Federal Highway Administration May 14, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The MUTCD is incorporated in regulations, approved by the FHWA, and recognized as the national standard for traffic control devices used on all streets, highways, bikeways, and private roads open to public travel. The purpose of this final rule is to revise certain information relating to target compliance dates for traffic control devices. This final rule revises Table I-2 of the MUTCD by eliminating the compliance dates for 46 items (8 that had already expired and 38 that had future compliance dates) and extends and/or revises the dates for 4 items. The target compliance dates for 8 items that are deemed to be of critical safety importance will remain in effect. In addition, this final rule adds a new Option statement exempting existing historic street name signs within a locally identified historic district from the Standards and Guidance of Section 2D.43 regarding street sign color, letter size, and other design features, including retroreflectivity. Consistent with Executive Order 13563, and in particular its emphasis on burden-reduction and on retrospective analysis of existing rules, the changes adopted are intended to reduce the costs and impacts of compliance dates on State and local highway agencies and to streamline and simplify the information. The MUTCD, with these changes incorporated, is being designated as Revision 2 of the 2009 edition of the MUTCD.