Placement

Before opening a business, you should always do a preliminary check of the location to see whether approaching drivers can see your sign in time to read it, react to it, and stop safely.  This depends on the speed of traffic and the number of lanes in each direction. 

 

Table 4 shows what researchers[1] learned about how far a car at different speeds will travel from the time a driver first sees the sign until the car safely comes to a stop.  This assumes the sign is mounted perpendicular to the roadway and includes the amount of distance needed to read a typical sign and make a decision to stop.

 

TABLE 4
Minimum Required Legibility Distances in Varying Situations

 

If the sign is mounted on the front of the building parallel to the roadway, research shows it needs to be at least 70% larger than the sign mounted perpendicular to the roadway, or it cannot be read in time.  Note that if a sign has unfamiliar words or lots of words, it will also take longer to read.

 

The figures in the table can help determine whether your prospective business site will be visible to customers.   For example, if the speed of traffic in front of the site is 30 mph, and the street has two lanes in each direction so that a lane change is needed, your customers will need to be able to see and read your sign from 410 feet away. 

 

If your customers would not be able to see your business sign from that distance, you should consider another location.