As a motorcyclist myself, one of the things that stuck in my memory from my trip to Vietnam last year, was how many motorbikes there were, and, more amazingly, how the drivers negotiated traffic. What seemed like total chaos in the beginning, turned out to be a well-oiled system.

Have a look at the video:

Anybody with a ‘western’ driver education would get in trouble here; expecting road users to stick to their side of the road or give way to the right or left.

So why does it work then? I think the answer is simple: Vietnamese understand and appreciate other users on the road. There is very little ‘I am right – you are wrong’ or ‘I am stronger/bigger/more aggressive/faster/flashier/younger/older/etcetera than you, and therefore I have the right of way’ going on there. Everyone slows down and lets other road users get on their way.

How different is this from our western environments! Lately, I have noticed so many traffic signs for behaviour that really could be resolved by applying common sense, or already existing rules.

What about this one:

Give Way in Miller Street, Fitzroy North

This photo was taken in a secondary, build-up, suburban street, where the maximum speed is 50km/h. The ’slow-down’ points allow for one car passing, emphasising the fact that one is meant to slow down here….. Would I speed up to ‘beat’ the car coming from the other side? No, I would not. Would you? Or would you look at the situation, and then sort out between the two drivers who goes first? And if the other one seems to apply to the ‘I am stronger/bigger/more aggressive/faster/flashier/younger/older/etcetera than you, and therefore I have the right of way’ category, perhaps he should go first then….

Capital City Trail sign

This is an other one: Taken on the Capital City Trail, one of the main cycling routes through Melbourne. Clearly a cycle path, with no cars. So, ‘authorised’ (?) maintenance vehicles use this path. What does this sign mean then? Has it now become the responsibility of the cyclist to be safe? Would the cyclist without that sign demand to cycle through/across/over the maintenance vehicle, because it is on his path? Or should the maintenance crew make sure they create a safe environment when they enter the cyclist’s? And perhaps both groups can work that out between themselves. I promise I will not shout at the maintenance crew when they are on the cycle path, and trust they will look out for me when they are working there.

And finally, this one: A train track crossing on the shared foot/cycle path that leads to the park from where I live.

Northcote – train track crossing

First, I got a bit confused because of the ‘No Entry’ sign on the gate on the left, which seems to be only applicable for the little caged area on the left. The environment clearly said ‘this is a path’ (being a continuation of that foot/bike path and all….. So I had to look out for trains? Thanks for that, I would not have done that, were the warning not there. I am well known for intentionally getting into life threatening situations! And I could not cycle across? Why not, would that not get me to safety faster than walking??

And here is a bonus photo: at the end of a no-through road. With big, big, trees behind it. And a strip of about 15 meters of grass in front of it. But thanks, now I know I should not drive through the bushes there……

Northcote – Road Ends

I would love to hear from our blog readers what you think about this sort of signage, and perhaps you have some interesting examples of nanny signage too!

Source:Cygnus blog and Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED)

How cool is this! Initiated in 2002, this “recyclable” sound like barrier fence is located along Route 322 at the gateway to Meadville. Read Between the Signs (RBTS) involves the design and fabrication of a sculptural relief made of discarded road signs and featuring solar- and wind-powered kinetic components. RBTS is attached to an existing chain link fence and depicts images and forms of local mountains, a watershed, roads, workers, farms and forests. This sculptural “fence” beautifies the gateway to Meadville, while creating a unique sense of place and identity for their community.

There goes our theory: Too many signs make an environment eligible – In Meadville they created the ultimate signage recycling exercise with 1000’s of signs and made their city very recognisable by creating a landmark along the gateway to Meadville!

Coles is the second largest supermarket chain in Australia. It has over 740 stores nationally and over 100,000 employees.

Their head office in Tooronga, Melbourne, has been going through an extensive make-over in the last 18 months; from a rabbit warren (affectionately named Starship Enterprise, because of its size and white shiny exterior), to open plan offices.

The main reason for the change was to encourage employees to communicate more and better with each other. Where individuals would pick up the phone to talk to a colleague or invite them to a ‘formal’ meeting, Coles saw benefits in creating an environment that encourages staff to ‘just walk over’ to someones desk, and have more informal and impromptu meetings.

Melbourne architects, Woods Bagot, did a great job opening up the building, but Coles found that navigation was still too difficult, with the result that staff still did not get of their chair enough! ID/Lab was asked to develop a navigation and placemaking strategy to ‘improve communication’ and ‘get staff to utilise it to it’s fullest potential – actively & easily engaging through the building’.

