Front Plate Required: Yes
Area Codes: 209, 213, 310, 323, 341, 369, 408, 415, 424, 442, 510, 530, 559, 562, 619, 626, 627, 628, 650, 657, 661, 669, 707, 714, 747, 760, 764, 805, 818, 831, 858, 909, 916, 925, 935, 949, 951
License Plates:
Windshield Stickers:
Road and Highway Signs:
County Roads:
Highways:
Highway Adoption:
Historical:
California has a lot of geographic variation, with mountain ranges on the east and west coast surrounding the central valley. Elevation signs are posted near areas of rapid elevation change, but you'll also find these in nearby states. Many highways either have a rumble strip along the center yellow lines or a black strip between the yellow lines to make them more visible. The standard license plate is white, but the legacy black and gold plate is fairly common.
Topographical map
Elevation sign
Black between yellow lines
Legacy California license plate
Most utility poles have three yellow stripes, with a few notable exceptions, including the far north near the Oregon border. The yellow power pole stripes in Imperial County are lower to the ground and spaced much closer together. San Diego County and some of the surrounding area also posts a warning sign, "High Voltage Above, Keep Off".
3 yellow stripes on utility poles
Imperial County stripe spacing
San Diego County warning sign
Fuel prices change all the time, but the prices in California are generally about a dollar higher than in neighboring states. For a similar reason, there are more electric vehicle charger parking spots and the occasional hydrogen fueling station. Drivers aren't allowed to use self-service fuel pumps in Oregon, but they can in California.
Higher fuel prices
Electric vehicle chargers
Hydrogen fueling stations
State highways have regularly spaced call boxes and flat white markers with the state route number on top and a three-letter combination for the county just below. You can also find this info on signs posted on either side of bridges. A list of county abbreviations can be found here.
Call box
State highway marker
Bridge sign
California makes several deviations from the national standard for highway and interstate signage. Exit numbers are listed in the top corner of green signs, but they are inside the larger rectangle rather than extending above it. Near the exit, a square-ish green sign lists "exit", the exit number, and an arrow on three separate lines. Exit features appear as blue or brown squares, and food stops appear as a generic plate and utensils instead of the standard list of companies. If a historic location can be accessed from that exit, there will be a brown sign with the historical marker symbol. Fastrak Tollroads and many of the blue square symbols- like the truck terminal access sign- are unique to California.
Exit number inside larger rectangle
Blue and brown square signs
Historical marker exit sign
California exit sign
Truck Terminal Access sign
Fastrak Tollroads
In California, crosswalks near schools are yellow, which is unique to the state. Trash cans marked "Green Waste" can be found throughout mid-California, from Sacramento to San Franciso. In the San Francisco bay area, highways mark transit stops with BART and some parking signs have a letter that corresponds to a certain region of the city. Street signs in Oakland have a white tree symbol.
Yellow crosswalk
Green Waste
BART (Bay Are Regional Transit)
Parking sign "E" zone
Oakland tree symbol
Like several states on the east coast, California deviates from the national green-white standard for street signs fairly often. The most common deviations are white letters on a brown background and- especially in the south- white letters on a blue background. Several California counties use a hollow, trapezoidal shape for street signs.
White-on-Brown in Berkeley
White-on-Blue in El Cerrito
White-on-Black in Albany
Trapezoid sign in San Bernardino County
Three yellow strips on power poles usually mean California, but they have also been spotted in Oregon, Utah, and Washington.
California stripes
Some of the bigger white markers with no writing and a black tip look similar to the white bollards found in Minnesota.
California
Epic thanks to Norton, who taught me nearly everything I know about California.
California County Grids by Norton.