T F A R
Y P O
C
D
NAVIGATING
BENGALURU MAKING DIRECTION SIGNAGE ATTRACTIVE & INFORMATIVE
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CONTENTS 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 1.2
Outlining the problem Common Issues observed in Indian cities
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CASE STUDIES
2.1 2.2 2.3
London/Bristol | Legible Cities Movement Abu Dhabi | An address for every home New York | New Generation of street signs
2.4
Guwahati | Building a New identity
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THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED
3.1 Accommodating all stakeholders 3.2 Readability 3.3 Comprehension 3.4 Memorability & Sign registration 3.5 Completeness 3.6 Consistency 3.7 Continuity 3.8 Clutter avoidance 3.9 Construction Detailing
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IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
4.1 4.2 4.3
Street Safety Ease of navigation Identification of public services and things of interest
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DESIGN AND COSTING OPTIONS
5.1 5.2
Sign Positioning Mounting height
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 18 21 22 24
5.3 Costing..
REFERENCES APPENDICES 3
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1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Outlining the problem With the rise in urban population in India, cities are becoming larger and more complex. New urban areas being developed are often disjointed while existing localities are rapidly transforming. As a result of accelerated change and increased visual clutter, many streets and localities are either unknown or becoming hard to recognise. Way finding poses a significant hurdle particularly for a large number of new residents and tourists. It is estimated that Bengaluru for example, receives close to 300,000 new residents every year. At the same time, cities are also becoming linguistically and culturally more diverse raising a new scale of challenges with regard to how people perceive the city. Street signage can be understood as a framework of rules, guidelines and cues embedded in the fabric of the city to assist daily urban flows. Though it is primarily understood as a tool to make the city easy to get around, it has an important role to play in ‘promoting integrated and seamless journeys’ as well as improving safety for motorist and pedestrians. Simultaneously, signage is also a tool to recognize and bring to the fore the local character of a place, its landmarks and things of interest, encouraging discovery and interaction for all sections of the society. Further, since it has a direct impact on how people experience the city, signage systems can greatly influence the identity of a place and legibility of the landscape.
1.2 Common Issues observed in Indian cities • Duplication of signage, cluttering pavements and creating confusion for commuters. • Lack of clear system of signage in terms of availability of guidelines for direction, position and line of sight. • Inconsistent signage with varied types of symbols used for the same information; in many cases signs
are handwritten leading to gaps in vital information or unnecessary add on. In addition, quite often signage is also carelessly fabricated with inferior materials or haphazardly installed.
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Absence of signage in several parts of cities, partly due to inadequate implementation. While in some cases new type of signage is required to be developed.
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Design of select signage often needs to be reworked to bring visual clarity (wrt. font size/ font type/ sign/ board size).
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Additional signage required to cater to people with special needs such as sound based pedestrian crossing signals and Braille tiles in pavements.
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There is also a need to ensure the main languages used in a city are acknowledged in signage infrastructure.
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2. CASE STUDIES 2.1 London/Bristol | Legible Cities Movement Legible Cities Movement was started in the 1990s in Bristol. It built on ideas put forward by American Urban Planner Kevin Lynch who saw legibility as a quality to help all residents of cities to understand the urban environment in its complexity and size. ‘Legible city would be one whose districts or landmarks or pathways are easily identifiable and are easily grouped into a coherent pattern. As ever, it was the individual experience that counted – people had to perceive and conceive the city easily, if they were to use the city efficiently.’ Further, beyond the practical tasks of way-finding and cognition, he expressed that a legible structure had other values as well such as - it could be ‘a source of emotional security, and one basis for a sense of self-identity and or relation to society. It can support civic pride and social cohesion, and be a means of extending one’s knowledge of the world. It confers the aesthetic pleasure of sensing the relatedness of a complex thing, a pleasure vividly experienced by many people when they see a great city panorama before them.’ In Bristol, and London, street signage projects came about under the bigger umbrella of this movement. The Bristol Legible City (BLC) project, at a local level, was developed to create a convenient, safer and cohesive city, while at national/international level it was about portrayal of a new image of Bristol as a dynamic city. This implementation included two key aspects. The first was ‘creating an integrated message of way finding especially in the movement of pedestrians and vehicles, and better accessibility into the city centre by public transport’. Second, making a ‘seamless, integrated trip based on the provision of clear, accurate and quality information’ While Legible London is a more recent project formulated to implement additional signage focussed on helping people walk to their destination faster and with greater ease. Currently it is also being implemented to integrate multiple modes of transport to provide seamless travel to a given destination.
