I don’t think anybody would care in the least if the signs were replaced by attrition, when they needed replacing. It’s the federal mandate that it be done NOW that irks people.
And for those of you who don’t know, long ago, each borough in NYC had a different colored street sign. There’s a very cool website that has the whole story. Here is the link to the page about the different colored signs:
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SIGNS/Color/color.html
You can see from the article that it was federal meddling that put an end to THOSE signs. (The very signs, with the very color scheme and the very lettering THEY demanded, that they are now ordering us to replace.)
Nevertheless, in recent years, the city had begun RE-replacing the signs, trying to bring back the colors. My own childhood neighborhood is an historic district and thus now sports brown signs with white lettering.
As for the current sign changes demanded by the Transportation Department, it is this kind of federal meddling that has people up in arms.
However, everybody might want to take a look at the poll posted on the Daily News website: Seems the NYers are FAVORING the change, “for safety.”
Regards,
Just because something can be optimum doesn’t mean it has to be optimum. We accept less than optimum all the time for reasons of cost, aesthetics, functionality or tradition. Autocratic governments with the idea that they have unlimited budgets tend to forget that.