Get Set for the Battle of Kancamagus, as Federal Road Sign Mandates Test America’s Character

The bureaucrats implementing the changes claim that advantages of the new numbers include more accurate emergency response and national uniformity. Some of the expenses are underwritten by the federal government, which under the Constitution has the power both to establish post roads and to regulate commerce among the states.

The transition costs, however, include more than the fees for painting and erecting the new signs. Businesses have to update their websites and in some cases replace billboards or printed brochures, sweatshirts or t-shirts that had the old exit numbers.

The highway departments and contractors have tried to work with the global positioning system and route-finding apps like Google Maps or Waze, but in my experience, there has a lag between the deployment of the new signs and the mobile apps updating their navigation cues to reflect the new numbers. In New York the other day, I was nearly cut off by a driver swerving across two lanes of traffic to get to an exit that had been newly renumbered by the state but not yet by Google.

National uniformity may be an obsession of traffic engineers. There conceivably could be areas such as, say, enforcement of the civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution as amended where such uniformity is desirable. Regional variations and local idiosyncrasies, though, are also part of American charm. So is respect for tradition.

via www.nysun.com

Back in my day, this is exactly the sort of change I would have hung up in a bureaucratic maze of rules. Eyup. You betcha.