No joke: Feds are banning humorous electronic messages on highways

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

[Diana in Wisconsin]

It’s no joke. Humorous and quirky messages on electronic signs will soon disappear from highways and freeways across the country.

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has given states two years to implement all the changes outlined in its new 1,100-page manual released last month, including rules that spells out how signs and other traffic control devices are regulated.

Administration officials said overhead electronic signs with obscure meanings, references to pop culture or those intended to be funny will be banned in 2026 because they can be misunderstood or distracting to drivers.

The agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said signs should be “simple, direct, brief, legible and clear” and only be used for important information such as warning drivers of crashes ahead, adverse weather conditions and traffic delays. Seatbelt reminders and warnings about the dangers of speeding or driving impaired are also allowed.

Among those that will be disappearing are messages such as “Use Yah Blinkah” in Massachusetts; “Visiting in-laws? Slow down, get there late,” from Ohio; “Don’t drive Star Spangled Hammered,” from Pennsylvania; “Hocus pocus, drive with focus” from New Jersey; and “Hands on the wheel, not your meal” from Arizona.

Arizona has more than 300 electronic signs above its highways. For the last seven years, the state Department of Transportation has held a contest to find the funniest and most creative messages.

Anyone could submit ideas, drawing more than 3,700 entries last year. The winners were “Seatbelts always pass a vibe check” and “I’m just a sign asking drivers to use turn signals.”

“The humor part of it, we kind of like,” said state Rep. David Cook, a Republican from Globe, told Phoenix TV station CBS 5. “I think in Arizona the majority of us do, if not all of us."

[Smittie]

Never thought I’d see so many people actually supporting this Federal nanny state mandate on this site...

[TBP]

People who ar ehumorless annot allow humor from others.

[TBP]

People who are humorless cannot allow humor from others.

[cgbg]

The Leftists are the new Puritans.

They live in dread that someone somewhere may be happy.

[Flaming Conservative]

I suspect the funniest (or naughtiest) automatic signs have been hacked, for to paraphrase Tommy Lee Jones MIB character, “We at the Federal Highway Department do not have a sense of humor, that we are aware of”.

[discostu]

No, it boils down to you don’t know what you’re talking about, and make up for your ignorance with bluster and insults. You’re an idiot.

[JimSp]

Oh, you gonna stoop to name calling now huh? LOL.

Fact: You support federal control over states when you agree with their position.
Fact: You find “logical” ways to justify supporting this control.

See, you aren’t principled. You support the feds controlling the states based on your personal whims, not on principle.

That makes YOU the problem.

It’s OK. Just acknowledge that you value your whims over freedom. Just be honest with yourself. Especially acknowledge that YOU are the problem.

[discostu]

Nope. Just pointing out the facts. Anybody that doesn’t understand that a couple lines of change in an 1100 page manual are NOT new regulations is an idiot. You demonstrably don’t understand that, to the point of shouting at people and insulting them, therefore, you are an idiot.

[PeterPrinciple]

Believe me — you do NOT want Congress involved in legislating the details
\-————————————
Nor do I want a centralized committee writing up nonsense rules.

1,100 pages. Really

[PeterPrinciple]

Arizona has more than 300 electronic signs above its highways. For the last seven years, the state Department of Transportation has held a contest to find the funniest and most creative messages.

---

There goes the contest. Wonder what the prize was.

I’m ok with a little humor.

BUT I WAS REALLY OFFENDED AT THE COVID ONES. THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WIITH TRAFIC OR SAFETY.

[discostu]

Makes sense to me. There’s actually a lot that goes into the roads, and consistency is important. Did you ever notice that no matter where you are in the country driving the interstate the lanes are the same size, the stripes are the same color, width, length, and gap apart, and you can actually see them in the rain? The signs for various things are the same size, color, and font? Overpasses are never too short for a standard semi to pass under? Off ramps are never to tightly curved for safe exit at legal speed, and give you enough space to get to 0 before the stop sign? This doesn’t happen on accident, there’s a million and 1 little specifications, and if you don’t spell them out some idiot somewhere is going to cut a corner. Notice up there I mentioned seeing the lane markings in the rain, you can’t do that in Tucson. Many moons ago the idiots in charge of Tucson roads took some payola and settled on the paint to use in our streets. And it’s the worst paint for roads ever. It fades to gray quickly, and become largely invisible with even a little water on it. Luckily if you drive THROUGH Tucson on I-10 you won’t have that problem because that manual you mock tells them what paint to use on the highways. It’s only off the federally funded highways we deal with that, because the manual doesn’t apply there.

So yes, 1100 pages.

[linMcHlp]

“1,100-page manual”

bkmk reading requirement known as “Terms of Service”

[PeterPrinciple]

So you quote to me a lot of situations where no one follows the 1,100 pages of rules and regulations. And your solution is MORE rules.

The pharisees ruled with regulations adding more each time they encountered a problem. Until there were so many it killed the soul of the people.

I see every day where they followed the centralized rules but the centralized rules DID FIT THE PARTICULAR SITUATION.

We have to follow the same rules in Iowa for land fill that they do in Florida which has a different water table. does that make sense.

YOUR CENTRALIZED RULES (one size fits all) CREATE AS MANY PROBLEMS, IF NOT MORE PROBLEMS, THAN THEY SOLVE.

The old timers at the DOT and city inspection had some common sense. Now it is all rules whether it makes sense or not.

At least admit this one regarding humor is a non-sense rule. And there are many others in the 1,100 pages could be eliminated.

[discostu]

No. I didn’t. I quoted you a bunch of situations where the rules ARE followed. And it probably wasn’t more rules, it was tweaking the existing rules.

All your shouting is just showing that you don’t know WTF you’re talking about.

It isn’t a nonsense rule. They put too much crap on those signs. First time I ever saw one it was flashing a message to not drive distracted. And I thought “typical brilliant ADOT, let’s make a distracting sign telling people not to be distracted”. The only thing they should put on those signs is warnings of temporary problems. Storms, accidents, construction. The rest of the time they should be off.

[PeterPrinciple]

EARS TO HEAR.

READ MY CAPS. READ MY POST.

We used to have leadership. Not more rules.

[discostu]

I read your caps, I read your post. I learned that you’re stupid.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The usual Trolls. ;)

[Alberta's Child]

Nor do I want a centralized committee writing up nonsense rules.

Do you even know what the MUTCD is? How do you know they are "nonsense rules?"

Think of all the highway signs, signals, pavement markings and other roadside devices you encounter during the course of your travel over a week, a month or longer. The MUTCD is a set of standards for every one of them ... and its purpose is to standardize layouts, appearances and color schemes based on decades of meticulous research.

Most (if not all) states -- which have the legal authority to develop their own standards for roadways that aren't part of the National Highway System -- adopt the MUTCD standards as their STATE standards for highway signs.

Here's just one sample page from a prior edition of the MUTCD. Note that each of the individual signs and pavement markings in this schematic plan has its own set of standards for size, color and letter/number font.

[gopno1]

If they are going to use Missouri as an example, the LEAST they could do is use highways that actually intersect or even EXIST...LOL. (I’m just having fun, for the record. I live here and was looking at those signs thinking “uh, none of those highways intersect, and there is no state highway 36). :D

[Alberta's Child]

We don't need a centralized committee to develop stupid rules about highway signs. /sarcasm off/