A freeway register Taylorsville alongside I-215 on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
One in all many humorous freeway indicators that the Utah Division of Transportation used to show on the freeways of Utah. Utah Division of Transportation
“I pity the idiot who doesn’t buckle up.”
“Settle down, Hulk. Go away the fashion off the street.”
“Visiting in-laws? Decelerate. Get there late.”
You could have observed a scarcity of foolish indicators like these as you drive alongside I-15 in Utah.
Or perhaps you haven’t observed. The Utah Division of Transportation stopped displaying jokes on its digital indicators about 4 months in the past, however spokesperson John Gleason says he hasn’t heard anybody say something about it.
“I feel individuals simply bought so used to seeing them that it could be a case the place individuals don’t even discover that they’re not there anymore,” Gleason stated.
Members of the Division of Transportation had been utilizing humor to make their freeway indicators extra memorable for about seven years. They’ve thrown puns, popular culture references and allusions to imminent holidays into reminders to buckle up, deal with the street and drive sober.
“Pledge allegiance to driving targeted,” one signal stated in July. “Maintain Mother’s favourite secure. Buckle up,” one other stated round Mom’s Day.
One in all many humorous freeway indicators that the Utah Division of Transportation used to show on the freeways of Utah.
Utah Division of Transportation
“The intent was to create a dialog about secure driving behaviors and perhaps deliver a bit levity to a really critical topic,” Gleason stated. “And in order that’s why we thought that if we might get individuals speaking about it and fascinated about it, that that might create motion.”
In New Jersey, the Federal Freeway Administration didn’t discover efforts to boost security reminders humorous or efficient, per The Washington Publish. There the company noticed the observe as distracting and dangerous and requested freeway officers to cease.
Utah’s transportation division heard no such criticism. In truth, it obtained a slew of optimistic suggestions.
“However like something,” Gleason stated, “once you’ve achieved it for a protracted time frame, individuals can get used to it and it simply turns into one thing that folks aren’t specializing in as a lot anymore.”
That’s why the division determined to take a break from inventive street indicators and shift its focus to different strategies of selling secure driving. For instance, it not too long ago invested $2.5 million in safety towards wrong-way driving.
Mistaken-way driving has been a harmful downside on Utah roads, inflicting 127 crashes and 10 deaths final 12 months. At first of final 12 months, the Utah Freeway Patrol reported an 82% improve of wrong-way drivers.
This upsurge has led the Division of Transportation to begin putting in detection and warning methods in 20 totally different areas throughout the state.
“We’re at all times concerned about revolutionary methods which might be going to assist us attain our purpose of zero fatalities on our roads,” Gleason stated.