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There Are over 1M New York City Street Signs. Here's How They Are Made. (nytimes.com)

73 points by bookofjoe 4d ago | 27 comments

bookofjoe 4d ago
https://wallhop.io/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/nyregi...
js2 19h ago
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/nyregion/nyc-street-sign-...
monocasa 19h ago
Even the gift link puts up a login page these days.
js2 16h ago
:-( The link works for me when open it in an incognito/private window w/o and login page. Wonder how NYT decides that.
genxy 15h ago
Were gonna need you to add us to your tailscale network.
margalabargala 20h ago
Behind the scenes infrastructure articles like this are so interesting to me.

Complex systems that are based in physicality rather than software.

adolph 19h ago
Yes, wish there was more journalism like this. So many interesting queries, like How are the physical and informational domains synchronized? Does scrap signage get a higher or lower price in recycling? Is there software to make a cut list from all possible signs in the backlog in order to minimize waste from each aluminum blank?

The signs they make seem to cross jurisdictional boundaries, like city streets and state administered interstate highways. How is billing or cost-capture peformed?

chris_money202 18h ago
Very cool and pretty amazing it requires only 46 people. My software team is about that size and I feel like 70k street signs a year is a lot more work than what we accomplish in a year...
ramesh31 20h ago
>"The sign shop, which is part of the New York City Department of Transportation, has a staff of 46 workers, including seven letterers who lay out signs by hand and a blacksmith who makes custom brackets to securely attach signs to traffic poles."

This is one of the things I truly love about NYC. Any other city would have outsourced this operation to some third world sweatshop or massive corporation. Instead you have a whole crew of local tenured high quality jobs with good benefits run by citizens of the city.

illegalsmile 17h ago
I know our very small city (60k ish) has a dedicated sign shop. A lot of small communities use local or regional sign shops. Prison labor creates a lot of signs too. I don't see these things being outsourced to developing countries though I imagine corps like YESCO do have a fair amount of city/county sign work. I haven't been in the sign game for a bit though.