Feds Say No More Funny Freeway Messages

Witty electronic signs that make you giggle as you drive by will start fading from freeways across the country under new federal regulations that went into effect on Thursday.

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration updated its guidelines for changeable signs in a more than 1,100 page manual that includes a recommendation against messages with “obscure or secondary meanings.”

That includes humor and pop-culture references, so no more “only witches fly high, drive sober” signs on your late-night drives.

California and the other states now have two years to roll out all of the changes and make their signs more serious.

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About the new rules

According to the agency, traffic safety messages need to be simple, direct, and brief.

So under the new regulations, that means they shouldn’t be unconventional or intended to be humorous. Some states have leaned into it more than others, like the Arizona Department of Transportation, which has held safety message contests for years.

One of the winning signs in 2019 said “drive like the person your dog thinks you are.”

The winning messages for ArizonaDOT's third annual safety message contest in 2019.

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Arizona Department of Transportation

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Arizona Department of Transportation blog

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The New Jersey Department of Transportation has also had quite a few funny signs.

Especially around the holidays, but these messages would get them on the agency’s naughty list now.

And the Virginia Department of Transportation has seen several of their signs go viral.

While these kinds of unique messages are a welcome change of pace for some drivers, the agency believes they can cause issues for others.

The new guidelines say these types of messages “might be misunderstood or understood only by a limited segment of road users and require greater time to process and understand.”

Federal officials essentially don’t want traffic messages to distract drivers instead of helping them, and states have until 2026 to fully implement the new rules.