It started as a technically illegal exercise in improving how people experience the streets of Raleigh, North Carolina. Just some simple signs, lashed to light poles, at a few of the city’s key intersections, letting residents and visitors know what attractions and amenities could be found within walking distance and how many minutes it would take to reach them on foot. “Guerrilla wayfinding” is what people called it.
The signs, the brainchild of then-graduate student Matt Tomasulo, were meant to help people think differently about distances in the city, and to encourage them to get out of their cars and explore the place under their own power.
When it debuted in 2012, the project drew international notice and received lots of favorable press coverage, including here on CityLab. It also got the attention of Raleigh’s city government, which eventually took the signs down for violating local ordinances. But the city’s planning director was a fan of the concept behind Tomasulo’s action, and soon they reached a compromise. The signs went back up, with the blessing of the city, as a pilot education project.
[For more of this story, written by Sarah Goodyear, go to http://www.citylab.com/design/...o-mainstream/386081/]
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