Department of Transportation: Highway safety is no laughing matter

[Batman]

I think this is straining at gnats to go after the message board jokes. But the "issued an 1100-page manual" framing makes it sound like this is a huge new bureaucracy emerging whole from the ether. This is the latest update to a publication that dates back to the Great Depression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_on_Uniform_Traffic_Control_Devices

I figured "the manual" was something that they probably updated periodically and this was the latest version.
Still, the electronic signs are a weird thing to go after in the name of safety. Especially since almost every state now runs contests for people to submit catchy slogans, which have been quite popular everywhere they've been and are an effective PSA ad campaign. I highly doubt someone driving along is losing concentration and wrecking over one of these signs any more than they are a static highway sign.

 

[dixiehack]

I agree with phasing out the ones with phonetic spelling of the local accent. That's a bit much for out of towners to process at highway speeds.

 

[I Should Coco]

Wake me up when they get around to banning tolls … which they never will.

My grandpa had a map issued in the 1950s by the then-new Illinois Tollway commission. It showed the under-construction routes of the Tri-State, East-West and Northwest tollways in Chicagoland, complete with location and costs of the toll booths.

At the bottom was some fine print stating that tolls would only be collected until the bonds sold to build the tollways were paid off. Well, it didn't happen in my grandpa's lifetime and I'm not expecting to see it happen in mine.

In the decades since that 1950s map came out, they have built a Taj Mahal headquarters building, made tollway commissioners' friends rich through construction contracts and continually raised tolls and found new ways to collect them.

I hope you rot in heck, Roger Claar.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Wake me up when they get around to banning tolls … which they never will.

My grandpa had a map issued in the 1950s by the then-new Illinois Tollway commission. It showed the under-construction routes of the Tri-State, East-West and Northwest tollways in Chicagoland, complete with location and costs of the toll booths.

At the bottom was some fine print stating that tolls would only be collected until the bonds sold to build the tollways were paid off. Well, it didn't happen in my grandpa's lifetime and I'm not expecting to see it happen in mine.

In the decades since that 1950s map came out, they have built a Taj Mahal headquarters building, made tollway commissioners' friends rich through construction contracts and continually raised tolls and found new ways to collect them.

I hope you rot in heck, Roger Claar.

A local columnist and talk radio host would rant about the same bond/toll issue with the Mass Turnpike. His complaints were the political connections of every person working there from the tolltakers and the head of the Pike.

I never figured out if the retiring of the tolls was true and how states got around it or Howie Carr was twisting things in his ranting.

 

[DanOregon]

I never understood how video billboards became OK - talk about distracting - casinos probably the worst offenders.. And lets be honest the big problem with the humorous messages is that they are probably written by someone who doesn't take into account the many different types of people with differing language skills who use US highways and may or may not understand/appreciate attempts at humor (particularly - and increasingly those driving big trucks).