Show me the street signs of your city

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Andy6

The ones without the periods (and mixed upper and lower case) weren't very old anyway. They were the first attempt at "modernizing", probably in the 1990s. There are also some there from the various pre-amalgamation boroughs, which had different signs (mainly white on blue).

The use of periods in abbreviations is pretty much limited to the U.S. and Canadian English - U.K. style has disfavoured periods for decades now.

I know. One of the rare instances where I do not prefer British style over American.

[SkahHigh]

Most of Montreal's on-island suburbs have distinct street signs

Hampstead (the nicest IMO)

Hampstead vs. Montreal by Christopher DeWolf, sur Flickr

Mount Royal



Côte-Saint-Luc

Côte Saint Luc street sign (2009) Mackle / Westminster by montrealstreetsigns, sur Flickr

Westmount

Westmount, Montreal by Rosalind Pan, sur Flickr

Kirkland

Kirkland street sign by montrealstreetsigns, sur Flickr

Dollard-des-Ormeaux

Dollard-des-Ormeaux street sign by montrealstreetsigns, sur Flickr

Baie d'Urfé



Montreal-East

[Andy6]

That is the Winnipeg standard (2008 by me).

Main and Bannatyne by wintorbos, on Flickr

The "Exchange District" version of the same street (2012 by me).

Exchange District by wintorbos, on Flickr

White on green overhead bilingual (2010 by me):

Provencher and Taché by wintorbos, on Flickr

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Andy6

I knew I was right about the "St. Mary Av." sign that used to be on the Fortune Block on Main Street in Winnipeg (removed, as far as I know, in the recent stunning renovation). It's visible just to the left of the No Stopping pictograph sign. I don't think that that type of sign would have been quite enough for the automobile age, and North America doesn't seem to have gone for the jumbo-sized street signs that Europe did.

There are still a few of those types of building-mounted signs scattered throughout older parts of the city, mostly the ones that have resisted development like the northern edges of downtown, the West End, the North End, etc.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by esquire

There are still a few of those types of building-mounted signs scattered throughout older parts of the city, mostly the ones that have resisted development like the northern edges of downtown, the West End, the North End, etc.

The one I was trying to think of was Grosvenor Square at Stafford and Grosvenor, where they have the old "Stafford St" sign on the building and also more modern ones in the full-size London style "City of Winnipeg - Stafford Street" and "City of Winnipeg - Grosvenor Avenue" on the other side.

They should do more of those - it creates a nice atmosphere and emphasizes a style of building and streetscape that Winnipeg is fortunate to retain so much of, in comparison with many Canadian cities.

https://goo.gl/maps/khJ436BQMHQx7Wrh8

[Kilgore Trout]

Montreal has quite a few different street signs depending on age and area. Here you can see how the standard has evolved over the decades. All of these different generations can still be seen around the city:


Source

Old Montreal signs look like this:

DSCF7421 by Christopher DeWolf, on Flickr

Many boroughs that were once independent towns still have their own signs. Outremont:


Source

There are also on-island suburbs that remain independent, like Westmount. Although Westmount is officially bilingual, it opted not to have any generics (eg street, avenue) on its signs rather than have them in both French and English:


Source

Other suburbs like Hampstead have fully bilingual signs:

[Andy6]

So, one thing I've always noticed is that in Winnipeg they make all the French "generics" lower case, while in Montreal, as per the examples above, they generally don't. Only Cote St-Luc seems to do it like Winnipeg ... e.g. in Winnipeg it was always "rue MARION ST" or, for the large signs, "boul Provencher Blvd". Most of the Montreal ones capitalize the French "Avenue" etc., like the English.

[Dengler Avenue]

And you know you’re in West Island when it says “STOP” not “ARRÊT”.

[Kilgore Trout]

Originally Posted by Andy6

So, one thing I've always noticed is that in Winnipeg they make all the French "generics" lower case, while in Montreal, as per the examples above, they generally don't. Only Cote St-Luc seems to do it like Winnipeg ... e.g. in Winnipeg it was always "rue MARION ST" or, for the large signs, "boul Provencher Blvd". Most of the Montreal ones capitalize the French "Avenue" etc., like the English.

As you can see above there are certain Montreal suburbs that use lowercase French generics but this is generally considered incorrect. There may be some confusion because a word like rue, avenue, etc. is lower-case when used in a sentence ("un immeuble sur la rue Sainte-Catherine") but as with anything it should be capitalized at the beginning of a sentence.

