Checking the Marxists for Keynes mail bag: in reply to my post on improving Boston’s navigability for tourists, Dave writes:
re: improving Boston for tourists (and residents)…one word. Signage. Either I’m blind to it because I know where I’m going or it’s just not there…but it seems to me that Boston is horrible in terms of demarcating how to get places in the city. One example (albeit in Cambridge) is that for years I took the subway to the Lechmere Green line stop for work. Aside from those who go there everyday for work, I’d say 90% of the people going to Lechmere for the 1st time are either going to one of the courthouses or the Galleria mall. No signage directs people to either of those places–and one constantly heard people asking directions to both.
Similarly, signage for both vehicles and pedestrians is scant for major venues like Fenway Park, Fleet Center, Copley Square, Boston Common, etc. There are few maps located outside of t-stations (Orange line has them inside the stations). Very little demarcation between neighborhoods (unlike Chicago which if I recall does this quite well).
Of course this lack of signing for pedestrians lies alongside the lack of adequate road signage for drivers. While some cities are worse (Providence, for one), Boston has that annoying New England habit of marking cross streets but not the main road, with the effect that out of towners never know which road they’re currently on. Correcting this would likely require a tectonic shift in infrastructure mentality and resources, so maybe starting with pedestrian signage would make more sense.
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