ATSSA Signal July/August 2018

The Signal | July/August 2018 25 dum restores the original usage guide- lines laidout in IA-5, whichwas announced in an FHWAmemorandum in 2004. Trans- portation agencies will now be able to submit written requests to FHWA to use the font on highway traffic signs. Member Company & Agency News Newly reinstated font that was designed for easier readability was prohibited by FHWA in 2016 Reinstatement of InterimApproval for use of ClearviewFont Clearview, a previously prohibited font for highway traffic signs, has been reinstated following the passage of the federal Omnibus bill. For fiscal year 2018, the bill directs the Federal Highway Ad- ministration (FHWA) to issue an Interim Approval (IA) for the Clearview font, which was originally designed to increase read- ability at long distances and at night for motorists. On March 28, the FHWA issued a mem- orandum to officially comply with the order to reinstate IA-5. The memoran- Font Comparison Samples of the lowercase ‘c’ from thirteen fonts, arranged from left to right in order of openness. All characters are rendered at a nominal font height of 100pt. Height differences arise from the different x-height ratios instrinsic to each font’s design. Adapted from Reimer et al ., 2014. Eurostile Helvetica Arial News Gothic DIN Next Geneva Avenir Next Verdana Gills Sans Mundo Frutiger ClearView 5-W Highway Gothic E(M) Highway Gothic (formally known as the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Series fonts or the Standard Alphabets for Highway Signs) is a set of sans-serif typefaces developed by the United States FHWA and used for road signage in the Americas, including the U.S., Canada, Ecuador, Venezuela and Chile, with Asian countries influenced by American signage practices including the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Clearview, also known as Clearview Hwy, is the name of a humanist sans-serif typeface family for guide signs on roads in the United States. It has also been used in Canada, Indonesia, the Philippines, Israel, and Sri Lanka. It was developed by inde- pendent researchers with the help of the Texas Transportation Institute and the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, under the supervision of the FHWA.