Can a font make driving safer?

[hrant]

My car disables immersive tasks (like using the keyboard) and non-critical functions (like checking theater showtimes or ski resort conditions) when the speed goes over 3 mph.

hhp

[Nick Shinn]

All billboards should be set in Clearview.
Or, from Tim’s POV, banned.

[oldnick]

Vince—

Do you have the bod for digital Speedos? Sometimes, friends are reluctant to point out bad fashion decisions…

[dezcom]

The last time I looked good in a Speedo was when I was in my 40s. That ship has sailed 28 years ago :-)

[dumpling]

Does "analog" have to mean "pointer"?
Why not use changes of color to indicate different speed ranges?

Another design I would like to see would be a speedometer using "rolling" numerals to indicate speed, much the way that a traditional odometer indicates distance. This would make it easier to see acceleration vs. deceleration.

[dumpling]

My car disables immersive tasks (like using the keyboard) and non-critical functions (like checking theater showtimes or ski resort conditions) when the speed goes over 3 mph.

This is lame, because if you have (or are) a passenger, still, the passenger cannot access these functions.
The functions should be enabled regardless of speed if a passenger is present.

[hrant]

What's a "passenger"? Seriously: I almost always have one myself (in fact I only bought the thing because I have too many passengers these days...) but look at the proportion of people in carpool lanes versus regular lanes (which BTW makes you start thinking they invented carpool lanes to make things worse).

In the end: better safe than sorry. Or at least: you don't want to kill the person who paid for your brand of car, and you certainly don't want your brand of car on the news for the wrong reason...

Plus people would put a blow-up-doll in the passenger seat. :-)

hhp

[oldnick]

The functions should be enabled regardless of speed if a passenger is present.

The 5,000-plus people per year in the US who die because of distracted driving and the half a million or so injured be damned, right?

[timd]

Actually I have less problem with billboards (although cluttered street signs are a different matter). Any reasonably competent driver knows when to look at signs selling things and when not to, it is the presentation of crucial (or not) information to the driver that deserves to be improved and an understanding of what actually is important and what is not.

If you need to know what time something happens look it up before you set off, if you need to know what the weather is like look out of the windows.

Tim

[Nick Shinn]

But surely, if a billboard catches your eye when driving, and demands to be read, the less time your eyes are off the road, the better.

[hrant]

Tim, please come see LA aysap.

hhp

[Chris Dean]

You don’t actually need to make eye movements to attend to a location and have it influence reaction time (Posner & Cohen, 1984).

[timd]

Nick, you are right, but does a billboard actually demand to be read?

There are a number of things you “should” be looking for and billboards are going to be in the line of vision behind buses and road signs – certainly they clutter the landscape. But are they as distracting as a screen, with a moving image, within the car which is offering changing “information”?

Thanks for the invitation Hrant, London is currently enjoying the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, which is lovely but not necessarily good riding weather.

Tim

[dberlowgone]

Get a horse.

Anyone show a digital display with a square gothic?

Burn cash on dyslexics, not myopics.:0