There is a low buzz in the local news coverage that orders from Washington will require Milwaukee to spend money replacing most of its traffic signs to conform to new federal standards. Is this the latest power grab by Barack Hussein Obama's clandestine socialist administration?
No, it turns out this dates back to 1927, when Calvin Coolidge was president. It is the kind of thing that civil servants continue to do no matter who is president. There is a big thick manual called the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways that is published by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. It is about 864 pages long. The Table of Contents is 29 pages.
"The need for uniform standards was recognized long ago. The American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), now known as the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), published a manual for rural highways in 1927, and the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety (NCSHS) published a manual for urban streets in 1930. In the early years, the necessity for unification of the standards applicable to the different classes of road and street systems was obvious. To meet this need, a joint committee of AASHO and NCSHS developed and published the original edition of this Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) in 1935."
So, what is the authority for all this? "The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) is approved by the Federal Highway Administrator as the National Standard in accordance with Title 23 U.S. Code, Sections 109(d), 114(a), 217, 315, and 402(a), 23 CFR 655, and 49 CFR 1.48(b)(8), 1.48(b)(33), and 1.48(c)(2)."
Say what? The U.S. Code is where all the current law of the United States is sorted out by subject. Title 23 is all the federal law about Highways. (Title 18 is the criminal code, Title 21 is food and drug laws, etc.)
CFR is the "Code of Federal Regulations." Whenever congress leaves the details up to some agency, like the Federal Highway Administration, that agency writes regulations to fill in the details. Title 23 of the CFR contains regulations to fill in the details of Title 23 of the laws passed by congress.
But why is all this mandatory all over city streets in the City of Milwaukee? "The U.S. Secretary of Transportation, under authority granted by the Highway Safety Act of 1966, decreed that traffic control devices on all streets and highways open to public travel in accordance with 23 U.S.C. 109(d) and 402(a) in each State shall be in substantial conformance with the Standards issued or endorsed by the FHWA."
When did the Secretary of Transportation decide that? Well, the last manual was published in December 2009, so sometime before then. It appears that the Highway Safety Act of 1966 added a lot of authority, and there were amendments made by the "SAFETEA-LU Technical Corrections Act of 2008." That was back in the days when George W. Bush was president. It wasn't widely publicized or debated.
Each state is required by 23 U.S.C. Section 402 to "have a highway safety program approved by the Secretary, designed to reduce traffic accidents and deaths, injuries, and property damage resulting therefrom."
Standards required by 23 U.S.C. 109 are all about the Interstate highway system, which was built with a mix of federal and state funding, by state highway departments, working under federal guidelines. "The Secretary shall ensure that the plans and specifications for each proposed highway project under this chapter provide for a facility that will..." be safe, durable, and economical to maintain, while conforming to "the particular needs of each locality."
That still doesn't clarify why Milwaukee has to change all its street signs to meet federal standards. Tune in here for more exciting details - or rather, click here to see "your tax dollars at work."
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