I didn't want to start a new thread for this.
Personally, and speaking as a graphic designer, I think this is unnecessary and a huge waste of money - not to mention opportunity to return an iconic street sign to New York, not make it look MORE like anywhere USA. I also think it's nonsense because the Federal Highway Administration is forcing the city to make the change to a more 'legible' font. More legible font? I can understand this position for highway and high speed thoroughfare signage, but all municipal street signage is supposed to be more visible for speeding drivers? Isn't this what we are supposed to be getting away from? On top of that, with such a huge investment, we will be left with signs that look essentialy the same in that horrible shade of highway green that says nothing about New York City. They should have returned the gold signs or the really throwback humpback enamel signs to at least Manhattan and a simplified modern sign to the outer boroughs that gave NYC a unique image when it came to its' signs much like SF has or Philly or LA even.
Anyways, here's the articles...
NYDN
New Yorkers outraged as bureaucrats order city to change lettering on every single street sign
BY Andrew Phillips and Pete Donohue | New York Daily News
Thursday, September 30th 2010, 4:00 AM
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.
Still, several city residents were OUTRAGED.
Rest of story
$27 million to change NYC signs from all-caps
By JEREMY OLSHAN | New York Post
Last Updated: 7:14 AM, September 30, 2010
The Capital of the World is going lower-case.
Federal copy editors are demanding the city change its 250,900 street signs -- such as these for Perry Avenue in The Bronx -- from the all-caps style used for more than a century to ones that capitalize only the first letters.
Changing BROADWAY to Broadway will save lives, the Federal Highway Administration contends in its updated Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, citing improved readability.
At $110 per sign, it will also cost the state $27.6 million, city officials said.
"We have already started replacing the signs in The Bronx," city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told The Post. 'We will have 11,000 done by the end of this fiscal year, and the rest finished by 2018."
It appears e.e. cummings was right to eschew capital letters, federal officials explain.
Studies have shown that it is harder to read all-caps signs, and those extra milliseconds spent staring away from the road have been shown to increase the likelihood of accidents, particularly among older drivers, federal documents say.
The new regulations also require a change in font from the standard highway typeface to Clearview, which was specially developed for this purpose.
As a result, even numbered street signs will have to be replaced.
Rest of story
Threaded Mode