Little roadtrip report
Michael G. Koerner
On Wednesday, 27-May-1998, I spent much of the day checking out the US
151/US 61 corridor from NE Wisconsin to the Quad Cities. Some sights seen:
**WisDOT is making space available on its new green signs in the Madison
area for the future connection of the two I-39s. (thanx Bob Spoerl for
cluing me into this! :-)) There are new overhead green signs on Stoughton
Rd (US 51) at the WI 30 interchange that say:
To To To
(I-90) (I-94) <--(shields)
||
\||/
\/
This is on one sign panel and point to the lane that turns east onto WI 30
to go to the I-90/94 'Badger' interchange.
More new green signs are going up east of there on WI 30 at the 'Badger'
interchange in connection with the interchange and I-90 rebuilding projects,
and I am expecting the same 'blanks' to show up on those signs too.
BTW, I like that 'Texas U-turn' on Stoughton Rd (US 51) just south of WI 30
at that new interchange with Milwaukee St.
**WisDOT engineers appear to have had *NO* reservations at all about using
generous amounts of dynamite to build the four lane US 18/151 corridor from
the Madison area to Dubuque, IA. VERY impressive and interesting rock cuts
abound all along the completed four lane sections.
**There are *no* interchanges between US 18/151 and the main sideroads into
Barneveld and Ridgeway. These connections are at-grade intersections, even
though there is a fair amount of commuter traffic between both villages and
metro Madison.
**Iowa uses vertical traffic signals on horizontal masts in a manner very
much like Illinois. (Wisconsin uses horizontal signals in these
situations).
**Iowa also uses a fine black outline on the US and state route shields on
about half of their uses on 'green signs'. They look very nice, and help
make the signs much more noticable and readable. The other half have no
outlines. There seems to be no pattern of this use, as the shields come
both with and without the outlines on newer as well as older appearing
signs.
**US 61 is now four lanes (mixed expressway/freeway) from Dubuque to the
Dubuque/Jackson County line and from just north of Maquoketa to the Quad
Cities. The remaining 'gap' looks like it will be open in the late fall of
1999. BTW, I was amazed at how light the traffic was on this section of US
61 (weekday-early evening).
**ALL of the I-route signs I saw in Iowa include the word 'IOWA' on the
shields.
**The 'I-380/Cedar Rapids/Waterloo/Exit 48 Miles' green sign is still there
on I-80 about 2 miles west of I-280 just outside of Davenport, IA. It looks
just like any other typical approach sign that could be anywhere on the
I-system (I can just hear the future kids yelling 'are we there yet, are we
there yet, are...' right now).
**The 'control' city for I-180 in Illinois is 'Hennepin'. At a population
of 669, this has got to be the smallest terminal control city for any
I-route...
____________________________________________________________________________
Regards,
Michael G. Koerner
Appleton, WI
***NOTICE*** SPAMfilter in use, please remove ALL 'i's from the return
address to reply. ***NOTICE***
____________________________________________________________________________
Paul Schlichtman
Michael G. Koerner wrote:
>
>
> BTW, I like that 'Texas U-turn' on Stoughton Rd (US 51) just south of WI 30
> at that new interchange with Milwaukee St.
>
>
What is a 'Texas U-turn'?
-- -------------------------------------------------------------
"Because you are children and you can understand it."
-- Mr. Dolphus Raymond in To Kill a Mockingbird.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlichtman
Harvard University Graduate School of Education
mailto:schl...@hugse1.harvard.edu
Visit the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts website:
http://www.shawsheen.tec.ma.us/Arlington/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://gseweb.harvard.edu/TIEWeb/STUDENTS/DOCTORAL/schlicpa/schlicpa.html
...and why you will be lost if you come to Arlington:
http://gseweb.harvard.edu/TIEWeb/STUDENTS/DOCTORAL/schlicpa/signs.html
----------------------------------------------------
Michael G. Koerner
----------
In article <Ettx7...@world.std.com>, mor...@world.std.spaamtrap.com
(Michael Moroney) wrote:
>Paul Schlichtman <schli...@mediaone.net> writes:
>
>>> BTW, I like that 'Texas U-turn' on Stoughton Rd (US 51) just south of WI
30
>>> at that new interchange with Milwaukee St.
>
>>What is a 'Texas U-turn'?
