Humorous NJ Road Safety Messages Nixed By Feds

NEW JERSEY — Safe driving reminders on New Jersey's highways will lose their salty commentary after state officials were told to stop using humorous sayings on the state's message boards.

The messages, which started appearing on New Jersey's state roads in October, reminded drivers to not speed, stay off their phones and drive sober – layered in Jersey wit.

"Nice Car. Did it come with a turn signal?" one sign read. "We'll be blunt — Don't drive high," read another. Others included a warning to slow down, saying, "This ain't Thunder Road." And yet another told drivers to, "Get your head out of your apps."

They were among the first of what the New Jersey Department of Transportation anticipated would be a number of funny messages to drive the safety messages home, Stephen Schapiro, press manager for the NJDOT, said in October.

That changed this week when the Federal Highway Administration told the NJDOT to drop the humor, Schapiro told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Schapiro declined to comment on the matter in an email to Patch Friday, directing a reporter to the Federal Highway Administration. A telephone message to the federal agency was not returned Friday afternoon.

The state uses the variable message signs on highways to convey any number of messages, from closures due to crashes to warnings about unsafe conditions, along with Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts.

The signs "are vital components of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in communicating with motorists on the road," the state DOT website says.

Federal authorities in 2021 issued an interpretation of the regulations on the variable message signs that said "the use of witticisms, colloquialisms, and popular culture references that target or are comprehended only by a limited segment of the population," violating a federal regulation that requires "clear and simple" messages.

Messages that "rely on hidden meanings or targeted cultural knowledge to understand the message ... (or) do not use conventional syntax do not convey a clear, simple meaning to many road users," the interpretation reads.

The regulation interpretation also said language that used colloquialisms or informal speech "tends to diminish respect of a CMS as a traffic control device because of its unauthoritative tone ..."

It also raised the concern that people would have to think harder to understand the messages, making them a potential distraction.

Other states that use the signs, including Delaware and Pennsylvania, have used humorous messages as well. NJDOT Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti told the Inquirer that New Jersey's humorous signs were inspired by its two neighbors.

On Monday, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation confirmed the state is using "non-traditional" messages on its highway signs.

"PennDOT started this year using non-traditional, creative messages on changeable message signs as part of our scheduled safety messages throughout the year in addition to more traditional messages," said Jennifer Kuntch, deputy communications director for PennDOT. "PennDOT has not been told by the FHWA to stop using non-traditional messages on our CMS."

The Federal Highway Administration has not said whether it is telling other states to stop using the signs. A message to the Delaware Department of Transportation Friday was not answered.

Note: This article has been updated with comment from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

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