Something's Different About WEST STREET SIGNS. Do You Know?

There are several ways to write this story but let's try this.

THE FEDERAL GOVERMENT SAYS THIS SENTENCE IS HARD TO READ. The federal government says this sentence is easy to read. Confused?

Until a few months ago, it hadn't been easy traveling on West Street. But with the work complete, surely you noticed the changes, starting with the two new traffic lights. But there is something else. Street signs that had been written in capital letters along West were replaced by signs with letters in upper and lower case. WEST has become West.

I know what you're thinking. The town votes no to a Prop 2 1/2 override in October and the first thing Reading officials do is go out and buy news signs for West Street. If you thought this was a case of wasteful spending you're not alone. I did too.

It's here that you need a quick lesson in American street sign history. Long ago every state had its own street sign design. Massachusetts had a style, California had a style, etc. The result was chaos on the roads when travelers went from one state to the next. Was that a stop sign? Does that mean go?

Enter the Federal Highway Administration and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The manual was created in 1935, the same year nylon was created by a DuPont scientist and Benny Goodman was making swing the thing. It brought all signs under one set of rules and a stop sign in Massachusetts was now the same as a stop sign in Utah. Over the years the regulations changed and cities/towns adapted. Which leads us to West Street.

Reading originally had white wooden signs which were difficult to see at night. But in 2005 the signs were deteriorating and the latest regulations required that signs have a reflective color. So those were replaced with the signs you now see. In addition to the absence of a reflective color, the letters were smaller, roughly 2.5 to 3 inches in height as opposed to the current 4 inches. And in 2005, signs with all capital letters were fine.

The regulations changed again after someone decided that THIS WAS HARD TO READ. But rather than force an expensive change on cities/towns, the government said the change could happen over time, or when streets were being repaired with federal dollars. Thus, the West Street changes.

It's a good thing towns aren't forced to change every sign all at once because they're not cheap. No one in Town Hall could answer the "how-many-beans-are-in-the-jar" question regarding our signs. There are roughly 445 streets in Reading but no one really knows how many signs there are. If Peter Reinhart, a civil engineer at Reading Town Hall for 29 years, didn't know, it's a good bet no one knows.

And where does one buy a sign? Target? Amazon? Reading gets its signs from VISI-Flash in West Bridgewater. Each sign costs about $100, which includes the mounting brackets. We're getting off easy too, because the old signs were better quality, with a ridge added top and bottom to strengthen the sign. The new signs along West Street don't have that element.

According to Reinhart, the old signs will eventually be replaced and all caps will be a thing of the past. Call it a sign of things to come.

Photo by Bob Holmes