Federal Killjoys Tell States to Stop Putting Jokes in Highway Signage | Hacker News Reader

Federal Killjoys Tell States to Stop Putting Jokes in Highway Signage

jalopnik.com

41 pointsStratoscope26 comments

One time when I was about 10 years old (that would be the early-mid-80s), my mother was driving the car with me and my sister, and we were very close to home as we passed a roadside construction site.

My mother exclaimed and remarked on the modified sign they had erected there. It was your standard, orange warning color construction sign that typically read "MEN WORKING". However, the "M" and "N" had been cut out, and the "M" was turned upside down and replaced to the left of the "E", such that the sign now read "WE WORKING" and sure enough, there was a female construction worker with a blonde ponytail right there in the 3-person crew.

My mother, who is a die-hard second-wave feminist, thought this was the best thing since sliced bread, especially appreciating the rebellious streak that would lead someone to mutilate a standard road sign and make it "gender-neutral" in those days.

This is pretty cool. I’m glad humans care about other humans sometimes

I would have gone with “GNOME WINK” or “KING ME NOW”.

I'm fine with this. Almost all of the time they had no rhyme, alteration, or meter. If they were actually crafty half the time it'd be a different story.

Also if your message requires the sign to scroll it's too long ...

Some of the ones TXDoT uses are pretty cute. Funny in a ha ha sort of way, nothing groundbreaking in terms of humor but I think it’s more important that people look at these signs and realize that there are humans behind the faceless bureaucratic organizations like the DoT than getting whatever marginal benefit having a clearer, non witty message offers. So my subjective opinion is that this is a negative change

Now if the feds came back with real data that says “people die/get in accidents more when you use these witty but unclear signs”, I’d be a little more on their side. I couldn’t find any actual data referenced in the article though. Just a lot of feelings. One article does reference this:

> The National Academy of Sciences, however, measure the response of 120 people to look at a variety of road signs. The Academy concluded that straightforward road signs were the most effective.

Where is the citation for this, Jalopnik? I actually want to read this study, especially what they are calling “more effective”

Edit: I was able to find what I believe the study was and while it’s not perfect this is a surprisingly well researched problem: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/26656/chapter/4

I also wish private businesses would stop using the orange roadside signs to tell me how much money I can save by buying a trailer from them. They're distracting. It's normally important to read them because they normally contain important information on the road in front of you.

Wow; the deaths are rolling in and 2024 hasn't even started yet :(

RIP "Use yah blinkah"

Jokes are always confusing and could potentially lead to death. So how many people are we okay with dying so that we can tell jokes? Couple million seems reasonable.

Don't worry, in-your-face billboards are still fine.

(I think it requires a fair bit of mental gymnastics to come up with valid reasons to ban jokes on signs but permit advertising to drivers).

It's simply a legal thing isn't it? This is about gov-controlled signs. Billboards are private, so gov control over the contents of those would largely be illegal.

Yeah, you're probably right. On the other hand, billboards are regulated - there are limits on how big and distracting they're allowed to be at various levels. There's also precedent for federal regulation of highway advertising e.g: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Beautification_Act (I do recognise this is different from state controlled signage).

I still think it's a bit inconsistent to have zero tolerance for additional cognitive load from official signage while giving billboards a lot of latitude. Probably the most reasonable argument is that official signage should be held to the highest possible safety standard because in theory drivers have to pay attention to those messages.

But I don't think the government's actions are evidence-based. It's possible that non-serious, sports or holiday messages have a positive effect on driver safety, i.e, the negative effects of distraction are offset by increased driver vigilance when important safety messages are displayed. I don't think it's been properly studied.

Certainly a law that bans advertising billboards on highways would just do the trick? Or is this somehow seen as an infringement on free speech?

We have that law in Maine. It's wonderful. I don't see why it would be ok at the state level but not the federal.

Because that's not a power of the Federal government as enumerated in the Constitution.

I'm worried that these lethal jokes might fall into the wrong hands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qklvh5Cp_Bs

I wish they'd get rid of the signs altogether. They are distracting, ugly, and rarely helpful. American roads have way too many signs.

Signs, billboards, horizontal road curves, flashing lights are deliberately put on highways to lower monotony so that driver does not get sleepy. He is forcefully distracted every few kilometres.

When I become president I will mandate via executive order that all highway signage display a Taylor Swift reference.

For foreign travelers I can see how missing a reference can lead to a fine.

Shoot, "Fine + Points" could be taken to mean "Not only is it fine, we give you style points for it."

That’s a pretty good sign that we have too many bureaucrats if they have the time to care about this (pun intended)

I assume the biggest concern is people trying to take photos, which is a fairly dangerous operation if it's the driver.

Taking the statement at face value (and in my experience), the normal driving case is problem enough. Signs should do everything they can to provide a tidbit of information and then fade, or else they're taking you away from the focus you should have on driving.

That's why signs always look the same, use a standard font, and are extremely large. I assume the article is talking about interstate highways, and banning this dangerous childishness there seems like a great use of federal attention. Especially if this action detracts from building more highways.

If they try to stop states from naming snow plows I'll be pissed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com