Abstract
Information displayed on road signs underwent a reduction in character size, per the implementations approved for restructuring the special zones. Our research was conducted in order to evaluate both the legibility and the peripheral aesthetics of the new road signs.
According to the results of an investigative survey (with a sample size of 170 participants) taken after the reduction in road sign information, 51% of respondents stated that the new signs had improved the peripheral aesthetics thus, a specific effectiveness was measurable. Regarding legibility, 78% of respondents stated that the reduction in character size did not matter, making it apparent that the people who felt inconvenienced by the changes were few in number.
The results of the engineered inspection (this study targeted each age group with a sample size of 84 people per road sign) found that despite the same reduction in character sizes, there was no uniform response towards the legibility of the new road signs. In addition, the main factor which determined legibility was found to reside in the road contours around the road sign, the volume of information, the height of the road sign and distance from an intersection.
