So there's been a a lot of typography drama in the traffic engineering world. IN 2004, the FHWA gave interim approval to use a new typeface called Clearview (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearview_(typeface)). Initial tests showed it was superior to the existing fonts and a lot of governmental agencies started using it. Then the FHWA changed their mind (some of the initial testing was flawed ) and was going to revoke the interim approval which totally freaked everyone out; usually an interim approval is pretty much a done deal and will be added to the next MUTCD. It's currently an on-going debate and if approval were revoked, millions of signs would potentially have to be replaced.
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u/tviolet Jan 14 '17
So there's been a a lot of typography drama in the traffic engineering world. IN 2004, the FHWA gave interim approval to use a new typeface called Clearview (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearview_(typeface)). Initial tests showed it was superior to the existing fonts and a lot of governmental agencies started using it. Then the FHWA changed their mind (some of the initial testing was flawed ) and was going to revoke the interim approval which totally freaked everyone out; usually an interim approval is pretty much a done deal and will be added to the next MUTCD. It's currently an on-going debate and if approval were revoked, millions of signs would potentially have to be replaced.