I have been told--although I don't think I have ever seen a guide sign design manual--that BC MOTH carbon-copied Dutch standards for its current generation of guide signs.
Wouldn't surprise me. APLs are used wherever possible, much like how they are used in the Netherlands.
On another note, it's just "MOT" or "MOTI". The "MOTH" name was
used up until 2001, when it was changed to "MOT", before being changed again in 2008 to "MOTI".
The Dutch approach can work, but proper space padding and management of color adjacencies (rule of tincture, etc.) is important. The BC sign assembly shown in Jake's picture is more bug than feature. Specific criticisms I would make:
* Inadequate space padding in the "Exit" and "Only" patches for the dropped lane
* Use of inset black borders for yellow areas regardless of whether the edge is free or set onto a different-colored background (black border should run out to the edge and be used only for free edges)
* Too-small exit tabs, with insufficient space padding; also, letter suffixes should be at the same size as the digits; tab borders should be merged with main sign panel borders to simplify border treatments and make more effective use of green space
* "HOV Exit" panel on left sign should not have a black bottom border (rule of tincture)
* Cardinal direction word is too small (letter height needs to be at least doubled)
* TCH 1 shield is too small (needs to be at least half again as tall)
* Arrows in general seem unnecessarily tall, and cramp the legend quite a bit--one should expect to see at least three-quarters capital letter height between arrow tops and legend blocks, and between legend blocks and sign borders
All of these are quite aside from the use of negative-contrast Clearview. I would prefer for FHWA Series E Modified to be used for all negative-contrast legend, and the justification for this is not entirely aesthetic since multiple studies have found that negative-contrast Clearview does have inferior legibility. I don't feel using positive-contrast Clearview with negative-contrast FHWA series detracts from a sign's aesthetic appeal; I consider it comparable to a book using one typeface for body text and others for chapter and section headers.
These are all legitimate concerns that I've noticed in the field as well. To address them point by point...
- I'm not sure what you mean by "inadequate space padding" in this context.
- Inset black borders are always used in that situation (part of the standard).
- Exit tabs are indeed undersized, but the letter suffixes are always superscript (and it's been this way long before Clearview was implemented). Rounded exit tabs are pretty normal, but they should reduce the radius of the curve.
- Borders around an entire sign/tab/patch is pretty standard (hence the "EXIT ONLY" patches with black borders)
- The cardinal direction is definitely too small (an issue I've noted many times before). This is an issue on and off the freeway.
- I've never thought the shield was too small, although BC is perfectly happy to use undersized shields. Seems about normal height to me (at least compared to every other Hwy 1 pull-through)
- I haven't yet seen an APL with up arrows of different heights, although that would be a welcome modification to improve padding.
I'm not trying to defend the MOT, but most of your issues are rooted in standards, not some perceived inadequacy on the part of the sign manufacturer. So, if you don't like the above sign, definitely don't come to BC.
If it helps, here's the initial document that discusses the implementation of Clearview (dated 5th September 2006):
https://goo.gl/SNw8it. Why exactly BC decided to adopt Clearview for almost all uses (there are still some situations where the FHWA Series is used), I'm not totally sure. It
could be that their initial implementation of Highway Gothic came without updating previous sheeting standards, so when Clearview was implemented, they decided to just go all in and adopt Clearview everywhere, and work with that as a starting point.
I'm sure we can all agree that negative-contrast Clearview is still reasonably easy to read, right? It's not like they're using Comic Sans.