They spelled "Open" wrong

From the folks at https://www.urbantruthcollective.com/

A better world requires great cities, communities, streets and places, and the path to get there starts with the truth.

394 points · 27 comments · view on lemmy.world

27 Comments

NickwithaC@lemmy.world · 103 pts · 125d

No, the road is closed. It's the street that's open.

Humanius@lemmy.world · 56 pts · 125d (10 replies)

Perhaps using a different sign would leave a less negative impression

Instead of saying the road is closed to cars, you say the street is open only to pedestrians.
The picture is seemingly from North America, so I'm not sure if a similar sign exists over there.

Scrollone@feddit.it · 13 pts · 124d

Real life examples from Europe, where a "closed" road is showed as a positive message.

Italy:

Pedestrian area sign in Italy

Denmark:

Pedestrian area sign in Denmark

henfredemars@infosec.pub · 11 pts · 125d (8 replies)

If I were driving I would take this to mean crosswalk or watch for kids due to having seen similar signs.

I think it would be great to gain a new meaning however when posted in the middle of the road.

Humanius@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 125d (6 replies)

The sign I posted follows the 1967 Vienna Convention on road signs.
Afaik the US is not signatory to that treaty, but they probably have different signs with similar meaning

Perhaps something like this, based on the US bike lane sign?

Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 125d (4 replies)

Unfortunately, that's limited to a single language, not international friendly. Having language at all makes it take longer to process too, but that's not as much of an issue in this case.

Humanius@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 125d

That seems to be the standard in the US though. I'm only following what they already do over there.

Cethin@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 124d (2 replies)

Sadly, I don't think you can have a wordless sign here that isn't negative. The option is a "no cars" symbol. I don't know how you'd do "pedestrians only" symbolicly.

bob_lemon@feddit.org · 5 pts · 124d (1 reply)

Literally the image at the top of this comment chain?

Circular white on blue signs are "order" signs. Whatever they don't show is implicitly forbidden, without needing a red circle "forbiddance" sign.

Humanius@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 124d

America doesn't follow the Vienna Convention on Road Signs, so a blue circular sign would be essentially meaningless over there. People have never seen it before and won't know what it represents.

Edit: As another example, this seems to be the sign for a bikelane or bikepath in the US

Canada does seemingly have an "order" sign, but theirs is a white circle with a green border

henfredemars@infosec.pub · 2 pts · 125d

I think that’s perfect.

freeman@feddit.org · 10 pts · 125d

its round, so its obligatory, not just a warning

HarneyToker@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 125d (4 replies)

Jfc I don’t think that road sign is trying to oppress anyone.

Humanius@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 125d (3 replies)

The road sign is technically correct, but it looks at the situation as "car by default".

It reinforces the idea that in order to accommodate pedestrian friendly places, we must punish drivers by restricting them from going where they would otherwise be allowed to go. It assumes that cars are allowed to go anywhere, unless explicitely stated otherwise.

The way you communicate ideas is important if you want to get people on board, so maybe it is better to say the road is "open to pedestrians only", rather than "closed to cars"

Soulg@ani.social · -1 pts · 124d (2 replies)

The road sign is indeed defaulting to cars because that's what roads are made for

Humanius@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 124d (1 reply)

In current-day America that is indeed the case.

This thread is arguing that maybe that should not be the case, and is proposing alternative solutions that would be less car-brained.

Such a "open to pedestrians only" sign already exists and is commonly used in Europe. Why can't such a sign exist in America?

HarneyToker@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 124d

It’s really not that complicated. Roads are for cars in the US. We don’t want cars going through that craft fair right there, therefore the road is closed.

Etterra@discuss.online · 6 pts · 124d (1 reply)

No they didn't - road signs are generally for vehicles unless otherwise specified.

iglou@programming.dev · 12 pts · 124d

That's the criticism in this picture. The sign is vehicle-centric where it should be explicitely pedestrian-centric.

nek0d3r@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 124d

What do you mean, "I plowed directly into the crowd?" It's their fault for jaywalking, it said the road was open!

/s if it wasn't obvious

vantablack@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 124d

at first i thought this was a joke about running everyone over with a car lmao

MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 124d
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StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 125d (5 replies)

You want to let cars onto the road full of people?!

lugal@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 124d (3 replies)

The sign is addressing cars and for cars it's closed but from a human perspective, it's open

StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 124d (2 replies)

I know, I was just having a bit of fun with wordplay

Jarix@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 124d (1 reply)

Well do better next time and you won't disappoint all the people you are reply to and those who agree with them

StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 124d

Make me

Hawke@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 124d

Better than “self-driving” cars.

jama211@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 124d
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