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2.4 Guwahati | Building a New identity Few cities in India have recognized the problem residents or visitors feel with regard to way finding. Guwahati stands out as one case where the Municipal Corporation (GMC) is installing new street signage for the entire city with the present signage described as archaic and limited to a few streets only. The exercise is aimed to give ‘a new look to the city, one of the fastest growing urban centres of India and to boost commerce and tourism’. All signage is also to be bilingual - assamese and english so it is helpful for all sections of society, particularly tourists and newcomers.
2.2 Abu Dhabi | An address for every home Abu Dhabi represents a recent case of a city that has embraced a large scale revamping of its street signage with the aim to not only make navigation easier for residents but also for the police, ambulance and fire services, by cutting emergency response times. The new simplified address system is expected to improve distribution of goods, boost businesses and tourism. In addition, the project is envisioned to establish a unique identity for the Emirate, combining a ‘fresh, modern outlook with the best of our local culture’. It is to ensure that ‘every street has a name; homes and offices have their own unique address’ totalling up to ‘12,000 street names, 200 district names and 20,000 road signs’ along with simplifying 200,000 addresses, following an Emiratewide standard.
2.3 New York | New Generation street signs New street signage in New York demonstrates a step towards implementing common standards for signage in typography and surface reflectivity for the entire country. It also brings focus on the font type - CLEARVIEW which was chosen to bring ‘clarity and simplicity to street design.’ Over 250,000 street signs are to be renewed over time. 7
3. THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED 3.1 Accommodating all stakeholders Users can be broadly classified into three types – motorists, cyclists and pedestrians including those with special needs such as people that are visually impaired. In order for street signage to be effective all these typologies, elements like font sizes, height of installation for signage boards and texture used in signage design need to correspond to their varying needs.
Marenahalli road, J P Nagar, 2nd Phase
Ulsoor Lake 6 km
Jayanagar 4th Block Bus stop Electronic city
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Majestic 3.5 km
Richmond
CROSS, J P NAGAR, II PHASE ಕ್ರಾಸ್ ಜೆ ಪಿ ನಾಗರ್ II ಹಂತದ
ಮುಂದೆ ಶಾಲಾ School Ahead
Pedestrians
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Visually impaired pedestrians
Vehicles on inner city roads
Vehicles on arterial roads
3.2 Readability Four key factors contribute to legibility – font type, font size, colour and texture
3.2.1 Type and size of Fonts Font types serve a pragmatic role of directly influencing readability, while also lending character and a distinct aesthetic to the place they are used in. Though, fonts had a time in history of distinguishing cities and it is not so anymore. Choosing a font type for city signage still has an important role to play in building an identity/brand. A well known example is the use of the font Bristol Transit, in Bristol, UK designed to project the image of being ‘modern and confident’. Others include Johnston Sans font for the London tube, Futura by London’s Southwark Borough (also widely used in signage world over) and ClearviewHwy font for street signage in New York. Font sizes however directly relate to visibility based on varying requirements of viewing distances for user types such as pedestrians or motorist on arterial.
