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Editorial Comments
Product Description: Effective transport signs can organize the overload of visual information that impinges on drivers' senses. The Human Factors of Transport Signs is an easily-accessible information source for professionals who design these signs. By exploring new technologies that are revolutionizing signaling, the authors help ensure that the signs don't become stimuli that only increase traffic confusion. Although the text concentrates largely on the road environment and general signing issues, it also addresses specific railway and other transport modality signing issues. It covers driver psychology and interaction of transport signs as well as the strengths and problems of different types of signs.
Thorough and Detailed...But Incomplete The gist of this book is that insufficient industry consensus and a poor use of the research that's been done on transportation signage to date, means that new knowledge isn't being put to use effectively. Readers will get the impression that more participation by Human Factors professionals in the design and deployment of next generation of signage would alleviate such shortcomings significantly.
Adequately supported with citations, historical references and empirical evidence, it's a good primer for academics, stakeholders and practitioners. Drawing lessons from research as recent as 1999, it traces the evolution of the industry from its early beginnings to today.
Authored by scholars and subject matter experts, the writing styles use plain English and minimal jargon- supporting easy comprehension and learning. The editors managed to compile the scholarly work of several credible researchers on the subject while compressing such work into a new work that targets the Human Factors practitioner as well as transport signage stakeholders. We are invited to ponder both present day as well as future challenges in the evolving transportation paradigms.
While the chapters are a rich resource, little mention is drawn to research methods- making it less useful as a `how-to' textbook than it is as background and reference reading material. The editors walk readers through the transportation signage topography- covering ground with respect to an understanding of the intricacies of signage design and applications as well as end-user characteristics, standards issues and numerous cultural, legal and technological factors.
Chapters are organized in reference to: end users, design, development and deployment - as well as to the obvious domain categories such as railroad, airport and motorway signage. Conspicuously absent are discussions of nautical and pedestrian signage. The latter, is a surprising omission, considering the number of people that depend on depots, underground transit stations and airports to get around. One might well assume that the self-propelled traveler isn't part of the rubric of transport in its strictest sense. The intermediation of vehicles must be a traditional component of human factors and an implied requisite component of modern transportation and it's signage.
Readers should become excited at the opportunities for signage improvement suggested by this book. At the same time, they may also become exasperated at the hurdles blocking transportation signage standardization and improvement on a global scale. That may well be the point. Action needs to be taken and soon at that- well before transportation and traffic management becomes more nightmarish than it already must be. Considering the added risks faced by emergency responders and managers- the world is ready for 21st Century solutions to an ancient challenge. This book is a good wake up call to those entrusted with the design and deployment of our transportation signs.
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