Applauding the wisdom of science
Having participated, more than 25 years ago, in the Effects of Ether, LSD, Alcohol and Gunfire on Sign Recognition by Motor Vehicle Operators, by Professor Phill Gallup and the University of Nevada Las Vegas Department of Psychology, I heartily applaud the research done by Professor Bügleichenhaus and his group.
The above mentioned American study focused mainly on the effect the above substances had on the ability of American truck drivers to parse signage in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s standard typefaces, Highway Gothic and once-Helvetica-now-hopelessly-condensed. The Bügleichenhaus work goes well beyond our American efforts by actually designing a font specifically to correct for speed, and in the process correct for driver debilitation and sign damage.
Driver speed, of course, is the most important component that Euroface has a direct impact on and Bügleichenhaus has taken great strides toward solving that problem, (though it would be interesting to add a backslant to the face for application in German road signage). But what impresses me more than correction for speed in Bügleichenhaus’ work, and relative to the American tests, is the clarity of the face to slower, but debilitated drivers. In our American tests, it became clear that drivers under the influence of LSD and/or Ether, in particular, failed to see any of the signs at all, instead confusing them for masses of black and green birds or in several cases, reptiles. The Euroface, it’s clear to me, solves this quite neatly by obfuscating the signs, clearly a stroke of genius as LSD and Ether users would see them quite well at any speed. But the real genius of the Bügleichenhaus work, and one that has clear and valuable application on the American road is the ability of this signage to stand up to gun fire. Signage in Euroface, and I’m making a conservative guess without the statistics to back it up, could be legible if 40-50% of the sign has been penetrated by the full range of ballistics found in use on American roads. From the smallest homemade pistols and rifles of American’s East Coast cities, to the fully automatic assault rifles so popular among speeding hunters of the American west, Euroface should be able to absorb punishment and still be fully legible at high speeds.
The design of such a superior typeface, and by that I mean one that can not only stand up to recognition under the influence of high speeds and mind altering substances but also to be recognizable after repeated shootings from high and low calibre weapons is a singularly astonishing feat truly worthy of use in America, not to mention Canada and Mexico.

David Berlow
president, FontBureau, Boston
dberlow@fontbureau.com

Read other expert's responses:
David Berlow
dr. Rüdiger Metzker
prof. dr. Ernst Krefeld Hansen
Gerard Unger
Gert Dumbar