Sign Typography

I’ve already written about the M1 on my commute, and the new “use the hard shoulder when the road’s busy” policy.

This week I’ve noticed something odd about the typography on the signs, particularly when viewed from a distance.

When you can’t use the hard shoulder, the text reads like this :

Hard shoulder
Emergency
Use only

When you can use it, it looks like this :

Congestion
Use
Hard shoulder

What’s interesting to me – and probably to absolutely no-one else – is that when the lane is open, the typography looks like an X, which would imply it’s closed. When it’s closed, it looks like an arrow, implying the lane is open.

I don’t know if that contributes to why people don’t use the hard shoulder when they can – I doubt it, but who knows? – but it’s still something I find interesting, regardless.