>
>I think they're the same as a "Michigan left" but am not sure. Anyway I'll
>describe a Michigan left as a possible answer.
>
>Many of the major local roads in Michigan have wide medians. Where they
>intersect, you often can't make a left at the intersections. To do so,
>you go either straight or right for a couple hundred feet, make a U
>turn through a piece of road designed for that purpose (often with its
>own traffic light), and go back through the intersection, making a
>right if you originally went straight.
Not quite.
A 'Texas U-Turn' is a way to get from one side of the busy road to the
other. In Texas, most I-compatable highways have a system of frontage roads
to provide access to the properties along the ROW. In the built up areas,
these frontage roads are each 'one-way' in the direction of the adjacent
freeway lanes. Cross road interchanges are handled with 'slip ramps' from
the freeway to and from the frontage roads. NOW, if you were going, lets
say, southbound on the frontage road, and the business you want to stop at
is on the northbound side of the freeway, you would have to get onto the
northbound frontage road to get to it. It is usually a major hassle to make
the two conventional left turns at the major cross road intersection to make
this turnaround. To make things easier, Texas (and Michigan on the
similarly designed freeways in the Detroit area) installed special turn
around lanes right before these crossroad intersections in this manner:
|| <--Crossroad
/||\ <--(one way) Frontage Road
-------------------------------------------------------------------
/ \ || / \
/ | || | \ <--Interchange ramps
/ ---------- \ 'I-Route'
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
\ ---------- / (Freeway)
\ ,---> | || | <---. /
\ | / || \ | /
-------------------------------------------------------------------
| \||/ | Frontage road (one way)-->
'Texas U-Turns' || |
| |
`------------------'
Dr. SPUI
There are some of these on International Dr in Orlando on both sides of the
traffic lights, even though it is a normal 4ld. These are because there are
few median breaks, only at the main roads, and there are lots of cheap
tourist places on the road.
Michael G. Koerner wrote in message <6ksc7n$2jc$1...@news.athenet.net>...
Marc Fannin
In article <6ksc7n$2jc$1...@news.athenet.net>,
"Michael G. Koerner" <imgik...@diaitiaeixii.com> wrote:
>
>
> ----------
> In article <Ettx7...@world.std.com>, mor...@world.std.spaamtrap.com
> (Michael Moroney) wrote:
>
> >Paul Schlichtman <schli...@mediaone.net> writes:
> >
> >>> BTW, I like that 'Texas U-turn' on Stoughton Rd (US 51) just south of WI
> >>> 30 at that new interchange with Milwaukee St.
> >
> >>What is a 'Texas U-turn'?
>
I-90/OH 2 (the Lakeland Freeway) has these in Cleveland and Euclid, Ohio,
between E. 140th St. and E. 260th St. (OH 175). The frontage roads are
collectively called Lakeland Blvd., which was there before the freeway. This
is also a section where the exit for the next road is before the entrance from
the last.
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> Regards,
>
> Michael G. Koerner
> Appleton, WI
>
> ***NOTICE*** SPAMfilter in use, please remove ALL 'i's from the return
> address to reply. ***NOTICE***
> ____________________________________________________________________________
Marc Fannin
musx...@kent.edu
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~musxf579/home.html
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
Paul Schlichtman
Oh. We have those kinds of things on some of our older roads, such as US 1 in
Lynnfield and MA 9 in Chestnut Hill.
Thanks for the description.
Michael G. Koerner wrote:
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> Regards,
>
> Michael G. Koerner
> Appleton, WI
>
> ***NOTICE*** SPAMfilter in use, please remove ALL 'i's from the return
> address to reply. ***NOTICE***
> ____________________________________________________________________________
-- -------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Field
Michael G. Koerner wrote:
>
> On Wednesday, 27-May-1998, I spent much of the day checking out the US
> 151/US 61 corridor from NE Wisconsin to the Quad Cities. Some sights seen:
>
> **WisDOT is making space available on its new green signs in the Madison
> area for the future connection of the two I-39s. (thanx Bob Spoerl for
> cluing me into this! :-)) There are new overhead green signs on Stoughton
> Rd (US 51) at the WI 30 interchange that say:
>
> To To To
>
> (I-90) (I-94) <--(shields)
>
> ||
> \||/
> \/
>
> This is on one sign panel and point to the lane that turns east onto WI 30
> to go to the I-90/94 'Badger' interchange.
