Holiday-themed safety messages on CDOT digital boards are cute, but can they be confusing and distracting to drivers?
Scott Harrison
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is entering its third year of de-emphasizing humor on its highway message boards intended to reinforce driver safety.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHA) updated its guidelines for messaging in January 2024, as more states began transmitting basic messages such as Get Insured or Get Fined, and Christmas themes such as Ho-Ho-Hold Down Your Speed.
The messaging trend raised questions about whether messages were overly focusing on humor or making drivers uncomfortable by, for example, displaying fatality statistics.
According to the FHA’s updated 1,100-page manual, which outlines the regulations for signs and other traffic control devices, all messages should be “simple, direct, brief, legible, and clear.”
However, that directive pertains to how messaging is normally used — to relay weather conditions, crash information, or even Amber Alerts — but allows leeway for traffic safety messaging.
A CDOT communications staffer, Sam Cole, creates messages and sends them monthly to the Joint Traffic Operations Center in Pueblo.
The messages are entered into a data system by technicians and appear on message boards in real time.
“Our goal is to engage the public, and you need to engage the public cleverly,” said Cole. “And sometimes humor is a good way to do that. But we don’t want people spending the rest of their days trying to figure out what that message meant.”
To that end, CDOT has eliminated the use of pop culture references and localisms in messages that would confuse drivers instead of helping them remember the importance of safe driving.
“One of my favorites is Camp in the Mountains, Not the Left Lane,” Cole revealed. “It’s because driving in the left lane without passing is a pet peeve for many drivers.”
Drivers who spoke with KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior expressed mixed opinions about the messaging trend.
“For speeding, I don’t know how many people are going to slow down because of a sign saying something cute,” said Valerie Ray, a visitor from Texas.
Pueblo resident Chris Riggs said, “It’s getting your attention, and it’s not getting your attention in a preachy way, and they’re not beating up on you. So, I think it’s a good thing.”