Also, just buying or even stealing spray paint is a much bigger challenge these days. I was repainting my steel mailbox last year and had to get a guy to unlock the spray paint case at Home Depot. They’re required by law not to sell to kids and to keep kids from stealing the stuff.
Agreed, and yet some gang is bombing local restaurants with their tag.
Despicable.
And some of the signs are in Braille. Can anyone imagine a more politically correct stupidity than insisting subway signs be presented in Braille?
Imagine a blind person taking a ride on the subway. If they DON’T already know where they’re going, are they going to randomly feel every vertical flat surface in hopes that it contains useful information? Really?
Well there’s some standardization with regard to the location of the signage. In addition, not everyone that uses Braille is 100% visually impaired.
Fuck Yeah! It’s like those politically-correct assholes want to make public transportation available and safe for everyone.
I see blind people on the subway and busses pretty regularly. How the hell else are they supposed to get around, drive?
That would certainly make NYC traffic more entertaining.
Actually, it’s not a bad explanation for why NYC drivers drive like they do.
Class of '94, checking in.
Two years in each building.
I don’t know any of the details, but in addition to what jaymosch said I wouldn’t be surprised if such standardization can be taken to an advanced level so the blind passenger knows exactly where the sign will be based on which door he or she exits the train from.
For those who haven’t ridden on a metro system recently, which probably takes in most North Americans, automated loudspeaker announcements of upcoming stations and transfer points is pretty much the standard these days, so blind passengers have no problem knowing where they have to leave the train. For that matter, I think all the buses in my city have this as well.
Visiting NYC from DC always seems like an adventure into a wilder subway world. DC metro is pretty darn orderly and sedate. NYC…a little less so. I agree that DC signage is exceptionally clear, and more importantly, it is standardized. The maps, station markers, etc. are always in the same place at every station. You don’t have to think about it.
What gets me about NYC stations is you don’t know what you are going to get. You can follow a sign, and it may take you down to a platform. Or, it may lead you through a crazy maze going up and down stairs for god knows how long. I think it would all feel a lot less confusing if there was some way to know where these signs were actually taking you and what you could expect on the way.
I also get tripped up by platforms going only one direction.
Here’s my problem with DC signage (which as noted, makes no sense to me).
In NY the signs are oriented to the platform and the direction of travel. You have choices like “keep going straight ahead” (straight arrow) “turn right or left” (arrow pointing in the exact direction you need to turn) or weirdos like “go forward for a bit then reverse direction to get the right staircase” (U-turn arrow).
However in DC the posts are set at an angle to the direction of travel. thus, all arrows point in some direction other than the one you’re suppose to walk in, and at times walking in the direction the arrow is pointing is actually impossible, because it points to a wall or the track. Apparently “arrow pointing off at a 45 degree angle” means “keep walking forward” not “go the way the sign points.”
For example. In order to transfer to the Green, according to this sign, you walk diagonally across the platform until you fall off onto the track.
Not to say I can’t eventually figure out this directional post – but I do have to stand, and stare, and think, and look around for some context that will make this sign make sense. Because it’s pretty obvious I’m not supposed to actually follow the sign, but rather, use it as a navigational suggestion. NYC signs are not suggestions, they are commands. The NYC subway says “do it like I say, or fuck off.” DC metro says “if you really loved me, I wouldn’t have to explain myself.”
The two systems, both equally valid, are inherently confusing if you’re used to the other. It’s like the difference between direct and indirect forms of politeness.
Waterfront Station isn’t a transfer station, so that sign can’t be telling you which way you have to walk in order to transfer. The arrow is pointing directly to the TRAIN you should board if you want to go towards the stations listed under the arrow.
Arrows showing you which way to walk through a station don’t point you in the direction of the track.
That sign isn’t pointing directly at anything. Certainly not directly left and right at each side of the platform. My point.
Are you saying that it is NOT the case that directional posts of every type stand at a 45 degree angle to travel?
I would go so far as to say it is a hallmark of the system that DC signposts never point directly at the direction of travel, but always at an angle to the direction of travel. It is rarely, if ever, the case that you must follow the sign literally, or even that you should. It’s fine, it’s just a difference in expectation. If you are used to the NYC system of following signage literally, it’s confusing.
You just said that if you followed that arrow, you would walk off the platform and fall onto the track. Which track? *The track where the train you want to board will be *
Look at that picture at Smithsonian station. on the wall in the background is the station sign. That sign has arrows pointing the way to the two exits of the station, exactly in the direction of travel.