I have a picture of this sign, and many others along the I-39/US 51
corridor, on my I-39 page:
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3175/i-39.htm
Much thanks go to Robb Haukohl for the photos and maps!
Regards,
Andy
Mike Reaser
"Michael G. Koerner" <imgik...@diaitiaeixii.com> wrote:
>A 'Texas U-Turn' is a way to get from one side of the busy road to the
>other. In Texas, most I-compatable highways have a system of frontage roads
>to provide access to the properties along the ROW. In the built up areas,
>these frontage roads are each 'one-way' in the direction of the adjacent
>freeway lanes. Cross road interchanges are handled with 'slip ramps' from
>the freeway to and from the frontage roads. NOW, if you were going, lets
>say, southbound on the frontage road, and the business you want to stop at
>is on the northbound side of the freeway, you would have to get onto the
>northbound frontage road to get to it. It is usually a major hassle to make
>the two conventional left turns at the major cross road intersection to make
>this turnaround. To make things easier, Texas (and Michigan on the
>similarly designed freeways in the Detroit area) installed special turn
>around lanes right before these crossroad intersections in this manner:
There are at least three of these in the Atlanta area, all within
5 miles or so of where we live. On I-85 Exits 32 (Clairmont Rd.),
33 (Shallowford Rd.), and 34 (Chamblee-Tucker Rd.) feature this
type of U-turn for getting from one frontage road to the other.
There are also south-to-north and north-to-south U-turn "exitlets"
between exits 31 (North Druid Hills Rd.) and 32, and 32 and 33,
respectively, along I-85.
-- Mike Reaser, Atl., GA B2f+tw+cdvg+kvs++l+ aka HickBear on IRC
ICQ 3617758 mhr (at) photobooks.com or spdcc.com or mindspring.com
Always remember to pillage *before* you burn!
Mike McManus
Michael G. Koerner wrote:
> A 'Texas U-Turn' is a way to get from one side of the busy road to the other.
> In Texas, most I-compatable highways have a system of frontage roads to
> provide access to the properties along the ROW. In the built up areas, these
> frontage roads are each 'one-way' in the direction of the adjacent freeway
> lanes. Cross road interchanges are handled with 'slip ramps' from the freeway
> to and from the frontage roads. NOW, if you were going, lets
> say, southbound on the frontage road, and the business you want to stop at is
> on the northbound side of the freeway, you would have to get onto the
> northbound frontage road to get to it. It is usually a major hassle to make
> the two conventional left turns at the major cross road intersection to make
> this turnaround. To make things easier, Texas (and Michigan on the similarly
> designed freeways in the Detroit area) installed special turn around lanes
> right before these crossroad intersections in this manner:
[excellent map snipped for line wrap... sigh...]
Rochester has one-and-a-half of these. The one is at the intersection of NY 252
and 15 near Marketplace Mall (252 is an overpass just for this one intersection,
and the frontage roads merge with the mainline at stop lights immediately on
either side). The half of one is at the interchange of the NY 104 expressway
with Goodman Street near Irondequoit Mall, and it's westbound to eastbound (i.e.
on the side with the mall) only. This is probably because most of the other
ramps on 104 are not true frontage roads (i.e. no driveways).
--
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/ Mike McManus _/ home: mmcm...@frontiernet.net _/
_/ Rochester, NY _/ work: mcm...@kodak.com _/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Larry Stone
And there's a variation of it on the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway. From the
westbound Meacham Rd/Medinah Rd ramp (convnetional right-hand ramp),
there's a U-Turn to the EB entry ramp just short of the actual
Meacham/Medinah intersection. This is to allow traffic wanting to go south
on Rohlwing Rd (IL 53) to do so as no left turn is allowed off of
Thorndale Ave (which turns into the Elgin-O'Hare just after crossing
Rohlwing) into Rohlwing.
|
----+-------------- |
/ | / \ |
---------------------------+--------
| | | Thorndale/Elgin-O'Hare
---------------------------+--------
\ | \ / |
----+-------------- |
|
Meacham/ Rohlwing
Medinah
--
-- Larry Stone --- lst...@wwa.com
http://www.wwa.com/~lstone/
Roselle, IL, USA
I work for United Airlines but never, never speak for them
addCode: AD2 aO EIV D1730 FY5 nI
Jonathan Grobe
In article <6kqs1c$mft$1...@news.athenet.net>, Michael G. Koerner wrote:
>**WisDOT engineers appear to have had *NO* reservations at all about using
>generous amounts of dynamite to build the four lane US 18/151 corridor from
>the Madison area to Dubuque, IA. VERY impressive and interesting rock cuts
>abound all along the completed four lane sections.
