European fonts

In England, until 1933, there weren't any standard typefaces and every manufacturer would choose from a variety of a variety of san serif alphabets at will. In 1933 and following the Mayburu report, the Liewelyn-Smith Alphabet (a capitals only typeface) was adopted for use on the British roads. During the first motorway construction in 1950, signaling legibility came to the foreground and a new font was required. In 1957, Jock Kinnier and Margaret Calvet started designing a new font to be specifically used on British motorways. 

Transport Medium

After 6 long years of research,
testing and development, the
'Transport' font was finally used,
covering the entire road network in 1963. 

Transport Heavy

Special emphasis was given to the font's legibility, in which the 'a', 't', 'l' characters were given distinctive tails, while fractions became bar-less. The only exception in England's road network is the numbering of the motorways, in which another font is used, the motorway typeface. Transport, besides england, is widely used in other countries as well, such as Hong Kong, Ireland (with a little relation on 'a' and 'i'), Greece, Italy, Spain etc.

 (Post signage and use of typography - The new FWHA font / Angelopoulos Paschalis)