AASHTO Journal, 21 June 2013
The Federal Highway Administration announced this week in a notice in the Federal Register that the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices will not be split into two separate documents, as it had suggested earlier this year.
“Given the lack of support from the MUTCD user community, the FHWA will not proceed with splitting the MUTCD into two documents at this time,” according to the notice. “Instead, we will focus on options that would make the MUTCD easier to use. We believe that focusing on these types of options while continuing to explore ways to enhance and streamline the current MUTCD updating process will best serve the user community. The FHWA will use the valuable information offered in the responses to guide our approach to updating the MUTCD.”
In January, FHWA asked for public comment on a proposal to divide the MUTCD into two separate documents—one that would continue as the official document (and therefore require a rulemaking to change any part of it) and the other a supplemental document containing best practices that could be changed without going through a rulemaking process (see related AASHTO Journal story here). FHWA officials said they hoped this would streamline and simplify the document.
The public comments, however, showed an overwhelming desire to keep the MUTCD one single document, at least for the time being.
The Federal Register notice is available here.