Federal Highway Administration debunks false NY Post story about street signs

[Newsjock]

Discussed in numerous threads on DU and elsewhere in the past week
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov

In response to technical inquiries regarding certain provisions of the MUTCD as they relate to both Street Name signs and the requirement to display destination and street names in mixed-case lettering, the following clarifications are provided:

There is no compliance date by which Street Name or other guide signs must be replaced for the sole purpose of changing a destination or street name composed of all upper-case letters to a combination of upper- and lower-case letters (2009 MUTCD Section 2A.13, Paragraph 11 and Section 2D.43, Paragraph 3).

The only compliance dates that apply specifically to Street Name signs were established by previous editions of the MUTCD and deal with minimum letter heights only, not letter style or case. These dates are summarized in Table I-2 of the Introduction to the 2009 MUTCD and as follows:

January 9, 2012 — Minimum 6-inch letter height for post-mounted Street Name signs (except on multi-lane streets with speed limits greater than 40 mph). (Established by the 2000 MUTCD, Section 2D.38.)

December 22, 2018 — Minimum 8-inch letter height for post-mounted Street Name signs on multi-lane streets with speed limits greater than 40 mph and 12-inch letter height for overhead-mounted Street Name signs. (Established by the 2003 MUTCD, Section 2D.38.)

Signs that were replaced prior to the adoption of the 2009 MUTCD to meet these requirements—but used all upper-case lettering—do not need to be replaced again for the purpose of meeting the 2009 MUTCD requirement for mixed-case lettering. However, new signs that are installed after the adoption of the 2009 MUTCD must meet the mixed-case display requirement. Therefore, if signs are now being replaced to meet the minimum letter height requirements established by prior editions of the MUTCD, for example, these signs must also meet the 2009 MUTCD requirement for the display of the street name using a combination of upper- and lower-case letters.