Apparently the 6 had a 3M material in the number 5 over it which reflected 5 toward theadlights.
In daylight we saw 65. At night 5 was reflected toward the driver so we saw 55.
When? Where? Still in use?
The railroad grade crossing signal [STOP ON RED SIGNAL] black sign had glass marbles (“cat eyes”?) in the white letters to reflect light back toward the source.
As a child I recall the glass marbles did not reflect very well.
Thank you.
I haven’t seen night time speed limit signs in a long time.
I’ve never seen the ones you’re talking about.
Just the white with black print for daytime, and black with reflective white print for night time.
like this
or this
But I have never been East of the Rockies.
Never seen what you describe, interesting concept.
A minor problem was thathe 6 was lightly obscured withe number 5 over it.
Perhaps that is why they have been removed - if they have.
(I do not remember if I saw them back east or if out west.)
There are 13 colors for signs. Coral and light blue unassigned.
In the 50’s and 60’s they were on every two lane highway. I haven’t seen one in years though east or west within a thousand miles. Maybe there is one somewhere for something but don’t recall.
I can’t say for sure if the white was just not reflective and the black was so that at night only the black would be lit up. They actually worked pretty good.
Just the stupidity of our speed limits though, used to be 55 at night and 65 during the day in the 50’s on the same or worse highways, that now were 55 day and night. Now a lot of them are being changed to 60, night and day. Probably could be 65 or 70 during the day and 60 at night on the wide two lane wide open roads in Minnesota. SD is 65 night and day. Makes not sense.
You may be correct. I cannot remember what changed.
Assumed the reflective material was the 5 so the headlights would reflecthe 5 back toward the light source which also included the driver.
Those 65/55 signs were common in Wisconsin in the 1960s and later - but I have not seen them for years. The speed limit is now the same day and night.
Commonly seen on 1960’s Colorado rural roads, but haven’t seen any there lately, and haven’t ever seen them in Calif. They worked pretty good for sedans, but the headlights on my truck were high enough that both numbers would sometimes appear superimposed at night. Easy enough to figure out the intention, but maybe the problem was drivers would use that an an excuse to avoid paying a speeding fine.