The feds need a sense of humor
As if to prove that government has no sense of humor, a federal agency is telling states to stop the use of clever messages meant to encourage safe driving.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has proposed an addition to its Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, specifying that traffic safety messages should be clear and direct. Which presumably means less entertaining.
You may have seen the messages on electronic signs along interstates in Mississippi or elsewhere. They can be quite witty:
• “100 is the temperature, not the speed limit.”
• “Tailgating is for football, not highways.”
• “Four eyes in Mississippi; two eyes on the road.”
• “Your mom called. Are you buckled?”
• Zoom is for online meetings, not highway driving.”
• “Drive boozy and your ticket could be a doozy.”
• And perhaps the best one of all, “Work zones; we don’t speed through your office.”
The Mississippi Department of Transportation, noting the positive response in other states that used humor to promote traffic safety and attention to the road, started its program in 2018. A year later they invited the public to send in entries. About 900 people did, and MDOT got some good messages for its boards.
And then the grumpy ole feds had to step in.
The Magnolia Tribune website, quoting the Federal Register, reported: “The FHWA recommended that messages with obscure meaning, references to popular culture, that are intended to be humorous, or otherwise use nonstandard syntax for a traffic control device, not be displayed because they can be misunderstood or understood only by a limited segment of road users and, therefore, degrade the overall effectiveness of the sign as an official traffic control device.”
It’s true that every driver won’t understand every single one of the messages. But that doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to quit using them. How many people understand every single commercial that comes on TV?
The larger points are that the messages probably reminded a few drivers to moderate their behavior behind the wheel, and that everybody needs a chuckle now and then. Especially, it seems, federal highway officials.
MDOT executive director Brad White told the Magnolia Tribune that he believes his agency has done a good job of using humor in its messages without going overboard. He hopes the feds will allow the messages “in an effective but acceptable manner.”
States have two years to put in place the changes to the uniform traffic control manual, which presumably means coming up with messages that are less clever.
Maybe that will be enough time for the FHWA to come to its senses on this issue and set less fussy guidelines for the messages. Because if you think about it, MDOT really is right: Tailgating is for football games, not highways.
Jack Ryan
Enterprise-Journal
