WASHINGTON — Set aside the funding issues. For many state and local public officials across the nation, a new set of federal requirements regarding road signs is just another example of Washington impinging upon the province of local government.

Across the country, public works officials are seeing red over traffic sign regulations aimed at making road signs more visible and legible to aging motorists. The guidelines cover such specifics as crosswalk timing and road sign reflectivity. The rules also include replacing all street-name signs that are in uppercase letters with signs that are in both uppercase and lowercase.

In Green Bay, local highway officials say they not only are willing to accept the new regulations, they already are implementing them.

Green Bay city traffic engineer Dave Hansen said the city stopped erecting uppercase street-name signs at least 10 years ago. Plans also are under way for complying with the federal government’s other new guidelines, Hansen said, adding that he did not think it would be overly troublesome or expensive.

“We’ve been ahead of the curve for quite some time,” he said.

The new regulations were established by the Federal Highway Administration during the George W. Bush administration and are contained in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

Although costly to implement, the new rules will make it easier and safer for a growing elderly population — and some not-so-elderly drivers — to find their way on highways and local roads, said Laurie Ropson, spokeswoman for the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Brown County in Green Bay.

“It is a needed service,” Ropson said. “Transportation is a huge issue for older persons.”

Elsewhere around the country, however, local public officials are balking that the requirements amount to an unfunded federal mandate at a time whencommunities are struggling just to provide basic services.

“For the federal government to tell us how large the letters should be on our street signs is ridiculous,”

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/LwTQR_r1t-4/New-road-sign-regulations-have-some-seeing-red