Well, maybe it's a good start, however meager?
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that the $79 billion taxpayer-funded agency wants to end some traffic sign regulations. DOT said that state and local governments expect to save millions of dollars by the dropping of some – but not all – traffic sign regulations.
DOT in a proposed rulemaking will allow local governments to replace traffic signs when they are worn out rather than requiring signs to be replaced by a specific deadline. The proposed changes in traffic sign regulations will eliminate 46 deadlines mandated by the Federal Highway Administration, part of a federal bureaucracy that has run wild, according to critics.
Last January, President Obama in an attempt to co-opt the political leanings behind the growing Tea Party and conservative movements called for a government-wide review of federal regulations already on the books. The stated purpose was to identify rules that needed to be changed or removed because they were unnecessary, out-of-date, excessively burdensome or overly costly.
In the regulatory areas that AutoInformed covers, little reduction has resulted at DOT, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) thus far.
Some, admittedly radical, critics suggest that a complete review of all federal agencies be conducted; starting with the basic question should the agency exist at all? This version of zero based budgeting – or zero based agencies – would start all over again and in a sense go back to the (failed) Articles of Confederation of the American revolution, which were eventually replaced by the U.S. Constitution that invests the Federal government with broad powers.
“A specific deadline for replacing street signs makes no sense and would have cost communities across America millions of dollars in unnecessary expenses,” said Secretary LaHood. “After speaking with local and state officials across the country, we are proposing to eliminate these burdensome regulations. It’s just plain common sense.”
The regulations establishing deadlines for street and traffic sign replacement came from the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), a compilation of national standards for all pavement markings, street signs and traffic signals.
The FHWA, which has published the manual since 1971, and updates it to “address new safety technologies, traffic control tools, and traffic management techniques,” today issued a Notice of Proposed Amendments to eliminate 46 of the deadlines in the manual.
“Local and state transportation agencies are best-equipped to determine when they need to replace signs and other items in the course of their daily work,” said FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez. “We are proposing these changes to give them the flexibility they need to balance their many responsibilities and make the best use of taxpayer dollars.”
The deadlines requiring that certain street name signs be replaced by 2018 to meet minimum reflectivity standards and requiring larger lettering on those street name signs are among the series of deadlines eliminated under the amendment proposed.
The proposal would also eliminate deadlines for increasing the size of various traffic signs, such as ‘Pass With Care’ and ‘One Way,’ as well as warning signs, such as ‘Low Clearance’ and ‘Advance Grade Crossing.’ Instead, communities will be able to replace and upgrade these signs when they reach the end of their useful life.
However, DOT has retained twelve deadlines for sign upgrades that it says are critical to public safety. These include installing “ONE WAY” signs at intersections with divided highways or one-way streets and requiring STOP or YIELD signs to be added at all railroad crossings that don’t have train-activated automatic gates or flashing lights.
Last November, FHWA published a request for comments in the Federal Register on deadlines and received almost 600 comments from highway agencies, state departments of transportation, other organizations, and private citizens. FHWA took these comments into consideration as it developed the Notice of Proposed Amendments. FHWA is also soliciting public comments for this proposed rule for the next 60 days, and comments should be directed to http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/
