Tag Archives: updates

Happy 11th Edition Adoption Deadline Day

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Hi. It’s been a while. Quite a while, in fact.

In December 2023, FHWA published the 11th Edition of the MUTCD. FHWA understood that states, especially ones that publish their own state MUTCD supplements or state-specific MUTCDs, would need time to update these documents to work with the 11th Edition. FHWA also changed what was allowable under “substantial compliance”, meaning many state-specific devices and practices would no longer be approved.

The deadline for states to adopt the national 11th Edition MUTCD as is, or adopt the 11th Edition as appended by a state MUTCD supplement, or adopt a state MUTCD incorprating 11th Edition content, was set as January 18, 2026.

Which is… today. Even though it’s a Sunday.

So now that the entire US is supposed be fully on board with the 11th Edition of the MUTCD with no excuses, I bet all you happy MOTS users are falling all over each other to visit this site and see it completely updated to the new edition, with all the new and revised signs and links to 11th Edition text, tables, and figures.

Wellll… I’m working on it. Really.

First, I’ll say that my primary professional priority the past few years has been to keep my consulting clients happy. This includes managing the day-to-day operations of NCUTCD, providing Open Roads SignCAD training to agencies for Bentley Systems, and as a subconsultant on Arizona’s adoption of the 11th Edition and revising the Arizona MUTCD Supplement. Keeping food on the family table is kind of a priority in my “retirement”. Plus volunteering for several worthwhile nonprofits in my remaining free time.

Has this prevented me from getting the MOTS website updated? Yes.

Do I plan to update the MOTS website to 11th Edition compliance? Yes.

I have been tracking the new signs added to the MUTCD and downloading the Standard Highway Signs layouts for those signs as they have been published. I will be creating the new signs as I find time amid my other tasks.

FHWA deciding not to publish a HTML version of the 11th Edition will make my job quite a bit more difficult in terms of providing MUTCD content links and references. Difficult, but not impossible. The plan is to take the master 11th Edition PDF and virtually rip it apart and reassemble it into Section-sized individual PDF files, including relevant tables and figures in each one. Given that the 11th Edition has 1,161 PDF pages and about 1,000 Sections in 85 Chapters in 9 Parts, that might take some added time.

After the signs and MUTCD content is ready, the plan is to revamp the website on a page-by-page basis, similar to how the site was brought forward from 2003 to 2009 MUTCD compliance. This might also take some time to roll out.

I’m still planning to include user-editable PDFs for a number of signs. However, PDF files with larger font sizes have problems rendering in some PDF readers. Also, the PDF plug-ins and readers in many web browsers don’t bring in embedded fonts well, so even though my editable PDFs have the sign alphabet fonts properly embedded, users may still see weird font substitutions. And unfortunately I don’t have any control over that.

So… in summary, even though it doesn’t look like much is going on at the moment, I am working to update the Manual of Traffic Signs website to full 11th Edition compliance, but I do ask all your patience as I catch up with FHWA and the states.

And thank you all for continuing to visit and use the best website on US traffic signs for almost 30 years. And I’m hoping to have the site completely updated by the MOTS’ 30th anniversary. 🙂

Great New Stuff!

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It’s been a few months since the Manual of Traffic Signs was updated. But a difficult autumn, the holiday season, NCUTCD, and TRB are now behind us, and work has resumed on the website.

I asked users whether work should be prioritized on route marker signs or on warning signs, and the responses were roughly evenly split. So, just to make things more challenging, I chose to update both (which explains some of the delay).

This evening, I uploaded new main pages for Marker Signs and Warning Signs, plus revised content for the M1 series of route marker shields and W1 series turn and curve signs.

Other Bonus Items:

I thank you all for your patience. The plan for now is to continue updating both the marker and warning sign sections one piece at a time (M2s and W2s, M3s & W3s, etc.) as I have the ability. We’ll get them both done in due time – hopefully before the rulemaking on the next edition of the MUTCD.

Enjoy the new stuff!

Appreciation

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Happy December!

As you might or might not have noticed, there has not been any noticeable progress on the Manual of Traffic Signs since the completion of the Regulatory Signs section a while ago. I assure you that things are happening behind the scenes, mainly in experimenting with some rather-challenging user-editable PDF files.

However, it would appear not everyone is content. I do have a person who e-mails me periodically expressing a seeming lack of satisfaction with progress on the website. Today’s e-mail was short and to the point:

“Better hurry before I lose patience.”

Last time I checked, this site is (and has been for over two decades) a free resource open to all. And at my last recollection I have no contracts with anyone demanding that product be delivered by a specific date. I also have many other demands on my time such as my family, maintaining a house, volunteer work, and other things that keep me remarkably busy from wake-up to crash-out. Plus preparing for upcoming meetings in DC in January. So I find it both amusing and irritating that someone I’ve never recall meeting and with whom I have no professional or personal relationship sees themselves as making such a confident demand/threat on my time and resources.

Rest assured progress will be seen – perhaps not immediately, but in good time. And I think nearly all of you will be happy with the results. Except maybe for this guy.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and all that from the Manual of Traffic Signs, and hope to have something up soon.