News Release
New School Zone Signs to be Installed
(Tuesday, May 22/2001)-- Notice of School Zones in Halifax Regional Municipality will become more visible to motorists, thanks to new fluorescent yellow/green signs being installed over the next few months.
HRM crews will be installing the new signs over the summer and expect to complete the replacement program before classes resume in September.
The program, which involves the replacement of nearly 400 signs, will be launched by Councillor Brian Warshick (District 6- Westphal-Waverley) during a ceremony:
When: Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 23, 2001)
Where: Caledonia Junior High School, on Caledonia Road, Dartmouth.
Time: 10 a.m.
The high visibility of fluorescent colors has long been apparent to the eye. Although commonly used for lettering on portable signs, it has not been widely used for traffic signage because fluorescent colors tend to fade rapidly in sunlight. In the early 1990s, scientists solved the fading problem, making it possible for the colors to maintain their intensity for the average life expectancy of a traffic sign.
The new signs will combine the high visibility of fluorescence, with the brightest retro-reflective sheeting available. For this reason, the signs will be highly visible - whether day, night or under inclement conditions.
The key to fluorescent colors' visibility is their capacity to convert certain light waves that ordinarily are not visible to the human eye to waves that are visible. Because of the high levels of such light waves at dawn and dusk, fluorescent colors are even more effective at times when visibility is poorest. The new yellow/green color is visible at up to 500 metres under overcast skies and at almost 300 metres during twilight. The new signing material is manufactured by Minnesota-based 3M.
Although a sprinkling of crosswalk signs in the fluorescent color have appeared throughout the municipality recently, it is only for a trial, as the yellow-green color has not yet been approved for crosswalk signs in Canada.
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Councillor Brian Warshick
(902) 488-3800
David McCusker
HRM Traffic Authority
(902) 490-6696
