201: Instruction vs. Instinct

Signs, Signs, Signs
When we drive we are used to seeing all sorts of signs. This is an acceptable reality because the roads can be a dangerous place and it has a required amount of order needed. In the image to the left, a rather humorous one invokes a few questions. Why does stopping put me in any sort of danger? If there were threats, shouldn't they be dealt with by good security. The notice alone makes me have more fear in general. Imagine you'll drive on this road and your tire blows out. What then?


All jokes aside, signs are the law of the land. You have to obey the speed limits, you have to do as they say. But there are signs like this that are for pedestrians too. Signs that really are supposed to come up with the short fall of bad design (like unsecured prison cells).

Take this sign from Milwaukee. If the building was designed in a way to call for the much expected ice and snow from the eaves of the building on the street level, there would never be a sign asking the population to do the impossible. In fact, this is just guaranteeing nothing more than a means of recourse of a potential lawsuit. Signs like this exist all over, just to prevent liabilities; the lawsuits rarely care for the wellbeing of the public that will occupy the spaces...then there would be a net or something (which in Milwaukee, there are on some buildings). Obviously this is a consideration individual architects should take into account when designing, but even factors on the street level could be changed to make it less dangerous. This site has a very narrow sidewalk, so it gives people little to no leeway of squeezing by the 'danger zone.'


Assumptions of the Public Realm and the People Who Will Regularly Ignore them.

Here is a little audio I recorded of my thoughts on jay walking.