EXCERPTS:
Posted: 12:53 AM, September 30, 2010
Federal copy editors are demanding the city change its 250,900 street signs from the all-caps style used for more than a century to ones that capitalize only the first letters.
Changing BROADWAY to Broadway will save lives, the Federal Highway Administration contends in its updated Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, citing improved readability.
At $110 per sign, it will also cost the state $27.6 million, city officials said.
Studies have shown that it is harder to read all-caps signs, and those extra milliseconds spent staring away from the road have been shown to increase the likelihood of accidents, particularly among older drivers, federal documents say.
The new regulations also require a change in font from the standard highway typeface to Clearview, which was specially developed for this purpose.
As a result, even numbered street signs will have to be replaced.
"Safety is this department's top priority," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last year, in support of the new guidelines. "These new and updated standards will help make our nation's roads and bridges safer for drivers, construction workers and pedestrians alike."
The Highway Administration acknowledged that New York and other states "opposed the change, and suggested that the use of all upper-case letters remain an option," noting that "while the mixed-case words might be easier to read, the amount of improvement in legibility did not justify the cost."
COMMENT:
There are two questions here. The most obvious question is whether the benefits of making the changes justify the cost of making those changes. The less obvious, but ultimately more important question, is who should make the decision about whether the benefits justify the cost? Should the decision be made by the local government, who will bear the cost of changing the signs? Or should it be made by the Federal Highway Administration, who can impose this requirement without having to bear any of its costs? How much incentive does a federal agency have to take into account the costs that their regulations will impose on others?
