Parking sign

Signs placed on curbs that inform motorists about that area’s parking policy can often be overly complex, leading to confusion. Although the rules are often spelled out, the various timestamps and sometimes conflicting lines can lead to an overwhelming amount of data for users to process.

Here, I suggest an alternative sign. This uses electronic messaging (the illuminated text), which allows the information displayed on the sign to be updated continuously.

The sign can be read aloud as a complete sentence, such as “Parking is allowed for a 2 hour limit until 7:00 PM”.

Design choices

Depending on whether or not parking in that zone at the current moment is legal, the sign will prominently display the term “allowed” or “prohibited”. The latter term appears in a red color, which is typically used in negation. Given that the primary color of the sign is green, which matches that of other informational transit signs, I decided to have the color for the affirmative illumination be white. This is also the color used, for example, in walk signs for pedestrians.

When parking is prohibited, the light for the time limit deactivates, since there is no information to convey via that area of the sign during prohibited parking.

Below are some design choices that I did not decide to incorporate:

PARKING SIGN

Signs that delineate policies for street parking are typically overly complicated, leading to confusion. Here, I have created an alternative that can be displayed prominently in parking zones, clearly showing the current status of a parking zone.

The sign uses dynamic messaging (illuminated text). The primary color of the sign is green, which matches that of general informational transit signs. I opted to have the text be lit up in white, but “Prohibited” is displayed in red, a color typically used for negation. This color palette was drawn from walk signs used by pedestrians. When parking is prohibited, the light for the time limit deactivates, since there is no information that needs to be displayed from that area.

The sign is design so that it can be read aloud as a complete sentence, such as “Parking is allowed for a 2 hour limit until 7:00 PM”.

Below are some elements that I decided not to incorporate.