Here is a link to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Current US standards for Highway signing, striping and pavement marking.
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/kno-2003r1.htm
Individual State may have their own standards which may differ slightly, but the MUTCD standards are supposed to be their starting point. State standards are often available individual State’s transportation department web sites.
That’s fine for current. For transition era (if memory serves) the lane separations (including double lines in the middle) were white and there weren’t “fog lines” to the right.
Wide variations from state to state. I remember being struck when I moved from Ill to Calif that the stop signs were red instead of yellow.
The push to enforce national standards started in the 1960’s. I don’t remember seeing any edge lines in California before 66 or 67. That’s also the time of the first “standard” use of a yellow centerline I remember . Around 15 years eariler I rember a yellow solid line to designate a no passing zone on a mountain highway . (The yellow stripe was added along side the white center line and there were signs that said no pasing when the yellow stripe was in your lane.) The transition from Standard white to standard yellow centerlines started in the early 60’s and took many years. In the movie Mad Mad Mad World, 1963, both yellow and white centerlines can be seem.
Thanks for this useful resource. What I need is historical data circa 1960s. There is a little bit of historical info on this site here:
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/kno-history.htm
thanks again
Dave Nelson
Probable one of the the best sources for info would be some of the movies made during that time period. Although you would probably have to watch many hours of movies to find a few good shots of the roads. In my searches, I’ve found that the dates of photgraphs often aren’t stated.
When did dashed lines replace solid lines. If memory serves, this was done to help alleviate highway hypnosis which caused numerous asleep-at-the-wheel crashes. There was a short lived TV show around 1960 called The Man and the Challenge and one of the episodes was about this very thing.