Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[trofirhen]

I like the running man symbol, too. My only concern is that thi could be misinterpreted as "emergency exit," or such.

[cabotp]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

I like the running man symbol, too. My only concern is that thi could be misinterpreted as "emergency exit," or such.

Your concern is highly warranted.

I had never seen the symbol before and assumed it was for an emergency exit.

[nname]

For the places I've been to that have this symbol, it stands for emergency exit.

[deasine]

That's the thing. I like the running man, but it serves as a replacement for our Emergency Exit signs, and shouldn't be used as a symbol for regular exit signage.

[Darren Tate]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

"EXIT" is North American. "WAY IN / WAY OUT" is British.

(oh, and purely for the interest of those who haven't seen it, in Paris a stop sign is now the classic red octagon with "STOP" stop painted on, if you
can believe it. Plus, the French have incorporated the verb "stopper" into their language, to mean stop. How this differs from 'arrêter' still eludes me,
but anyway the Québec seperatisits would be up in arms over this, although of course that's another issue)

The point I was simply trying to make is how people perceive and interpret differently.

Yes, having lived in Quebec for several years, I found their government to be very protective of their language and are hypersensitive to any hint of anglicization. But in everyday spoken French they use all kinds of english words like "le shopping" and "le parking". They also nicely adopted the word "f**k" into their language and even conjugated it.

[twoNeurons]

So, is this a regular or an emergency exit? Or could it be both?


A selection of signs:

[trofirhen]

Could we keep the "running man" symbol, if everyone is so hyper - keen on it, only have him WALKING instead of running? This might avoid confusion with emergency exits.

Even here in France, the green running man symbol is a fire or emergency exit symbol.

[Pinion]

I think I said this before, but as someone who's lived a significant amount of time in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, "way out" is similar to "far away," not exit.

And from my job experience, no one in Vancouver knows what an emergency exit is - regardless of signage. Even those ones that make you wait 20 seconds are ineffective.

[cabotp]

Any regular exit usually doubles as an emergency exit during an emergency. However a designated emergency exit is just that and usually not used regularly.

During an emergency people don't care how they get out, they just want to get out. You don't stop and think well gee that is a regular exit and not an emergency exit. So I shouldn't use that exit. No you see an exit and you get out. Whether that exit was designated as a regular exit or an emergency exit.

However the running man symbol seems to imply that it relates to an emergency in some way or another.

[trofirhen]

Why not colour-code them, in that case? Green for a normal exit; red or orange (with a flame motif) for an emergency exit. The first with someone "walking" normally, the second with someone in a "running" position.

Colour-coding is often very effective. People associate green with safety, red with danger, orange for an alert or emergency, and so forth.

[twoNeurons]

The original icon for the running man was meant to convey the idea of running slowly. They played with the angles of the legs to accomplish this.

It was designed to be a clear indicator of where the exit was in the case of emergencies, yes.

Color coding the same symbol for different kinds of exits is confusing. An exit is an exit. Coloring emergency exits RED is also not a good idea (which is why there are advocates for switching to green signs for the exit).

A red or orange sign with a flame motif means what? This is where the fire equipment is? This area contains flammable materials? Recipe for disaster.

The whole reason for green signs over red is that the color red, as you mentioned, conveys danger, whereas green conveys safety. You should read that article I linked to before. It's an interesting read. Especially interesting is that two separate teams in Russia and Japan came up with very similar icons. The ISO chose the Japanese symbol.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

The original icon for the running man was meant to convey the idea of running slowly. They played with the angles of the legs to accomplish this.

It was designed to be a clear indicator of where the exit was in the case of emergencies, yes.

Color coding the same symbol for different kinds of exits is confusing. An exit is an exit. Coloring emergency exits RED is also not a good idea (which is why there are advocates for switching to green signs for the exit).

A red or orange sign with a flame motif means what? This is where the fire equipment is? This area contains flammable materials? Recipe for disaster.

The whole reason for green signs over red is that the color red, as you mentioned, conveys danger, whereas green conveys safety. You should read that article I linked to before. It's an interesting read. Especially interesting is that two separate teams in Russia and Japan came up with very similar icons. The ISO chose the Japanese symbol.

There is also the issue of different colours as perceived by colour-blind people, who are 12%-20% (depending on whose figures you believe) of the population.
It's been a while since I've worked with a colour-blind person, but I think that red and green appear to them as greyish-yellow, so they aren't able to easily distinguish between these two common colours.
This would be quite a problem if they need to know -quickly- whether an exit they are looking at is for regular use or emergency use, although in an emergency whatever exit is closest is probably the best one to use.

I found a web-page to see if you're colour-blind:
http://www.colour-blindness.com/colo...r-test-plates/

(this page is not meant to be a substitute for proper eye testing by a doctor)

[cabotp]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Why not colour-code them, in that case? Green for a normal exit; red or orange (with a flame motif) for an emergency exit. The first with someone "walking" normally, the second with someone in a "running" position.

Colour-coding is often very effective. People associate green with safety, red with danger, orange for an alert or emergency, and so forth.

Unless there is a colour blind person who can easily confuse red and green

[cabotp]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

There is also the issue of different colours as perceived by colour-blind people, who are 12%-20% (depending on whose figures you believe) of the population.
It's been a while since I've worked with a colour-blind person, but I think that red and green appear to them as greyish-yellow, so they aren't able to easily distinguish between these two common colours.
This would be quite a problem if they need to know -quickly- whether an exit they are looking at is for regular use or emergency use, although in an emergency whatever exit is closest is probably the best one to use.

That is the thing anyone looking for an exit isn't going to care whether it is a regular or emergency. They are just going to take the first exit they see.

[catkat]

Remind me never to take the skytrain...

• Video Link

Stay classy Vancouver

[WaxItYourself]

Originally Posted by catkat

Remind me never to take the skytrain...

Stay classy Vancouver

I'm sure as long as you don't wear something like that and annoyingly walk around a pole for no reason there won't be a problem.

[Metro-One]

Watch the full version, she is walking around the pole for over 4 minutes, must have been on drugs or something. And the guy asks her to sit down a couple times before the edited version starts (in much more polite and calm manner, you can hear in the background).

I would have probably done the same thing, she is really nasty and the clomping of her shoes is very irritating.

[cabotp]

Okay the short skit I can tolerate.

The walking around the pole is slightly annoying

But the fracking clomping shoes would make me want to rip them off her and hit her against the head.

I need to control my anger issues

[DKaz]

Yup, you can ignore her all you want but CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK!

[NucksFanInVan]

Originally Posted by cabotp

Any regular exit usually doubles as an emergency exit during an emergency. However a designated emergency exit is just that and usually not used regularly.

During an emergency people don't care how they get out, they just want to get out. You don't stop and think well gee that is a regular exit and not an emergency exit. So I shouldn't use that exit. No you see an exit and you get out. Whether that exit was designated as a regular exit or an emergency exit.

However the running man symbol seems to imply that it relates to an emergency in some way or another.

We should be keeping signage distinct between wayfinding signage ("this way to the exit") and an actual exit of any kind ("here is an exit").

In an emergency, you are looking for signage that directs you to the nearest exit of any kind. Using the running man at each door - including the normal exit - is fine. Using the same sign (or something that could be confused with it in a dark / smoky / panicked environment) for simple wayfinding would be confusing in an emergency and seems to go against the intent of the design.