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New York To Spend $27.5 Million Uncapitalizing Street Signs
250,000 street signs in New York City feature street names in capital letters only, which is not the national standard. Having no other issues on the table, The New York City Department of Transportation has decided to fix the problem and put up proper signs featuring both capital and lower-case letters at a cost of $27.5 million. The Transportation Department hopes to have the job completed by 2018 with 11,000 of the most important improperly capitaled signs fixed by the end of the year. Catastrophe averted.
...it's a CAPITAL idea!
Because with the economic woes, war in Afghanistan going poorly... we need to rush to uncapitalize the signs in New York. Or the terrorists win.
This is a great initiative to implement when facing massive, crippling budget deficits.
Certainly wont pull in anywhere close to the cost of replacements, but I imagine authentic street signs for particular streets would sell for a decent price.
Leave the signs as they are, and refund that money to the taxpayers.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
All that will do is cause the UNIX guys to froth at the mouth.
Capitals are the work of the devil!
And the worms ate into his brain.
It's not the New York State government doing this, it's the New York City government.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Does this have something to do with economic stimulus money that needs to be used or lost? I wouldn't be surprised with an idea this unusual and seemingly trivial...
and I know someone will have a very sophisticated argument for explaining why this is a good thing... I still think it's a waste now that it's done and things already work that way... why don't they give the $27 million in college financial aid or small business encouragement measure (yeah it encourages specifically paint industry, but that'snot the point)
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
lets replace the signs with leet speak. WALL st. will henceforth be named \/\/4LL 57!
Specks
Batteries not included
Don't you know, ALL CAPS is like yelling at someone! So they are working to make these signs more net-friendly. So when I tell you to go to 5TH STREET and BROADWAY, you won't have to ask me to quit yelling and I won't have to explain that I wasn't yelling and that is how the street names are actually spelled.
FTFA:
"The Federal Highway Administration said the new sign standards improve safety because they allow drivers to identify words more quickly, allowing them to swiftly bring their eyes back to the road."
Yeah, pointless government waste.
If it were the south I'd say they should just fix it when they repair signs with bullet holes in them. But since it's NY maybe they'll just replace them when they get urinated on.
There's a mention of the Federal Highway Administration being involved. It's probably a national rule, and I suspect the fed gov't may be able to refuse road funds for failure to comply to minimum safety standards. blah, blah, blah.
$27 million is nothing in the big picture of transportation funds. The 2010 MTA operating budget was $13.4 billion. You could add or remove $27 million from that, and it wouldn't be noticeable.
On the other hand, I'm sure they'd prefer to do other things than install 250,000 new street signs.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
It's not the New York State government doing this, it's the New York City government.
But it begs the question.. how much of the city's transportation budget is coming from the State and Federal government and how much of it is from locally generated taxes? I'd bet money that a large portion of that budget like most localities is funded off State & Federal taxes.
This is money well spent, at least on busier intersections, and exits from limited access highways.
Drivers can read / recognize mixed case from further distance than all caps.
It's not a great leap to conclude that with this change, drivers will make fewer last second swerves, or stop short less often. TFA alludes to this.
Safety increases ever so slightly, but for millions of people, and for many years.
Though if I were a NY tax payer I would prefer that they replace them through attrition. The fact that it will take until 2018 makes this seem to be partially the case.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
From the article:
The additional cost to the city, if any, will be "marginal" because it receives a steady stream of state funding for routine sign repairs and replacement, DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow said. The life of a typical sign is about a decade, so most of the city's signs would be replaced in the next few years anyway, Solomonow said.
They didn't follow federal regulations on road signage, but are fixing them now as part of regular maintenance.
30 characters are fine for a s
Because who cares if an ageing driver population can quickly scan signs and return their eyes to the road in an urban area, right?
I could have been set for life!
I guess $108 / sign isn't too horribly high since you are paying for gas, workers, equipment, etc. but damned if they didn't pick a horrible time to decide they needed to fix what really amounts to a non-problem.
There is a war going on for your mind.
The Wall Street signs alone, if auctioned, would probably pay for the whole project.
Theyd have to look up from their phones to notice.
If anything, capital letters are easier to read and fewer to learn (26 as opposed to 52). Foolish consistency should not cost $27 mil. Besides, where the hell did they come up with this budget. It translates to $100 per sign, seriously? All the while raising the subway fare every year...
