Seattle Residents Confused By Sea-Tac Airport Signs (09/21/09)

The following is an excerpt from a recent Seattle Times article (the full article may be found at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/bumpertobumper/2009909441_bumper21m.html): 

Here's a question: How many people does it take to be confused by airport signs before those signs are considered confusing?

In last Monday's Bumper, a reader, a Seattle woman, complained that signs on approach roads to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were inadequate to direct drivers to the correct lanes for parking, rental returns, arrivals, departures and such until it's almost too late to change lanes easily.

Each time she's driven to Sea-Tac, she said, she's witnessed drivers making risky last-minute lane changes on airport approaches.

An airport spokesman replied that the signs seemed adequate to airport officials, and indeed conform to what's considered adequate by state and national standards for signage, including the Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which defines standards used by road managers nationwide to install and maintain traffic-control devices on all streets and highways.