Photo: Courtesy of Don Meeker
If you’ve ever had trouble seeing and reading a road sign, it might have been because Highway Gothic, which is used extensively throughout roadsigns in the US, has some flaws. Among the most prominent of these flaws is the fact that signs greatly decrease in legibility when headlights are shined on them at night because the reflective features in the 3M material on these signs cause odd “halo” effects around the letters. For young drivers, this might not be such a problem, but for older drivers, whose numbers are ever-increasing, this could be a catalyst for accidents and serious injury.
The New York Times has a great article on the new typeface, Clearview, that is supposed to eventually replace the inadequate Highway Gothic that is seen on many roadsigns today.
In the late 1980s there was a realization among highway officials that road signs needed to be improved to accommodate the aging American population.
Although only 12.4 percent of the U.S. population was over 65 in 2000, that number will increase to 20 percent by 2030.
Older drivers have several disadvantages on the road: their reaction time is not as quick, their visual acuity is diminished and their sensitivity to contrast is reduced.
A design team from the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, with the design firm Meeker & Associates in Larchmont, N.Y., and the digital-type design firm Terminal Design, set out to try to solve this problem.
If you’re interested in seeing how Clearview came to be and how it looks compared to the typeface it is replacing, then check out this slideshow from the NYT.
Photo: Courtesy of Don Meeker
As you can see, the differences are slight, but these changes translate to safer roads, better visibility, and clearer signs.
Terminal Design, which is responsible for the Clearview type design, are selling it as a font family on their website. However, if you just want it for recreational use, Roadgeek Fonts has a “similar version” for free download (it’s more or less the same to most amateur eyes I suppose).
The results of this project were significant, with various tests showing ClearviewHwy to be between 12% and 29% more legible and easier to read than the current font used on highway signs. In 2004 the U.S. Federal Highway Administration granted the design Interium Approval for use on all Federal roads.
You can go to the ClearviewHwy website to read more about the font and its research and development. It definitely sounds like they put as much effort as humanly possible into designing the perfect typeface for roadsigns, which makes sense, since this will adorn all US roadsigns within a few decades (these change-overs take a while).
Of course, the US Federal Highway Administration has a dedicated look into Clearview and how to use it, etc. (basically, stuff that you and I most probably will never want to read).
