Roadside memorial policies in the United States

Abstract

Roadside memorials in memory of a fatality dot the landscape of the nation's highways. The appearance of memorials varies as much as the policies and practices states employ to manage them. The purpose of this research is to ascertain whether or not the states of the US have policies regarding roadside memorials and, if so, what the policies are. A postal questionnaire survey was sent to the director of the Department of Transportation in each of the 50 states of the US. Only the state of Alaska did not respond. Twenty-three states have policies regarding roadside memorials; some states' policies are more specific than others. Though sometimes controversial, roadside memorials typically do not bring complaints, yet most states remove the memorial if complaints occur. Overall, the nation's states are sensitive to the role roadside memorials play in expressing survivors' grief, balancing those needs with any safety hazards that memorials may pose.