Signage and way-finding systems are an important tool in navigating the city, for different user groups such as residents, visitors, shoppers and commuters. A good signage and way-finding system does a lot more than just tell vehicles and pedestrians that ‘You are Here.’
They can reinforce an area’s history, architecture and landmarks, help improve traffic flow and ease the transition between vehicle, pedestrian and transit use. It also helps reduce visual clutter and provide clarity and information crucial to the city user.
Bengaluru consists of myriad signs of different eras, various jurisdictions and often put up by multiple agencies. Some older localities retain the yellow painted concrete signs showing road name and locality, whereas some have signs that include ward name, name of the corporator, MLA, sometimes including photographs.
Inconsistent signages
The signs are often in English or Kannada, and rarely in both languages. The height and size of the signage is inconsistent and its location, often behind vegetation or other poles, obscures it. Traffic signage for parking, stop signs, turns and one-way signs are at times illegible to the passing vehicle, inconveniently and incorrectly placed or completely absent. A majority of all signage in the city is directed towards vehicles, failing to provide directions to pedestrians, commuters and cyclists.
While the Bengaluru Smart City and TenderSure guidelines specify a standardised street name sign, showing the road name in Kannada and English along with a direction board, creating a hierarchy in street and information contained in the signage would be helpful to maintain consistency across the city.
Legible information
An efficient signage system for the city should enhance orientation and way-finding for pedestrian as well as vehicular users. It should include direction signs, traffic signs, location signs, and emergency warnings. The information should be distinct and legible and their placement can be used to successfully navigate in key places with high pedestrian volumes such as transit stops, parks, public facilities and markets.
Additional information on the sign such as historic relevance, information on ecology, directional systems or directories can provide an enriching experience through the urban environment, defining a sense of place. For example, the Cubbon Park way-finding signage installed in 2019 is designed to help navigate the park and its surroundings and help uncover details of its rich history and biodiversity.
Though the directional signage near the ‘Namma Metro’ stations have been quite successful in guiding commuters to and from the stations, additional information that provides details of nearby bus stops, auto stands, walkable distances etc. can be quite useful in navigating the city. In fact, many bus stops in Bengaluru do not have names, bus routes, timings and other essential information that would help the commuters.
Encouraging walkers
Furthermore, signage at popular transit destinations such as shopping areas, civic centres, inter-city rail stations, and entertainment venues, help guide the people to the nearest transit stop. In fact, evidence from cities such as London suggests that way-finding systems encourage walking and transit usage when they provide multimodal information and adopt the pedestrian perspective.
Apart from key locations in the city such as historic landmarks, popular public spaces and shopping streets, pedestrian signage in neighbourhoods can guide the resident to public amenities such as parks, playgrounds, police stations, schools and hospitals.
Safety precaution
Way-finding in urban areas proves to be critical beyond basic navigation. In a city like Bengaluru, where large road and transit infrastructure projects are being undertaken and will continue for the foreseeable future, the need for legible signage in the correct location showing details of road closures, detours, and safety precaution becomes necessary to ensure smooth movement of people and vehicles.
While there are some good initiatives being taken up in Bengaluru regarding the sorry state of signage in the city, there needs to be an effort undertaken to standardise them across the board. A signage and way-finding strategy for the city, can not only improve navigation within the city, encourage walking and public transport usage, but also create a sense of pride in the city residents as it informs them about the city history, its biodiversity, and its public amenities and can enhance their experience in navigating through the city.
(The writer is an architect and urban designer)