ABSTRACT
This chapter primarily focuses on the design and suitability of roadway signage. Sign text is considered from the perspective of the visual demands imposed upon the driver and measures that may be undertaken to mediate these to reasonable levels. Much of the text is also applicable to rail, maritime, and pedestrian information needs. Signage is considered to encompass all information sources available to the driver. This broad definition is adopted from the standpoint that roadway, traffic, or nontransport-related information may now be presented to the driver using traditionally adopted mechanisms, e.g., road markings and signs, or via more esoteric vectors, e.g., dynamic text to speech roadway information. To consider the primary and most conventional method, road signs provide the driver with basic navigational, safety, and roadway information. They are familiar methods to convey such data and include strong contextual cues to support decoding the information they provide — for example, red circles used to indicate mandatory signs on U.K. roads.
