Obama Administration Backs Away from Costly Street Sign Regulations
- Posted on December 1, 2010 at 12:34am by
Meredith Jessup
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Just one day after President Barack Obama announced pay freeze for federal employees, his administration is again highlighting efforts to save American taxpayers money. The Department of Transportation is now working to distance the administration from an obscure new regulation that would require local governments to replace existing street signs with ones that use upper and lowercase letters instead of all capital letters.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Monday that it “makes no sense” to require local governments to spend money to replace “perfectly good traffic signs” — a rebuttal of new regulations which require all street signs to be changed to the new format by 2018. Instead, LaHood explained, the DOT will hold an additional 45-day public comment period on the regulation which began Tuesday.
“Given the difficult economic conditions states currently face, asking for additional input on compliance dates is the right thing to do,” LaHood wrote in a statement. “We want to be sure these safety requirements are reasonable, fair and cost-effective.”
LaHood does not have the power to repeal the new regulation on his own. Officials in cash-strapped cities across the country have complained that the new sign rules would cost their municipalities millions of dollars. In New York, city officials estimated replacing all 250,000 of the city’s street signs would cost $27.5 million.
In Nevada, the state’s Regional Transportation Commission estimated the new regs would cost the state an estimated $34 million over the next seven years.
The street sign regulation was proposed during the George W. Bush administration and went into effect in 2009 after President Barack Obama took office.
“There have got to be better ways to improve safety without piling costs onto the American people,” LaHood said. “Safety is our priority, but so is good government.”
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Jim in Houston
Posted on December 3, 2010 at 11:41amI don’t care if it was republicans or democRats that came up with this, it is beyond stupid! These bureaucrats need to keep the hell out of our lives.
Report Post »umpman
Posted on December 3, 2010 at 9:33amWhats the matter did 3M quite supporting Obama?
Report Post »Joe in Kalifornia
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 3:56pmThis is even more stupid then changing all the traffic signals to led’s that was done for no good reason right before our eyes. The government took perfectly good light bulbs and trashed them and installed expensive led lights all at prevailaing wage Davis Bacon rates. Our Great Great Great grandchildren will not live long enough to see the savings from this needless change. Additionally it was rare to see a non-working traffic signal yet it is common to see an led signal with some of the led’s not working. This was a payoff to unions and the chicoms and has nothing to do with saving energy or the earth.
Report Post »grayhaired vet
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 2:15pmWorrying about upper or lower case letters is totally beside the point. If you’re a good Obama voter, it all looks the same. If you can’t gradgiate from high school, the only thing you need to know is who you can bum bus fare from for your trip to the welfare office and what day to show up.
Report Post »grayhaired vet
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 2:08pmDamn, dosen’t it make your head spin when these guys actually do something that makes sense? I didn’t see that one coming.
Report Post »rbagala
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 1:55pmIt is a shame this issue was not handled at a time when our economy was not trashed by the present government. Street signs across the nation are worthless, especially during night time and are a hazard to drivers.
Report Post »We do indeed need signs that are large, clearly visible at a long distance, and visible to the driver without tree branches or other obstacles blocking the signs. I understand that just placing upgraded street signs also require a maintenance.
What I do not understand is why this issue has not been handled a long time ago, when pork barrel bills have easily passed legislation.
silverbackmrb
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 9:37amWhat a difference an election make, it warms my heart. I had no trouble reading all cap letters on street signs, but I did not do good in school either.
Report Post »charles1540
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 8:59amOnce again the President shows just how incompetent he is, the country is collapsing around us and this administration wants all the cities to spend money on new street sign. While they are laying off police and fire personnel. My God can we last two more years with these idiots running the country.
Report Post »Its Gonna Getcha
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 7:57pmHe’s playing dumb. This is not a mistake. Consider it.
Report Post »Jim in Houston
Posted on December 3, 2010 at 11:46amWatch the other hand. This, even though beyond stupid, has got to be a diversion to take our eyes off whatever is the real issue going down.
Report Post »mrwinter
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 8:50amISNt thiS MucH EasiER to ReaD?
Report Post »popeyebedford
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 8:35amIt will take 10 generations to clean up the mess Obama is making…I cannot for the life of me understand why he is still in power. Amazing.