Here's the official advice from Quebec's Commission de toponymie:

La banque de noms de lieux du Québec fournit toujours un nom officiel avec une majuscule à son élément générique. Ainsi, dans les appellations Rue Notre-Dame, Lac Saint-Jean et Cap Diamant, les génériques sont Rue, Lac et Cap. Dans un texte, il est toutefois nécessaire d’écrire le générique avec une minuscule. Ainsi, on écrira « la rivière des Prairies coule entre l’île de Montréal et l’île Jésus » et « l’avenue Cartier croise la rue Fraser et la rue Aberdeen ». Sur une carte, sur un panneau de signalisation ou d’affichage, sur une plaque de rue, dans un index ou un répertoire, on conserve la majuscule au générique cependant.

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

And you know you’re in West Island when it says “STOP” not “ARRÊT”

Not just the West Island! Westmount, TMR, Hampstead and CSL also use Stop. Interestingly, all municipalities in Quebec have the choice of using Arrêt or Stop because they're both French words. It just so happens that majority anglophone towns are the only ones using Stop...

[Andy6]

Interesting - thanks. I've been seeing them uncapitalized for my entire life so it always feels "wrong" when I see them the other way ... now I can rest easier on those occasions.

[harls]

I liked Aylmer's signs (with the little sailboat) before the merger. The city of Gatineau has been systematically eliminating them over time. I'm not sure there are any left.


holmes n' foley by harley b., on Flickr


Aylmer's wine country by harley b., on Flickr

[vid]

Thunder Bay's signs are all white text on green, the text is usually either Helvetica or Impact, older signs vary. Private streets are black text on white, like Winnipeg's street signs, and a couple special streets have yellow text on red.

Acajack will be pleased to see that we use a period after the street type abbreviation on the newer signs, but the cardinal direction is a solitary letter.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/vidioman/43078944731/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/vidioman/6960443475/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/vidioman/2941536313/

This example includes an old street sign and a new one:


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/removing-bay-st-stop-signs-worries-residents-1.1317472

And two old ones with inconsistent formatting. This is pretty common, a lot of street signs have bad alignment or inconsistencies.


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-b...-home-after-intersection-crash-1.3143550

This is an older format, where the edges of the sign had white triangles to designate which direction the street went, in the event it was a T-intersection or the street changed names or directions. This Streetview shot shows both side-by-side.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vidioman/24256277594/

[Andy6]

That "Pearl St." reminds me of Boston. In fact I'm pretty sure there was a Pearl Street near where I lived in Cambridgeport. I wonder if they're missing a sign.

[vid]

Toronto has a Pearl Street too, but it's basically the back alley between King and Adelaide near University. Pearl Street in Thunder Bay is one of the main east-west streets in downtown Port Arthur, and it's had the name for about 150 years.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by vid

Toronto has a Pearl Street too, but it's basically the back alley between King and Adelaide near University. Pearl Street in Thunder Bay is one of the main east-west streets in downtown Port Arthur, and it's had the name for about 150 years.

Pearl Street in Winnipeg is the last of the alphabetical ladies'-names streets, just one short block, but it has some familiarity since it happens to be in the middle of the Health Sciences Centre - U of M Medical campus.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by vid

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vidioman/2941536313/

Bravo! to the city crew that installed the Donald St. sign!

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by harls

I liked Aylmer's signs (with the little sailboat) before the merger. The city of Gatineau has been systematically eliminating them over time. I'm not sure there are any left.


holmes n' foley by harley b., on Flickr


Aylmer's wine country by harley b., on Flickr

The ones in the last picture look a lot like those in the City of Ottawa.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

The ones in the last picture look a lot like those in the City of Ottawa.

I can't post images of them but Ottawa's signs are the same colour scheme (even the city logos have similar colours) but the shape is completely different.

It is roughly the same shape as this below, but on a thin blue metal sign with white lettering, and isbasically a stylized more modern version of what the old pre-merged signs of the old city of Ottawa looked like:



Though Ottawa's signs (both old and current) always include the generic (street, avenue, road, chemin, rue) in both languages.

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I can't post images of them but Ottawa's signs are the same colour scheme (even the city logos have similar colours) but the shape is completely different.

It is roughly the same shape as this below, but on a thin blue metal sign with white lettering, and isbasically a stylized more modern version of what the old pre-merged signs of the old city of Ottawa looked like:

Though Ottawa's signs (both old and current) always include the generic (street, avenue, road, chemin, rue) in both languages.

Ottawa Street sign by Larry, sur Flickr

[harls]

Ottawa's logo looks like a maple leaf getting sucked into a black hole.