T RANSIT C OOPERATIVE R ESEARCH P ROGRAM SPONSORED BY The Federal Transit Administration TCRP Report 12 Guidelines for Transit Facility Signing and Graphics Transportation Research Board National Research Council TCRP OVERSIGHT AND PROJECT TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 1996 SELECTION COMMITTEE CHAIR ROD J. DIRIDON OFFICERS Int'l Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Study Chair: James W. VAN Loben Sels, Director, California Department of Transportation Vice Chair: David N. Wormley, Dean of Engineering, Pennsylvania State University MEMBERS Executive Director: Robert E. Skinner, Jr., Transportation Research Board SHARON D. BANKS AC Transit LEE BARNES MEMBERS Barwood, Inc. GERALD L. BLAIR Indiana County Transit Authority EDWARD H. ARNOLD, Chair and President, Arnold Industries, Lebanon, PA MICHAEL BOLTON SHARON D. BANKS, General Manger, AC Transit, Oakland, CA Capital Metro BRIAN J. L. BERRY, Lloyd Viel Berkner Regental Professor & Chair, Bruton Center for Development Studies, SHIRLEY A. DeLIBERO University of Texas at Dallas New Jersey Transit Corporation LILLIAN C. BORRONE, Director, Port Commerce, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Past Chair, SANDRA DRAGGOO 1995) CATA DWIGHT M. BOWER, Director, Idaho Department of Transportation LOUIS J. GAMBACCINI JOHN E. BREEN, The Nasser I. Al-Rashid Chair in Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin SEPTA WILLIAM F. BUNDY, Director, Rhode Island Department of Transportation DELON HAMPTON DAVID BURWELL, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Washington, DC Delon Hampton & Associates E. DEAN CARLSON, Secretary, Kansas Department of Transportation RICHARD R. KELLY RAY W. CLOUGH, Nishkian Professor of Structural Engineering, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley Port Authority Trans-Houston Corp. JAMES C. DELONG, Director of Aviation, Denver International Airport, Denver, Colorado ALAN F. KIEPPER JAMES N. DENN, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Transportation New York City Transit Authority DENNIS J. FITZGERALD, Executive Director, Capital District Transportation Authority, Albany, NY EDWARD N. KRAVITZ DAVID R. GOODE, Chair, President and CEO, Norfolk Southern Corporation The Flxible Corporation DELON HAMPTON, Chair and CEO, Delon Hampton & Associates PAUL LARROUSSE LESTER A. HOEL, Hamilton Professor, Civil Engineering, University of Virginia Madison Metro Transit System JAMES L. LAMMIE, Director, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc., New York, NY ROBERT G. LINGWOOD ROBERT E. MARTINEZ, Secretary, Virginia Department of Transportation BC Transit CHARLES P. O'LEARY, JR., Commissioner, New Hampshire Department of Transportation GORDON J. LINTON CRAIG E. PHILIP, President, Ingram Barge Co., Nashville, TN FTA WAYNE SHACKELFORD, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Transportation WILLIAM W. MILLAR LESLIE STERMAN, Executive Director, East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, St. Louis, MO Port Authority of Allegheny County JOSEPH M. SUSSMAN, JR East Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT MIKE MOBEY MARTIN WACHS, Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Los Angeles Isabella County Transportation Comm. DON S. MONROE Pierce Transit PATRICIA S. NETTLESHIP EX OFFICIO MEMBERS The Nettleship Group, Inc. ROBERT E. PAASWELL The City College of New York MIKE ACOTT, President, National Asphalt Pavement Association JAMES P. REICHERT ROY A. ALLEN, Vice President, Research and Test Department, Association of American Railroads Reichert Management Services ANDREW H. CARD, JR., President and CEO, American Automobile Manufacturers Association LAWRENCE G. REUTER THOMAS J. DONOHUE, President and CEO, American Trucking Associations WMATA FRANCIS B. FRANCOIS, Executive Director, American Association of State Highway and Transportation MICHAEL S. TOWNES Officials Peninsula Transportation Dist. Comm. DAVID GARDINER, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency FRANK J. WILSON JACK R. GILSTRAP, Executive Vice President, American Public Transit Association New Jersey DOT ALBERT J. HERBERGER, Maritime Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation EDWARD WYTKIND DAVID R. HINSON, Federal Aviation Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation AFL-CIO T. R. LAKSHMANAN, Director, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation GORDON J. LINTON, Federal Transit Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation EX OFFICIO MEMBERS RICARDO MARTINEZ, National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation GORDON J. LINTON JOLENE M. MOLITORIS, Federal Railroad Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation FTA DHARMENDRA K. (DAVE) SHARMA, Research and Special Programs Administrator, U.S. Department of JACK R. GILSTRAP