NORTH HILLS : Tagging of Freeway Signs on the Rise

If you’re heading out of town this holiday weekend, the latest tagging trend might catch your eye: nicknames scrawled on overhead freeway signs.

Drivers on the northbound San Diego Freeway near the Devonshire Street, for example, last week couldn’t miss the way two large signs, one pointing the way to Sacramento and another guiding motorists to local exits, were nearly completely covered by tagger markings.

As taggers grow ever-more daring in their search for fleeting fame and virgin graffiti grounds, overhead freeway signs appear to be gaining in popularity.

“It is a growing problem,” acknowledged Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli. “Between June 30 of 1992 and July 1 of 1993, we spent $3 million in Los Angeles County alone to eradicate graffiti.

“I believe in 1986 we were spending about $100,000, so you can see where it has escalated, and it has been doing that for the last few years.” Caltrans spends the money removing graffiti not only from freeway signs, but also from sound walls, columns, median barriers and bridge railings, Tiritilli said.

The vandalizing of freeway signs, he said, is something that Caltrans finds particularly troubling.

“The signs are there to give directions to motorists,” she said. “People depend on them to get to their destinations.”

Because of that, Caltrans schedules sign cleanups as soon as they are made aware of a problem. Still, the graffiti can linger for days, as was the case with the San Diego Freeway sign.

“Sometimes we have to do lane closures, which further inconvenience motorists,” she said. “We can’t always do it as fast as we would like to, but we do give them priority.”

Transportation officials have been working with law enforcement agencies to bring more and more of the vandals to justice, Tiritilli said.

“When we get names we do go after them,” she said. “And if they are juveniles, their parents could end up paying the bill and we charge a minimum of $1,000.”