Ulmo
Active Member
I count thirteen (13) lines of text (and symbols) in that first picture you posted. Those 13 lines are composed of 24 words and five (5) symbols. Those 24 words + 5 symbols are spread across four (4) high hierarchy sections, with 2 subsections of which each has subsections of its own, three for the left pane and two for the right pane. In addition, the left subection has a yellow subsubsection in it. The top of the two subsections has its own inverse subsection, with small text. There is no way a driver can read all of that and get any sense of what is going on, and realize that the lane drives them straight into the sword tip of a wall, simultaneously. It is quite near the worst type of signage possible.
The signs are too big, with too much space for too much crap on them. They need simple small signs, like this:
In this example, there are two panes, with four symbols: a leftist diagonal arrow, a rightish diagonal arrow, and the two freeway symbols with numbers in them. Simple.
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Another type of sign that I find very simple and straightforward is the list of next three on the left of the freeway so you know you better get right for your exit; it has a simple pattern, so if you know you don't want to know that, you can skip it. Here is an example:
This tells you two things. First, it gives you an exact ordering of the next exact three exits. Second, if you happen to catch it, it tells you the distance to each.
Then, before you get to Evelyn Ave or Moffett Blvd, a sign to the right of the side of the road tells you you are about to exit on the correct exit, for instance, Evelyn Ave instead of 237 or Moffett, once you are hugging the right side.
In this example, there is just three lines (not 13) of text in a table format of only two simple columns: exit and distance. Very simple. No extra text or crap. Just information. Total of 11 words, but because it's lined up in a standard format that is simple and concise, all you have to do is scan left column for your destination and then read the right side for distance. Even if you don't have time to read the right side, the standard format tells you that, for instance, Evelyn Ave is second exit from now, so you can count exits, getting over right and slowing down, without knowing that it's exactly 1/2 mile. Or if all you could muster is reading the first column of the first line, then you know, for instance, that your exit, Evelyn Ave, is not the next exit, so you have at least one more exit to figure it out. (In that case, if you don't see the Evelyn exit tucked behind the from-237 merge onramp, you might find yourself at NASA wondering how you got there since you had to exit late, but at least you'd have not ended up on 237 stuck in Traffic from Hell.) I actually don't like my example as much as usual examples that don't have some confusing "237 to 101" wording, but I happened to pick one I use every day, and that was it, so whatever.
But in my crop of your screenshot, you can see an additional 6 signs: 1 blue, 1 white, and 4 green. What the hell?! That's just insanely intensely wrong. Way too many signs, and way too large crappy confusing signs at that.
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