According to the New York Daily News, the Uncle Sam wants New York City to replace every one of its street signs, to ensure they all use a federally-approved typeface:
The city will change the lettering on every single street sign - at an estimated cost of about $27.5 million - because the feds don't like the font.
Street names will change from all capital letters to a combination of upper and lower case on roads across the country thanks to the pricey federal regulation, officials said Wednesday.
By 2018, MADISON AVE. will become Madison Ave. and will be printed in a font called Clearview, the city Department of Transportation says.
The Federal Highway Administration says the switch will improve safety because drivers identify the words more quickly when they're displayed that way -- and can sooner return their eyes to the road.
The Daily News says some New Yorkers are "OUTRAGED."
Per usual, right-wing bloggers are REALLY OUTRAGED (though, per usual, they forget that Clearview, like big budget deficits, was embraced by the Bush Administration).
Yet all this should come as little surprise to longtime Telstar Logistics readers, because we wrote about Clearview back in 2007. As you may recall:
Clearview generates a 12 percent increase in legibility for overhead and shoulder-mounted guide signs for all drivers, and a 16 percent improvement in character recognition by older drivers. The Federal Highway Administration gave Clearview an official thimbs-up in 2004, and more than 20 states have adopted the typeface for use on new road signs. Meanwhile, another big customer has taken an interest in the [font]: the newly reconstituted AT&T embraced Clearview as its corporate logotype in 2005.
NYC sign image: New York Daily News
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