Manhattan, NY – New Parking Signs Aim to Make Rules Easier to Understand

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    Officials unveiled new parking signs in Midtown on Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. The signs aim to make parking regulations easier to read and understand.(Photo Credit: NYC DOT)Manhattan, NY – New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Council Member Daniel R. Garodnick today unveiled newly designed and simplified parking regulation signs in Midtown’s commercial parking areas, making it easier to see and read signs while reducing their size.

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    The initial rollout replaces 6,300 parking regulation signs of varying colors, typefaces, font sizes and sometimes confusing phrasing with streamlined and standardized two-color signs that are phrased and formatted for easier readability.

    Council Member Garodnick first proposed simplifying the City’s parking regulation signs in 2011. Working collaboratively with the City Council, DOT developed the new, easy to read signs, which will be installed in Midtown’s paid commercial parking areas through the spring and installation will follow in other parts of the city. The Commissioner, Speaker Quinn and Council Member Garodnick unveiled the signs at West 55th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, where they were first installed.

    “New York City’s parking signs can sometimes be a five-foot-high totem pole of confusing information,” said Commissioner Sadik-Khan. “Parking signs play an important role in setting the rules at the curbside and these changes will make regulations easier to read and take the stress out of figuring out where and when you can legally park.”

    “Most good ideas are simple,” said Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “The City’s new parking signs are compact and easy to read and understand, and I thank the Department of Transportation and Commissioner Sadik-Khan for working with the Council to simplify parking regulations for all New Yorkers.”

    “You shouldn’t need a Ph.D in parking signage to understand where you are allowed to leave your car in New York,” said Council Member Garodnick, a longtime supporter of syntactic clarity. “The days of puzzled parkers trying to make sense of our midtown signs are over. I was pleased to work directly with DOT, removing unnecessary words in these signs, cleaning up their appearance, and the result is a simple, clear product that people will understand.”

    The simplified signs will be located throughout Manhattan’s paid commercial parking areas, running generally from 60th Street downtown to 14th Street and from Second to Ninth Avenues, with additional areas in the Upper East Side, Lower Manhattan and the Financial District.

    The 6,300 signs that DOT will replace in Midtown and Lower Manhattan include 3,300 commercial parking signs and 3,000 other signs for nighttime and weekend parking for the general public, hotel and taxi stands, street cleaning and no standing areas.

    The new signs reduce the number of characters needed to explain the rules from 250 to about 140, making the sign appear less visually cluttered while reducing five-foot-high signs by about a foot. The new design also places the day of the regulation before the hours of the regulation, eliminating abbreviations and retaining all necessary parking information while making it easier to read.


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    10 Comments
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    DRE53
    DRE53
    11 years ago

    If you really want to simplify it just put 1 big sign at each entrance to Manhattan saying “no parking anywhere”

    pbalaw
    pbalaw
    11 years ago

    Wonder which relative owns the sign company

    DRE53
    DRE53
    11 years ago

    Oy vey!
    This will probably result in less illegally parked cars which in turn will generate less parking tickets revenue for bloomberg. Who knows what he’ll come up with to cover the loss?

    RebKlemson
    RebKlemson
    11 years ago

    If you take away the Pay at Muni meter sign it sure does look smaller but doesnt create any spots. take the train

    sasregener
    sasregener
    11 years ago

    Mazal tov. It took 30 years. Better latet than never

    Yipyap
    Yipyap
    11 years ago

    I always found the signs a pleasure to read. They really clarified things for me

    Benjey
    Benjey
    11 years ago

    Its all controlled by the parking garages every time i go to manhatan when i read the signs i have to do a process of elimination

    mewhoze
    mewhoze
    11 years ago

    just another way to give people tickets and get more money.

    Rivkah
    Rivkah
    11 years ago

    the “metered” parking in the new sign is so small that many people will miss it. couldn’t they make that bold?