Again, apologies for the slow chronicles here, but I've been fascinated in recent days with the brouhaha over whether the BIG FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is foisting a new street signs policy on unsuspecting communities.
I'll share a few links, but the short version is that an apparently obscure law that is due to go into effect in January 2012 would require street signs to be replaced with new ones that have better reflecting capabilities in the dark and in the rain, and that would feature upper- and lower-case letters to make it easier for older Americans to read.
This reminds me of curb cuts to nowhere -- installing curb cuts in redesigned/reconfigured intersections were no good pedestrian would dare stroll -- in that the government thinks one size fits all. It might be prudent to replace old, decaying street signs with the newer supposedly snazzier models, but change for change's sake is imprudent in these tight economic times (except maybe for the sign makers; more on that later).
At any rate, among the many links on this brewing controversy (author's note: does "brewing controversy" need to be in quotes) are from CBS News,
Fox News, The Trucker, and The Reason magazine (Pic comes from Reason website, by the way)
By the way, one interesting tidbit that has come out of this is the fact that signmakers, not so surprising, are behind the push for the changes:
The American Traffic Safety Services Association -- which represents companies that make signs and the reflective material used on them -- lobbied hard for the new rules. And at least one key study used to justify the changes was funded by the 3M Corporation, one of the few companies that make the reflective material now required on street signs.
