🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has sent a letter to officials in the town of Ames, Iowa, known for its rainbow-colored LGBTQ pride flag crosswalks, and requested they be painted over because they didn't comply with federal traffic control standards. The letter claims the crosswalks are hazards to public safety, according to CNN.
"Crosswalk art has a potential to compromise pedestrian and motorist safety by interfering with, detracting from, or obscuring official traffic control devices. The art can also encourage road users, especially bicycles and pedestrians, to directly participate in the design, loiter in the street, or give reason to not vacate the street in an expedient or predictable manner," the FHWA said in a letter sent to Ames City Manager Steve Schainker dated September 5.
"It also creates confusion for motorists, pedestrians, and other jurisdictions who may see these markings and install similar crosswalk treatments in their cities. Allowing a non-compliant pavement marking to remain in place presents a liability concern for the City of Ames in the event of a pedestrian/vehicle or vehicle/vehicle collision," the letter continued.
City Attorney Mark O. Lambert replied with a memo to Ames City Council and the town's mayor, John Haila, with an outline for action.
Since, he said, the FHWA has no jurisdiction over the street where the crosswalk is and it doesn't receive federal funding and is not part of a federal highway, then it's up to the state of Iowa to determine if the crosswalk follows federal control standards. And since the FHWA hadn't mentioned it would impose any penalties upon the city of Ames for refusing to comply with the order, it could, in Lambert's eyes, be seen as a request from the FHWA. As the letter did not require a response from the town in any form, Lambert suggested the officials of Ames choose to ignore it.
"With the system of federalism in the United States, the federal government does not have jurisdiction over everything," Lambert's letter said in part.
The matter was discussed in a meeting of the Ames City Council—where it was decided that the town would do nothing about the request.
"As I said in my memo, [The FHWA] couldn't explain to me how they had jurisdiction over city streets, they were unaware of any penalties, and said they were still research[ing] that," Lambert said at the meeting according to the Ames Tribune.
"Frankly, I think that according to the manual itself, there's a good argument we're not violating the manual, since there's no prohibition on colors."
The crosswalk's pride flag includes black and brown stripes in celebration of diversity. Other crosswalks include designs based upon the transgender and nonbinary gender pride flags as well. Ames added the flags to the downtown crosswalks as a signal that it's welcoming and accepting to people of all gender identities, sexualities and races.
