Street Signs; It's the Feds?

The comment below responds to last Friday's musing about new street sign design. The story in the link provided in the comment says just what the commenting person claims. This is pretty incredible. We would have to have here a good definition of government overreach. Further, the City of Albuquerque, led by a pragmatic conservative, Richard Berry, refuses to take a stand? We would have to have here a good definition of government overreach.

Comment: " City of Albuquerque is following federal regulations for new street signs. Here's a link from ABC news explaining what's going on. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/local-governments-told-buy-street-signs/story?id=12256322"

Here's the beginning of the story. "By JONATHAN KARL (@jonkarl)
Nov. 29, 2010
The federal government says THIS is harder to read than This.

Got that? ALL CAPS are bad. Mixed Case is Good.

It's just one reason the Federal Highway Administration is ordering all local governments -- from the tiniest towns to the largest cities -- to go out and buy new street signs that federal bureaucrats say are easier to read.

The rules are part of a tangle of regulations included in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

The 800-plus page book tells local governments they:

-- Should increase the size of the letters on street signs from the current 4 inches to 6 inches on all roads with speed limits over 25 miles per hour. The target date for this to be completed is January 2012.

-- Install signs with new reflective letters more visible at night by January 2018.

-- And whenever street name signs are changed for any reason, they can no longer be in ALL CAPS."

And much more.
The story notes that the new regulations were written under the Bush administration. They were issued under the Obama administration.