Chattanooga: Improving signs of the road

Chattanooga must replace thousands of traffic signs over the next 10 years to comply with new federal standards to improve road safety and assist an aging population.

The national mandate creates minimum standards for retroreflectivity, which “describes the ability of a surface to return light back to its source,” according to the Federal Highway Administration. New signs will send more light from headlights back to drivers, making the signs much easier to see, said Doug Hecox, spokesman for the administration.

“What we’re trying to do is improve the road for everybody, but certainly for older drivers,” Mr. Hecox said. “Most people (will) .... find that it’s easier to drive at night.”

This federal mandate affects signs on every public road in America and also thoroughfares on private property, such as malls and gated communities, Mr. Hecox said.

The new standard means signs have to be illuminated or have retroreflective sheeting, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

The cost of sign replacement here is not yet known.

But Ben Taylor, traffic operations engineer with the city, said the sign sheeting expenses — for a prism-based technology with better visibility — will be 75 percent higher than the typical engineer-grade material.

Mr. Taylor said the city already began using the better technology for regulatory markers — such as stop signs and one-way signs — about 10 years ago, before the minimum retroreflectivity standards became law. With the federal mandate, he said the city likely will switch out 95 percent of its black-on-yellow signs, all white-on-green street name signs and at least 50 percent of the black-on-white regulatory signs.

Sign retroreflectivity can be determined by doing visual tests at night and by using special equipment, he said.

Mr. Hecox said it is the responsibility of each state department of transportation to make sure local governments follow the new standards. Federal officials are entitled to withhold funding if mandates are not followed, he said.

Implementation is supposed to be “gradual” so localities can replace signs over time, he said.

“There was never any intent for states to have to drop everything and suddenly start tacking up brand-new signs overnight,” Mr. Hecox said.

Here are the deadlines related to meeting the federal standard, according to the Federal Highway Administration:

* January 2012: Government agencies must set up a management system to adhere to minimum standards for sign retroreflectivity.

* January 2015: Agencies must follow standards for warning, regulatory and “ground-mounted” guide signs.

* January 2018: Agencies must adhere to standards with “overhead guide” signs and street name signs.

Jennifer Flynn, spokeswoman for the local office of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, said the state agency will not be affected by the federal mandate because the state already is using better sheeting material.

“We have not used engineering-grade sheeting for a long time,” she said in an e-mail. “For many years we have used high intensity reflective sheeting, and now we are phasing in high intensity prismatic reflective sheeting on our signs.”

City Councilman Dan Page said he hopes the federal government gives cities flexibility in meeting the new standards.

The federal standard is an “unfunded mandate,” comparing it to the federal No Child Left Behind Act for K-12 educational standards, he said.

Mr. Hecox said the federal rule is “hardly unfunded,” noting the money the federal government gives to states for road projects.

“We’re providing federal aid to the tune of $40 billion a year,” he said.

Replacing signs with the new sheeting nationwide is estimated to cost states and localities less than $100 million a year, according to economic impact projections from the Federal Highway Administration.

As Mr. Taylor moves forward on a plan to assess and replace the city’s traffic signs, he said people often take signs for granted.

“All the time somebody wants a speed limit sign on their street, and we’ll go out there and there is one,” he said. “We’ll tell them it’s there, they just never noticed it.”