A Traffic Manual ‘To Fall Asleep by’ Stirs Road Rage

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), an 862-page manual governing traffic signs and signals that one analyst calls “a good book to fall asleep by,” has ignited a pitched battle over how the federal government approaches transportation policy. Backers of the MUTCD have spent hundreds of hours offering feedback to the Federal Highway Administration, which issues the book. Pedestrian advocates, bicycle coalitions and advocates for multimodal transportation say the manual, first published in 1935, is a relic of an era when the automobile was king. The manual that was described as sleep-inducing by a person close to its production is now undergoing its first update since 2009, and much has changed since then.