This is classic governmental end of the year expendature. If they don't spend the money, then they don't get as much next year, It really bothers me when beaurocrats spend money frivolously like this just to keep their current budget the same. In my opinion, this is the kind of governmental overspending that needs to be eliminated (along with porkrolling congressional bills.) And here's a bigger question, WHY CAN'T THEY USE THAT MONEY TOWARD THE 9/11 MEMORIAL TOWERS?!
Hold on! That UPI article is deceptive, and does not tell the whole story. Check out the original article in the NY Daily News, which I found via MotherJones:
So the signs are going to be replaced on a schedule where they would be replaced anyway, almost all of the funding comes from the routine sign replacement budget, and the whole deal was arranged back in 2003.
This is a non-story that some political jerks want to blow up into unreasonable proportions.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
When driving in/around NYC, I always wondered why it felt like I was being yelled at. =P
$27.5 million because they claim your eyes will return to the road a split second faster, making the roads safer? Please provide some fact to back up that claim. How many accidents are officially recognized as being caused by the driver not being able to read a street sign fast enough?
Here is another idea:
You take the time to learn about city operations and then realize that accidents cost the city money and this will actually save money, and lives? It's an 8 year project.
Attrition may take decades in some areas. Do you want to pocket up the money for all the accidents that didn't need to happen?
This is a good sensible decision. But hey, you just keep snuggling up to you arrogance through ignorance.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Given that they've removed the teaching of English grammar in the public schools in NYC, this might actually be the only lesson New Yorkers get on proper capitalization.
We all know that ACs don't pay Federal Income taxes, so WTF to they care eh?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
number of accidents caused by street signs being in all capitals.
"You'll also notice that most of the funding is from the feds."
'the feds' don't fund, they spend. Taxpayers fund.
for a CAPSLOCK street.
With the MTA reducing service and jacking up fare prices, NYC has better places to spend transportation dollars too.
Yes, yes, it's a rule, so it must be done. Period.
That just points up the stupidity of the rules. Here's a novel idea: save $27 million by changing the rules.
$27 million is nothing ...
Alright then, carry on.
Oh, you're right, 100% of that money is coming from the State's fund for road sign replacement. NYC already has to replace 8000 signs a year due to wear and tear, or theft. They have elected to replace them with new signs, instead of identical signs. So while 100% of that is state money, 0% of it is new money. The Slashdot summary is actually another lie, like 99% of all Slashdot summaries. It's like if I decide "diet time" and so declare to my cat that next time we're out of frozen hamburger patties, I will buy the $10 box of extra lean patties, instead of the $9 box of medium patties. My decision cost me $1, not $10! In this instance, it doesn't even cost NYC more money for mixed-case signs, so their decision cost them $0, and Slashdot took $0 and turned it into millions, because outrage at government spending gives Slashbots a hard-on.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Considering it's slated to take 8 years, I'm guessing that's how they're going to do it.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Since people like FHWA and Penn State did experiments (omg with tax dollarz!!1!) and found it out that mixed type was easier and fonts like Clearview make a noticeable difference.
But let's be all Tea Party and trust a random 37 year old maintenance guy instead.
While I don't disagree that not changing working signs seems to be a waste of a LOT of money in a tight budget, but I guess my question would be, just how big is the NYC budget overall? In a budget where $25M is less than 1%, it would be easy to see how something could slide through like this.
Besides, the reality is that high-level budget makers aren't involved in how departments spend their money. If the Transportation took budget cuts and this was the only project they were doing in the coming fiscal year ...well, it seems to me that I'd question priorities of the folks leading Transportation, but not necessarily the money given to the department for projects.
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
FTA, signs last about a decade.
Please get rid of that ancient Pentium.
This is not the sig you're looking for.
where people write and approve troll articles to increase page views. Next up: "THE GUBMINT IS COMIN TO TAKE UR GUNS AWAY!!"
because outrage at government spending gives Slashbots a hard-on.
Great free alternative to the little blue pill
Oh, I'm not defending them. I'm sure with enough information, we'd see who was really benefiting from the change. It could be anyone, from the union finding a way to keep employees on the road (why did it take 6 hours to drive 3 blocks?), to the company supplying the paint and decals (specially reflective, for her pleasure).
There was a reference to the signs being easier for the driver to read, and therefore they didn't look away from the road as long while driving (so they have more time to send the twitter saying "I'm passing Wall St."), I really doubt it has much of anything to do with driver safety.
