TxDOT spokesman Bob Kaufman said research indicates the use of Clearview is "appropriate" for highway signs, but that Texas "will certainly comply with the law." They saw a difference and they said, 'This is great.' Because they understand the problem." "Texas bought in before everyone else," said Meeker, a partner at design firm Meeker & Associates in Larchmont, New York. While Hecox said the Highway Administration did not keep track of the states that opted to use Clearview, Donald Meeker, the creator of Clearview, estimated there are nearly 20 states that used the font on signs everywhere and 15 who used it on signs in certain cities or roadways. "So we created this experimental process." "At that point, the Federal Highway Administration had no process in place to even consider an alternative like that," he said. They had never previously considered accepting an alternative font to Standard Highway Alphabet, but Clearview came to them, "with a case to make." The Highway Administration's decision was not made lightly, Hecox said. "The FHWA must be more open-minded to improving highway signing from all aspects, including fonts." "As the world continues to change, there will remain a need to adapt and revise policies and practices to better serve all road users," TxDOT chief engineer William Hale wrote in the Feb. A top Texas Department of Transportation official has sent a letter to Highway Administration officials asking them to "reconsider their abrupt termination of Clearview." Yet Texas is not on board with the federal government's reversal, handed down in January. So that's why the temporary approval was rescinded: the experiment was over." "In this case, what we were told is that this font was better and it didn't prove to be. "We're always on the lookout for things that will make roads better, safer," said Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration. Now, more than a decade later, the federal government has changed its mind. The Federal Highway Administration granted approval of the new typeface on an experimental basis. So it was a big deal in the transportation world in 2004 when Texas and a handful of other states took their signs in a different direction, opting to use Clearview, an independently designed font, instead of the federally sanctioned Standard Highway Alphabet. For years, it was Standard Highway Alphabet or the highway. The typeface itself leaves little space for deviation. There is little room for creativity on highway signs.Įvery inch of the large metallic rectangles that decorate the Texas roadways is regulated, from their fluorescent green backing to the height of the white lettering.
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