The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) defines the standards used by road managers nationwide to install and maintain traffic control devices on all streets and highways. The traffic control devices (TCD) are critical for the safe and efficient transportation of people and goods.
The MUTCD, by setting minimum standards and providing guidance, ensures uniformity of traffic control devices across the nation. The use of uniform TCDs (messages, location, size, shapes and colors) helps reduce crashes and congestion, and improves the efficiency of the surface transportation system. Uniformity also helps reduce the cost of TCDs through standardization. This effort ensures that TCDs are visible, recognizable, understandable, and necessary. The MUTCD is a dynamic document that changes with time to address contemporary safety and operational issues.
The MUTCD contains the national standards governing all traffic control devices. All public agencies across the nation rely on the MUTCD to bring uniformity to the roadway.
The Clearview Type System for traffic control devices was developed by a design team that included Martin Pietrucha, Ph.D. and Philip Garvey of the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute (PTI), Donald Meeker and Christopher O'Hara of Meeker & Associates, Inc., James Montalbano of Terminal Design, Inc., with supporting research by Gene Hawkins, Ph.D. and Paul Carlson, Ph.D. of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI). Consultation on experimental design was provided by Susan T. Chrysler, Ph.D., formerly with the 3M Company and now with TTI. This type system is designed for signing all streets, highways, and other byways open to public travel.