Does Anyone Know Why Street Signs Are So Low In Denver?

I’ve heard it said that people moving into an area provide an important perspective because they notice things that people native to an area don’t even think to notice. That being said, I’d like to know what the street signs in Denver are mounted so low.

I’m serious about this. The street sign on my corner is somewhere around 6 or 6 and 1/2 feet up the pole. I’m used to seeing street signs mounted much higher and wonder why this is, particularly since the buses that come around that corner keep hitting it. One would think it would get placed higher.

Admittedly, the height I’m used to seeing street signs at wouldn’t help the buses much. I thought such signs were usually hung at about 8-9 feet. I’m not sure where this standard came from, but it is what I was used to seeing before I moved here. Perhaps that is the lowest height that keeps most people from stealing them.

Regardless, it isn’t the height they hang them in Denver. At first I thought it was just a weird corner here because the last pole got taken out by a bus entirely and they just threw the street sign up wherever they felt like, assuming the pole would get hit by a bus again. However, I’ve driven about a lot in the near downtown area, and this reachable from the ground height seems pretty standard. Not at major intersections, mind you, where the only framework to hang signs from is way up high, but certainly at most normal street corners I’ve noticed.

Why is this? Are the sign hangers in Denver short? Do they not possess decent ladders? Does no one steal street signs here (as opposed to Omaha where there is not perhaps as much to do) and so they don’t need to be hung as high?

Frankly, I have no idea. I just noticed this phenomenon and it’s been bugging the crap out of me. Any ideas?