The stupidest part is, road signs, like everything else, have a finite life. They are stolen, damaged, or whatever. It's been a while since I spoke with any DOT folks about such matters, but as I recall, there's something like a 7 to 10 year lifespan, where they will change the signs regardless if they "need" it. I only found that out when I was at a local DOT shop, and asked about a pile of old street signs. So, in the cycle where they'd normally be changed, an extra $27M has been allocated to change them. Nah, there's no corruption in government, I swear. (where's my kickback?)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
$110.00 per sign seems a bit steep...
Including labor, shipping and handling?
$27.5 million for 250,000 signs. That's $110 a sign. If an average sign has about 9-11 letters that's about $10-12 a letter.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Well, if they are smart, they'll auction off the old signs as mementos with an official letter of authenticity.
Someone had to do it.
>>>NYC already has to replace 8000 signs a year due to wear and tear, or theft. They have elected to replace them with new signs, instead of identical signs.
Good.
I wonder if there isn't a way to make signs cheaper? $110 for a piece of metal plus paint seems very pricey. Especially if the sign is doomed to get stolen in 2-3 years anyway.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Yes, yes, it's a rule, so it must be done. Period.
That just points up the stupidity of the rules. Here's a novel idea: save $27 million by changing the rules.
Well, they actually do have to follow the rules, and while we could change the rules there seems to be pretty good reasoning behind the rules. Large, reflective, mixed case, with a good font signs are easier to read. This actually reduces the amount of attention that must be diverted by the driver to navigate and in the end reduces collisions caused by that distraction.
Of course, changing the rules arbitrarily could cost even more money, because then those people who are already in compliance would need to change to reflect the new rules.
And even more importantly, $27 million dollars sounds like it's the regular budget (or very close to) that the city spends on replacing signs anyway, and this is $27 million over 8 years so it's more than $3.5 million a year to replace signs.
Now that still does sound a little expensive for sign replacement. However, at ~35,000 signs a year, that's $1000 a sign to replace each sign including the cost of the sign. At this point, I don't know how that compares to replacement costs in other cities, and I'm not interested enough in being judgemental to bother trying to look that up.
The summary is (not so) subtly biased by injecting the sardonic "Having no other issues on the table" which is missing from the original article, and I think both the reporter and their source did themselves a disservice by not identifying clearly how much the price differential is between the old signs and new signs, if there even is one. The article would have been better if the journalist had mentioned that the signs would have been replaced anyway.
Maybe it's time to change my signature to "For every problem there is a solution that is simple, obvious and wrong."
Fanatically anti-fanatical
I heard this on the radio yesterday, and I live in NYC. For those of you that think this is a lot of money, you obviously don't live in a large city, certainly not one as big as NYC. Usually, every project here runs into billions of dollars. Just patching the potholes is billions. When it snows in NYC, snow removal is billions. 27.5 million is chicken feed. That's what Wall Street Bankers spend on lunch. It's actually a hell of a deal when you consider how many street signs you're talking about. I think it comes down to less than $110 per. And you're paying a union crew for the replacement! So really, not a bad thing. Slashdot, like the NY Post, is sexing up the story to make it look like Govt Waste. But in reality, it's just infrastructure maintenance.
Now if they could just patch up the BQE. In Feb I really had a tire blow out after hitting a pothole. Tire replacement was $85. So, that's almost the price of one sign. So, I wonder what was the total cost of that pothole if even 1% of driving NY'ers hit that pothole?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Consider it a 27 million dollar stimulus package. Keeps road workers working, keeps sign-makers employed, and we don't have to resort to drastic and foolish measures like cutting unnecessary taxes.
They ARE replacing the signs as part of normal maintenance. There is no 'additional' money being spent. The total cost of the project may well be $27M, but it is the same $27M they would have spent replacing signs even if they didn't change the lettering.
$110 for metal plus paint plus installation. I'd guess the installation portion is non trivial in cost, much as it would seem trivial to do.
Anyway, if there are 240,000 signs, and they replace 8000 a year, it would seem that the average life of a sign would be 30 years, not 2-3.
Some of those signs (most in NYC?) are hanging out over the intersections. You'd have to pay me a pretty penny to install those. I wonder how much they would get back selling the old ones...
Oh I'm sorry, it's $110 a sign. I omitted the .5 part of the $27.5 million.
