Over the next few years, local and state governments will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to boost road signs’ visibility and readability.
But all that spending was not the states’ and cities’ choice: The requirements were imposed on them by the federal government, which assumes it knows better than local and state governments how to keep their drivers and pedestrians safe.
As it turns out, the new rules will cost New York City alone nearly $30 million. (The federal government is dictating the rules, but it is not providing money to implement them.)
Will the new street signs increase safety? Possibly.
But we can’t help but wonder what other ways New York might have spent $30 million that would have done more to enhance safety. The city might, for instance, have hired more traffic control officers or bought more snow plows. We’re not saying those measures necessarily are better ideas than improving street signs. But we struggle to understand how Washington knows better than local officials in a given city exactly how that city should spend its own tax dollars.
In nearby Dalton, Ga. — where the federal rules will impose perhaps $100,000 in costs — the head of the Public Works Department had some choice words for this government meddling. The director, Benny Dunn, is not opposed to greater driver safety. But, he told the Times Free Press, “It always leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you’re mandated by the feds to do something.”
That is especially true in Dalton, where the loss of textile jobs has been severe. Unemployment in Whitfield County, which includes Dalton, was a painfully high 11.7 percent in September. (By comparison, it was 7.8 percent in Hamilton County that month.) In short, Dalton — like many cities and states enduring the current economic crisis — is not flush with cash to spend on federal rules regarding street signs.
Unfortunately, Washington rarely considers the real-world cost to states and cities once it has decided it knows what’s best for them.