Originally published at: Pizzeria owner paints thick blue line on street after customers get unfair $150 parking tickets | Boing Boing
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“signage could have been more clear.”
Can anyone show a use case where signage does something not adequately covered by “signs?” “The signs could have been more clear” seems fine to me. What is the difference between signs and signage, besides a design fee and resulting markup on your bill?
A useless rant, I know, but just one of those things that makes my teeth itch when I see it. Acres and acreage are different words and concepts: likewise drains/drainage, cover/coverage…
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Speaking as a UX person:
Signs are the individual things. Signage is the whole system of communication that is embodied by the signs, including their design, language, placement, distribution, etc.
You could go either way on this one but I think “signage” is not wrong in this case.
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One of the biggest (road related) transitions I made from living in Detroit to (eventually) California: Painted curbs.
- Red: Do not stop, park, or anything, period. Just don’t.
- Blue: Accessible Parking (placard needed).
- White: Immediate and active pickup / drop-off of passengers only.
- Yellow: Active loading / unloading of freight or passengers. Extra allowances for commercial.
- Green: Public parking but very short time periods (anything less than 60 minutes)
Each of these are augmented by signage for further details, but marking the curb makes it clear where the sign(s) apply.
I wish everywhere implemented this system.
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You sure about that? I know it’s been a point of some contention.
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The signage or system of signs in this case is fine: the handicapped/disabled parking signs are clear and no different from any other. The specific signs at that location were poorly placed. So signage as a system is not an issue. The signs at the airport or on the highway are well-designed to a high functional standard but perhaps poorly placed or not well-illuminated: the issue is with the individual signs. But someone will carp about the signage, just to show they know the word.
I have problems where people hide behind language to either inflate their own value or hand wave away problems they won’t fix because they have conferred some status on it with the use of “-age.”
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Piggybacking on what @wazroth said, in this specific scenario, signage could include painted markings on the pavement, curb, and or sidewalk, handicap symbols painted on the parking spots, etc. whereas someone might think the word “signs” only refers to the metal signs on posts.
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Enough with the complainage.
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Uhhh… the specific placement of signs is an integral part of the system of signage. Also, what @CarlMud said. If there’s not sufficient supplemental marking to make the intent of the individual signs clear, that’s a signage problem.
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Wait, the city isn’t going to bill the pizzeria owner for the clean up of the blue paint? I thought this was America damnit.
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Perhaps the city is fearful that they could be billed by the pizzeria owner for fixing their mistake. Especially since this is a big hit to their parking violation revenue for the (now newsworthy) location.
The owner did mention that he would make the markings “more professional” if the city doesn’t follow through.
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Yes, but actually not practical everywhere it snows half the year. Signs, signs, everywhere a sign.
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nothing else to indicate the spots were off limits for everyone else
Bullshit.
I pulled it up on Street View. There’s a “Handicapped Parking Only” sign, and then immediately underneath it “This Side Of Sign” which is effectively the same as a little arrow pointing to the right.
Further back on the street there’s a “Loading Zone” sign, marking where the handicapped area ends. There is no ambiguity as to the parking restrictions.
Also, none of this is in front of the pizzeria. It’s on the opposite side of the street, for handicapped people to visit the library branch there.
ETA: The pizzeria is on the ground floor of a PUBLIC PARKING GARAGE. There’s no shortage of parking to be had here, only a shortage of people able to read signs.
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Yup, that means they reduced the font size of the part of the sign that signals that it’s for more than one space.
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Not interested in cleaning up other people’s linguistic mess-age?
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for a few months a year it seems the lines don’t matter
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This. I thought it was universally understood that when a sign indicates some restriction from that point onward, it ends at the next signpost (no, lightposts don’t count).
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That is generally true, but I had a look for myself and that’s not what happened here. The sign indicating restricted parking is located at the end of the parking zone, not at the beginning. That is, the sign notes parking restrictions for the parking spaces you’ve already passed by, not for the upcoming spaces.
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Signs indicating a zone aren’t necessarily situated at the beginning of the zone. This particular sign says “Handicapped Parking Only, This Side of Sign”, meaning from the sign back to the previous signpost. Most of the signs I’ve seen tend to indicate the rest of the zone with an arrow pointing left or right, but that is obviously not the only way to do so.
The moral of the story is, whenever you park somewhere, check the signs on both sides of where you want to park to see if any indicate a restriction on your spot.
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Total side-point, but it’s great to see that the Vault of Midnight is doing well enough to expand to new locations! https://www.vaultofmidnight.com/
They’re a great independent comics and art store and I highly recommend buying from them over Amazon any time you need something like that!
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