There is a war going on for your mind.
I personally think that NYC should go the route of Web 2.0. This would get them some virtual money (they would be theoretically billions richer) and all they have to do is make the signs all lower case and remove the last vowel of the word!
the all lower case shows a nonchalant attitude just like a web 2.0 company and the removal of the vowel is a quick and easy way to turn a word into a trademark
look at how nonchalant i am
nonchalnt
theres your newest social network
I thought New York was one of the states with a budget problem recently. Good job, paper pushers.
The signs are being replaced gradually as the old signs age out of service. The signs wold have needed replacing anyway so the money would have been spent one way or the other. When the time comes to replace a sign, they are replacing it with a mixed case sign instead of one in all caps.
I loved your proposed signature... so I stole it.
For every problem there is a solution that is simple, obvious and wrong.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that making NYNY's unique aesthetics look like everywhere else's just diminishes the uniqueness of NYNY?
It already let the rest of the world get ahead of it on the skyline thing.
Next they'll be letting cabs be any color and shape they want, and putting coffee in styrofoam...
NYC isn't just another hive. It's a theater, and it needs competent art-direction if it wants to continue to win awards.
All caps grabs your attention. It is why we still have STOP and SPEED LIMIT signs. You want driver's eyes to be drawn to them, because the information is important. Street names are not important, unless you are specifically looking for them. So for street name signs mixed case is better, because you can both read it easier when you are looking for a street, but you are not encouraged to look at them otherwise.
Why is it that whenever something is wrong in one area, clearly the solution is to not spend any money anywhere else until that problem is fixed?
The ______ Agenda
I fail to see how changing the rules so that signs can be in all capital letters OR NOT increases the costs for anyone at all. Signs that are currently in compliance could still be in compliance, as could some signs that are not, but are perfectly functional.
When, exactly, did the purpose of regulation become ensuring that everywhere and everyone is exactly the same? That just doesn't seem like a good reason to make rules.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
Based on my last bone-jarring vehicular excursion to lower Manhattan, I'm guessing that budget is somewhere around $50, and that cost covers a daily bottle of Night Train to the homeless guy who apparently shovels roadkill carcasses into random potholes to "fill" them.
But then, I live in the Boston area - our road maintenance budget is even lower. The philosophy here seems to be "These roads were good enough for Paul Revere, by god. Why fix it, the frost heaves will just tear it up again?"
man I'd pay billions in tax payer dollars to get 'em fixed. what a deal!
Yep, and New Yorkers deserve every cent the feds decide to spend there. The more urban states pay more to the federal government than they get back in aid. The more rural states get more federal money back as aid than they pay out in taxes. Most of that's down to the corn lobby and other bullshit like that. When you (I know, don't assume, but you sound like a cunt anyway so I don't really care) flyover fucks actually start paying your fair share of taxes then you can bitch about how much gets collected and how it gets spent. Of course that'll never happen because the 2 house system is broken at a fundamental level (Firstly the concept (of the senate) is outdated and hearkens back to when the states were independent entities to a much greater extent and there wasn't that much difference between states population density wise and it made sense to keep the (geographically) larger states from being able to arbitrarily boss around the smaller states just because they happen to encompass more area, and hence more people. This shouldn't really matter any more since 90% of the important stuff happens federally now anyway so representation shouldn't really be allocated on the basis of states bossing each other around. It wouldn't be such an issue either but the HOR isn't really directly proportional to population so each citizen in say, Iowa, gets more representation that each person in say, California. This happens in the Electoral College (another anachronistic remnant of the 18th century we'd be much better off without). Basically, what it all adds up to is that small states get undue power in the government and rural interests suck up a bunch of federal money in the form of stupid pork, get to set a bunch of regressive, reactionary social policies and fuck over the cities at every turn and then bitch about it whenever the federal government happens to do something for urban parts of the country by mistake ).
Feds Say All-Caps Street Signs Cause Accidents -- And Tells NYC To Spend $28 Million To Replace Them http://www.businessinsider.com/feds-say-all-caps-street-signs-cause-accidents-and-tells-nyc-to-spend-28-million-to-replace-them-2010-9
I don't know what's more ridiculous, that it costs $110 to replace each sign or that it's actually going to take them 8 years to replace them all. Only in America.
According to this article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041219171930.htm the new signage typeface is apparently based on solid research which shows that drivers can read signs 20% faster.
