The Incredible Shrinking Road Signage

Maybe you' ve noticed, maybe not, but New Jersey road signage is becoming warmer and fuzzier. What's intriguing is that no one in a position to discuss it seems to want to talk about it.

The straight-upper-case lettering that has been in place longer than most of us can even remember is gradually giving way to upper-and-lower-case formatting. And just to calm your fears that this might be someone's idea of a way to waste money in Trenton, it isn't. This is a nationwide project, and it's been crawling ahead yearly since President Barack Obama took office.

Let's look at the pluses: The new signs don't seem to be as strident as the old ones. (EVER READ A NOTE ALL IN UPPER CASE AND IT SEEMS LIKE THE WRITER IS YELLING?) The font (and I confess I don't know what it'd be called if it was in my laptop programming) is still sans serif, easy on the eyes.

On the other hand, the signs appear not so much to be giving directions as they appear to be giving suggestions. Upper-case is authoritative. You want to reach a town, go this way, simple as that.  The upper-lower combination seems to say that if you would like to take a certain road to your destination, by all means be the sign's guest. It leaves one wondering if there might be a better way that the sign's a little awkward about sharing. It's really kind of wishy-washy by comparison.

However, a meeker sign doesn't seem to be much of a help if you're pulled alongside one by a squad car that's flashing like a disco behind you. The driver of that car, you can be sure, is more authoritative than wishy-washy.

But what's the point, anyway? Well, that's where things get sticky. We asked folks at the New Jersey Department of Transportation about when the re-signing began, when it's expected to finish, what the cost estimates could be, whether it would affect taxes and whose idea it was in the first place. Since it's a federal program, they deferred to the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington.

At this moment, on top of someone's desk in Washington, there is an inbox that's lined with those little pink "while-you-were-out" reminders, all bearing the phone number of our newsroom. All we can determine, so far, is that either no one really knows how this is being done, or it's none of our business.

But it is our business, and yours too, because you can't actually ignore the signs if you're driving. We'll keep exploring the re-signing project, but so far we've...resigned...ourselves to a long wait.