ODOT to promote road safety with cheerful holiday messages on over 130 highway signs

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - The Ohio Department of Transportation is trying to take away some of the stress from holiday travel with humorous messages on more than 130 highway signs throughout the state.

To promote safe driving this holiday season, the digital boards will highlight factors that tend to lead to serious crashes.

These are some of the comedic messages seen over the roads:

• “Santa needs the left lane tonight” - Drivers are reminded to stay in the right lane if driving slower because traveling in the left lane at a reduced speed is a common trigger for road rage.
• “Deck the halls, no phone calls, fa la la la la”
• “Drop the phone. We triple dog dare you”

The concept was introduced in 2015: Instead of the highway signs displaying travel times to certain locations, witty messages were shown on Ohio’s interstates heading into Christmas.

“While the subject is very serious, we have found that the public responds better to messages that are humorous or relate to pop-culture,” said Marchbanks.

As of Dec. 20, an estimated 260,357 crashes have been recorded in the state so far in 2019.

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