What Gets Featured on Blue Highway Signs?

many companies and for the states to control them. As of twenty nineteen, Tennessee napped about eight million dollars per year and Virginia got about six million thanks to the signs. For the article, this episode is based on How's to Work. Spoke by email with Jenny Campana, spokesperson for the Nebraska

Department of Transportation. She said, all highway signs serve as specific purpose and their color is how you can easily tell what the signs purposes, direction information regulations, et cetera. These signs, in particular, are blue or informational signs are regardless of what state you drive through. If you see a blue sign, it's going to provide helpful information to motorists as they travel along their way. There are three basic types of blue logo signs. First, mainline, which is

the first one you see. It lets you know certain services are nearby. These are bigger than you might have thought, typically about nineteen feet that's six ms wide by about ten ft or three ms high. The second type of blue sign is the ramp. This is closer to the exit and indicates whether you turn right or left at the end of the off ramp. Businesses that are clearly visible from the exit might not qualify for a ramp sign.

And finally, there's the trailblazer. This last and smallest sign is placed at each corner where drivers should turn in order to reach the business. Only certain types of businesses can advertise on the logo sign lines gas stations, restaurants, lodging, and attractions. Houst Works also spoke with Mark Nagy, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Transportation. He said the

attraction category was added later for tourist attractions. In general, the businesses need to be within five miles or eight kilometers of a freeway exit, except attractions can be within fifteen miles or twenty four kilometers, and they have to be open to the general public during normal business hours. Each state sets its own criteria, but usually the businesses listed must have public restrooms, drinking water, and public phones.

Those that are open around the clock sometimes get priority over those that are open for fewer hours of the day, and distance from the highway may count in some states too. In Florida, for instance, priority is given to businesses less than three miles that's five kilometers from the exit, though those up to six miles about nine and a half

kilometers from the exit are eligible for inclusion. Attractions like museums, wineries, aggri tourism sites, and zoos are eligible for sign placement too, but not churches, movie theaters, and adult oriented entertainment venues. Applying to be featured is easy these days, you just fill out a form online, but now being a spot is another story. Some businesses wait for years to get

a spot. In some urban locations. House to Works also spoke with Tracy Bramble, an information specialist for the Iowa Department of Transportation. She said in the urban areas, it can be difficult to secure a spot on the blue motorist service signs or logo signs because they often fill up to capacity. There's a limit of six spots on the signs. She adds that all signs have to be spaced at least eight hundred feet that's about two apart, and must be placed directly in advance of the interchange

where the business can be accessed. Green and white guide signs, that is for cities, highways, and major destinations of interest, have a higher priority classification, So where interchanges are des signed closely together, there may not be enough room to install the blue logo sign and still maintain the spacing required, and even if space is available, it can be pricey.

In Nebraska, for example, it's a thousand, two hundred dollars per year per sign, so if you want to cover exits in both directions, it would cost you two thousand, four hundred per year. In Tennessee, the prices around nine hundred dollars in urban areas and six fifty in rural locations per direction. New Jersey, meanwhile, can be as high as two thousand, four hundred in each direction. If you're

a nonprofit organization, you'll receive a discounted rate. In some states, but in some rural areas, the blue signs often feature plenty of open spaces, causing drastic price declines. In Iowa, you can snag spots for as little as two hundred and thirty dollars in the right areas, according to Bramble.

She explained in Iowa, the fees charged are not commingled with other road user fees, but are earmarked specifically for outdoor advertising control purposes, including the administration of the logo signing program. Some states hire private contractors to run the program, who are then allowed to set their own price structures. Iowa has reinstated its state run program and has avoided

raising fees since. The biggest private contractor in the business is a company called Interstate Logos, which handles the fabrication and installation process for over twenty states around the country. It makes most of its money from the sign permits, but it also actively markets any unfilled spaces in hopes of filling any blank spots on those big blue signs. Naggie says that the Tennessee Department of Transportation gets of

the gross revenue from the contractor it uses. Prices for businesses can and do change once a contractor takes over. In New Hampshire, for instance, the annual fee rocketed from five hundred dollars to one eight hundred dollars per sign, drawing ire from some businesses. According to a local newspaper, States initially began deploying these signs to provide valuable and accurate motorst service information for the traveling public decades ago.

The signs took on even more importance as Americans began to decry the overuse of billboards and so dense were these unsightly clusters of commercialization. The President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Highway Beautification Act in October of nineteen sixty five, which limited billboard and other outdoor advertising. States also took it upon themselves to reduce the number of billboards along their roadways. Vermont took things even further, banning billboards outright,

along with Maine, Hawaii, and Alaska. With limited billboard opportunities, companies still needed a way to get the word out, so states compromised enter the big blue signs. They provide smaller businesses a feasible way to market their service at a cost much lower than billboards, and thanks to their standardization, they're easy to read as your zipping by at speed. Today's episode is based on the article who does and Doesn't get featured on Blue Highway exit Signs on how

Stuffworks dot Com written by Nathan Chandler. Brainstuffs production of I heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.