08-29-2009, 04:57 PM
I don't know about other states, but California currently has a specification for a stop sign, and if the sign does not meet the spec, it is not valid. My parents used to live in a housing development near Yosemite National Park called Yosemite Lakes Park. It is a private development with annual home owners association dues, etc.; but they have a county sheriff patrol the park. The association "saved" some money by purchasing stop signs that were identical to the standard stop sign except that they were about 2/3 the size of a regulation stop sign. The county sheriff gave a driver a ticket for running one of the stop signs, and the driver took a picture of the sign with a ruler next to it to show the size. He went to court and plead not guilty because the sign was not regulation and therefore not a legal stop sign, and won. The court advised the homeowner's association that California has specific specifications for every traffic sign and that signs that don't meet the regulation including size, color, and correct markings are not valid traffic control signs.