>
--
Jonathan Grobe
For millions of used, out-of-print and collectable books try:
Advanced Book exchange: <http://www.abebooks.com>
har...@hotmail.com
In article <357222...@juno.com>,
Andrew Field <awf...@juno.com> wrote:
> I have a picture of this sign, and many others along the I-39/US 51
> corridor, on my I-39 page:
>
> http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3175/i-39.htm
>
> Much thanks go to Robb Haukohl for the photos and maps!
The ones in IL have given me an memory back to June 21, 1989 -- the first
and *only* time I have been on I-39!
Harv
GO BULLS -- THE JAZZ *MUST* DIE!!!
http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Dunes/2570/
Michael G. Koerner
Forgot one observation... (grrrrrrrrrr...)
**There is an *active* old 'A' frame IHOP on W. Washington St (US 151) right
across the street from East Towne Mall in Madison, WI.
Ken Eikert
Mike Reaser wrote:
>
> "Michael G. Koerner" <imgik...@diaitiaeixii.com> wrote:
> >A 'Texas U-Turn' is a way to get from one side of the busy road to the
> >other. In Texas, most I-compatable highways have a system of frontage roads
> >to provide access to the properties along the ROW. In the built up areas,
> >these frontage roads are each 'one-way' in the direction of the adjacent
> >freeway lanes. Cross road interchanges are handled with 'slip ramps' from
> >the freeway to and from the frontage roads. NOW, if you were going, lets
> >say, southbound on the frontage road, and the business you want to stop at
> >is on the northbound side of the freeway, you would have to get onto the
> >northbound frontage road to get to it. It is usually a major hassle to make
> >the two conventional left turns at the major cross road intersection to make
> >this turnaround. To make things easier, Texas (and Michigan on the
> >similarly designed freeways in the Detroit area) installed special turn
> >around lanes right before these crossroad intersections in this manner:
>
> 5 miles or so of where we live. On I-85 Exits 32 (Clairmont Rd.),
> 33 (Shallowford Rd.), and 34 (Chamblee-Tucker Rd.) feature this
> type of U-turn for getting from one frontage road to the other.
Same thing on the Peachtree Industrial Boulevard (GA 141) freeway
and frontage roads at the Tilly Mill Rd., Winters Chapel Rd.,
and Jimmy Carter Blvd. (GA 140) interchanges. Also on US 78 at
the West Park Place Blvd. interchange. A similar U-turn is at
the Boulevard interchange (exit 26) on I-20 to provide westbound
motorists access to the Memorial-Glenwood Connector (GA 154 Spur)
interchange (exit 27).
Matthew E. Salek
Andrew Field wrote:
>
> I have a picture of this sign, and many others along the I-39/US 51
> corridor, on my I-39 page:
>
> http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3175/i-39.htm
>
> Much thanks go to Robb Haukohl for the photos and maps!
Wow, great page! Is this a new page? I was tooling around your Future
Interstate site about a month ago and did not see this page.
--
Later! - Matthew E. Salek, future civil engineer at Colorado State Univ.
Matthew Salek (Info) Highway - my web site:
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~mattes
Matthew E. Salek
Michael G. Koerner wrote:
>
> **Iowa also uses a fine black outline on the US and state route shields on
> about half of their uses on 'green signs'. They look very nice, and help
> make the signs much more noticable and readable.
Yep. The first time I saw them I thought they were downright weird, but
they're not too bad. I've reciprocated and have mimiced this design on my I-35
exit list. Well, I'm almost done with it, but haven't uploaded it yet. Wait
about a week.
