Effects of Traffic Characteristics and Mounting Location on the Visibility of On-Premise Commercial Signs
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 11
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a movement in local government regulations toward restricting the mounting height of on-premise, commercial signing and other roadside oriented signs. This has caused some concern among sign designers and fabricators that automobile drivers will have difficulty in seeing and reading many of these low profile signs. These potential visibility difficulties are caused by the presence of other vehicles; either those in front of the subject vehicle, those in the adjacent travel lane, or those traveling in the opposite direction; blocking the line of sight between the subject vehicle driver and any low-mounted, roadside sign. The objective of this research was to determine the probability of another automobile blocking the line of sight between the driver of a subject vehicle and an on-premise, low-mounted, roadside sign. The results indicated that this probability is a function of the position of the subject vehicle, the position(s) of one or more object vehicles, the volume of vehicles on the road, and the speed of the vehicles on the road.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
AASHTO. (2004). “A policy on geometric design of highways and streets.” AASHTO, Washington, D.C.
Abramson, P. (1971). “Blockage of signs by trucks.” Traffic Eng., 41(7), 18–26.
Al-Kaisy, A., and Bhatt, J. (2002). “A simulation approach to investigate the effect of heavy vehicles on sign visibility.” Proc., 16th Biennial Symp. on Visibility and Simulation, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
Carpenter, R., Fisher, D., Duffy, S., Dutta, A., Upchurch, J., and Noyce, D. A. (2001). “Overcoming sign design challenges in the central artery tunnel project.” Proc., ITE 2001 Annual Meeting, Chicago.
City of Cary, North Carolina (2006). “Ordinances of the City, Appendix A, Chapter 9: Signs.” ⟨http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=13841&sid=33⟩ (March 24, 2006).
City of Scottsdale, Arizona (2005). “Ordinance of the City, Appendix B, Article VIII Sign Requirements, Section 8.411 Scenic corridors.” ⟨http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/codes/Signs/SignOrd_01-09-06.pdf⟩ (March 24, 2006).
Garvey, P. M., and Kuhn, B. T. (2006). “Traffic sign visibility.” Transportation engineers’ handbook, M. Kutz, ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, in press.
Garvey, P. M., Gates, M., and Pietrucha, M. T. (1995). “Synthesis of older driver research.” Final Rep. to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Harrisburg, Pa.
Jenkins, S. E., and Cole, B. L. (1986). “Daytime conspicuity of road traffic control.” Transportation Research Record. 1093, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C. 74–80.
Kuhn, B. T., Garvey, P. M., and Pietrucha, M. T. (1996). “Sign visibility: Research and traffic safety overview.” Final Rep. to the United States Sign Council, Bristol, Pa.
Mace, D. (2002). “On-premise signs and traffic safety.” Context sensitive signage design, American Planning Association, Chicago.
Pietrucha, M. T., Donnell, E. T., Lertworwanawich, P., and Elefteriadou, L. (2003). “The effects of traffic volume, traffic speed, mounting height, and lateral offset on the visibility of on-premise commercial signs.” Final Rep. to the United States Sign Council, Bristol, Pa.
Roberts, A. W. (1991). “New Jersey guide sign survey.” Transportation Research Record. 1316, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 1–4.
Ullman, G. L., and Dudek, C. L. (2001). “Effect of roadway geometrics and large trucks on variable message sign readability.” Proc., 80th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 11 • November 2006
Pages: 862 - 871
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 29, 2005
Accepted: Nov 4, 2005
Published online: Nov 1, 2006
Published in print: Nov 2006
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.