New Signs Due On CITY STREETS Soon

[mickeyd]

Interesting reach that the feds have on local street signs. What happens if we do not change by 2015?

CAN YOU READ THIS?

There, is that better?

In a nod to the fading eyesight of the nation's growing number of aging Baby Boomers, the federal government is requiring communities around the USA to change street name signs from all capital letters to a combination of capital and lowercase letters. The government says that makes them easier to read.

Cash-starved localities also will have to dig deep for new, more reflective traffic signs to make them easier to see at night, especially by older drivers.

ALL CAPS? Not OK on road signs, federal government says - USATODAY.com

 

[powerplay]

The new Stop signs will be interesting.

The first comment under the article suggests that there is no mandatory date for the sign changes and they can be done as replacements are necessary.

Over the last few years in my area street signs have been replaced with decorative ones using grant money for the purpose of unifying and creating neighbor identity. At least the federal rule has a supposed real purpose although many may disagree with it.

 

[Westernskies]

The bureaucratic ingenuity and impunity of the Federal government to waste millions of taxpayer dollars never ceases to amaze me.

 

[ls99]

What horse's a$$ came up with that one?

 

[GregLee]

All caps signs are ugly. This is a good change. According to the article, "Communities will be allowed to change the street name signs as they wear out." So it seems that some of the complaints are misplaced. All that is required is that when a sign is replaced, it be replaced by something less ugly. Yea Feds!

 

[Martha]

snopes.com: Mixed Case Street Name Signs

Yup, the 2015 date does not apply to this change, upper/lower case signs are only required as signs are replaced in the ordinary course.

 

[Westernskies]

Over the last few years in my area street signs have been replaced with decorative ones using grant money for the purpose of unifying and creating neighbor identity.

Yea Feds!

At my summer cabin in the White Mountains of AZ the county is undertaking replacement of thousands of of perfectly functional (how did we ever find our way around or keep from running into one another every time we got in a car before ?) street signs with the "new and improved" signage; all because it was 1)mandated by the feds and 2) paid for with grant money aka "stimulus funding"- Apparently needlessly replacing street signs qualifies as as shovel-ready project. What a waste of money, especially since we also have to support the bloated self-serving bureaucracy that comes up with this stuff.

 

[ERD50]

Actually, I think it is basically a good idea. We shouldn't need the Feds to get involved, I would hope that people trained in these matters would just apply good common sense. Fire e'm and get people who engage their brain.

I've always noticed that in bad weather or fog, I might struggle to read a sign - and here is what I see:


EXIT
EAST

EXIT
WEST

EXIT
NORTH

EXIT
SOUTH

Think about it - EAST & WEST have the same number of letters, end in the same two letters, and have only one letter each that is unique from the other.

NORTH & SOUTH have the same number of letters, end in the same two letters, and have only two letters each that are unique from the other.

So, for the same amount of sign area, why not use a BIG OLD

EXIT
E

EXIT
W

EXIT
N

EXIT
S

Wouldn't that communicate better? I'd bet that you could flash those signs up and measure people's reaction times and easily determine that keeping the distinct letters predominate would improve people's response times, and reduce distractions and emergency maneuvers on the road. And save money painting useless, redundant letters.

I lived in a little subdivision that got 'cute' with road names. Every road in an area was named (for example) Washington Street, Washington Place, Washington Circle, Washington Way, Washington Boulevard, Washington Avenue, Washington Court, etc, etc ,etc. And of course, the WASHINGTON was in all caps, and the "Place", "Circle","Court" etc, was abbreviated and in small letters. You had to squint to try to differentiate one from the other.

What were they thinking? They weren't.

-ERD50

 

[W2R]

We still have cardboard, hand-scrawled street signs on many New Orleans city streets, thanks to 2005's Hurricane Katrina. These were mostly made by residents to help contractors find their homes during the first few years after the storm, but they remain because there is no money for better signs.

All I can say is "Good luck!" if they plan to enforce this.

 

[Westernskies]

We still have cardboard, hand-scrawled street signs on many New Orleans streets, thanks to 2005's Hurricane Katrina. These were mostly made by residents to help contractors find their homes during the first few years after the storm, but they remain because there is no money for better signs.

All I can say is "Good luck!" if they plan to enforce this.

W2R, that's too bad; those signs definitely need to be installed/replaced. The perfectly functional signs in my neighborhood do not... so, guess where the money went?

 

[Leonidas]

snopes.com: Mixed Case Street Name Signs

Yup, the 2015 date does not apply to this change, upper/lower case signs are only required as signs are replaced in the ordinary course.

You beat me to it.

Interesting how city officials, even public works directors, have fallen for the misinformation.

They've been using the mixed case lettering on signs hereabouts recently. The first couple of times I saw one of these it stood out as being different, but I couldn't figure out what the difference was at first. Thought it was a new font or something until I saw a new sign next to an old one and realized what was going on. They are somewhat easier to read.

 

[Htown Harry]

In general, the change is intended to meet these objectives:

• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Upgrade highway signing word messages to accommodate the needs of older drivers without increasing the capital letter height and the overall length and height of word messages and the signs themselves,[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Improve word pattern recognition by using mixed case words of the same size composed of lower case letters designed for highway sign applications,[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Improve the speed and accuracy of destination recognition and the legibility distance of word messages, and[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Control or minimize the halation of words displayed on high brightness retroreflective materials for drivers with reduced contrast sensitivity.[/FONT]

Word of the day: halation...

The first couple of times I saw one of these it stood out as being different, but I couldn't figure out what the difference was at first. Thought it was a new font or something until I saw a new sign next to an old one and realized what was going on. They are somewhat easier to read.

There's another, more subtle change that is underway in the guide sign business (the signs with white lettering on green background) - a change to the Clearview font.