Michael G. Koerner
----------
In article <slrn6n5i9n.p...@worf.netins.net>,
grobe...@netins.net (Jonathan Grobe) wrote:
>In article <6kqs1c$mft$1...@news.athenet.net>, Michael G. Koerner wrote:
>>**WisDOT engineers appear to have had *NO* reservations at all about using
>>generous amounts of dynamite to build the four lane US 18/151 corridor
from
>>the Madison area to Dubuque, IA. VERY impressive and interesting rock
cuts
>>abound all along the completed four lane sections.
>>
>Roughly how much of this road is now four lane?
The entire route from Dubuque, IA to Madison, WI is four lanes *except* from
the south side of Dickeyville, WI to just south of Dodgeville, WI. There
are *no* signs of any imminent work to widen the section that is still two
lanes.
H.B. Elkins
"Matthew E. Salek" <mat...@engr.colostate.edu> wrote:
>Michael G. Koerner wrote:
>>
>> **Iowa also uses a fine black outline on the US and state route shields on
>> about half of their uses on 'green signs'. They look very nice, and help
>> make the signs much more noticable and readable.
>
>Yep. The first time I saw them I thought they were downright weird, but
>they're not too bad. I've reciprocated and have mimiced this design on my I-35
>exit list. Well, I'm almost done with it, but haven't uploaded it yet. Wait
>about a week.
I noticed a black outline on the US 68 and KY 80 shields at the last
exit sign eastbound on the Cumberland Parkway at the Edmonton exit
(right at the toll booth and exit ramp). This is the only place in
Kentucky that I've seen this design.
And speaking of signs on exit lists ... what software are you guys
using to make your shields, and how are you reproducing the numbers in
the shields? My new exit lists for Kentucky's interstates and parkways
has the text listing. I don't know exactly what I need to do to get
acceptable shields, and if I do use graphic shields instead of text, I
want them to look uniform and non-amateurish (unlike Kentucky's signs
themselves, LOL!). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
H.B. Elkins -- Winchester, KY
"You must have the courage to believe the truth!" -- Rush H. Limbaugh III
Kentucky Wildcats Basketball & #3 Dale Earnhardt -- A Championship Combination
mailto:hbel...@mis.net <or> mailto:HB...@aol.com
(Say "nyet" to spam! Please note: there is a spam-buster in my E-mail address.
To reply by E-mail,use one of the addresses above)
http://www.users.mis.net/~hbelkins (last updated 5/28/98)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. SPUI
You can use Kurumi Signmaker and take a screenshot, but this takes a while.
H.B. Elkins wrote in message <3573ffed...@news.newsguy.com>...
Matthew E. Salek
H.B. Elkins wrote:
[snip]
> And speaking of signs on exit lists ... what software are you guys
> using to make your shields, and how are you reproducing the numbers in
> the shields? My new exit lists for Kentucky's interstates and parkways
> has the text listing. I don't know exactly what I need to do to get
> acceptable shields, and if I do use graphic shields instead of text, I
> want them to look uniform and non-amateurish (unlike Kentucky's signs
> themselves, LOL!). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Since I'm on a Mac, I've been using ClarisWorks since day one. The Drawing
part of the program is excellent for making the signs themselves, with the
nifty rounded-off corners and whatnot. Shields which don't have any wacky
shapes in them (Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin) I'm able to directly make in the
drawing program. US and Interstate shields are a little more tricky, though.
Since I've been at it for over a year now, I've just been using a template I
made back last spring. I went to James Lin's site, took a screen shot of the
page with the Interstate shields, and then resized and edited in the Painting
part of ClarisWorks until I had a variety of different sized Interstate
shields available. I make them blank, so when I need to I just copy over the
right sized shield I want to the Drawing program, and type in the right
numbers with the necessary font and size. I did something for US shields,
excpet I started off with a blank shield C.C. Slater sent me rather then a
screen shot.
Once I've made the necessary sign, I copy it, then go over to a shareware
program called GraphicConvertor. I select "New Picture With Clipboard" and
save it in .gif format. Then, I include it in the page and upload.
As to the fonts used for numbers, I'm being a perfectionist and am not
settling for using Helvetica. I'm not satisfied unless the number font I use
looks very similar to the one that's actually on the shield. For Interstate
and Minnesota markers, I use something called VAG Rounded Bold which came with
my computer. It comes darn close. For Iowa, I've just been using Helvetica,
mainly because I've been in Iowa so little I don't know what the number font
looks like. With Wisconsin, I copied the digits off of Chris Bessert's site,
because I din't have a font on my system that looked right. I haven't been
using Blue Highway, because it doesn't look right at all.
