SIGN VANDALISM -- AN ESTIMATE OF THE NATIONAL COST

Some of the most noticeable vandalism is that which is inflicted on our transportation system signage. This vandalism is not only costly to remove or repair, but it can be dangerous for the users. The Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) and Iowa County Engineers Association initiated a grassroots effort to assess the national impact of sign vandalism. This paper presents one part of that effort, which was to estimate the annual national cost of repairing and replacing vandalized signs. The Iowa DOT entered into an agreement with the Center for Transportation Research and Education, a center of Iowa State University, to conduct a national survey on sign vandalism. The survey was used to provide the raw data needed to develop the estimate. The surveys were distributed to city, county, and state transportation agencies. The objective of the survey was to identify sign vandalism rates that could be used to estimate the annual national cost of sign vandalism. The correlation between attribute pairs was measured using the simple linear regression. The analysis showed that acceptable rates existed for the number of signs per lane mile, the percent of signs that are vandalized, and the average cost per sign replacement. The rates were then used with the total lane miles of roads nationally to estimate the annual national cost at $274 million per year.