Critical to any solution is an understanding of how the current environment is perceived and used, and we issued a 3minute (yes-no answer) online survey for all staff, held focus group interviews and observational surveys to fully understand the building navigation and typical paths of travel.

The Coles Support Centre is inherently complex. The building is essentially several, linked buildings. The floor plates on each level have significantly different configurations and the work places are configured in a grid layout, with ‘streets’ cutting diagonally through the grid. Some of the results from the focus groups and surveys were that very few staff were able to create an accurate cognitive map of their workplace, and that the bad navigation created significant staff down-time, missed or late meetings, and an overall feeling of ‘not belonging’ and ‘feeling isolated’.

We have developed a strategy that addresses the issues found in the research stage, and are developing design guidelines for an holistic information system, which will address the current inconsistencies and provide a clearly comprehensible set of navigation tools. As soon as it has been implemented, we will show you the results!

Source: www.designswan.com

Design Swan discussed 8 Creative Metro Map themed designs on it’s blog. Who created them, and what was the idea behind it’s creation? We thought we could contribute to the subject by showing you a 9th design:

It’s ID/Lab’s website intro page which has indeed been based on the famous metro map. It goes well with what we do: Wayfinding/Wayshowing.

When we started the development of our website design, we set out to make the ease of navigation stand out…..  We thought it was important that you understand where you are at every step of the way, and can easily jump from one ‘destination’ to another.  You can choose between the “Projects”, “What we do” or “Profile” line. When you click on a project or subject name the coloured line moves with you to your chosen ID/Lab destination!

On the “project” line, once you have selected your destination, the sub-stations show-up:

Have a look, enjoy the ride and have a safe trip!

ID/Lab is looking for Wayfinding/Wayshowing Strategists.

You could come from a background of architecture, urban planning or graphic/interior/industrial design –or not, as long as you have good writing skills (quite a bit of our work is writing recommendation reports), are able to read architectural plans, have a “3-D mind”, are a problem solver and confident in dealing with clients.

The position is fulltime, from our Docklands location (easy access to public transport and bike paths!)

If this sounds interesting, please contact us here. If you know someone who fits the above criteria, could you please point them to this page??

Last month ANZ (the fourth largest bank in Australia, with operations throughout Australia and New Zealand, and twenty-five other countries) opened officially its new global HQ in Docklands, Melbourne. ID/Lab, in collaboration with Fabio Ongerato and Hassell Architects, developed a wayshowing strategy for this building. When all staff have moved in, it will house 6500 people, and with that becomes the largest office building in Australia.

As read on: www.sustainablerotterdam.com

How does the city contribute to make citizens’ life meaningful? How does it serve as a tool to develop their activities? Shoot-&-run doesn’t work here. Branding requires long term commitment to the story and values of a product or service.

It is what you have to offer that counts, and a bit of communication:

1. Identify core values of your city. What does it stand for? It is about accepting reality and extracting those values that unify every single citizen.
2. Define your personality. Every city has its own characteristics that make it unique; some are classic, contemporary, or eclectic. Can you clearly define yours? Act consistently.
3. Develop a consistent imagery. If branding is about telling a story that adds value to the product, it helps when there are recognisable visual elements attached to it. Design a logo, font type, colours, and style. Stick to it and apply to any media support. Additionally, exploit local imagery.
4. Preach by giving example. Translate values into actions when practicing city management and policy making. (I.e. don’t spend money publicising the economic penalisation of littering and at the same time allow it in public events)
5. Be open to ideas and contributions. Let the community build into city values. Provide communication channels; make it easy to speak out and always provide coherent feedback.

Note: Landmarks definitely contribute to building a city brand, as long as it adds to the story and it is appropriate for the context.

If for your city, you’re able to tick each element of the list with the mark done & in place, then we are talking about a world-class branded city. Citizens become fans when high level of engagement with the story is achieved.

ID/Lab is working with Parks Victoria (as part of the Taylor Cullity Lethlean team) on the development of a wayshowing system for the Point Nepean National Park site.

Point Nepean National Park is a popular tourist destination. Besides spectacular ocean scenery, the park is home to Fort Nepean, established in 1882, and the historic Quarantine Station first established in 1852, which was closed to the public for almost 150 years. It is located about 100km South of Melbourne.

