Controlling the Roadway: Signs, Markings, and Signals

Abstract

Prytherch examines the foundational Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which employs symbolic communication and physical engineering to shape the social space of the street. These federally enforced standards for uniform traffic control translate societal assumptions and legal principles into signage, retroreflective markings, and traffic signals, which in turn choreograph the way people move and interact on the street. Like standards of geometric design and quality of service, the details of the MUTCD reveal the complex mobility politics underlying traffic control, and how knowledge of these technical standards can provide a tool for reimagining the American street.