Report Post »Its Gonna Getcha
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 7:56pmThat is what I scream every single day.
Report Post »Flannie
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 7:21amThere is no reason to mandate this kind of thing. There is no safety factor involved because of capital or non-capital numbers.
The Federal government has absolutely NO business trying to tell local governments how to do their street signs. They are wasting our tax dollars by taking the time to discuss this foolishness. Our local street signs are non of their business.
Report Post »Its Gonna Getcha
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 6:21am$34 Million? OK. Now divide by how many people are out of work, and see how many $65,000 salaries you’d get.
Report Post »Geetee52
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 2:21amIf there were a list of 500 things that local government needed to take care of…and somehow capitalizing the street signs made its way onto the list…it would come in dead last. Sometimes it looks like the Feds are just LOOKING for a way to spend and waste money. Obama & Co. can try to distance themselves all they want from absurdities like this, but his is the face of bureaucracy run amok and drunken with power. 2012 cannot come soon enough to vote the rest of these idiots out of office.
Report Post »Domandred
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 12:37amI’m confused how changing from all caps to caps/lower mixed signs “improve safety” in the first place.
Report Post »Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 12:35amIt was probably just a ruse to get the new signs in effect and then slip in some mandate in a future bill that demands the signs are written in 5 languages. English at the bottom of course!
Report Post »reckless
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 11:50pmIf people can’t read the signs as they are, they need to SPELL LOUDER!!!
Report Post »NEAF
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 10:10pmI want to run for congress. I am not a smart person, well its no a requirement for this government.
Report Post »SlimnRanger
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 10:20pmi am sure your just as smart or smarter than most that are in there now
Report Post »not funny
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 8:14pmTalk about a waste of money!! Washington VIPs have no sense when it comes to spending taxpayer money. They are so pampered that the value of a dollar has lost meaning to them.
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 8:02pmThis was so blatantly stupid that it was withdrawn.
Report Post »Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 7:13pmHey- That kinda makes Bush sound responsible. Nancy and Harry Obama along with obama himself wrote everything from 2007 on, Including the $5 Trillion dollar deficits!
Report Post »Moment of Clarity
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 4:44pmanother case of the fed gov’t interfering with local stuff … if the fed gov’t makes the requirement, the fed gov’t should pay for it, not force the local gov to pay for it …
Report Post »WAKEUPPEOPLE
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 12:24pmI want to know what the purpose of having street signs in upper and lower case letters is. I see nothing wrong with the way they are now, and there is no need to spend all this freaking money to change it all. Its a stupid proposal, I don’t care who initiated it. Supposedly it will “create jobs” – umm right. The government will claim it isn’t being done quickly enough and give those jobs to prisoners and illegals in some “legalized” work scam. The money that isn’t paid to legal workers will then be sidelined into some other program designed to keep people stuck in the system.
Report Post »Another reason to nag your senator to vote NO on the Dream Act!
Seriously, this administration uses such crap to divert attention from real issues. Let’s out this dumb @ss deal about street signs, and send Eric Holder on a tax-payer paid vacation for something that is a decade away, while we say nothing about people needing to feed their kids and pay their mortgage or find a job. Your government will take care of you…. UGHHHHHHHH. Let us take care of ourselves! If the government would stay out of our lives and stop being so invasive we could do it. We are losing freedoms daily. They are hiding it behind stuff like this.
EqualJustice
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 11:22amBUT dirty HARRY does not back down.. LAME DUCK to really queack this time around! STOP THIS NOW… GET ON THE PHONE people.. Dream Act vote eminent! CALL and tell these people to vote NO! We sent them to DC to CUT spending, not INCREASE socialist programs that will cost BILLIONS! DO TI NOW, or don’t complain later. http://michellemalkin.com/2010/11/18/dream-act-scorecard-the-gop-senate-fence-sitters/
Report Post »Flagwaver
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 11:12amWagging the dog in a way that Bush couldn’t even get away with.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on December 1, 2010 at 10:42am.so is good government… hahaha if Michele prosposed this there would be NO stopping it. What a farce as they will just divert that money to her school FOOD program, right?
Report Post »taskmaster78
Posted on December 2, 2010 at 9:49amCan someone please tell me what the safety issue is and the purpose of going to lower case letters, is there something I’m missing?
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