Wordspaces — Yes and No

I was taught that an optimal amount of space between words, especially in larger, display typography, is the width of the lowercase letter "i" in the typeface.

Two photos from my week:


First is this street sign. The lack of kerning, leaving a space between the T and A almost as wide as a letter I, makes it possible to read the street name as St Andish. If it weren't for the loose space between the S and T, I would definitely think it said St Andish.


In this headline from the Star Tribune, which I originally tried to read from an odd angle such as this when I stood looking down at the paper sideways, the too-small space between "of" and "lockouts" made me read it as "oflockouts" momentarily. Perhaps it was an Irish name?

I know it's not really all that tight, but look how much tighter it is than the space between the closing single quote and "examined."