Are there any unusual highway signs that unintentionally capture your attention when driving? I’m referring here to the green government-sanctioned signs near off-ramps, not billboards.
Traveling between Ohio and Florida I am always caught off guard by “Tourist info hospital” outside of Bowling Green, KY. Is this where outdated brochures go to recuperate?
I’m always amused by “Do Not Pick Up Hitchkers” signs when passing by prisons on the highway.
Ever since I was a kid, we’d always chuckle when passing this Massachusetts town:
http://www.recorder.com/getattachment/f947eb91-9e87-43b2-bc8c-e25a68c69dc0/Fall-Festival-gets-license
^^Yep, there’s one of those near Fredonia NY. They should add, “especially ones wearing orange suits”
A longtime favorite of Michiganders and others traveling along I-75 near Troy, MI. :))
Not big green signs, but how about highway number signs on multiplexed roads where the directions are opposite? Example: http://www.aaroads.com/shields/show.php?image=CA19725803t100800.jpg&view=12
One favorite sign stands by one of the major roads in Boston where I often sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic for an hour:
“If You Lived Here You’d Be Home Now!”
My dad was annoyed at a street sign seen several places in our city at intersections with a road on which truck were prohibited, except for local deliveries.
The sign says “Trucks do not turn.”
My dad the literalist pointed at that they do indeed turn, and that some punctuation was needed.
There is a yellow “bear x-ings next 5 miles” sign in northern michigan where we vacation every summer.
My favorite has always been "Depressed Storm Drains’’. I’ve always wondered what might be causing their sadness.
In Oklahoma, “don’t drive into smoke”
^ ^ ^
They might have been hoping for early retirement?
I really enjoyed Voltaire’s Candide, so I loved passing through Eldorado, Wisconsin.
I was recently in New York state and there was a sign at the on ramp that read, “No bicycles, no pedestrians, no horses.” This was a four lane highway not a rural road.
When we lived in MA in the 90’s, there was a sign in front of the Andover library pointing the way to a nearby town: No. Reading. I always got a kick out of that, but when I’d point it out to locals, they’d patiently tell me the town was pronounced “Redding,” like I didn’t know that or it somehow changed the sign.
When we moved to AZ, there was a sign on a road near us that said, “No Shooting, No Off-road Driving.” My first thought was, “No sh1t, Sherlock!” I was appalled that such a sign needed to exist. Still am.
On the way up I-17, there is a sign next to a ravine that says, “Deadman Wash.” In our family, someone always yells, “No, they don’t!” as we drive by.
On an LA freeway (don’t remember which one), there is a sign that says “Museum of Tolerance.” My FIL always says, “I can’t stand that place.”
Two out west:
Speaking of trucks and downslopes, the yellow “Runaway Truck Ramp” signs always conjure up some interesting mental images.
Sorry, but “Slow Children” could be worded better.
And when I lived in SF, it took me a while to understand “Prevent Runaways.” I thought it referred to kids who’d left home.
Ok not quite a sign, but the highway offramp I take to get home has a local road that merges with the ramp traffic. There’s a yield sign for the local merging traffic which everybody interprets as a “don’t yield” sign.
But the funny part is just a couple hundred feet down the road where the offramp ends is a traffic signal with a right turn lane. The right turn lane has a permanent green arrow which everybody interprets as a “stop and wait” sign. Traffic engineers were apparently annoyed that people kept stopping despite the green arrow so they also added a “Right Turn Keep Moving” sign. Which didn’t work. So then they added a pictogram sign showing that the right turn lane turns into a new dedicated lane so there’s absolutely no reason to stop. That pictogram sign is the only one of its kind I’ve ever seen and definitely was unintentionally funny to me because it showed how frustrated somebody in the dept of transportation was getting.
Anyway after a year of three “right turn lane keep moving” signs doing absolutely nothing to prevent people from stopping, the traffic engineers gave up and removed the additional signage and just left the green arrow. And everybody still stops (except for me, I like to blast through and have the people behind me think I’m a maniac for not stopping).
@TonyK , I just referenced that sign when talking to friends today! 
On the highway in New Mexico a philosophical sign “Gusty Winds May Exist”
In California “Sheriff Detention Facility” - shows they take seriously the duty to lock up bad cops.
