Which way do I turn?: Design Mysteries Series

Or……Who Do I Turn to?

Which way do I turn? Can’t go straight! Or backwards! Or turn right or left?

So……… who do I turn to?

Does anyone look at the traffic signs that are obliterating views in our cities and towns? While causing pedestrians and motorists confusion about just which way they should turn? This is definitely a “Design Mystery!” So many signs must be about trying to accommodate every rule and regulation towns, municipalities and states can throw at an intersection. What happened to trusting the driver to make the right choice within the “social contract?” Who decides to create these mazes? And is there anything we can do about it?.

In my town of Huntington, New York the recent construction of two traffic circles has caused an avalanche of signage that can only be ignored, because if you tried to read all of it you would crash in an instant. Who “designs” these intersections? The answer is no one designs them; they just follow the “rules” or “laws” that demand an increasing amount of signage.

How many signs just at this one intersection? Too many to count, Route 110, No Parking, South 35 with an arrow, Circle Ahead, People Crossing, Whatever this sign means: all in 25 feet and there’s more to come.

Individually the traffic signs are pretty good graphically. Who doesn’t think that the classic stop sign isn’t great! But when they are stuffed into these crazy configurations they just become visual noise, probably causing more problems than they are solving and even creating dangerous distractions to already distracted drivers.

One question I had is, are the proliferation of signs directly connected to self-driving cars that don’t see the signage? Or do they? Are the signs for the riders in autonomous autos, so they can check on where the AUTO-AUTO is taking them? As it turns out Auto-Autos can actually see where they are going constantly checking with that funny, spinning “thingamajigs” on top of the car. They actually “see” the surroundings. Maybe they need all this signage to “see” where they are going? Scary!

And where is the AIGA? Can they help with this increasingly disastrous mess? They seem to be concerned with helping to send clear messages to the public and even give awards for the best graphic designs. Maybe they could help alleviate this “visual virus” that is knocking us  for a loop.

Is it possible we need to send this STOP sign to whoever or whatever is creating this visual viral disaster?

#DesignMysteriesSeries [#11]

Design Mysteries Series
Bruce Hannah 2017©