Scott Nazelrod
Prior to 2006, Oklahoma used the ostensibly standard default state highway marker found in the federal MUTCD. Problem is, if you had the good (or otherwise) fortune to drive through Oklahoma, or have merely browsed through Eric Stuve's excellent coverage of the circle-sign era at OKHighways, Oklahoma's circular signs were woefully inconsistent. Some signs featured Series C, or D, and a few one-digit shields even featured Series E. The size of the digits varied from shield to shield. Three digit shields were normally pill-shaped, but New Jersey-style ovals slipped in on a few occasions. Freeway signage sometimes included the black background like New Jersey, sometimes included a thin black border like Iowa, and sometimes had nothing separating the white from the green. It was, quite honestly, a mess.
In January 2006, ODOT caught the roadgeek community by surprise by randomly announcing the introduction of a new state highway shield to replace the circular shields in honor of the state's centennial the following year. This was, of course, the introduction of Oklahoma's "meat-cleaver" shield which is now the current design. One of the other reasons cited the change was a desire to improve the overall quality of the highway signage. Cause for celebration, to be sure!
Well, not quite. While the standard of "Series D for one and two digit, B for three digit" was firmly established, the actual shields themselves have shown up in 4 different variants. These variations are minor enough that the typical motorist wouldn't notice them unless two signs of different variants were mounted side-by-side. Roadgeeks pretty much will notice them, of course. Anyway, in the tradition of Mark Roberts' classification of the variations of Missouri's route shields, here are the different types of Oklahoma highway shields.
The first series of meat cleavers, posted in 2006, consisted of shields that were all relatively uniform. The state outline featured a light stroke that was about half the width of the digits. Because this version was used during the initial transition to the meat cleaver design, it is in widespread use across the state. It may be the most common version of the shield.
I first saw this variant in Grady County, in August 2006. At the time, I assumed it was dues to differences in the house style between the different ODOT field divisions, but this variant was used in McClain County to replace the last few circle signs, leading me to believe this is currently ODOT's preferred style. The stroke on the state outline is a lot thicker and more noticeable than that of the first-generation outline, which had a tendency to "disappear" at a distance, especially at night. (Which, in my opinion, is a good thing—it draws more attention to the numbers.) This variation is in sporadic use around the state.
This variation of the shield is most frequently seen on BGSes, though it makes an occasional appearence on independent-mount signage along freeways. On this shield, the numbers are larger and are placed farther south in relation to the state outline. Both changes are presumably to bolster visibility at-speed.
(And yes, that shield is an error—Oklahoma has no SH-77. ODOT caught it and replaced it with the correct US-77 shields within a few weeks.)
In early 2006, just after the announcement of the meat-cleaver shield, the only widely available image of the shield was an ODOT concept drawing that was circulated to the media. Since real shields had yet to be posted, we had no real idea of what the state outline would look like, not helped by the fact that the '99' shown on the shield eclipsed much of the Red River. However, Wikipedia needed something to illustrate the new design, so I drew up a rendition of the shield based on the concept drawing, guessing as to the parts of the outline obscured by the digits. These shields were used on the projeect until enough photographs of the new shields rolled in to permit Dan Moraseski (aka SPUI) to draw up an accurate version of the first-generation shield. SPUI's shields are still used on Wikipedia today (although there are still a few of my shields floating around that I've been too lazy to replace).
Imagine my surprise to find a few shields out there which closely resembled my crappy drawing! Many shields in work zones and a few contractor-installed permanent shields seem to use a variation of the shield which closely resembles the vague strokes I used in my shields. It's probably unlikely that a contractor actually did a Google Image Search, found my SVGs, and printed them up on reflective sheeting and called it good, but if that is what happened, I think I would be the first roadgeek to directly cause an inferior variation of a highway shield!
The SH-109 shield I have illustrating this variant doesn't resemble the Wikipedia version as much as a few that are out there do—specifically some of the shields along SH-67 east of US-75.
So, you might be wondering, with all of these variants out there, which one is blessed by the ODOT standard sign drawing? The answer is...none of them. The state outline depicted in the standard drawing is shown to the right. As you can see, it is different from all four real-life variations, and features a much more detailed Red River than real signs do. However, I'm guessing it's only a matter of time until a contractor comes along that actually replicates the standard. But I haven't seen it yet.
Standard image is ©2006 by ODOT and is shown here under fair use.
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