Traffic engineers and the Feds can tout the legibility of Clearview all they like, but this pair of signs, likely to be replaced by Clearview in the next couple of years, demonstrate the legibilty of Highway Gothic and why it’s been the standard for over sixty years — if you show the type large enough. In smaller sizes, like in the honorific sign, it loses some visibility, but that sign is not the primary street identifier.
Amsterdam Avenue is one of a number of street names in the five boroughs that celebrate the city’s original Dutch colonial rule from 1625 to 1664.
“Edgecombe” is a substitute word for “Hillside.” The street runs along Coogan’s Bluff in Washington Heights.
9/15/14
1 comment
The worst thing about this is that the U.S. Government has been attemptiing to make this typeface and color combination standard in all cities and towns of the U.S. When I lived in Los Angeles many years ago, about the only way you could tell what city you were in was by the shape, color and typeface of the street signs, as well as additional features such as block numbers and city names in smaller type.