Safety is our priority, but so is good government; Listening to the public helps to ensure both

This week, because we're listening to the concerns of state and local governments, the Department of Transportation took the unusual step of requesting additional public comment on regulations that deal with replacing street signs.

The regulations--initiated under the previous Administration--call for the replacement of some street signs.  While in better times this may have been appropriate, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense given the difficult economic conditions facing many cities and states across the country. 

Although there are safety advantages to many of these recommendations and requirements, we want to find a way to improve safety without piling costs onto the American people.  That’s why we’re taking a second look and requesting additional public comment to get feedback on the best path forward.

And thanks to a few erroneous news stories, many Americans don’t have a good understanding of what these recommendations entail. For example, most of these requirements allow existing street signs to remain in place until the end of their useful life. And rules about upper- and lower-case lettering are not required unless a sign was being replaced anyway. The idea is to help aging baby boomers read road signs more easily.

But the bottom line is this: We don’t want to burden communities during hard economic times.

Now, you’ve heard me say time and time again that safety is this Department’s top priority.  But I also believe in good government.  Listening to the public ensures that we achieve both.

Comments

[jL]

The URL of the linked text reading "requesting additional public comment" (first paragraph) is broken; please fix.

[Gary Duke]

Mr. LaHood,

The "replacement sign" project (as announced on national media yesterday) is a part of a plan to make signs most effective, and that is good.

But it enhances standardization and readability/visibility. That is not a priority in a recovering economy, and the price tag is too high. The current signs are usable. This new project should be phased in over several years. Please reconsider such a tremendous expense at this critical time.

Gary Duke

[Ann L. Drake]

ray lahood, you have to be one of the dumbest people on this planet!(notice i have no upper case letters i realize you would not be able to understand this commet.

with nothing right in our country at this time, what kind of man even thinks up these things to force states to spend millions & millions on signs?????

[Cullen Ferguson]

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Thanks so much for injecting some common sense into this issue of replacing all caps street signs! All the street signs in my home town of Charlotte, NC, so far as I know, are in capital letters. As a senior citizen (age 67,) I have NO PROBLEM reading them. In fact, I think Charlotte has one of the best street signage programs in the country.
Glad to hear that there was no federal plan to replace all ccaps street signs until they were deteriorated and in need of replacing.

[Zinnia Manley]

Thank You for considering our economy in the grand scheme of things. One of the things I see a lot of times are signs placed where they are difficult to see. Like in cities a speed limit sign might be obstructed by a street light. Or a stop sign might be obstructed by a bush or tree. It is always difficult to keep up with the millions of signs we all depend upon. Overall I think the signs in the USA are well maintained.

[Cal Switzer]

I read with interest your entire document on this matter. While I agree with the intent and probably the justification, I cannot agree that the Federal Government REQUIRE that State, County and City Governments comply. I would prefer that this and other such mandates become RECOMMENDATIONS to my local governments (free of any threats or program hold backs). I trust my local governments to act in my best interest and if not, I will certainly let my feelings be know at the polls. Please stay out of local affairs.

[Joan McCarthy]

Requiring the changing of street signs is another example of government running a muck. Spending money foolishly for something a bureaucrat finds pleasing needs to STOP. This should be up to the states to determine the need and how they wish to spend their taxpayers money. STOP - CEASE and DESIST. Enough already

[Cathy Beatty]

Dear Mr. Secretary,
Thank you so much for listening to us. While safety is certainly a priority so is a little common sense. I believe we need more common sense wisdom working in our government.

[Dave Duckworth]

That is a very costly idea and a stuid one at that. Why waste more of our money just to prove you can and where are you figuring on findind the money that the goverment does'st have NOW. Who is going to make these signs(USA,china, india, maybe iraq).

[Scott Chapman]

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Your interest in the safety of the motoring public, and frank comments regarding the new regulations are appreciated. In addition, the FWHA is to be commended for the quality of the research which they have overseen in the development of both the higher reflectivity standards, and the standards to improve legibility by requiring that new street name signs be made using a mix of upper/lower case letters.

Of frustration is the manner in which the standards have been reported. ABC is in clear need of a fact-checker. The public needs to be educated that traffic signs don't last forever, and are constantly being replaced as they age, are stolen, or become obsolete. Further, many of the street names signs in use today already comply with the higher reflectivity levels, and won't be replaced with upper/lower case fonts until they reach the end of their useful lives anyway.

Being able to read street names signs is an important contributing factor in roadway safety. Larger letters, mixed fonts, and higher levels of reflectivity ALL contribute to legibility. They provide more time for the motorist to read, and react in a safet manner. Every driver - young and old - benefit from these low-cost improvements. This is not wasteful spending - it's an improvement in existing requirements that will more effectively get the most from limited funds already allocated for traffic control devices.

Keep up the good work.

[Jonathan Nelson]

Many of the recent news articles and posts on this topic do not appear to fully understand the intent of the new standard for mixed-case signing in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). As correctly stated by Secretary LaHood, the standard states that all new street name signs should have upper and lower case lettering while all existing signs are to remain in place until they need to be replaced for some reason or another.

[Scott Assenmacher, P.E. .........this one is spell checked.. sorry]

Dear Mr. Secretary,

With the current funding woes of road agencies across the country, but more so in the State of Michigan, our legislators must take step back and provide a more realistic plan for meeting goals for safety, going green, beautification and other public interest items. As a local road agency, we are still working with a budget below that which was provided way back in 1997 and the expectations of the agency should be directly reflected by the funding provided. This is not the case. We continue to be squeezed by unfunded mandates by State and Federal government requirements. This results in less funds for the assets in which we were put here to maintain: road, bridge and culvert infrastructure. The unfunded mandate of sign retro reflectivity and street name sign requirements is an absolute perfect example of an unfunded mandate causing further financial burdon to local agencies.

Don't get us wrong (I say us as I feel I do speak for all road agencies across our ridiculously underfunded transportation budget State), we fully understand and appreciate the need to make our roadways more safe and useful for the motoring and non-motorized public. We would be happy to do all the innovative things to accommodate those needs... just PAY FOR IT and stop expecting the local agency to just 'fit it in' on their completely obsolete funding mechanism.

The requirements within the MUTCD are valid and should be encouraged AFTER basic routine and capital preventative maintenance techniques are accomplished on our deteriorating road, bridge and culvert infrastructure system. The manual needs to be changed to should or may. With these requirements in place, roads in Monroe County, Michigan will have state of the art, brightest, shiniest most readable and visible signs out there that read 'Bridge Out' and 'Road Closed.'

Scott Assenmacher, P.E.
County Highway Engineer
Monroe County Road Commission, Michigan