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A case of many cities in developing countries and beyond.
Sense of getting lost and directionless in your own city can be a scary experience! More frequent is the phenomenon associated with planned cities compared to those towns and settlements which have evolved organically. Reason being several planned cities tend to get overwhelmingly repetitive in its modular spatial forms, sometimes making it unnerving during commute, while organically evolved cities usually boast multitude of visual cues and anchors to build a memorable streetscape.
Feeling disoriented or experiencing a sense of Déjà vu in a city is so common that people may repeatedly be unsure about correctness of path taken or exit chosen or flyover crossed on a daily basis on a routine path, as familiar as home-work-home.
Feeling of trapped in a maze is quite obvious and frequent a phenomenon in large residential neighbourhoods when it's sometimes difficult to orient yourself and finding an exit route seems a Herculean task, compounded by encountering random access gate closure.
It may take weeks or even months to actually being able to memorise or to get familiar with even frequented route, and then it's easy to forget again. It is clear that Legibility by labels or signage on its own and in all of it's collective forms, types and glory is certainly not being able to make a city legible in one go even for its regular citizens not to speak of visitors of city.
You cannot entirely rely on signage for navigation in a city, signage which are sometimes broken, sometimes vandalised, sometimes wrongly placed, sometimes unreadable by design, sometimes hidden from sight due to tree and plant foliage, sometimes owing to bad or no illumination. There are still only limited segment of citizens who actually or frequently are comfortable with or using or relying on GPS navigation maps and apps, and they who use such tools also encounter challenges like network connectivity, distracted driving.
Also acknowledging that a commuter driving a vehicle and continuously looking for signage and clues for direction is a potential threat on road due to lack of focus.
A careful attention and planning in terms of landscape variation and vegetation arrangement, landscape and urban design elements, lighting arrangements, architectural theme and design, facade articulation and zoning regulations, structural innovation etc. in combination with time tested and some better signage may possibly be the solution and attempt towards better legibility of a city!
Author: Anoop Jha
#urbanplanning #urbandesign #smartcity #landscape #municipality #municipalcorporation #neighbourhood #transportplanning