The city replaces street the average signs just about NEVER.
You site no source for your 27 million being the normal sign replacement budget, but what ever the sign replacement budget is, it surely includes ALL signs, and is not broken down by street, vs, parking, vs traffic control.
They replace theft losses of about 8000 a year, and that seems unlikely to cost anywhere near your strawman figure of 27 million.
These 8000 theft replacements will continue over the 8 years of this project, for an additional 64000 signs.
So 250000 replacements, over 8 years is 31000 signs VS 8000 normally, or nearly four times the normal number of replacements.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
.00001% need to be replaced each year? Really? The average life of a street sign is 10 million years? Wow. Thanks for the info.
So, besides being a non-story, it's a totally non-story. {sigh} I really need to stop looking at idle.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Wall Street, where treason really happens!
I find the notion that non-capitalised street names are faster to process interesting, but where is the scientific evidence to back it up?
Did you consider searching for that? Or do you want us to do your work for you?
Why is it that whenever something is wrong in one area, clearly the solution is to not spend any money anywhere else until that problem is fixed?
Because THIS problem affects ME. Don't you know who I AM?!?!?
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They made this about budget by burying the key information in the last paragraph. The typical lifespan of a street sign is about 10 years. The replacement is happening roughly on schedule and would have taken place with or without changing the standards. They're spending a bit over $100 per sign (about $10/year each) including the labor costs of the swap-out.
The more accurate headline would be "New standard for New York Street Signs: city will update as the old signs wear out.".
The opposite. From afar, before everything is perfectly distinguishable, lower case is easier to read because part of how our brain processes words is by their overall shape. There was a study a couple years ago linked here demonstrating that people could quite easily read text where all the middle letters of a word in lower case were randomly mixed up, because word shape (i.e., length and the number of ascenders and descenders) was a significant part of recognizing words.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Here's an idea: You RTFA. That's exactly how they're doing it, as part of their normal replacement schedule and with money long ago allocated for normal replacement of street signs.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Well, it took about 3 minutes of searching, but the 2010 budget for 'Traffic Operations' is $69,143,348. 'Traffic Operations' is described as:
Coordinates are assists in all activities aimed at improving traffic flow and enforcing regulations that supplement or support those activities. These activities include monitoring traffic signal and street light contractors, maintaining traffic control devices (signs, lane, and crosswalk markings) and providing environmental impact services. Enforcement activities include maintenance, collection from, and installation of parking meters.
It doesn't seem at all unreasonable to think that ~3M of that (5%) is for replacement of street signs.
Replace all the other street signs in the US with all-caps. All-caps signage is slower to read, but they can be read without squinting.
Somehow I don't think the idea will go over well, though...
Yeah, I heard this was the Feds telling the state what to do, and my first thought was, "What authority does the Federal Govt. have where they can mandate to a state what its local street signs are supposed to look like? This isn't interstate commerce by a long shot...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Except that Street "name" signs are probably managed by the street department (maintenance) rather than Traffic (operations/enforcement), so I'm still betting you got the wrong budget. Nothing you list specifically talks to Street signs. Traffic control devices include stop/yield/speed signs. Not street names.
Signals, lighting, painting, parking meters would chew up that 69 million all by itself.
I would wager that any neighborhood street sign would have a life of 30 years. More in residential neighborhoods.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Yeah, I didn't cite a source for it. I just went off what this article (which someone else linked to below this comment in threaded view) says:
http://www.newschannel34.com/news/state/story/NYC-replacing-street-signs-to-meet-new-mandate/INaR6Gu2r0Cm-0FrjsyXLA.cspx
"In eight years, we would have normally replaced them as part of normal activity," he said. "All these signs would have definitely come down." -- Seth Solomonow, spokesman for the city's Department of Transportation.
Because you know if they would have replaced all of the signs anyway in the next 8 years then it sounds like the cost is probably a lot less than $27 million, thus my "strawman" claim that $27 million might actually be close to the budget that's already allocated for sign replacement. How crazy of me, to infer that there might already be money allocated to replace signs that are scheduled to be replaced anyway. Of course, Mr. Solomonow could be lying, but I don't see a good reason to believe that.
However, I do apologize for the error I made in my previous post, it's estimated to cost $110 per sign not $1000 as I previously wrote (typed one too many zeros).
Fanatically anti-fanatical
Why is it that whenever something is wrong in one area, clearly the solution is to not spend any money anywhere else until that problem is fixed?
