That makes sense. I was thinking more of large cities where the signs are on the sides of buildings. In the US the signs are always on poles whether in the city or an open area.
As European I have to agree with you.It drives me crazy that at times I look at the building and I cant see what the street Im on and then you try to look on the other side and nothing because all corners are not with the sign. So at times you have to walk a bit just to figure what street you are on and the same with numbers of the houses,lots of them miss the signs.
No, it’s more like I have lived here for eight years. More generally I have spent most of my adult life outside of America (Asia and Europe) and am way more used to Europe or world culture at large.
My father was a firefighter and one of his quirks was talking about „how visible is any address in any given place,” so I have a special observation for it. Was also maritime navigation officer so time and relativity and distance are easily observable values. There’s a big difference.
And quite simply, in a very plain logistical way, while many things in Europe are better, it more human, and so on— this system, from an emergency services „how fast and how much bandwidth does it take,” in the plainest time/ distance/ relativity sort of way possible— the American system of signage is better.
For a lot of design reasons, it does track and make sense and it’s ok. I would even say that both psychologies of signs are double edged swords with other emergent properties.
Americans think about signs too much so you get optimized street ones, but billboards everywhere and promotions and advertisements and so on. In Europe you get unoptimized street signs but no/ less billboards, and less advertisement with far more intention. In Poland you really need to check alleys for be coolest stuff the signs won’t tell you.
American cities were all built after mankind invented modern city planning, while almost no European cities were (except Milton Keynes). As someone who travelled a lot before personal GPS was a thing, the US was a dream in terms of finding your way. Trivially easy in most cities. Europe can be a nightmare in this regard. Hell, street signs and house numbers don’t always exist, even.
I went to Greece twice and only realized this at the end of my 2nd trip! Lol. I kept getting frustrated that I could never find places bc there were no street signs!
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u/Runic_reader451 8h ago
Street signs are on the sides of buildings; not on metal poles like in the US.