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."

[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.