Street Code

They are locate marks showing roughly where buried utilities run, painted after someone requested a locate before digging. Red is electric, orange communications, yellow gas or oil, blue drinking water, green sewer, purple reclaimed water, pink survey marks and white the proposed dig area. The paint and flags do not cause long-term harm to a lawn.

White marks outline where an excavator plans to dig, so locators know which lines to mark. In Massachusetts this premarking is required before any excavation, even on private property, and before calling Dig Safe.

It is a no-conflict mark: the named owner checked and has no facilities in the dig area. CGA guidance is NO plus the owner's identifier in its utility color, such as NO TELCO. It speaks only for that owner.

Under the voluntary NFPA 291 recommendation, the top and caps show flow: light blue 1,500 GPM or more, green 1,000 to 1,499, orange 500 to 999, red under 500. The body shows the supply: yellow for municipal, red for private, violet for non-potable water. Most cities do not follow the scheme exactly.

A blue raised pavement marker is sometimes placed in the road to help fire crews find a hydrant at night. The MUTCD allows it but does not require it, and it is most common where there is no snowplowing.

There is no single answer, according to Live Science. A round cover cannot fall through its own opening, can be rolled, and fits round openings cut with rotating tools. The question became famous as a Microsoft interview prompt.

BWSC is the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, created in 1977. Older Boston water covers read BWW, for Boston Water Works.

In the US, yellow lines separate traffic moving in opposite directions and mark the left edge of one-way roads and divided highways. White lines separate traffic moving the same direction and mark the right edge of the road.

It is a survey mark, usually a brass or aluminum disk about 3.5 in. across, stamped with a station name, year and agency. Many were set by the National Geodetic Survey or the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, and removing one is a federal offense.

Each NGS mark has a six-character PID; its datasheet gives coordinates, elevation and directions from landmarks. Anyone can report a found mark through the NGS Mark Recovery Form.

It is often a fuse cutout operating, not a transformer exploding. A fuse melts when current becomes unsafe, the barrel swings open and power is cut, isolating the problem, according to Indiana Connection.

It is usually a red-light confirmation light that turns on with the red so officers can see violations from a safe spot. Bismarck, ND says these lights do not use automated photography.

The tick is the locator tone of an accessible pedestrian signal, repeating once per second so blind pedestrians can find the button. During WALK it changes to a rapid tick, a different tone or speech, and the raised arrow vibrates.

A national committee chose the octagon in 1922 so drivers could recognize a stop sign by shape alone, even from behind. The US MUTCD reserves the octagon exclusively for stop signs.

Fluorescent pink is the US background color for incident management signs, the temporary signs used at crashes and other emergencies. Orange is used for planned work zones.

They are inventory labels that record details such as the reflective sheeting maker, fabricator and dates of fabrication and installation. Texas DOT, for example, has required a punch-coded decal on signs installed after August 15, 1980, to track how materials hold up.

They are detectable warning surfaces made of truncated domes, which tell blind and low-vision pedestrians that the sidewalk is ending at a street or drop-off. Yellow gives high contrast for people with partial sight; US federal rules require contrast, and California requires yellow.

In California, Vehicle Code 21458 sets the code: red is no stopping, yellow is loading or unloading passengers or freight, white is passenger loading or mail drop, green is time-limited parking and blue is disabled parking. Local ordinances set the hours. New York State's manual says colored curbs shall not be used to convey parking rules, so read the signs.

Ordinary wrenches and sockets fit square or hex nuts, so a five-sided nut keeps people without a hydrant wrench from opening it. Unauthorized opening wastes water and lowers the pressure firefighters need.

Long slots running with traffic can catch a bicycle wheel. In 1980 the FHWA recommended three bicycle-safe designs with transverse rods, spacers or curved vanes.

They are vault lights, glass lenses that let daylight into the space under the sidewalk, patented by Thaddeus Hyatt in 1845. They turn purple because manganese in the glass reacts to ultraviolet light over decades.

The brand shows the pole's class, height, maker, species, treatment and date. In Ameren's system, oval tags show inspection years, red and yellow tags mark replacement priority, and orange tape marks a reinforced pole.

It means you may turn left after yielding to oncoming traffic and pedestrians. It was formally authorized in the federal MUTCD in 2009.

Most US road signs use the FHWA Standard Alphabets, nicknamed Highway Gothic, first published in 1948. Some guide signs use Clearview, an optional typeface whose federal approval was terminated in 2016 and reinstated in 2018.

Green pavement highlights bike space, mainly where bikes and cars cross paths. It was allowed from April 15, 2011 under FHWA Interim Approval IA-14 and is now part of the MUTCD 11th edition.

Yes. As of April 2026 Boston had about 1,250 street boxes in service, which send their number by telegraph to the Fire Alarm Office on the Fenway. They were used during 911 outages in 2018 and 2024.

In most US states, yes: the Uniform Vehicle Code defines a crosswalk at an intersection as the extension of the sidewalk across the road whether or not it is marked. A midblock crosswalk exists only where it is painted, and definitions vary by state.