Consumer Electronics Association made a $50,000 donation to Green Chips. That organization will use its donation to make the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign solar.

Can’t get enough of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign? You can see it live here

15 Surprising Facts About the Las Vegas Sign

When you think of Hollywood, you might think of Humphrey Bogart gazing into Ingrid Bergman’s eyes in Casablanca. You might imagine Cary Grant tooling around the foothills in his 1929 Caddy, or Marilyn Monroe with her pouty lips and swirling white skirt in Some Like it Hot. Or maybe you think of the modern Hollywood, with starlets toting around miniature canines in expensive handbags and reality TV stars giving interviews on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

No matter what comes to mind, the Hollywood sign stands sentinel over all of it, an icon that stands for the glamour, optimism and grandeur that has defined Hollywood since its creation. Just for fun, here are 20 facts you might not know about the Hollywood sign.

1) The Hollywood Sign is almost 90 years old.

The original Hollywood sign was constructed in 1923, the same year that Rin Tin Tin gained fame as a canine film star. Though it wasn’t originally meant to be an icon for the film industry, the sign was created during the beginning of the glamorous, decadent Golden Age of Hollywood: in 1925, Ben Hur was released with its record-breaking production budget of $3.95 million.

2) The Hollywood sign wasn’t created with the movies in mind.

The sign wasn’t created to advertise movies and starlets; it was created to advertise real estate. Developers S. H. Woodruff and Tracy E. Shoults began developing a new neighborhood called “Hollywoodland.” The sign was meant to act as a huge billboard to draw new home buyers to the hillside.

3) The first sign didn’t say “Hollywood.”

To advertise the Hollywoodland development, the sign was composed of 13 letters that spelled out the development’s name: “HOLLYWOODLAND.” The last four letters of the sign wouldn’t be dropped until 1949.

4) The original Hollywood Sign was bigger than the current sign.

The original letters were constructed of large sections of sheet metal and stood as high as 50 feet tall. They were held up with a complicated framing system that included wooden scaffold, pipes, wires and poles.

5) 4,000 light bulbs graced the original Hollywoodland sign.

The bulbs were timed to blink so that the words “HOLLY,” “WOOD,” and “LAND” each lit up consecutively, followed by the entire word. This was not considered tacky, but rather quite progressive and modern. Each bulb generated only 8 watts of electricity, so 4,000 were needed in order to create the impressive display that Woodruff and Shoults needed to sell building lots.

6) The sign was a very expensive billboard.

Considering that the original Hollywoodland sign was only intended to be an advertisement for a real estate development, it was quite expensive. The construction cost of the sign was around $21,000, which is roughly the equivalent of $250,000 in 2013 dollars. Imagine building a new neighborhood and paying a quarter of a million bucks to advertise it with one sign!

7) An Englishman designed the Hollywood sign.

Thomas Fisk Goff, the artist who created the Hollywood sign, was born in London in 1890. He immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles in the early 1920’s and opened the Crescent Sign Company. Woodruff and Shoults commissioned Goff to create and install the sign. In addition to owning a sign company, Goff was an artist who painted landscapes on canvas.

8) The sign had its very own caretaker.

The real estate developers hired Albert Kothe to act as caretaker. In addition to other responsibilities, Albert was in charge of the maintenance of the Hollywoodland sign. One of his jobs was to replace the lightbulbs on the sign when they burnt out, a large task considering the number of bulbs and the height of each letter.

9) The original sign was only meant to last for 18 months.

Since it was only intended to be a temporary advertisement for the new real estate development, the Hollywoodland sign was designed to be in place for about 18 months, while lots were sold.

10) The Hollywood sign was the site of a suicide.

Sadly, the allure of fame and fortune was not reality for many who flocked to Hollywood in hopes of becoming actors and actresses. One such unlucky girl, Peg Entwistle, left New York City and moved in with her uncle in Los Angeles while she tried to become a film star. Despite her efforts at stardom, Peg failed to land the big role she’d hoped for, and on September 18, 1932, she hiked up to the Hollywood sign, climbed a ladder to the top of the “H” and jumped to her death.

11) The Hollywoodland sign went dark in 1939.

The stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Depression during the 1930’s halted real estate development. Since lots were no longer being sold, illuminating the Hollywoodland sign was no longer a priority. Times were tough, so caretaker Albert Kothe stripped the copper wiring from the sign and sold it for scrap.

12) The sign was hit by a car.

You might not think that a sign perched on the side of a steep hill would be in danger of being hit by a car. But one night, Albert Kothe had a little too much too drink. He drove his 1928 Ford station wagon right off the cliff just above the sign. The car rolled down the hill, smashing into the “H.” Luckily, Albert was OK, but both the Ford and the “H” were destroyed.

13) The sign was almost torn down completely in 1949.

In 1944 the city of Los Angeles purchased 455 acres from the Hollywoodland developers, including the land on which the Hollywoodland sign sat. The city didn’t necessarily want a huge real estate billboard, but they let the sign sit there for another five years until they decided to tear it down. But residents who had come to love the sign protested its removal. The city, along with the Chamber of Commerce, agreed to salvage it, with the understanding that they would remove the “LAND” from the end of the sign so that it represented the community, not a real estate development. They fixed the broken “H” and renovated the rest of the letters.

14) The Hollywood sign is an official landmark.

By 1973, the sign was seriously deteriorated again, broken-down and rusty. The city slapped another coat of paint on it and also declared it “L.A. Cultural and Historical Monument #111.”

15) In the 1970’s, the sign went to pot.

On January 1, 1976, prankster Danny Finegood hung curtains over the last two “O’s” in the sign, changing it to read “HOLLYWEED” to commemorate the introduction of a more relaxed marijuana law in California.

16) A playboy, a rocker and a singing cowboy saved the sign.

The paint job in 1973 didn’t last for long. Five years later, the sign looked worse than ever. The Chamber of Commerce determined that it needed a very expensive overhaul. Hugh Hefner held a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion. Each of the nine letters was auctioned for $28,000 to raise the needed renovation money. The benefactors for each letter were as follows:

H- Terrence Donnelly (a newspaper publisher)
O- Alice Cooper (rock star)
L- Les Kelley (businessman and creator of the Kelley Blue Book)
L- Gene Autrey (singer and actor)
Y- Hugh Hefner (founder of Playboy magazine)
W- Andy Williams (singer)
O-Giovanni Mazza (Italian movie producer)
O- Warner Bros. Studios
D-Thomas Pooley

17) The Hollywood sign was lit for the Olympics

In 1984, Los Angeles hosted the Olympic Summer Games. During the games, the Hollywood sign was illuminated for the first time since 1949.

18)  Modern visitors can’t hike to the sign.

Because the sign is perched on a very steep hill and because the city of Los Angeles doesn’t want to be sued, visitors are no longer allowed to hike right up to the sign. The city might be worried that they will plummet to their deaths, get bitten by a rattlesnake or start a brush fire that will consume some of the expensive real estate below the sign.

19) The Hollywood sign has almost as much security as Fort Knox.

In order to keep people away from the sign and keep the sign from being vandalized, a specially-designed security system was developed. The Department of Homeland Security even got involved… that’s how serious L.A. is about protecting its iconic sign. The security involves razor wire, infrared technology, 24 hour monitoring, motion sensors, alarms and helicopter patrols.

20) The sign has its very own trust fund.

The Hollywood Sign Trust was created in 1992 for the purpose of maintaining and promoting the Hollywood sign. It continues to care for the sign today. The most recent renovation included a shiny, new paint job and webcams that allow Internet visitors to see the sign 24/7.

20 Fun Facts About the Hollywood Sign