From the top of the state, note the Bergen County shield, a signing practice that's inconsistent in NJ (mostly on the GSP) but that I've never seen anywhere else.


Two different issues here. Exit 166 should be on a tab, not in the main part of the sign (unique error). Exit 165's BGS should have been manufactured with an exit tab in the first place, but at least the tab should be on the right side of the BGS for a right exit (common to the northen stretch of the GSP).


Diagrammatic signs are useful on the northern part of the Parkway (after the Essex tolls by Exit 150), where there are a few left exits and a median service plaza. This was one of the older parts of the Parkway, here SB.


The first sign is just like the NB signage for NJ 208 and NJ 3 - no shields for either US 46 or NJ 20; the route is printed in the same manner as is the text. Shields drawn onto a sign. The second sign is typical Parkway-standard, just like for Exit 163 but without the VMS.


Where in holy hell did NJDOT, NJTA, or any equivalent demon cook up a sign this flawed? It looks like an LGS on steroids, crossbred with an evil clown for extra scariness. Compare it to anything else on this page. Compare it even to the MDC's best (meaning worst) signage in the Boston area. This just wins (meaning loses). And it's not even for CR 506 - it's for 506 SPUR! (And CR 509, just one block north of Bloomfield Ave., but no one cares about Franklin St. At least 509 comes back at Exit 138.)

At Exit 140, and fairly old, and of course over-redundant.


Exit 135 leads to a notoriously congested circle - traffic will back up for half a mile or more onto the Parkway at any hour of the day.


Since there are no exits between 131 and 135, I'll show you one of the nice arched bridges along there.


Well, there is something else there, and that's an abandoned rest area (Madison Hill). Thanks to HNTB Corp., you can see it up close, along with the radio antenna that is Most Definitely Not a Tree.


Fine, there are rest areas on either side. And the SB one even has button copy associated with it!


The end of the stretch of non-reflective button-copy signage - okay, fine, so only one of these is non-reflective.


The last sign is on the (very short) exit ramp. I don't think putting the distance in a yellow field is quite MUTCD-spec. Maybe it belongs where the arrow is instead? Gee.


SB, with the last two photos on the ramp from the SB Parkway. Note the nonstandard NJ Turnpike sign in the last photo (the font is a bit small, and the arrow is the wrong size and shape for NJDOT), and the BGS in the second photo that's so ugly no one will claim responsbility and replace it (compare to the first photo and you'll understand). I have to wonder over what the Del. Mem. Br. was patched over on the third sign (which was button-copy until very recently).


If you take the SB Exit 129 ramp and follow signs to NJ 440 and US 9 instead, you come around a long two-lane roadway that then merges with US 9 SB. Before you merge, you see the above signs with their square 501's, at an interchange where the second exit gets neither a CR 501 EAST reference (which would make sense) or an NJ 184 EAST reference (which is also technically true). The first sign has been replaced (click to see the atrocity that dares stand in its place), but the second one remains, and I find that so cool I took two photos of it.
But NJ doesn't use square shields.Not any more, no. But county routes used to be signed with squares all the time; the pentagon wasn't adopted until sometime in the 1970's. The 501 BGS's are definitely from the construction of this interchange in 1970 (no exit number, more use of all-caps than normal). There was at least one more square-shield BGS, on NJ 7 WB, which has also sadly been undone, leaving just the one CR 501 WEST to represent its era. Sadness.


This Verrazano Narrows Bridge shield is right by the CR 501 WB exit. It of course refers to CR 501 EB, the next exit, which takes you to NJ 440 NB to the Outerbridge Crossing (as the sign shows, conveniently ignoring any form of "TO"), and if you're smart, to I-278 EB in New York to the bridge in question. The reason US 1 shows up here is that until recently, Exit 130 only went to US 1 South, until a new flyover-loop ramp was constructed. For a closeup of another of these Bridge shields, go to the NJ 439 page.


This is the next photo down, with US 9 NB about to merge in from the left. This exit is actually New Brunswick Avenue, CR 616, a shortcut to NJ 440 EB (though NJ 184/CR 501 EB would have also made a good one, signage really seems to discourage people from using that exit). This sign, if you'll notice, continues the mess of painted-on shields that I just got done complaining about further up this page. You may also notice that I've been talking about NJ 440 as if it's EB-WB, and the sign supports that. Haha, I lied. NJ 440 was turned NB-SB to align with the rest of it in Hudson County (it's separated by NY 440 through Staten Island, which itself has been reconfigured over the years to account for missing expressways), meaning traffic goes from I-287 SB to NJ 440 NB while all the time really just heading due east. It also means that you can judge the age of a sign by whether it refers to 440 as E-W or N-S (or if it did and the letters were peeled off, as happened on Smith Street).

Continue southward
Over to the NB lanes
The Exit 145 ramps
Back to GSP main page

Exit 129 to I-287, NJ 440, NJ 184, CR 501, US 9, I-95/NJ Turnpike, or Smith St., Middlesex CR 656
Exit 163 to NJ 17
Exit 163 to NJ 4
Exit 160 to NJ 208
Exit 157 to US 46 and NJ 20
Exit 153 to NJ 3
Exit 148 to CR 506 SPUR
Exit 140 to US 22
Exit 138 to CR 509
Exit 137 to NJ 28
Exit 131 to NJ 27
Exit 130 to US 1
Back to NJ Roads
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