No joke: Feds are banning humorous electronic messages on highways

Channel 3000 News/AP ^ | January 15, 2024 | AP Staff

[cableguymn]

It’s so cold in Minnesota The liberals have their hands in their own pockets

[HartleyMBaldwin]

A while ago I saw a sign outside a car repair place that said “Honk if you love peace and quiet”.

[pax_et_bonum]

Funny signs in Indian Hills, Colorado. :-)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6E1r_OBsTw0&pp=ygUTRnVubnkgc2lnbiBjb2xvcmFkbw%3D%3D

[Fiji Hill]

They always seemed idiotically distracting to me.

Shortly after Jerry Brown won his first term as California governor, electronic signs appeared over freeways nagging motorists about wearing seatbelts, driving under 55 mph, etc. As soon as Brown was replaced by Republican Governor George Deukmejian, the signs vanished.

[PeterPrinciple]

new 1,100-page manual released last month,

---

written by a committee of liberals.

not laws passed.

[glorgau]

Bureaucrats scared that somebody somewhere might be enjoying themselves...

[9YearLurker]

Those messages are even worse!

[moovova]

Hey Pete Buttplug...is that you?

[JimSp]

I note that you are in favor of more federal government regulations whenever the regulations agree with your ideas. noted. You ARE THE PROBLEM.

[Gaffer]

More idiocy from our useless Federal government. A matter of subjective interpretation that is legally undefinable, IMO.

But as they do with all of their agencies (education, health, transportation, environmental et al) they enforce that idiocy by threatening to withhold Federal funding.

The only true way to be freer from this abominable government is to not take their damned money in the first place.

[JimSp]

I note that you are in favor of more federal government regulations whenever the regulations agree with your ideas. noted. You ARE THE PROBLEM.

[PeterPrinciple]

What if they put something up that they think is serious but we think is laughable and humorous?

Then what?

[Kommodor]

I’m surprised that this morning here in DFW, the signs didn’t all say “Fire JERRY!” ...

(That said, I enjoy the occasional humor, guess we just can’t have nice things)

[Ciaphas Cain]

I was driving down I-40 outside of Raleigh one spring day a few years ago when I spotted a license plate that read “CAKE=LIE”

[discostu]

It’s not more regulations. They fund the highways. And when the states start getting stupid with the highways part of taking that funding is having to listen when the feds say “stop that”.

[Alberta's Child]

“Why are you trying to have the federal government come in and tell us what we can do in our own state? Prime example that the federal government is not focusing on what they need to be.”

If a state stops holding its hand out, begging the Federal government to spend billions of dollars on its highway infrastructure, then the state is free to ignore all of these regulations about road signs.

[Alberta's Child]

The publication referenced in this article is the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). I use it often in my line of work.

Believe me — you do NOT want Congress involved in legislating the details and technical specifications that go into something as seemingly mundane as highway signs and traffic signals.

[Delta 21]

Regulate this!!

[FlingWingFlyer]

I think when they have to try to find something to do, we’ve got too many Feddies.

[JimSp]

Still boils down to... You are readily justifying more government interference and control. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!

It’s OK. Just accept that you value regulation and control more than you value freedom. You value the Feds being heavy handed to the states more than you value state’s freedom.