 |
A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
| About Mark Hurst | Mark's Gel Conference | New York Times Story on This Is Broken | Newsletter: Subscribe | RSS Feed |
Search this site:
Categories:
- Advertising
- Current Affairs
- Customer Service
- Fixed
- Food and Drink
- Just for Fun
- Misc
- Not broken
- Place
- Product Design
- Signs
- Travel
- Web/Tech
Previous: Expedia "new rate" quote | Main | Next: Blue notepads
May 5, 2005 12:03 AM
Broken: Stop sign
Well worth a look: a contradictory stop sign.
Yawn, 2 comments so you know this must have been an exciting post.
The meaning is pretty clear, but the juxtaposition of the signs is funny. Stop here but don't stay stopped here. Usually these signs are seen as no stopping or standing. I would guess there was a problem with people parking their cars here, or sitting in them waiting for something, causing traffic problems.
They need to run over the sign and put up one that says "Yield". This way everyone knows not to park there and they will yield to the traffic. This is a perfect example of our tax dollars going to good use.
I must say I agree with Bob. I don't see a clear meaning either. If there was a problem with parking then there should be a no parking sign. Besides, it is illegal to park that close to a stop sign anyway (at least in PA).
I may just be immune to it at this point. There's a shopping center I visit that has a block buster, grocery store and walmart there. In front of the stores, there are numerous no stopping signs, as well as No stopping written multiple times in yellow paint on the road. There also happens to be 3 stop signs as well.
Of course all of this signage accomplishes nothing, people drive through the stop signs, and stop in front of the blockbuster to run in their movies.
I see so many of these signs. I'm surprised you haven't seen any. Or it may just be southern California blundering again...
The stop sign (the octagon) refers to hitting the brake as you're driving, like every other stop sign out there.
"No Stopping Any Time" means you're not allowed to park there; it's essentially the same function as a red curb. Signs like these often have hours on them. (For example, near a school, you may find signs like these saying that parking is not allowed, say between 6 AM and 8:30 AM and 1 PM to 4 PM so that there's room for the school buses.)
They still attract my attention, however.
I really wish more people would pay attention to the red octagon. I almost got hit on my home from work today while turning left by some chick on her cell phone and at least three other people in the car because she ran the stop sign.
I once heard a comedian talking about the plethora of 4-way stop intersections in California, noting that such a concept would not work in New York - there'd be too many four car accidents!
Ahem, as if y'all hadn't noticed, it's the opposite wording, color designation, and sides that is sooo obvious. Yin is to Yang. "big brother"/Freedom. Hmmm....how Orwell can it get? Welcome to the "new world order"? Blah.
"Looks Photoshopped."
1. Why would anyone waste time on that? You don't get especially famous when you go on This Is Broken.
2. With enough work and experience, anything can be photoshopped. Have you considered that that other broken thing might have been done pixel by pixel? See point 1.
3. For all the people saying it's not broken, this site was made so companies and governments could improve their services. If the customer/taxpayer is dissatisfied, its broken.
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Expedia "new rate" quote | Main | Next: Blue notepads
Simple solution.
Run over the sign.
Posted by: I am so funny at May 5, 2005 03:20 AM