From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Reassurance marker
Reassurance marker
of the sign confirms that the driver is going the right
way along the desired road. On larger roads, reassurance
markers are sometimes posted on a sign that is elevated
on a gantry.
In the United States, reassurance shields are defined
in Section 2D.31 of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Con-
trol Devices (MUTCD).[1] The MUTCD recommends that
reassurance assemblies be placed:
• 25–200 feet (8–61 m) after intersections of numbered
highways
• Between intersections in urban areas as needed
• After leaving the limits of any incorporated city or
town
• Periodically in other places for reassurance purposes
A set of reassurance markers in Southwest Virginia indicating The MUTCD requires a cardinal directional sign to be
two sets of wrong-way concurrencies posted with the route shield to further reassure travelers
that they are traveling the correct direction on their
A reassurance marker or road identification sign is a route. However, this standard is not always followed, es-
road sign that repeats the name or number of the current pecially in urban areas. One example of this is found in
route. Typically posted at intervals alongside a numbered the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, where directional
highway, the signs are intended to reassure drivers that signs for Interstate 64 are not posted between the road’s
they are traveling on the desired road (or to inform them eastern terminus in Chesapeake and Interstate 264 in
that they are not). Norfolk, because the road travels in the opposite compass
direction from its official designation (although the route
North America in the Norfolk-to-Chesapeake direction is a continuation
of I-64 east, it travels westward at that point).
Australia
Australia has followed different trends pertaining to
highway shields. Alpha-numeric route numbering has
been in use in Tasmania since the 1970s, but in 1996
states on the mainland began conversion to the alpha-
numeric system. The state of Victoria was the first to im-
plement the policy. Prior to this conversion and concur-
rently, Federal Highway (gold-on-green squared-off bul-
let), National Highway (black-on-white squared-off bul-
let), State Highway (blue bullet), and Tourist Route
Ressurance markers on New Brunswick’s provincial highways (white-on-brown rounded isosceles trapezoid) shields
feature bilingual (English/French) direction tabs. existed. In Victoria, Freeway shields were used (white-
on-green with "F" prefix) until the late 1980s, while dur-
In the United States and Canada, reassurance markers ing the 1990s Queensland and New South Wales imple-
(also called reassurance shields or confirming shields
shields) mented a hexagonal blue-on-white Metroad system of
usually take the form of a shield displaying the road num- urban arterial routes. When it opened, the M80 Ring Road
ber on an elevated pole, with a plate above or below used a shield similar to that of the U.S. Interstate High-
it indicating the "official" direction of that side of the way shield, with "Ring Road" written instead of "Inter-
route. (The official long-range direction may differ from state" and with two peaks rather than three.
the short-range direction; for example, a large stretch of With the introduction of the alpha-numeric system,
I-90 near Buffalo, New York runs north-south, although roads that are Federally funded (Federal Highways) have
the route is officially east-west.) The direction portion a squared-off bullet encompassing the alpha-numeric
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Reassurance marker
designation. Freeways and dual-carriageway roads often
use an "M" prefix, particularly in Victoria. In addition,
trapezoidal signs are placed every 5 km on major region-
al highways and freeways indicating the distance to the
post office of the next city or major town on the route.
These signs usually only have the first letter of the desti-
nation; two or three letters are used if there is ambiguity
between nearby towns or when the place name consists
of two words.
A simple identification sign attached to a lamp post on Leeson
New Zealand Street, Dublin, near the start of Ireland’s N11
Similar to prevalent route numbering in the Pacific re- ets). Euroroute numbers have begun to appear on these
gion, New Zealand routes are similar to the bullet-shaped signs but are not yet commonplace. On motorways and
markers used in Hong Kong, but are red rather than yel- high quality dual carriageways, they appear after every
low. junction (except on the M50, on which they are not typ-
ically used). On other national, roads they appear when
Europe leaving built-up areas. Some regional roads feature route
confirmation signs, but they are not common on these
roads.
In the Netherlands, frequently-positioned hectometer
posts include the route number, the distance in hectome-
ters, and the current speed limit. In some European coun-
tries, distance posts similar to milestones are placed at
regular intervals along roadsides. As well as giving the
distance to or from one end of the route, these posts in-
clude the route number.
Hectometer post on the N228 road in Utrecht province
The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals spec-
ifies that "road identification signs" consist of the route
number framed in a rectangle, a shield, or the relevant
state’s route classification symbol (if one exists).[2] The
extent to which such signs are used varies between coun-
tries.
In the Republic of Ireland, such signs appear normally
A simple identification sign attached to a town exit sign in Vil-
on national routes and upgraded regional roads. Official-
larrubia de los Ojos, Ciudad Real, Spain
ly known as route confirmation signs, there are two vari-
ants; the smaller (featuring just the road number) is com-
mon after minor junctions, and a full route confirmation
sign will feature the route number and several destina-
tions and the distances to them (with distances not di-
rectly reached by that particular route number in brack-
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Reassurance marker
References [2] "CONVENTION ON ROAD SIGNS AND SIGNALS"
(PDF). United Nations. pp. Art.17; p.14.
[1] Section 2D.31 Confirming or Reassurance http://www.unece.org/trans/conventn/
Assemblies. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, signalse.pdf. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
2003 ed.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reassurance_marker"
Categories: Traffic signs
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