Evaluation of alternative information signs in Oregon

Graduation date: 2014The number of international inbound tourists to the United States has risen steadily.\ud To serve these and other tourists best, traffic signs need to communicate information\ud correctly across a potential language barrier. Of particular interest is the traffic sign\ud intended to communicate directions to Tourist Information centers. While the general\ud effectiveness of traffic signs relies on the sign’s conspicuity, understandability,\ud legibility distance, glance legibility, reaction time, and learnability, this study focused\ud on the understandability of Tourist Information signs. To achieve this goal, several\ud alternative signs were tested in an online survey (n = 142) and in the OSU Driving\ud Simulator (n = 42) to compare their understandability. The "INFO" Sign was found to\ud be best understood with 95.7% of the driving simulator subjects comprehending the\ud sign correctly. The "i" Sign alternatives had the second highest comprehension rates\ud for driving simulator subjects with 72.8% for the "i" Sign without a circular border\ud and 75.4% for the "i" Sign with a circular border. A statistical difference was found\ud between the results of the online survey and the driving simulator test