Guerrilla wayfinding sign at 3rd and East Capitol Streets SE, City Walker/Eastern Market Main Street

Don't know what's up with this. This is the only sign I saw going eastbound for many blocks. I do like that they've used the basic "City Walker" template. Some groups do their own thing and usually it's not better. But that could be said for this effort, which is different from the original Walk [Your City] tactical urbanism.



I have been thinking for many years that DC's wayfinding signage, created c. 2000 has long been in need of a rethinking.

-- "National Mall 'stuff'," 2009
-- "Florida Market proof of concept wayfinding signage and the need for a wayfinding conference," 2009
-- "The real question is far broader than the state of the DC area subway map," 2010

This piece takes the thinking in new directions:

-- "World Usability Day, Thursday November 9th and urban planning," 20

Of course, the fact that so many other entities, especially the National Park Service and the Architect of the Capitol, and WMATA, the area transit agency, do their own thing, doesn't help.

Cities like London (although it didn't start with them) aim to link their transit mapping systems with their wayfinding systems and extend this to other forms of mobility (like maps at bike sharing kiosks). So that if we were like London, the maps on bike sharing systems would be from the same design family as the maps on wayfinding signage and at transit stations and stops.