Lessons From London: Show Me the Way
No doubt you've seen visitors, or a resident for that matter, walking aimlessly, sometimes map in hand trying to find their way to a hotel or destination. Why isn’t downtown or some of our other visitor magnets more user-friendly? Take these wayfinding signs found throughout London and other cities around the globe. They are a simple and low-key way to assist discombobulated visitors.
A good wayfinding system is important to a successful city. Buffalo has a series of color-coded directional road signs at a few downtown area intersections. How about pedestrians? What about elsewhere? We can do better.
Wayfinding helps people navigate through a community or to specific locations such as public buildings, parks, shopping areas, attractions, and historic sites. A unified, user-friendly wayfinding and street sign system can help establish a community theme or identity and if done with creative graphics, a sense of excitement and energy. They should be part of a cohesive sign strategy and combined with “you are here” maps for pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders that enhance their experience. If the Inner Harbor takes off, don’t we want visitors to know what else there is to do downtown and along the waterfront?
Signage often conveys the first impression of a community, it has the ability to welcome, orient and guide visitors. Buffalo is spending millions to increase its tourist numbers. Simple things done right can make a big difference.
What Others Have To Say
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Comment Options
HelenWheels
As long as the city planners allow for individual community input, this would be a godsend. Many times the city has no idea of the attributes of an area. That's why input is essential.
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Spoiled
They are great!
We could even ask local businesses to sponsor a pole in exchange their business name plate could be added to the pole. This could help with purchase and replacement (when the time comes).
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GoldenLark
I like London's signs better than most cities, because the directional arrows are on the street corners. Many cities have signs with 2 dimensional arrows placed a good distance before the indicated turn, catering to drivers. It's often hard to judge exactly where the arrows are pointing. In London, you can't go wrong. I really hope Buffalo adopts this system.
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sbrof
exactly, I lived by these kinds of signs in Germany, Even if they are not pointing you to the exact place you need to go they keep you from getting lost because you always know which way it is to the city center, or market etc.
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sbrof
ohh and distances on the signs are also very helpful. It is nice to know that it might be 1 or 2 kilometers or miles to a place and not just a vague, in this direction arrow.
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Medina_Sandstone
Maps and signs I wish we had:
How to find the (embarrassing) downtown Amtrak station and get from there to the NFTA Station and to hotels & restaurants. Out-of-towners using rail get a dreadful first impression of Buffalo and if they arrive when the station is closed (which is most of the time), there is nothing to help them find their way around. It's shameful.
How to find Elmwood Avenue shops & services from downtown
How to find Central Terminal & Broadway Market from downtown
How to find Elmwood shops & cafes from the Peace Bridge
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Buffalopundit
And if the city or NFTA bothered to look into a contract with JC Decaux or Wall, AG it could get these types of signs (and other street furniture) for free.
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DowntownGuy
Some maps of the downtown core and a metro map with highlights of the major attractions and shopping districts would be GREAT! I've seen them on 34Th. Street in NYC, and even in downtown Cleveland near Tower City has a the Map Stands "You are here" with hightlights of what the city has to offer. I find it so annoying to hear of how people made a stop in downtown Buffalo and thought "That was it" and were never directed towards Allentown, Elmwood, Museum District, yet instead told to visit the Galleria Mall...... Eww. No wonder many people have a bad impression on this town. A few simple maps, better directions can do wonders. Are we going to see any of these soon?
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Logical1
The signs that are currenlty up downtown (for drivers) are so out dated- They advertise SHOPPING around the Main Place Mall area...LOL. We need to remove those signs and direct people towards the Elmwood Ave/Allen St. area instead. If your not from here and you go towards the Mall (or what used to be a mall) your not going to come up with any retail what so ever. Can I suggest putting up map stands at Niagara Square, Lafayette Square, Main/Chippewa, Delaware/Chippewa, Main/Church, Elmwood/Allen....These are busy corners and have room for such a stand to direct people on where the major attractions are.
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StreetcarSuburbanite
I could have sworn I saw a post just like this on another blog recently....
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halljd39
Buffalo needs to advertise the Buffalo Zoo. For instance, there needs to be signage on the thruway, (90, 290, 190, 33, etc...) to guide people to The Zoo. How would out-of-towers know that we even had a zoo if we did not have ample singage. Buffalo needs to think in terms of attracting people to the things,events,attractions that are readily available, not to the things are "might-be.' Comments, suggestions, I would love to hear from the people of Buffalo, as I would love to get my foot in the door in local politics, yes politics.
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