Road signs hacked in NYC

Incident latest in spate of mischief nationwide

Electronic road signs in downtown New York City were broken into over the weekend and instead of telling drivers to go slowly next to a Houston Street construction site, they flashed prankster messages such as "New York is dying," according to a report from The New York Post.

The newspaper Tuesday reported that the electronic road signs -- called variable message signs in the industry because they can be easily programmed by local traffic authorities to show illuminated instructions for what to do in bad weather or around construction -- were tampered with in the lower Manhattan area over the weekend. According to the report, pranksters opened the backs of the signs and reprogrammed them using the control-box keypad.

The Post quoted Matthew Monahan, assistant commissioner for the state Department of Design and Construction, as saying the department planned to take steps to remove keypads and monitor the signs more frequently to prevent a recurrence.
The downtown New York City electronic road-sign hijackings are the latest in a spate of sign-tampering incidents throughout the country, reported by local press.

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Electronic road signs in downtown New York City were broken into over the weekend and instead of telling drivers to go slowly next to a Houston Street construction site, they flashed prankster messages such as "New York is dying," according to a report from The New York Post.

The newspaper Tuesday reported that the electronic road signs -- called variable message signs in the industry because they can be easily programmed by local traffic authorities to show illuminated instructions for what to do in bad weather or around construction -- were tampered with in the lower Manhattan area over the weekend. According to the report, pranksters opened the backs of the signs and reprogrammed them using the control-box keypad.

The Post quoted Matthew Monahan, assistant commissioner for the state Department of Design and Construction, as saying the department planned to take steps to remove keypads and monitor the signs more frequently to prevent a recurrence.
The downtown New York City electronic road-sign hijackings are the latest in a spate of sign-tampering incidents throughout the country, reported by local press.

Pranksters hit variable message signs used for traffic control in Collinsville, Ill., in February, changing them to read "Daily lane closures due to zombies." In the same period, Carmel, Ind., had road signs altered to read "Raptors ahead—Caution!" And Austin, Texas, road signs also were struck by pranksters, who altered them to read "Nazi zombie! Run!"

Some Web sites over the past year have published advice on how to tamper with variable road signs from different manufacturers, which may be helping fuel some of the sign-altering mania.

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