Fact Check

Highway Sign Urged Drivers to 'Consider Canada' Due to Inauguration Traffic?

A photograph purportedly showing a Maryland highway sign exhorting motorists to avoid Inauguration Day traffic and "Consider Canada" was fabricated.

Published Jan. 20, 2017

Claim:
A highway sign in Maryland told drivers to "Consider Canada" due to inauguration traffic.

On 20 January 2017, a photograph purportedly showing a highway sign in Maryland urging drivers to "consider Canada" in avoiding Inauguration Day traffic was widely circulated on social media:

trump canada

This image was just a prank, however, a digitally manipulated version of a more mundane image.

The Maryland State Highway Administration published a genuine photograph of the sign on Interstate 270 showing that it actually read "Consider Metro":

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State Highway Administration spokesman Charlie Gischlar told the Baltimore Sun that he sent some workers out to the site after viewing the viral image and confirmed that the words "Consider Canada" did actually appear on the traffic sign: "Whoever did it, though, I have to give them credit — it looks real."

We also reached out to the Maryland State Highway Administration to confirm that the sign never read "consider Canada":

Sources

Dance, Scott.   "Viral image of 'Consider Canada' highway sign a hoax, SHA says."     Baltimore Sun.   20 January 2017.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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