U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
400 Seventh St., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590

November 15, 2005
Refer to: HOTO-1

Mr. Gregory A. Whirley
Acting Commissioner
Virginia Department of Transportation
1401 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219-2000

Dear Mr. Whirley:

Thank you for your September 23 request to experiment with wayfinding signs in Virginia's "Historic Triangle" area. Your request is approved. The one concern that we have is with the script font used for the legend "Colonial Williamsburg." The fonts and letter sizes are supposed to be as shown in the Standard Highway Signs Book. The basic requirement of a highway sign is that it be legible to those for whom it is intended and that it be understandable in time to permit a proper response. Your evaluation should also include a component to measure and confirm if the script font provides adequate legibility both by day and night. We look forward to receiving your progress reports and recommendations from your final report which will be available in December 2008. For recordkeeping purposes, we have assigned your request the following official ruling number and title: "Request 2-574(E)-Virginia Historic Triangle Wayfinding Signs." Please refer to this number in your future correspondence. If you have questions, please contact Ms. Linda Brown of my staff at 202-366-2192.

Sincerely yours,
Regina S. McElroy
Director, Office of Transportation Operations
cc: Mr. Roger Wentz, ATSSA