Transportation APTA RODNEY E. SLATER, Federal Highway Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation RODNEY E. SLATER ARTHUR E. WILLIAMS, Chief of Engineers and Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers FHWA FRANCIS B. FRANCOIS AASHTO TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM ROBERT E. SKINNER, JR. TRB Transportation Research Board Executive Committee Subcommittee for TCRP TDC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JAMES W. VAN LOBEN SELS, California Department of Transportation (Chair) FRANK J. CIHAK DENNIS J. FITZGERALD, Captil Dist. Transportation Authority, Albany, NY APTA LILLIAN C. BORRONE, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Chair) LESTER A. HOEL, University of Virginia SECRETARY GORDON J. LINTON, U.S. Department of Transportation ROBERT J. REILLY ROBERT E. SKINNER, JR., Transportation Research Board TRB DAVID N. WORMLEY, Pennsylvania State University T RANSIT C OOPERATIVE R ESEARCH PROGRAM Report 12 Guidelines for Transit Facility Signing and Graphics KRW, Inc. Alexandria, VA Subject Area Public Transit Research Sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration in Cooperation with the Transit Development Corporation T RANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1996 TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM TCRP REPORT 12 The nation's growth and the need to meet mobility, Project A-9 FY'93 environmental, and energy objectives place demands on public ISSN 1073-4872 transit systems. Current systems, some of which are old and in ISBN 0-309-05715-9 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 96-60356 need of upgrading, must expand service area, increase service frequency, and improve efficiency to serve these demands. Price $24.00 Research is necessary to solve operating problems, to adapt appropriate new technologies from other industries, and to introduce innovations into the transit industry. The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) serves as one of the principal means by which the transit industry can develop innovative near-term solutions to meet demands placed on it. The need for TCRP was originally identified in TRB Special Report 213—Research for Public Transit: New Directions, NOTICE published in 1987 and based on a study sponsored by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration—now the Federal Transit The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the Transit Administration (FTA). A report by the American Public Transit Cooperative Research Program conducted by the Transportation Research Association (APTA), Transportation 2000, also recognized the Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research need for local, problem-solving research. TCRP, modeled after Council. Such approval reflects the Governing Board's judgment that the the longstanding and successful National Cooperative Highway project concerned is appropriate with respect to both the purposes and Research Program, undertakes research and other technical resources of the National Research Council. activities in response to the needs of transit service providers. The members of the technical advisory panel selected to monitor this project The scope of TCRP includes a variety of transit research fields and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly competence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. including planning, service configuration, equipment, facilities, The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are those of the research operations, human resources, maintenance, policy, and agency that performed the research, and while they have been accepted as administrative practices. appropriate by the technical panel, they are not necessarily those of the TCRP was established under FTA sponsorship in July 1992. Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the Transit Proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, TCRP was Development Corporation, or the Federal Transit Administration of the U.S. authorized as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Department of Transportation. Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). On May 13, 1992, a Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical panel memorandum agreement outlining TCRP operating procedures according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the National was executed by the three cooperating organizations: FTA, the Research Council. National Academy of Sciences, acting through the Transportation Research Board (TRB), and the Transit Development Corporation, Inc. (TDC), a nonprofit educational and research organization established by APTA. TDC is responsible for Special Notice forming the independent governing board, designated as the TCRP Oversight and Project Selection (TOPS) Committee.