Futura, London
ClearviewHwy, New York
Street Signage, Bengaluru
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3.2.2 Colour and texture Colour in signage can be dominantly seen to serve two purposes. One is reflecting the perceptions of the identity of a place. The other is related to associating a select colour with certain function/meaning. For example: Blue and green are commonly used for direction signage in both local and main arterial roads since they offer high contrast and clear visibility. Red is a recognized colour for regulatory signage, while yellow is largely used for cautionary/warning signage. Cases from other cities suggest that location signage on local streets where long distance readability is not as important a criteria, often tend to follow colour schemes and styles reflecting a more local character of the place such as the white, black and red colour combination for street names in London. Texture in signage design is most relevant in physically drawing attention as seen in braille tiles on pavements meant to assist visually impaired pedestrians.
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3.3 Comprehension To ensure signage is understood by all users, it is important that the main languages used by citizens of the city are represented in it. In Bengaluru, all street signs are supposed to be in kannada and english. In London, it is observed that in localities with dominant non-english speaking population, the foreign language is also included in the street signage along with the English text. In addition, complementing textual information with pictograms, recognized by a more diverse linguistic group can enhance communication. This practice seen in several cities stands to also project a gesture of inclusiveness for residents and visitors.
3.4 Memorability & Sign registration Along with making signage comprehensible, an important aspect is to ensure that signage is registered by the users, particularly in case of warning signs. Research studies show a ‘sign that evokes more perceived movement increases the observer’s perception of risk, which in turn brings about earlier attention and earlier stopping’ and hence their memorability. Simplicity of design for easy recognition and (search and attention) conspicuity are additional facets to be kept in mind in making signage effective in the complex visual environments such as road scenes.
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3.5 Completeness Signage must be seen as a piece of information or instruction that in some cases requires just one element complete in itself. While in others it may be a set of several complementary pieces that work together, requiring simultaneous implementation to be fully effective. For example: A single sign is enough for street names while signage for one way streets requires a set of 4 complementary instructions such as - a one way sign at entry point of traffic, a vertical no left/right turn sign and horizontal marking on the road surface for the same. In addition to this, a ‘no entry’ signage is needed from the reverse direction of the one way street to disallow any traffic in the wrong direction. Similar logic applies to other scenarios such as pedestrian walkways, where a zebra crossing is not enough but needs to be accompanied with a vertical sign in the line of sight of motorists and pedestrians visible from a distance.
NO
ONE WAY
ENTRY No entry on one way street for traffic going towards the junction
Left turn arrow signage painted white on the ground
One way and no right turn signs for the two way streets
J P Nagar, 2nd Phase Marenahalli road, Bus stop Jayanagar 4th Block Electronic city
Two way streets
9th Cross
J P Nagar, II Phase
ONE WAY
NO EN
TR Y
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,
CROSS
PHASE J P NAGAR, 2ND
ಕ್ರಾಸ್ ಜೆ ಪಿ ನಾಗರ್
ರಂಗ ಶಂಕರ (ನಾಟಕ),
2 ಹಂತದ
, 23rd Main
RANGASHANKARA
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ಮುಖ್ಯ
BANGAL
ಬೆಂಗಳೂರORE CENTRA ು ಕೇಂ L ದ್ರ
Y E WA
ON
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ಮುಂದೆ ಶಾಲಾ School Ahead
L CHOO OL S ZONE SCHO E ZON
SCHOOL ZONE
ZONE END
SCHOOL
SLOW ZONE
NE ZO D EN
OL CHO E S OL ZON 0 CHO 2S E ZON
NE ZO D EN
ZONE END
Speed Limit
ಲಾ ೆ ಶಾ d ea ಮುಂದ ol Ah Scho
Speed
Limit
The images on the left show an example of warning signage near schools constituting a combination of the following:
1. Warning light 2. Speed Zone 3. Timings 4. Signage on the road
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3.6 Consistency In order for signage to become easily recognizable and facilitate more intuitive navigation, it needs to be consistent throughout the city. This requires standardization in design of signage (font types, sizes, colours, symbols, markings etc) and its implementation on ground. In other words, signage for one type of use/area must follow the same colours, fonts or symbols etc, to avoid any confusion. Further, this requirement also needs to inform the technical construction details of signage so that it allows for alterations or replacement on site as required without change of appearance.
