What's the big deal? It's just a few signs

Early feedback on yesterday's post about the Ruskin Street bike boulevard proposal falls into two camps: residents who feel the City isn't particularly concerned about what the neighborhood thinks (one reader called it "cramming down our throats") and folks who wonder what the problem is. "It's just a few signs, you'll hardly notice."

Really?

The City's model for a bike boulevard is to post two signs and four "sharrows" on every block, plus a special street sign at every intersection. I assume this was developed for the boulevards on E. Main, E. Mifflin, and Kendall, where the blocks are 600-700 feet long. But on Ruskin our blocks are a third as long, on which the City plans to put up and paint 100 signs and stencils - on average, 1 traffic control device every 48 feet.

Here's what this would look like, from my house:

 

Too many signs and other traffic control devices can, in fact, be counterproductive. A British study from 2008 found that a high number of signs could cause more accidents. And the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices cautions engineers to post only as many signs as are necessary.

This seems like a classic case of engineers and planners designing something without thinking about what it'll actually look like on the ground. But that's not the only concern we have, as I'll explain in subsequent posts.