Busybody federal regulators tell the nation's signs to STOP SHOUTING!

In these troubled economic times when the States are barely getting by, the Federal Government continues to spew out costly new regulations created by unelected bureaucrats, accountable to no one.

In the latest example of the federal regulators abuse of their authority, the Federal Highway Administration has ordered the whole country to change their street signs to meet with their new reader friendly regulations.

Uncle Sam’s Costly Sign Language

The 2009 edition of the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways consists of 864 pages of detailed regulations covering everything from the color of pavement markings to the amount of space between letters on road signs. Among the regulations are requirements that street signs be produced in specific sizes depending on speed limits, converted from all uppercase to mixed case, and made more reflective at night. States and localities have until 2018 to comply with the new rules.

As one might expect, replacing almost every street sign in America is no small undertaking. The New York Post reports that its hometown will have to change 250,900 signs at a cost to the state of $27.6 million.

The Highway Administration claims that its new regulations will improve traffic safety, but then it says that about all its regulations. Furthermore, bureaucrats seldom consider the costs of their mandates; as they are fond of reminding us, you can’t put a price on safety — at least as long as someone else is paying for it. Thus, writes the Post, “the Highway Administration acknowledged that New York and other states ‘opposed the change, and suggested that the use of all upper-case letters remain an option,’ noting that ‘while the mixed-case words might be easier to read, the amount of improvement in legibility did not justify the cost’” — and then the feds went right ahead and issued the regulations anyway.

Taxpayers, already stuck between the rock of high taxes and the hard place of recession, will now be squeezed even more tightly to cater to the whims of bureaucrats whose very jobs, let alone their regulations, violate the document that called the federal government into existence.

Just the same, the reader may be soothed somewhat by the words of Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City Transportation Commissioner. In reference to the Highway Administration’s ruling that street signs may no longer be printed entirely in uppercase letters, she remarked to the Post, “On the Internet, writing in all caps means you are shouting. Our new signs can quiet down, as well.” There, now. Don’t you feel calmer already?

The New American

Just what the states need in these hard economic times; another unfunded mandate from Big Brother draining the states already empty coffers.

The street signs, especially those on federal thoroughfares and byways, have long been suspected of being more than just directional and informational sources.

TACMARS = tactical markers - the coded luminescent stickers on the back of federally placed road signs that have been shown to demarcate staging areas, helicopter landing zones, troop rally points, POL (Petroleum/Oil/Lubricant stations).

Construction of the Eisenhower Federal Highway system has been, by law, required to have one in every four miles able to manage the landing/takeoff of large troopcarrying aircraft.

There is ALWAYS more than meets the eye.

reply to post by MMPI2


It makes you wonder who will be making all of those street signs for every municipality and state across the nation. Is there one large company that makes these signs or are there several companies?

Knowing the way the corporate world is set up today, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that all street sigh makers in the country are all owned by the same company. It would make it pretty efficient for them to implement the latest tech onto the roadsigns by enacting this regulation.

Of course, if the street signs are foreign made (who would be surprised?), the implications of this law become even more sinister.

reply to post by MMPI2


Thats a very good point. And another good point is that there are many more tax dollars being paid for far worse things.

Remember when they mandated television For digital conversion? They had to keep extending the deadline because the nation couldnt afford the new digital tv's. When the price went down we finally converted.

I suppose the only way to fight this is to petition and hope enough people see this as a bad thing. I dont think that will happen though. We are to busy looking at cool c.g.i pics of aliens and u.f.o.'s

States really need to pull their um, nuts, out of Uncle Sam's Purse and really soon. The sooner a State realizes it would be 1000% better off not falling for the bribes of such acts as the Federal Highway Act, the better.

So far, under that act alone, states have been blackmailed to (regardless of how the People of that State wanted_: Demand seat belts, helmet laws (in most states - some have actually stood firm on this), speed limits, drinking age limits, etc, etc.

The use of bureaucratic regulators has become the way to sidestep the 10th Amendment. Maybe one day when the States have finally realized that they are no longer sovereign, they will actually do something.

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Its unfortunate; whenever the Federal Government can't stuff some over reaching law down our throats by a majority vote, they use unaccountable regulatory agencies or the courts to bypass the democratic process.

They say this is a country of laws but, if the government cannot even obey the simple laws contained within the Constitution, how is anybody supposed to have any respect for the laws they pass.