$27 million to turn PERRY AV into Perry Av
Posted on 10/01/2010 6:55:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Necessary or Ridiculous?
New York City is being forced to change every—yes, EVERY—street sign at the staggering cost of $27.5 million. Who is demanding this change, you ask? Federal regulators, of course.
The eight-year project will require that each street sign within New York City limits is changed from all capital letters (MADISON AV) to title case (Madison Av).
Nearly 250,000 street signs in New York City need to be replaced to comply with the new federal regulations, and with a price tag of $110 per sign, the total cost of the operation comes out to a mind-blowing $27.5 million.
At this point, you may be shaking your head or even crying out, “Why? Why? WHY?!?”
The Department of Transportation has a good reason, however—or so they think.
The new guidelines, established in 2003, aim to improve everyone’s safety. These guidelines mandate title-case signs to be implemented by 2018, because federal regulators believe they are easier to read. If drivers can read street signs more quickly, then they should be able to spend more time looking at the road (minus texting, eating, glancing at their companion, petting their dog, etc.).
“Safety is this department's top priority. These new and updated standards will help make our nation's roads and bridges safer for drivers, construction workers, and pedestrians alike,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Although everyone wants to be safe while driving or crossing the street, many New Yorkers are outraged at the administration’s plan to spend an enormous amount of money on upgrading seemingly functional street signs—especially when thousands of homeless and unemployed continue to line up New York City streets.
What do you think? Is changing street signs going to make New York City safer, or just a lot more broke?
It's long past time for Americans to take a flamethrower to our Government.
‘Shovel ready jobs....’
RE: ‘Shovel ready jobs....’
Didn’t you read? It’s to make everybody, including drivers SAFER /s
I'm no mathametician, but somehow the percentage of people actually needing and using a "more easily read sign" compared to people that don't need to know the signs and/or don't give a $h!t must be something like a billion to one ?
Lemme guess: there is a union labor sign-maker buried in this legislation somewhere.
Take them all down. Then everyone will walk or take the subway. My experience is that NYC is a very friendly walking city. (Except if there’s weather.)
How much carbon dioxide will be spewed into the environment to manufacture, pull down old and put up new signs? Is that counted as part of the “cost”?
Well, you gotta find something for all of those former census workers to do.
Just d@mn....
It;s ALL about MORE UNION JOBS!
Yes, trained monkeys could do that but unfortunately we have UNIONS for the job.
Great. THey can change their clothes, knock down a latte, and keep up with their friendson facebook and be soooo much safer with a smaller font on the street signs.
This doesn’t pass the sniff test.
$10 says there is a kickback in here somewhere.
Ya think?
RE: It’s ALL about MORE UNION JOBS!
I wonder how many other cities in the USA need this similar sort of make-over...
This is very similar to the classic — “let’s tell people to dig holes and fill them up” — make work program.
"What's your dirt doing in Boss Keane's ditch?"
It’s beyond outrageous. Perhaps next year, they’ll redo the signs in espanol.
News Story:
The sign change has delighted psychologists from the NY State University of Mental Health. Margorie Stumpky, professor of behavioral psychology, says the signs are an important phase in the collective recovery of urban consciousness. “The calmer street signs will make everyone feel like they are not being yelled at in all capital letters” which can be a distraction to those who are texting while they are navigating the city streets in their vehicle.
RE: The sign change has delighted psychologists from the NY State University of Mental Health. Margorie Stumpky, professor of behavioral psychology, says the signs are an important phase in the collective recovery of urban consciousness
I swear to you this kind of drivel is being taught to a lot of our college kids these days. And parents spend tens of thousands of dollars each year for these.
Typical liberal “too smart by half”.
In order for this to make sense, once has to believe that whatever incremental improvement in safety this change leads to (if any at all, but let’s accept *some* for the sake of argument), that immediate replacement of the signs (as opposed to putting the new ones in via the normal replacement schedule) is worth $27,000,000.
Or in other words, if one was going to spend $27 million on transportation safety, immediate replacement of all-caps signs would be the best use of that dough.
Permit me to doubt.
I thought they were changing them from English to Arabic and Spanish...
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