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3.7 Continuity In addition to meeting the above mentioned criteria, signage infrastructure needs to be continuous covering all areas of the city, so that it is accurate and reliable. Making signage continuous also involves assisting commuters to move through multi-modal infrastructure such as buses metro – bike sharing or between different hierarchies such as ring roads – arterial road - local road.
3.8 Clutter avoidance Further, in the implementation of signage on ground, it must follow basic guidelines to avoid visual and physical clutter. This is important as cluttering has an impact on ease of navigation, readability of signage instructions and even safety of the users, particularity pedestrians.
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3.9 Construction Detailing The images 1, 2 below illustrate examples of signage in London and New York that demonstrate the use of modular systems that allow for easy construction and maintenance/alteration of signs as necessary. This complements the requirement of standardization of signage by supporting pre-fabrication of signs and guaranteeing consistency over a long period. In comparison, currently signage seen in Bengaluru is mostly a welded construction with handwritten information. While images 3, 4 demonstrate a fixing detail of signage structures designed to ensure a stable foundation and be flush to the pavement surface giving a neat visual appearance.
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4 IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY Looking at the Indian context considering the scale of deficits, urgencies at ground and long gestation period of implementation of public infrastructure, implementation of street signage needs to be prioritized first covering areas of highest risk or impact. The process can be imagined as adding individual layers of information on the streets one after another. A suggestion of the sequence is stated below, though the phasing of individual elements within may vary as per local needs.
4.1 Street Safety Given that there are thousands of accidents happening on the Indian roads every year, signage for street safety needs to be prioritized to reduce conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. The following can be seen as one set: I. Pedestrian Crosswalks II. Slow zone for Schools/Hospital III. Speed Limit IV. Bump Ahead V. Foot over-bridge/under bridge/flyover ahead
4.2 Ease of navigation Navigation signage consists of way finding instructions from source point and destination. However, the way it is implemented can encourage one mode of transport over the other, such as assisting and promoting walking or use of public transport over cars. It can also greatly influence the routes people take to a particular destination. Vehicular traffic management aside, other factors can include the experience of a route over the other. Learning from the legible cities movement and space syntax, another factor is the desire line – making signage to follow ‘the path people want to take’. Signage system to include: I. Direction to specific local areas II. Direction and distance to landmarks, things of interest, transport terminals - Airport/Major bus stand/Railway Station III. One way street IV. Left turn/right turn/free turn/ U turn
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V. VI. VII. VIII.
Bus/Metro stops and routes Auto stand/Taxi stand Parking Lots/No parking for private cars and two wheelers Goods loading/unloading and identifying routes for transport trucks
4.3 Identification of public services and things of interest An aspect to note with regard to recreation/tourism related signage is that it is like a curation exercise. It should not only include malls, because the programmes and business selectively highlighted will characterise the perception of the place. Signage system to include: I. Library/Community Centre/Sports Stadiums II. Parks, lakes, markets, museums III. Tourism trails IV. Public Utilities: Offices and billing centres of BESCOM, BWSSB etc. V. Public Toilets VI. Police Station/Fire Station
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5 DESIGN AND COSTING OPTIONS 5.1 Sign Positioning Vertical signage should be in the utility zone of 0.6m from the road side, giving clear width for people to walk and avoiding obstructions for the private vehicles.
5.2 Mounting height Mounting height of signage depends on minimum clearance space for various types of users. • Vertical signage such as street name, parking on pavements - 2.1m. • Vertical signs for pedestrian crossing or slow zone signage for school meant to be visible for motorists and pedestrians – 1.5m • Overhead signage on arterial roads – 5.1m
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