Canadian Province Unveils Tourism-Oriented Directional Signage Along Highways

Officials from the Department of Tourism and Recreation in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador unveiled a plan to replace signs randomly positioned on the side of the province's highways with more strategically placed signs featuring universal symbols. The system, popular in other countries and Canadian provinces, is known as Tourism-Oriented Directional Signage (TODS). The signs will all have a blue background, white text, symbols, and important information. "So, upon any exit, you will come across your attractions, accommodations, restaurants, gas stations, and it would be the same at each of the exits," says Carol Ann Gilliard, a department official. "Motorists traveling throughout the province say they don't know how far it is to get somewhere, so all of the signs would have distances and they would be immediately in front of the exists, so that they'd know exactly which way they had to go." The decision to implement the new system comes after a survey revealed that the current signs did not help people reach their destinations and obstructed the province's landscape, something many people travel to see. It will take three to five years to fully execute TODS, as a variety of concerns still need to be addressed, such as whether business owners will be reimbursed for the money they have spent on highway signs and who will be tasked with taking the current signs down.