A sign of things to come

There must be state or federal dollars available to replace street signs, because I've noticed new signs in several area cities.

Compare the new San Gabriel signs with the new Rosemead signs:

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Afraid not.

This is one of those unfunded mandates. Per the Federal Highway Administration, all street signs have to meet certain letter-size and reflectivity standards (i.e., be fully retro-reflective). The idea is to make them fully visible at night, in rainfall, etc., to assist emergency personnel and general drivers so they can more easily know when and where to turn.

Our old color scheme has to go, because there are only four approved background colors: blue, green, brown and white. We went with white, because the other three are all in use by our neighbors, and we want to be distinct. The lettering was originally intended to be blue, but we recently changed that to maroon to be more consistent with city colors. (The monument signs have maroon lettering, and City facilities also use maroon, not to mention Rosemead High School.)

Also, you may notice that the new intersection signs are no longer lit; the retro-reflectivity makes that generally unnecessary, and will save a bundle on electricity costs. (Yeah, I know they're not as quite as easy to read as the lit ones, but I haven't seen one yet that I couldn't still read.)

We have until 2012 to start rollout - not complete it, thank God - and although there is potential grant money that we will be applying for, there is no government funding, per se.

You're spending us into

You're spending us into bankruptcy!

(just kidding. thanks for the explanation.)