Signboards in Bengaluru : How useful are they?

17 April 2008 - 9:24pm — VishalMaharaj

Signboards in Bangalore: It is very apparent that we are facing a tremendous space crunch in Bangalore, on road or beside it. Now, apart from expanding the city to accomodate the needs of ever increasing population, we can also modify the existing pattern to fit the needs. Lets take an example of the city signboards. What I have in mind here, is the ones made of concrete that have the street name, cross etc written on it. Now, how often in Bangalore have these signboards helped the people searching for an address? Lets leave the usefulness part of it. Now, look at its size. When made to stand on a footpath, it occupies so much of real estate, people are made to walk on roads. And again we got lots more signboards, the transformers occupying the pedastrian area, to add to the shabby floor work there. Ironically in many places we have bills pasted on these signboards, which renders it more useless than it already is.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3013/2421366710_044d0d474b_m.jpg My proposal: Do away with these concrete signboards. Use the existing pillars (the electric poles, the street lights etc and fix the sign boards to them. Someting like we see in the pic here)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2315/2421366716_cd446155f6_m.jpg Advantages : Space saved. Road looks clean and neat ( avoid giving room to these ugly posters). What say Praja?

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elections round the corner..

blrsri - 17 Apr 2008 - 10:46pm

This is gonna get real bad in the days to come as the elections are fast approaching..I am sure there are rules that ban defacing of boards..maybe we all can do like what our PhotoYogi does..take snaps and report! That might bring some order and embarass the politicians in the fotos..

About boards that you suggest..its good but lets be different..there is a potter st in all US towns..thats cos they really run short of street names for some reason..so simple name boards are fine there..

We have many roads named after eminent personalities..sometimes even on some who are not so great..its more like the hollywood walk of fame!

True our concrete structures are kind of dumb..maybe we can have something more interesting yet practical!

Metal Prices and Signboards

Rithesh - 18 Apr 2008 - 8:53am

Some time back during a talk with a BDA official about the bad state of signposts along ORR, he told me that due to the high metal prices, the metal plates and poles from these signposts are being ripped apart and sold in the market by people!!!

I dont know what stops BDA from using plastic signboards (atleast the sheets) which will not only solve this problem but will also be cheaper.

we have the worst

narayan82 - 18 Apr 2008 - 9:05am

we have the worst signage....its more like an excuse for advertising space... There is no consistency, the bus stop says Halasuru, the cross roads say Ulsoor, the road to Bannerghatta has 3 spellings of Bannerghata and consistent intervals! We need consistent innovative signage, since most of us are used to the city we never notice, but it can actually make a difference to lane discipline and organised traffic. I have been thinking of color signage, where you have each destinatio in acolour, and follow it through out. They had done it in Germany, and it proved quite useful. Delhi Ring Road has some quite good signage.

Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore

E.C

narayan82 - 18 Apr 2008 - 9:08am

Election commision must introduce a law where all parties must clean up thier messbefore results are announced else they will be disqualified.

Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore

Election and banners

silkboard - 18 Apr 2008 - 9:45am

EC announced a general display of banners (Report in Hindu). Here is the notification on EC website (link - don't disfigure public property)

BBMP has come out with its own guidelines for political parties on putting up banners etc. (today's paper).

So, if you see any political material hanging around on you building on roads or street furniture, I suggest take a picture and mail it to BBMP or EC.

Yes even on the NICE road

pradeep - 18 Apr 2008 - 9:59am

Yes even on the NICE road from Electronic city side the signages are missing. Its a good idea to use plastic(good idead Rithesh) but does it contributes anything to Global Warming.

Regards,

Pradeep

“An act of charity by the citizens questions the worthiness of the government.”

BBMP can quickly address signage and other problems

Bengloorappa - 18 Apr 2008 - 11:12am

BBMP is very keen on inviting tenders to make money using advertising all over and inside the newly built Magicbox underpass. If they demonstrate the same level of keenness in getting Pedestrian Skywalks implemented all over the city, then it can knock down two birds with one stone.

1. Outsource maintenance of the Skywalk to an agency on a BOT basis. The same agency manages the skywalk infrastructure using paid advertising. Infra includes Passenger Lifts, daily cleaning and maintenance, electricity costs etc
2. Installation of signage and other information systems under the skywalk for vehicular traffic at the cost of the agency, which again can dedicate a part of ad revenue for this purpose.

I am pretty sure someone must have thought about this, but, I dont know why it is not being implemented.

Reachable ones get stolen

idontspam - 18 Apr 2008 - 11:29am

ORR should be having large overhead sign boards well positioned on gantries and not small ones perked up on the pavement just next to the signal. This has become a standard excuse for not putting up any sign boards. Even developed countries have pilferage. Why dont they use overhead signage on major roads? Only small roads should have pavement boards. Why dont they make it on material which dont have resale value? why dont they pass a law making it an offence for scrap dealers to trade in official hardware? Penalize some offenders and set an example.

Metal Prices not a concern..

VishalMaharaj - 19 Apr 2008 - 10:28pm

Talking about the metal sheets being sold in the scrap market, we should have lost many our No-Parking boards also to these people. But they remain, which should encourage us to go with the idea. But it is also a nice idea to think of a different affordable solution

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