01334447

Component

The highway sign is an important element in transportation systems to ensure highway drivers' safe and efficient travel. Since drivers are continuously confronted with a variety of signs while traveling, messages displayed on the signs need to be appropriately designed for human factors, not the least of which is legibility. The objective of this study is to propose a methodology for determining optimum letter spacing by evaluating drivers' legibility performance. Laboratory-controlled experiments were conducted to investigate reading and response times for six highway signs with different letter spacing. In addition, a binary logit model was applied to establish the relationship between legibility performance, represented by misreading rates, and letter spacing. Further analyses using the proposed logit-based model were performed to support the determination of letter spacing. It is expected that the outcomes of this study will be effective in designing better highway signs.

01329018

11-3773

English

16p

2011

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (2) ; References (11) ; Tables (8)

Highway safety; Human factors engineering; Laboratory studies; Legibility; Lettering; Spacing; Traffic control devices; Traffic signs

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I73: Traffic Control

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-3773

TRIS, TRB

Feb 17 2011 6:38PM