U.S. cities forced to spend millions changing street signs (because they are in capital letters)

Cash-strapped cities and towns across America are having to pay out millions of dollars on new signs under orders of the federal government - because they are the wrong letter size.

Washington officials have demanded that every single street sign in the nation which is currently in capitals must be replaced because they are supposedly too hard to read.

In their place will be new signs with the same green background and the same font, the only difference being that they are in lower-case letters.

For some cities the cost will be millions of dollars at a time when budgets are being cut and salaries frozen.

New directive: All street signs in capital letters will have to be replaced by 2012 with signs featuring upper- and lower-case letters

Costly enterprise: The sign change has been outlined in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, issued by the Federal Highway Administration

In Milwaukee alone the bill will reach nearly $2million - double the city's entire annual traffic budget.

The regulations are part of a web of red tape included in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, an 800-page tome issued by the Federal Highway Administration.

It orders that the signs must be replaced because lower-case words are supposedly much safer than capitals.

The rules state that by 2012 local authorities must 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.

By 2018, new signs with reflective letters will have to be put in place. Any signs that are introduced must, under no circumstances, be in capital letters.

Larger type: The lower-case signs feature letters that, at six inches tall, are two inches larger than the capitals signs. making them easier to read

In Dinwiddie County, Virginia, residents were furious that the bill would come to the equivalent of the $10 for every man, woman and child.

Harrison Moody, chairman of the Dinwiddie Board of Supervisors, said: ‘The money is better spent on education, or the sheriff's department or on public safety than something like that.'

Others in the town said the current street signs worked well enough. Resident Thomas Davis said: ‘There are a lot of people out there that are hungry. Why spend money on street signs when everybody can read a street sign or, if you don't know where you're going, get a GPS.’

In a statement the Federal Highway Administration said the signs are being changed to make them easier to read for an ageing population.

Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez said: ‘If you can't read it, you can't see it or you can't comprehend it, it could be a distraction to you. You could be in an accident, negative consequences could occur.’

He added that in response to the outcry the FHA would announce a period of public consultation over the cost of the new signs, with a view to possibly loosening the rules.