transportation AND font geekery

[aroraborealis]

Here's a story for my transportation-geek friends AND my font-geek friends:

The Federal Highway Administration is requiring that new street signs comply with updated standards to use mixed case Clearview.
Mixed-font Clearview was readable from roughly 440 feet away, whereas typical all-cap lettering was readable only at a distance of 384 feet. By

Comments

[lazyz]

Like!

[gilana]

Nifty, thanks!

[harimad]

I like the slam on the councilman who asserted that street signs have been working fine for the last 100 years.
1. There weren't a lot of street signs 100 years ago in the US.
2. The signs weren't working fine. They weren't created with fast vehicles in mind and there were a lot of crashes.

In related news, a small study reported on in BBC showed that people retain information better when the font is a little harder to read. (This study involved people who were stationary at the time.)

[beowabbit]

Cool, thanks! I’d heard of Clearview, but hadn’t realized it was being phased in nationwide.

[dougo]

It's probably entirely nostalgia on my part, but I still prefer Highway Gothic.

[aroraborealis]

Why?

[dougo]

I just like the shapes. Hard to explain; it's entirely subjective. Clearview just seems somehow lurid and caffeinated and maybe a little dumbed-down. I fully support making signs maximally readable, but I just think it could have somehow been done more tastefully.