After an abundance of complaints from municipalities across the U.S., the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) scrapped 46 deadlines mandated by federal traffic control regulations last fall. The DOT now allows communities to replace traffic signs when they are worn out rather than requiring signs to be replaced by a specific deadline. The change in policy also comes after President Obama’s recent mandate to eliminate unnecessary regulations.

The DOT has released a FAQs page with more detailed information about the changes.

“A specific deadline for replacing street signs makes no sense and would have cost communities across America millions of dollars in unnecessary expenses,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “After speaking with local and state officials across the country, we are proposing to eliminate these burdensome regulations. It’s just plain common sense.”
The deadlines requiring that certain street name signs be replaced by 2018 to meet minimum retroreflectivity standards and requiring larger lettering on those street name signs are among the series of deadlines eliminated under the amendment proposed on August 29.

The policy change would also eliminate deadlines for increasing the size of various traffic signs, such as ‘Pass With Care’ and ‘One Way,’ as well as warning signs, such as ‘Low Clearance’ and ‘Advance Grade Crossing.’ Instead, communities will be able to replace and upgrade these signs when they reach the end of their useful life.