Assessment of route and destination displays on public service vehicles: summary report.

This study investigated the readability of different display technologies used to present route and destination information on the front of buses and coaches. The research investigated different technologies and text designs in terms of reading distance, reading times, viewing angles and subjective performance ratings. The experimental participants were drawn from members of the public and included those whom had a visual impairment. The research found that overall the LED displays gained significantly greater reading distances, although their performance when viewed at an angle or close to was poor. However all the display technologies had positive and negative attributes and, in general, there were found to be generic characteristics that could be employed to improve their performance. These involved layout, font style, font size, colour, text and background contrast, the amount of information presented and the displays closeness to the window aperture. In addition visual aids to assist in recognising an approaching vehicle as a bus were found to be important.