Gotham and Proxima Nova, for starters. Or Avant Garde and Futura. Or Kabel.

Do you really find it nasty? I guess it can look a bit strange due to the slight extended/lopsided feel it has.

I was at the snow over Christmas and I saw this sign quite a bit. I really despise the FHWA Standard Typeface, but used here it looks awesome, and the C is very circular without giving the modernist or Futura-esque feel.

I believe it is FHWA Standard Series E.

(Sorry for the iStockphoto, haha)

Thanks for the start.
I guess "nasty" isn't a good word -- maybe it's just too "young." To me Century Gothic evokes childrens books and so on... not exactly what I'm going for.

Something a bit more modern than some mentioned above could be Adrian Frutiger's Avenir, or Avenir Next (I know they have differences, but I think most of the 'Next' font improvements are too subtle for me, especially at normal sizes, as a general observation of this recent Linotype genre).

- Mike Yanega

Consider also the light-to-middle weights of FF Super Grotesk