Casey Cooper
I've been at the sign graphics game for almost a year and a half now and
have learned a few things. The most important part is to be patient - but
that's obvious. I have used Paint Shop Pro for the duration and been well
pleased with it.
Some observations I have made. When you make graphics, make sure to save
them as GIF images since they work well for graphics with few colors or with
lots of the same colors. JPEGs should be used for photographs or anything
with lots of texture - I have noticed that saving graphics as JPEGs cause
them to wash out, not to mention that so doing makes the images 2-3 times
larger which is bad news for download times. One neat thing about the GIF
image format is that the background can be made transparent. This is great
for placing things like shields on a textured background. It also makes it
easy to change the background since the image is independant of it.
Things can get a little tricky. When I'm actually manipulating the image, I
like to increase the color depth to 24-bit. The 256 color palate will not
work for a lot of special image effects. This is critical when I resize
(resample, actually) the images. Paint Shop Pro has a function for resizing
which simply removes pixels, causing poor image quality. The resample
function is much better as it actually changes the color of pixels to make
it approximate the appearance of the original. This usually causes blurring,
but that problem is fairly easy to fix. This is nice for creating
anti-aliasing on the lettering.
I have found myself zooming in the image and editing it pixel by pixel. Up
close, the images are simply a mosaic of different colors, like the tile
pictures from the Byzantine Empire - they are called raster based images.
This is tedious to say the least, but I've found the results worthwhile.
Most of my images are based on pictures I've scanned, with lettering and
other stuff borrowed from other sites (with a big thank you to Jim Lin.) I
fill in colors and draw lines to convert it from a photograph to a clip-art
type graphic. I've built up templates of different sized and shaped shields
with lettering to fill them in. I can paste numbers on a shield blank which
mimics the process in which a real shield is created. I have some (cough,
cough) signs which I look at to base the location of the lettering -
authenticity is crucial for me. I have an example of how I created my 2di
interstate shield at the URL below:
http://www.gbcnet.com/ushighways/about_the_site.html
I have yet to come up with a good way of making overhead sign graphics since
I have few letters to deal with. There is a True-Type font out called
"Highway Gothic" which is a very close match to the FHWA standards, but the
creators want money for it. I can't justify that yet. In the meantime, I've
used Helvetica (not satisfactory) and with sporadic inclination, I've
modified it to resemble the FHWA standard font. I may even get them up on my
site sometime (grin).
If this seems like too much effort, another thing to do is simply to lift
the graphics from someone else's page - _with a caveat_. To me, it's common
decency to credit the person for the graphic instead of either by
implication or whatever, taking credit for it yourself. It's also polite
(though not necessarily legally binding) to ask the person. For me
personally, that constitutes high praise and I'm happy to let people use my
graphics - just so long as they let people know I made them. Also, don't
futz with screen shots. Save the individual images and work from those.
Screen shots will suck up all your RAM and require a lot of editing to pare
them down to something manageable.
I hope this helps, at least w/o sounding too patronizing. Incidentally,
reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Regards,
Casey
H.B. Elkins wrote in message <3573ffed...@news.newsguy.com>...
>And speaking of signs on exit lists ... what software are you guys
>using to make your shields, and how are you reproducing the numbers in
>the shields? My new exit lists for Kentucky's interstates and parkways
>has the text listing. I don't know exactly what I need to do to get
>acceptable shields, and if I do use graphic shields instead of text, I
>want them to look uniform and non-amateurish (unlike Kentucky's signs
>themselves, LOL!). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
Robert V. Droz
> > And speaking of signs on exit lists ... what software are you guys
> > using to make your shields, and how are you reproducing the numbers in
> > the shields?
I have added a feature on my site, related to this.
It is on the Numbering-Links Page of my US site.
There are ZIP files of BMPs there, So those of you on a PC,
like myself, can use good old Paint to make your graphics.
I am not sure how this will work, never having put out ZIPs
in the public domain, so please don't flame me too bad.
Assmebly instuctions are on the page.
Included are 2di, 3di, 2dUS, 3dUS, County, and Florida State Roads,
with Auxillary Signs, and arrows.
I am not hoping for awesome, neat would be nice.
