Michigan scandal seen on ODOT traffic sign ahead of Ohio State game

The Ohio State Buckeyes aren’t the only ones taking pictures of the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday.

The Ohio Department of Transportation got its own dig. Electronic signs across Columbus freeways read “A signal you can’t steal: Your turn signal” Saturday morning, just hours before the “The Game”, one of college football’s oldest and most famous rivalries between Ohio State and Michigan.

The highway signs are another nod Michigan football sign-stealing scandalwhere the football program was accused last year to use personal scouts to record opponents’ sidelines and learn their game.

Didn’t the US Federal Highway Administration ban funny messages on electronic safety signs?

Well, sort of.

Last December, the US Federal Highway Administration released its updated 1,100-page manual, which contains rules governing signs and other traffic control devices.

The updated federal regulations recommended state Department of Transportation display messages with “obscure meaning, references to popular culture, intended to be humorous, or otherwise using non-standard syntax for a traffic control device.”

But a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation said Cincinnati Enquirer earlier this year that ODOT interpreted the new rules as requiring the agency to pay more attention so that everyone would understand the signs.

Officials also have two years to comply with the new rules, The Enquirer reported.

Who writes ODOT’s funny highway signs

A committee of officials from ODOT and the Ohio State Highway Patrol is writing the notices, with the primary goal of getting commuters to drive safely, The Enquirer reported.

“The bulletin board messages don’t really tell the driver anything new. We’re not breaking new ground here,” ODOT Press Secretary Matt Bruning said in January. “These are gentle reminders in a fun humorous way to do what we are supposed to do as drivers.”

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