A construction area along College Street in Toronto in 2004.DEBORAH BAIC
I’d love to know who decided on dirty orange and black as the standard colours for construction signage and cones. Why not a brighter colour like blue or yellow? – Michael, Toronto
Orange signs in construction zones are meant to catch your eye – plus, most of the other colours were taken.
“Orange provides a high contrast to standard signage colours, so it grabs attention quickly when used in construction zones where safety is critical,“ Julia Caslin, a spokeswoman for Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO), said in an e-mail.
While each province sets its own rules for road signs, generally, most sign shapes and colours are similar across the country. Although there aren’t national standards that provinces are required follow, there’s a technical guide set by the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC), an Ottawa-based not-for-profit.
That guide, the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Canada (MUTCDC), has been around since 1960. It helps “governments to apply traffic control devices in a consistent and harmonized manner, which is an important factor in road safety,” Erica Andersen, TAC spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. The U.S. has its own guide, which has been around since 1935.
Bright idea?
It might not always feel like it, but construction zones are supposed to be temporary – so the signs are there to alert you to something unusual.
Canada’s guide says that temporary warning signs, including construction and detour signs, should “be orange with black symbols and/or words used to convey the message to road users.”
It also says that some jurisdictions use a brighter, fluorescent orange with better “attention-grabbing” capability. We asked TAC where this was happening in Canada, but didn’t get an immediate answer.
“Orange was selected to maximize visibility within the Canadian context, including variable weather and lighting conditions,” Andersen said. Essentially, because because it stands out from both pavement and snow.
The U.S. guide established orange as the colour for construction signs in 1971. Canada followed in 1976. Before that, the Canadian guide recommended yellow.
It’s not clear how long orange was used for signs and traffic cones before that.
For instance, the 1943 U.S. patent for the first rubber traffic cone doesn’t specify a colour.
Sign language?
In Canada, we generally only use red for regulatory signs – including stop and yield – which show a rule you must obey. Some countries, including Germany, use red and white triangular signs to warn of construction zones and other hazards, whether they’re permanent or temporary.
But here, while we use orange for temporary warnings, we generally use yellow for permanent warnings, such as sharp turns and narrow bridges.
And, in most provinces including Ontario, blue is typically used for signs guiding drivers to spots including gas stations, landmarks and rest stops.
So can all these different sign colours confuse drivers?
Lewis Smith, manager of national projects with the Canada Safety Council, an Ottawa-based not-for-profit, doesn’t think so.
“I’d even suggest that the different colour on construction-related signage is a good thing,” Smith said in an e-mail, adding that he hasn’t heard of any visibility concerns with orange or any push to change it. “A driver may gloss over standard signage [especially] when there’s too much of it, but the orange colour can and often does serve as an indicator that something unusual is present that warrants extra attention.”
Have a driving question? Send it to globedrive@globeandmail.com and put ‘Driving Concerns’ in your subject line. Emails without the correct subject line may not be answered. Canada’s a big place, so let us know where you are so we can find the answer for your city and province.