--
_______________________________________________________________________
Happy Motoring! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Robert V. Droz (chec...@gte.net) _____________________________________
U.S. Highways : From US 1 to (US 830)
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/6688/Ushwy.htm
Historic US highways in Florida
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/6688/flaushwy.htm
Andrew Field
I tried the same approach with my pages and exit lists, but I gave up
after one night of trying to figure out the solution. So I am
impressed, Dan, that you're still working on it four weeks later! It
took me about two evenings of work to get all the .gifs for the Wyoming
highway page, and it will take as much time to create .gifs for the
Nevada page ... although I am trying a slightly different tact on those
pages. Please let us know when you find a solution!
Andy
MaryKDan
Because I didn't want to make 200 Utah beehive signs, I've been experimenting
with using a table for Utah route shields on my I-15 exit list. Once I get it
perfected, I'll move on to US, Interstate, and Business Loop shields, and I'll
add them to I-70, I-80, I-84, I-215, US 40, and U-201. The idea came from
Steve's NY roads site.
Basically, within the exit list table, I add another table and declare the
background for the table to be a blank beehive route marker, and then I add
numbers in the <TD> tag.
I have run into a problem, and I'll take advice from anyone who might be able
to help. For these tables, I set the properties to be WIDTH=60 HEIGHT=50, and
it looks great on Netscape! But, on Micro$oft IE and AOL (which uses MISE
browser technology), the image in the background resolves to be a little
smaller than it does in Netscape, causing the background image to begin to
repeat and leaving the route numbers off-center. If you have access to more
than one browser, please take a look at it, and you'll see what I mean.
For about four weeks, I have been struggling with this, but I haven't come up
with a good solution. Steve solved the problem by breaking his NY markers into
smaller pieces and then creating a more complex table, but I don't think that
the Beehiove marker lends itself to this approach the way that the NY marker
does.
I recently got a book on cascading style sheets and Javascript, and I think
that I may be able to assign a class that particular table and then define the
WIDTH of the table based upon which type of browser calls the page. But,
working-off-line, I haven't been able to define a table width using the style
definitions in a CSS. Does anybody know the proper syntax to define a table's
width (or even a <TD> width) using a style sheet? Also, what is the sytax in
CSS to define an image for a background in a table? (I can get it to define a
color for a background, but not an image.)
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be complete, so I could get specific
advice. Before I started doing these pages, I didn't know anything about HTML,
and I am self-taught. (which explains my long development time and infrequent
updates!) I do it all on a text editor. When I began last October, I never
would have guessed how much time and effort this would take.
Any help that some of you more proficient roads scholars could provide would be
extremely valuable!
The I-15 page is at
http://members.aol.com/utahhwys/rte015.htm
Thanks.
- Dan Stober
West Jordan, Utah
Steve Anderson
Actually, when I created the New York State route tables for the NYC
metro area, I had a generic NYS route marker shield done for me by Ralph
Herman. In MS Publisher, I took the NYS shield and had the numbers (in
Interstate-Regular font) overlay on the shield, creating a unique .gif
for each route. No HTML was used in the creation of my pages whatsoever.
In his NY roads site (which mostly deals with upstate), Doug Kelly broke
his NYS shields into four separate pieces, then "pasted" them together.
You'll notice that his shields are NOT graphics files.
-- Steve Anderson
The Roads of Metro New York http://members.tripod.com/~ande264/
The Crossings of Metro New York http://members.xoom.com/ande264/
Casey Cooper
<see original post for message>
Dan,
I commend you for all the effort you've put into your page and into creating
your tables. I am now compelled to use Internet Explorer exclusively and saw
that your table with the route numbers looked fine. Well, Ok, the numbers
were a little big and off center slightly, but not enough to merit serious
concern. However, I can tell you're like me and want everything to look just
right with no compromises.
If that's the case, then I suggest you bite the bullet and spend a few
nights creating your route shields, replete with numbers. I've spent too
much time being frustrated by the varying HTML renditions - it's simply more
frustrating that rewarding. Once you get everything set up, the shield
creation should be easy. Briefly, I'll describe the procedure.