Because THIS problem affects ME. Don't you know who I AM?!?!?
You are Barry Jacobson of course.
Nope, but the fed gives money back to states (and therefore cities). Federal funds pay for a lot of things. There are several interstates (and auxiliary interstate highways) there too.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Well that was a nice focused rant now wasn't it.
Point is, maybe like .00001% of street signs need replacing in any normal year.
Yet now they want to replace ALL 250,000 of them over 8 years, and that does not include the of 8000 replacements done for theft reasons EACH year. So it works out to something like 39 times the normal replacement rate.
Personally, it seems unlikely to me that there are ONLY 250,000 street signs in NYC.
Point is, maybe like .00001% of street signs need replacing in any normal year.
You imbecile (pls look up that word...). Are you suggesting that street signs only need replacing every million years? Please (1) switch brain on, (2) think.
You are Barry Jacobson of course.
Close, but you made a common mistake :P
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I'm guessing it's buried in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).
There are quite a few rules that highway departments have to follow. About the only flexibility is the design on State and local route number signs (County Highway/State Highway) and street signs -- but not how the information is displayed (i.e. font size and proportions).
I'm sure it is the reason you don't SeE StReeT SiGNs LikE THIs... Sure, all uppercase seemed definitive and authoritative and the style of the time. I remember Chicago having all capital lettered street signs, but with the advent of GPS and me knowing where I'm going, I don't remember the last time I looked at one.
For those interested the latest MUTCD is online.... http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/pdfs/2009/pdf_index.htm
Enjoy.
How about school lunches, school books, teachers' salaries, scholarships, poverty amelioration? I know 27 million bucks isn't a lot of money, but as the saying goes, "a million here, a million there, and soon you're talking real money". Illiterate kids going hungry in NYC, and the city is putting up new street signs? Gimme a break! How about investing in a future in which citizens are actually capable of READING the street signs? I don't give a damn which level of government the money is coming from, or what it was earmarked for in some dunderheaded budget. We need to get our priorities straight.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
With nine million people, reduced delays from that marginal increase in safety could easily be more than 27 million over 8 years.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Just insert a small "\L" after the first letter.
Some of those signs (most in NYC?) are hanging out over the intersections. You'd have to pay me a pretty penny to install those.
I wonder how much they would get back selling the old ones...
BUT WHO WANTS TO PAY FOR A STREET SIGN IN ALL UPPERCASE?
A cool person, because caps lock is cruise control for cool 8-)
Have you ever seen a Breastplate made from a stop sign? Stop by your nearest REN Fest our other SCA event and check it out!
Reminds me that the last time such a directive came down from DOT, New York City . Which was a bit of a shame. A minor issue in the grand scheme of things but just another sign of the marching blandicization of modern society.
Why are they noticing this only now?? I remember the days when each of the 5 boroughs had different background colors for their street signs (Brooklyn was Black, Queens was White, Bronx as Blue, Manhattan was Yellow, and Staten Island was Gold). I miss those days - made it very easy to figure out when you crossed the border between Brooklyn and Queens. Anyway, around 1981 they started replacing the unique colors with generic green and white signs, per federal requirements, supposedly. So if the feds say that signs must be mixed case, why the hell didn't they notice it then??
And by the way, I have seen a few images of the new street signs - they look terribly generic. The all-caps was one of the things that made NYC street signs so distinguished.
A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
Considering how high off the street those signs are, I'd say the ones being urinated on show a lot more marksmanship and accurate aim than the ones with bullet holes.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I loved your proposed signature... so I stole it.
That's alright, so did he (or she, it's not always easy to tell online).
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Apparently the city has decided that the signs are no longer AOL newbies.
lower case letters are smaller, and thus will require less paint....thus saving about 1/100 cent per sign.....yay for saving money! GO NYC!
www.RacquetUp.org - Helping Detroit Youth
because outrage at government spending gives Slashbots a hard-on.
Great free alternative to the little blue pill
Well, not free... It's all paid by the government, that is the people who pay taxes. There's no free blue pill.
What is free is gloating over government spending in other countries...
NYC also almost certainly pays in the most tax to the state so if you live in NY then NYC has probably been carrying your ass for awhile. NYC will also generate a huge chunk of federal tax. More so than most other cities / towns in the US. So should they sit there any complain when their money helps you out?