DOT lacks a sense of humor
 

I just read this article (with pictures) about how the city of Oak Lawn, Illinois posted humorous signs to get drivers to stop at stop signs, but apparently the Illinois Department of Transportation wasn't laughing. Still good for a chuckle, if you ask me. :)

That's hilarious! DOT needs to grow a sense of humor.

I was expecting one to say "Hammer time!" :(

Unless you are wealthy enough and willing to make up for yanked federal funding, DOT does not need to get a sense of humor they need to comply with Federal regulations.

That's awesome!

Lessee...

STOP
"dragging my heart around"

"Simon Says"
STOP

STOP
"Hey! Whats that sound? Everybody look what's going down"

Ahh jeezuss...
Officialdom has spoken.

Buzzkiller!

On a similar note...2 weeks ago a dog escaped from my sister, a pert sitter. As a favor to her I drove around the area putting up fliers. I came across a DOT worker putting up a sign. Since it was right near where the dog got loose and he'd obviously be there a while, I decided to ask him to keep an eye out. I walked over and the conversation went something like this:

"Hi. I'm trying to find a lost dog. Can you help me out? I'd like to leave this flier with you; if you see the dog please call the number on the flier."

"You can't hang anything on a DOT sign."

(A little confused by that response)"I'm not asking to put a flier on your sign. I'm just asking you to keep an eye out for this dog and call the number on the flier if you see him."

"I can't hold the flier."

"I'm just going to lay it right here on the back of your truck next to your tools in case you see him."

"I don't work here, I work in Garner." (A town about half an hour away).

I gave up at this point and walked away without leaving the flier.

I told this story to my friend Dan the next day. He's president of the local bike/ped advisory committee to NCDOT. His response was, "Now imagine dealing with an entire department made of people like that."

edit: I just realized, it's like the old joke about the 3 biggest lies you'll ever hear. One is: "I'm from the government; I'm here to help you."

wow some people just have sticks up thier @sses

Why not save the money wasted onthese signs, and just write some stop sign tickets?

I see cities/states wasting so much money (these signs, speed bumps, traffic calming, etc) to dothe job that the police are supposed to be doing.

Prevention is more effective than enforcement.

---------

I think it's a great campaign. I also don't see the problem, the original stop sign isn't affected at all.

Cute and funny? Yes. But I don't like them.

Road signage and infrastructure should adhere to a certain continuity and system of design. If you clutter if up it becomes ineffective and confusing to those using it. The reason the I-5 freeway sign guy's sign stayed up? He followed the design criteria perfectly. (Google it) This looks silly and I wouldn't want it in my 'hood.

Call me a killjoy - but I don't think they're appropriate. Sell 'em on ebay and write some tickets.

I like the signs - but I've also dealt with federal bureaucracy, and I'd hate to be the DOT official responsible for losing 5M in funding because of the stop signs.

LOL :) How scary is it that I the first one I thought of was "collaborate and listen"?? :D

STOP
Look.
Listen.


STOP
or you'll go blind!

Only you can
STOP
Forest Fires

I like the idea that SOMEBODY had a sense of humor -- the problem is, people will actually start READING them, taking their eyes off their cell phones -- er, the road -- and run into others....

No. No. No. You can do a billboard campaign. Or flyers, or skywrite - but christ am I the only person who thinks that something as universally recognized as a stop sign should not be f'd with or changed on the whim of a class clown creative city planner?

Also lets talk language. Should everyone that drives speak and know perfect English? Yes - but they don't. Blame drivers ed for that. But that's the way it is.

When I drive in other countries I don't understand everything - but I get the point and understand what a fricken stop sign means. What is someone supposed to think when they see TWO stop sign symbols on top of each other - one with a word that's not even a word? (Stop in the Naaaame of love?) Are you kidding me?

For someone doing their best to understand and learn English it doesn't help. They shouldn't be required to know 80s song lyrics on top of general driving skills.

I love humor, satire, and fun - but keep a tight continuity on road signs. We have a nationwide and general worldwide standard. Let's keep it please.

The signs are funny but what I think is more funny is that there must be a traffic engineer (or perhaps a city manager) who signed off on the design of those signs. Where they screwed up, and screwed up big time, was in making the signs red and octagonal; if they had half a brain, they'd have made the signs white and rectangular and there wouldn't have been a problem. I see "You roll it. We write it." signs below stop signs every day, but those signs aren't red and they aren't octagonal.

Everybody wants to be a comedian but using public money to put up fake signs is perhaps not the best outlet for such desires. The clowns in Oak Lawn got caught with their pants down and I bet that story was suggested by somebody trying to cover their ass. And the headline writer went with it when the headline could just as easily have been, "Local Officials Waste Public Money On Conterfeit Stop Signs - You Paid for It."

It's a story of government incompetance alright but the story is not that IDOT doesn't have a sense of humor. The story is that some clowns in Oak Lawn can't do something as simple as putting up a sign without screwing it up.

Perhaps it's just urban legend but I've heard that Burma Shave signs did cause accidents. Distracted driving existed even before the cell phone age.



Ben met Anna






Made a hit






Neglected beard






Ben-Anna split






Burma Shave

I was going to come down on the side of those who think the signage shouldn't be messed with (in much the say way that I don't want the tower controller telling me "y'all go ahead now" rather than "cleared for takeoff"), but having looked at what they did, the stop sign itself is there and no one should have any trouble knowing what they should do. If the extra signs get people to do what the standard stop sign says, well, shrug.

Some pretty great people as well as the usual mix of fools and knaves work in Illinois state government, but they all have already strained themselves either laughing or cursing at the behavior of our governor and legislature.

Better then what they do here. DOT places "STOP" signs in such a position where a driver/rider cannot see around a sign or vegetation, requiring someone to move forward to see traffic. If you don't stop at the sign, you get ticketed for running a STOP sign. When you do stop correctly, you can't see, so you roll forward and stop again, which may still get you a ticket as the officer will say, "I didn't see you stop at the sign."