Federal legislation to replace all street signs under the premise that the all uppercase letters are too difficult to read and that a mix of lower and upper case letters are easier to read.
The argument is that people are able to recognize upper and lower case of certain fonts more quickly, more readily than all upper case letters.
What is not being disclosed nor being talked about is that the groups pushing the bill are the sign makers.
I suppose the Feds can push it through under threat of withholding our tax money for local projects. But it says a lot about how the Federal gov't has too much power and we need to do something about that.
Uh, Snopes, anyone ? Anyone?
Uh, Snopes, anyone ? Anyone?
Kent,
I figgered that the statements were a little over-simplified... A city near me (Roanoke, VA) has taken it upon themselves to replace/upgrade all of their street signs (at quite a cost I might add) to meet the new/future requirements. But most munis are taking a "as it comes" approach. My town is only making new streets get the signs, or signs that have fallen into disrepair or don't meet the reflectivity requirements... Which I think most communities are doing.
The news article I saw yesterday showed 3M's logo.
Uh, Snopes, anyone ? Anyone?
Still too much power from Washington. States should be able to pick their own standards.
http://www.kmbc.com/r/25951781/detail.html
Interesting comment by transportation Secretary Ray LaHood who said in a statement that it "makes no sense" to require local governments to spend money to replace "perfectly good traffic signs."
He promised to seek public comment on the regulation, the first step in a process that could lead to its repeal. LaHood doesn't have power to eliminate the regulation on his own.
But the real story should be that the legislation was lobbied by the sign manufactures.
What Some State Needs To Do Is Sue The Signmakers
for selling defective signs in the first place. Force a nationwide government recall.
It appears from testimony that the signmakers new all along that they were defective.
I suggest they start with 3M. Of course this only applies to prepainted signs or possibly to the fact they only sold capital stick on letters.
Paul in PA
Citation for that claim by 6th PM?
Sadly, the public perception of this issue is a failure of the media to fully explain the situation. Instead, a headline about "government waste", with little or no substantive follow up was the general thrust of print and TV stories that I saw relating to this issue.
In three simple paragraphs, "Snopes" explained exactly what the situation is. None of the newspapers or TV stations here in the NYC area took the time to fully explain the situation.
Unless the average citizen decided to take the time to look up the various federal mandates etc., they wouldn't have any clue as to what the real situation is.
And, sadly, this is only for a mundane simple issue such as street signage......:-S
Does This Include "STOP" Or "Stop" ?
"STop" is an imperative and should be shouted out in CAPS.
While it may be easier to discern upper and lower case letters, signs are to be readable at a distance, where "SIZE" matters more.
Paul in PA
