New York City’s current street signs are here to stay, at least for now.
The Federal Highway Administration was requiring that all 250,000 New York City street signs be changed to the upper and lower case font called “Clearview.” The feds said drivers can identify the words more quickly with the upper and lower case mix, particularly at night.
A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said: “Federal standards already require replacing all street signs by 2018 with new, more reflective signs, and we will comply with the federal lettering requirement at the same time. Since the lifespan of a sign is about 10 years, most signs would be routinely replaced during that period anyway.”
However, the U.S. Transportation Secretary said those expensive changes are not necessary.
City officials had complained to the Transportation Department, saying the cost to replace perfectly good traffic signs would cost the City millions of dollars.
For some, it’s a matter of aesthetics. The 34th Street Business Improvement District used its own money to change the signs to upper and lower case years ago. To them, it was a question of size. To them, size matters.
The larger blue Midtown signs are much more expensive then the green ones the city will be replacing at a cost of $27 million.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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3 Responses
Why is the federal government telling anyone to do anything with street signs. If it is on a federal route, I can see it. But if it isn’t a route paid for by federal funds (such as the interstates) – that’s a state matter.
And given the both the Federal government and New York City are, for all purposes, insolvent, they really don’t have money to spend on anything that isn’t desperately needed.
If they felt the need to change the signs as they need to be replaced, thats nice but for gosh sakes THEY SHOULD BE LEGIBLE FROM A DISTANCE!
its simple the government loves to tell people how to live within thier meager means while imposing all kinds of requirements that make them spend money they dont have while at the same time increasing their own already exorbitant salaries and benefit packages because THEY never have enough- isnt it great to be an altruistic public servant