Steve Anderson's suggestions are excellent and should be the first thing you
attempt. Barring not having the $$ fonts, you can follow an alternate
suggestion that is almost as easy. Get a complete set of numbers and make
sure they fit in with your template. I found some at Robert Droz' page at
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/6688/ushwy3.htm
After that, it's a relatively easy matter of cutting and pasting. In the end
it's a lot easier to do this than to futz with tables.
As a last suggestion, I highly recommend saving your graphics as GIFs. If
you save them as JPEGs, you'll find the colors tend to wash as well as
having a much larger file size. The other advantage to the GIF format is
that you can use transparent colors. This really makes it worth your time to
create individual shield images since they can be placed on different
backgrounds easily.
Anyway, enough of me for tonight. Hope my suggestions prove helpful.
Casey
MaryKDan
Casey Cooper writes:
>As a last suggestion, I highly recommend saving your graphics as GIFs. If
>you save them as JPEGs, you'll find the colors tend to wash as well as
>having a much larger file size. The other advantage to the GIF format is
>that you can use transparent colors. This really makes it worth your time to
>create individual shield images since they can be placed on different
>backgrounds easily.
>
Casey:
I appreciate your input. I actually made a ton of Utah route markers, enough
for virtually all of the routes that have exits from the interstates, and found
that it was taking a lot of storage space. I have tons o' photos that I would
like to upload, and using valuable space for route markers seemed to be a
waste. Also, having a million route markers on a page substantially increases
download time (I experience this every time I open one of CC Slater's pages on
my 14.4 modem!)
I have seen the GIF suggestion from others, including Dan Faigin, but I'm still
a newbie. How do I save a GIF to make it use less space than a JPG? I use
LView Pro for my work, and when it saves GIFs, they seem to take more space
than the JPGs do. Also, I don't know how to make GIFs with transparent
backgrounds, but it *sure* would make life easier considering that I need green
backgrounds for exit lists, orange backgrounds for construction updates, and
regular backgrounds for my (incipient but growing) regular route pages.
Perhaps you could provide a solution. (And hopefully one that doesn't involve
spending $200+ for Adobe :)
Thanks, again for your input. BTW, I am a person who, sometimes stupidly,
doesn't give up easily. I'm still reading my books and experimenting!
Matthew E. Salek
Are you using a table with just one cell? In that case, do you put the height
and width tags, as well as the background, in the TD tag?
Route markers looked OK here on Netscape 4.0, except for the beehive having
some ragged edges.
While we're at it, could everyone take a look at my table-made markers? You
can find them at http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~mattes/roads/colo/co_1.html
The reason I went with tables is because I'm very close to using up all of my
disk quota space, and making 300+ separate image files would propel me over my
400-file limit in nothing flat. I'm saving the space I have for pictures and
some more Minn. and Wisc. markers (I care a lot more about making those look
exactly right versus the Colo. markers).
pki...@brunnet.net
In article <35901BF8...@engr.colostate.edu>,
mat...@engr.colostate.edu wrote:
>
> While we're at it, could everyone take a look at my table-made markers? You
> can find them at http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~mattes/roads/colo/co_1.html
> The reason I went with tables is because I'm very close to using up all of my
> disk quota space, and making 300+ separate image files would propel me over my
> 400-file limit in nothing flat. I'm saving the space I have for pictures and
> some more Minn. and Wisc. markers (I care a lot more about making those look
> exactly right versus the Colo. markers).
The numbers on the CO markers are too big on my browser. Because of that, the
CO 1 shield looks like this:
-----------
| (CO flag)|
------------
| -| |
| | |
|----+-----|<--- a line across
| | |
------------
J.P. Kirby
Matthew E. Salek
pki...@brunnet.net wrote:
>
> In article <35901BF8...@engr.colostate.edu>,
> mat...@engr.colostate.edu wrote:
> >
> > While we're at it, could everyone take a look at my table-made markers? You
> > can find them at http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~mattes/roads/colo/co_1.html
> > The reason I went with tables is because I'm very close to using up all of my
> > disk quota space, and making 300+ separate image files would propel me over my
> > 400-file limit in nothing flat. I'm saving the space I have for pictures and
> > some more Minn. and Wisc. markers (I care a lot more about making those look
> > exactly right versus the Colo. markers).
>
> The numbers on the CO markers are too big on my browser.
Do you have your font size in your browser preferences set to 12 points? That
would be my guess. If you do, well, I tried.