Rationale

At our December 2002 meeting in Miami Beach, we held an extensive discussion as to the future direction of the development of D 4956. There had been a number of attempts to consolidate sheeting types, the latest attempt (D04.38(02-02)) at such a revision resulted in six negatives. Some of the negatives expressed concern about the possible impact of such consolidation on performance. As a result, we decided to take a two-pronged approach to the problem: a long term effort to develop a research-based specification using driver relevant geometry leading to a new, separate standard, and a short term effort to address immediate needs in D 4956. Specifications for fluorescent colors were identified as the highest priority. At our June 2003 meeting in Denver, we discussed a proposed revision of D 4956-01a to meet the immediate needs of covering fluorescent sign sheeting materials. In addition, we received requests from producers to upgrade some of the Type specifications, and to add a new Type of prismatic sheeting with intermediate level performance. These proposed changes were balloted at the Subcommitee Level (D04.38 (03-04)) in October 2003. There were numerous negatives and comments, which were discussed at the Tampa meeting in December 2003, and at three subsequent Virtual Meetings. The Task Group recommends these revisions addressing the negatives and comments to meet the short term immediate needs in D 4956. Further revisions have been made in response to these negatives and comments. We are now requesting consideration by concurrent ballot. Recognizing that there are multiple proposed changes, we decided that we did not want to have the whole revision be held up due to objection to one part of it. We therefore agreed to break the ballot item up into multiple items, each one to be considered and voted on separately. We offer these ballot items for your consideration.