Here’s my column from the Sunday paper. If you’ve already read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments below. Thanks.

Alert reader Joel just got back from a road trip, and he has a question about signs:

While cruising down I-75, I noticed that Michigan is using the new typeface developed specifically for highway signs. … The difference/improvement is astounding. Even my non-type-savvy girlfriend said it was way better. What gives? Is Minnesota going to catch up anytime soon?

Freeway lettering may not seem like a big deal, but America’s drivers are a rapidly aging bunch, and the readability of signs is a growing issue.

The font that got Joel all excited is called Clearview, and it’s a federally approved alternative to the chunkier letters that most of us are used to seeing on the freeway, says Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

I first noticed Clearview on a trip to Texas last winter (the photo above was taken west of Houston). The lower-case letters are taller, the idea being that letters such as “a” and “e” are less scrunched and less likely to appear blurry. The font’s designers say drivers can read the words from farther away, allowing more time to react.

While many states are giving Clearview a whirl, Minnesota is in wait-and-see mode, said Kent Barnard, a Minnesota Department of Transportation spokesman, partly because there isn’t a ton of research to go on. Wisconsin is about to put 44 Clearview signs on a freeway in the Madison area as a pilot project, and Minnesota will see how that goes.

(Last August’s New York Times story about Clearview is here.)

YES U CAN

Alert reader Carolyn of Minneapolis has a question:

I’ve seen more and more people making wild U-turns lately — in the middle of the street, at a through street intersection, just about anywhere the U-turner feels like it. I thought they were illegal. Or at least ill-advised. Am I hopelessly old school?

Old school can be a good thing, particularly if it means Carolyn doesn’t send text messages while driving. But there’s nothing really new about Minnesota’s brief and relatively permissive statutes on U-turns.

The law says U-turns are allowed if “the movement can be made safely and without interfering with other traffic” (and, of course, if there isn’t a sign saying “No U-turn” and you’re not on an interstate). If you’re on a curve or near the crest of a hill, other drivers need to be able to see you from 1,000 feet in either direction.

Carolyn might be more comfortable over in Wisconsin, which is not as U-turn-friendly — it bans them at intersections with traffic signals, as well as (deep breath) in the middle of a block in a business district where there isn’t a median with a crossover. And that’s just for starters.

GEOGRAPHICAL ERROR

In last week’s column, I made a reference to “the large keep-your-distance dots that inspired someone to paint a Pac-Man on Hwy. 55 near Medina.” As someone who once made a special trip to check out the dots, I’m chagrined at my poor memory; they’re southeast of Buffalo, not between Rockford and Medina. My apologies.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.