Point Nepean NP presents a fabulous opportunity for ‘story-telling’. The wayshowing system should not only be a functional navigation tool, but enhance the visitors’ planning & experience by divulging the myriad of stories the site has to offer – historical, ecological, recreational. Online, hand-held and real-world experiences will all be considered and integrated to provide for a wayshowing system that invites the user to explore the park physically and educationally.

This video from the blog “Amsterdamize” (It’s 100% lycra free-guaranteed!) features a cold, wintry day in Amsterdam, but despite this there are plenty of cycle commuters on the streets. I’ve chosen this video because it shows what is possible for cyclists in a big, busy, cramped city as long as your council is prepared to put money in infrastructure. Imagine if all those people were sitting in their car, or were using public transport. Both roads and public transport providers wouldn’t be able to cope!

You can see the cyclists move around on the bike lanes that are separated from the pedestrians (if you look at the sheer amount of cyclists you understand why!) but also separated from the cars. Cycling is popular because a reasonably safe environment has been created for them. One can easily commute from A to B, for work, school, shopping, visiting friends… Cycling is cheap, The Netherlands is flat and there are 400km of dedicated cycle lanes in and around the entire city. No helmet is required, (wish it was the same here..) and it keeps you fit.

This video also gives you a good insight in bicycle parking facilities for a city that big. There is the famous multi-story bicycle parking (Fietsflat): built a few years ago as a temporary facility to hold 2500 bikes while work progresses on a permanent garage to hold 10,000 bikes. In fact, its estimated that there are often 4000 bikes crammed in to the “fietsflat”. Parking your bike here is free and its usually filled by mid-morning.

And finally look for the special bicycle crossing light: it counts down the seconds to a green light….

As I was born in Amsterdam myself and lived there a few years ago happily riding my bike, I can see the possibilities for Melbourne (or any other city for that matter!). It will never become a second Amsterdam (doesn’t have to) but wouldn’t it be great to get around from A to B on a bicycle in beautiful Melbourne on dedicated bike lanes away from cars and pedestrians?

(You can click through to some more videos by the same author negotiating Amsterdam on his push-bike)

Source: www.psfk.com

Yes, You read that correctly: Airplane wayfinding:

South Africa’s creative team for Kulula Airlines recently applied wayfinding to the various parts of the aircraft. Now every traveller can learn where the black box is!

We’ve often wondered (and are still wondering) what the numbers on the streets in Victoria Harbour, Docklands, Melbourne – mostly in front of the Etihad Stadium – mean. Would anyway know? Does it have to do with any sports that’s played in the stadium? Or with Docklands’ past? Were the piers numbered in this way? Or was it the urban designer who loved juggling with numbers?

If you know the answer please let us know. We love to have mysteries like those solved, and might even be able to use it as a landmark in navigating Docklands! Which is hard enough as it is at the moment… something we would love to solve as well!

Everyday on my way to work (on my pushbike), I notice these empty bike racks near the new Melbourne Convention Centre. I can’t help but thinking why “someone” decided to put these very sturdy, great looking bike racks in that particular spot under the freeway!

Are they part of the Convention Centre bicycle parking facilities or do they belong to the DFO South Wharf bicycle parking facilities? In both cases they seem to be a LONG WAY away from the actual precincts. And that’s exactly the reason why they are not used by ANYONE!

Anyone who rides a bicycle would agree with me, that like car drivers, you would like to park as close to your destination as you could.

Looking at the parking facilities for the car users, that’s exactly how it has been planned for car drivers. So why are these bike racks put in the spot they are?

Looking at the site I could have thought of more convenient spots for those bike racks. (eg opposite the entrances, same side as the parking machines. Along the wall dividing parking area and pedestrian path way).

Presently when I do visit DFO South Wharf I lock my bike to a street pole in front or close to the entrance, as other cyclists do.

When I looked for any directional signs to bicycle parking at South Wharf, I could not find any….. By coincidence, I did stumble across some other bicycle parking facilities. They are at the other DFO entrance, accessible from the Freeway exit/Docklands Highway/Lorimer Street.

I’m not sure if many cyclists would actually enter from this side. Certainly not if you are coming from the Docklands  via the Seafarer’s Bridge or CBD direction….Bicycle parking directional signage would certainly be helpful here.

There’s plenty of directional signage for car users, taxi users and pedestrians (including pedestrian crossing signs). Certainly cyclists appreciate and deserve some helpful hints too