Federal Highway Administration
400 Seventh Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590

August 21, 2002
Refer to: HOTO-1

Mr. William G. MacMunn
361 Mulpus Road
Lunenburg, MA 01462

Dear Mr. MacMunn:

Thank you for your letters dated July 12 to Mr. Andrew Card, Chief of Staff for the White House, and July 19 to Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta requesting a lobbyist to promote your sign. Your letters have been forwarded to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for reply.

The FHWA and the Department of Transportation do not have or supply a list of lobbyists on any subject.

Changes to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) are considered based upon a demonstrated safety and operational effectiveness quantified through experimentation by a State or local highway agency. The process for change to the MUTCD is detailed in Section 1A.10 of the MUTCD and is available on the MUTCD website at http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov.

Mr. MacMunn, you have shared this proposed new 3D "Do Not Enter" sign with us through several means in previous correspondence. In summary, the Massachusetts Highway Department initiated a laboratory experimentation of the subject sign. Their December 1997 final report for this study showed that this sign did not perform better or even as good as the standard "Do Not Enter" and "One Way" signs that are prescribed in the MUTCD. Further, the FHWA does not have any statistically significant evaluation data to support adopting your sign as a national standard. We informed you of this in our previous correspondence with you and others. Our latest correspondence on this issue was with Representative John W. Olver January 5, 1999. You have not submitted any new data; therefore, the FHWA’s position has not changed.

For references purposes this has been entitled II-240 (E) Experimentation. If we can be of further assistance, please contact Mr. Fred Ranck, Safety Engineer in the Midwestern Resource Center at 708-366-0857.

Sincerely yours,

Shelley J. Row, P.E.
Director, Office of Transportation
Operations