Signs

Route markers, overhead and ground-mounted highway signs, and street signs

Wayfinding

Route markers, highway signs, and street signs are background noise to most drivers, but to those with a keen attention to detail and an interest in history, geography, design, and transportation, there’s more than what meets the eye. Details such as support types, cardinal directions, travel distances, listed control cities, age, illumination, fonts, colours, sizes, and designs are some of the main distinguishing features of interest these signs have to road enthusiasts.

Route Markers

Highway Signs

Street Signs

Route Markers

Highway Signs

Street Signs

Highlights

Long Distance Reassurance

Ontario's Highway 11 is the second-longest highway in the province [1] and is quick to remind drivers of that fact via a significant distance sign that sits next to the highway a short distance north of Barrie from where the highway (officially) begins, displaying the distance to the small town of Rainy River at a whopping 1,774 kilometres [2].

Control City Excluded

Vast distances of 613 and 1,345 kilometres to Cochrane and Thunder Bay respectively are also featured on the sign [2], but what's notable is the exclusion of the control city which is listed on practically every other distance sign for this northbound stretch of the highway: North Bay.

Arches on the Way Out

Only a small number of type 1/arched truss/tapered leg (overhead sign) gantries remain on Ontario highways due in large part to age and safety concerns. These aesthetically-pleasing and vintage gantries that date back to 60s thru to the 90s, added some significant form to function with their tapered legs, curved corners, and front catwalks.

Small Clusters Remain

The largest concentration of these gantries remain in the vicinity of Callander, the Highway 11 and 17 interchange in North Bay, on highway interchange offramps and onramps along Highway 407 ETR, and along the 407 ETR through Markham.

FHWA Fonts Dominant in Ontario

The FHWA Series fonts, unofficially known as Highway Gothic, dominate provincial highway signage in Ontario and across much of the United States [3]. A much newer typeface known as Clearview or Clearview Highway, is dominant in most other provinces and all of the territories in Canada and in many parts of the United States [3].

Mixed Usage in Certain Areas

While the FHWA Series typeface is practically the standard for provincial highway signage in Ontario [4], there are some notable trial examples of Clearview on provincial highway signs along the QEW in the Niagara Region and on signage along Highway 409 in the vicinity of Toronto Pearson International Airport. Clearview is, however, used extensively on municipal street, road, and highway signs.

Sources

Bevers, Cameron. “The King’s Highway 11.” Ontario Highway 11 History - The King’s Highways of Ontario, https://www.thekingshighway.ca/Highway11.htm
“1394 ON-11.” Google Maps, Google, Sept. 2023, https://shorturl.at/usIGU
“Highway Fonts.” AARoads, 5 Aug. 2021, https://www.aaroads.com/highway_fonts/
AsphaltPlanet. "Re: If Interim use of Clearview is Rescinded, do you think Canada will follow suit?" AARoads Forum, 12 Oct. 2014, https://aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=13684.msg2013004#msg2013004

Sources:

Bevers, Cameron. “The King’s Highway 11.” Ontario Highway 11 History – The King’s Highways of Ontario, https://www.thekingshighway.ca/Highway11.htm
“1394 ON-11.” Google Maps, Google, Sept. 2023, https://shorturl.at/usIGU
“Highway Fonts.” AARoads, 5 Aug. 2021, https://www.aaroads.com/highway_fonts/
AsphaltPlanet. “Re: If Interim use of Clearview is Rescinded, do you think Canada will follow suit?” AARoads Forum, 12 Oct. 2014, https://aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=13684.msg2013004#msg2013004