3M Sign Grant Program Helps Municipalities Meet Federal Transportation Mandate

New grant program will help municipalities save lives and dollars by improving
road sign visibility
ST. PAUL, Minn.--(Business Wire)--
3M Traffic Safety Systems is launching the 3M Sign Grant Program, a new program
designed to significantly reduce road sign replacement costs to local and state
governments to meet the latest federal retroreflectivity standards set by the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to improve traffic safety. The 3M Sign
Grant Program begins January 5, 2009 and will run through November 30, 2009.

Government agencies are able to apply for onetime grants to receive significant
cost savings to upgrade road signs to meet and exceed the FHWA Minimum Levels of
Retroreflectivity. Finalized in January 2008, the FHWA standards require state
and local agencies to assess their road signs and develop a replacement plan for
non-compliant signs within four years. Non-compliant warning and regulatory
signs must be replaced within seven years, and guide and street name signs
within 10 years.

"Our goal with the 3M Sign Grant Program is to encourage agencies to start the
planning process now to meet the new standards and to begin replacing
underperforming signs," said Tom McGlynn, highway safety business director, 3M
Traffic Safety Systems. "We`ll work alongside agencies to improve traffic sign
brightness and visibility to help meet and exceed the elevated safety
standards."

Fatality rates are three times higher at night than during the day. To help
improve traffic safety at night, the FHWA has raised the minimum reflectivity of
road signs to increase sign visibility. Sign upgrade programs in Mendocino
County, Calif. and Sioux City, Iowa resulted in crash reductions attributable to
more visible signs. Mendocino County spent $79,300 on sign upgrades, saving
$12.5 million to $23.7 million in six years from crash reductions. Sioux City
spent $145,000, saving $4.92 million from crash reductions in three years.

Road signs generally appear equally visible in daylight no matter what quality
of sheeting is used to manufacture the sign. However, at night there is a
notable difference, and signs made with higher performance reflective sheeting
are more visible, helping to improve safety. Higher-performing prismatic
sheeting helps save lives and dollars through increased visibility for drivers,
as well as provides longer retroreflectivity lifespan of the signage than
sheeting made with older, glass-bead technology. Signs made with
higher-performing materials generally provide cost savings to the agencies over
the lifespan of the signs as they require less maintenance, last longer and help
decrease traffic accidents reducing costs to the public. Most importantly, the
crash reductions save lives.

3M Diamond Grade DG³ Reflective Sheeting and 3M High Intensity Prismatic
Reflective Sheeting will help agencies meet the new standards and provide safer
roads, life cycle cost savings and environmental benefits when compared to older
optical technologies, such as the engineering grade reflective sheeting.

3M Diamond Grade DG³ Reflective Sheeting is the highest grade of sheeting
available and returns nearly twice the light to drivers compared to other
prismatic sheeting. This breakthrough retroreflective technology delivers
visibly superior performance to help improve roadway safety. Diamond Grade DG³
technology includes "full cube" construction that produces 100 percent efficient
optical elements which, in finished sheeting, returns 58 percent of available
light to drivers. This technology also accommodates the wide range of
observation angles from different-sized vehicles and entrance angles. Diamond
Grade DG³ Reflective Sheeting has a 12-year lifespan.

3M High Intensity Prismatic Reflective Sheeting also helps improve sign
visibility and safety through increased levels of retroreflectivity, when
compared to engineering grade reflective sheeting. It has a 10-year lifespan,
while engineering grade reflective sheeting has an expected life of seven years.

Environmental benefits of the 3M Diamond Grade DG³ Reflective Sheeting and 3M
High Intensity Prismatic Reflective Sheeting occur in the manufacturing process
by reducing VOC emissions by 97 percent and energy consumption by 72 percent
compared to standard engineering grade reflective sheeting processes.

For more information on the 3M Sign Grant Project or to apply, visit
www.3MSignGrants.com.

About 3M Traffic Safety Systems

Since inventing reflective materials more than 65 years ago, 3M Traffic Safety
Systems has been the worldwide leader in developing products, systems and
services for the transportation safety, traffic management, vehicle registration
and commercial transportation markets. For more information about 3M Traffic
Safety Systems and our products, visit www.3M.com/tss.

3M and Diamond Grade are trademarks of 3M.

About 3M

A recognized leader in research and development, 3M produces thousands of
innovative products for dozens of diverse markets. 3M`s core strength is
applying its more than 40 distinct technology platforms - often in combination -
to a wide array of customer needs. With $24 billion in sales, 3M employs 79,000
people worldwide and has operations in more than 60 countries. For more
information, visit www.3M.com.

3M
Kirsten Shanahan, 612-392-7619
LaBreche
kshanahan@labreche.com
or
Connie Thompson, 651-733-8914
3M Public Relations
http://www.3m.com/PressContact

Copyright Business Wire 2009