New wayfinding signage for Ottawa-Hull

[rocketphish]

New wayfinding signs could soon be coming to capital region
Tourist-oriented maps showing attractions within five-minute walking distance can already be found in other Canadian and international cities.

By: Alex Abdelwahab, Metro
Published on Wed Jun 28 2017



When visitors come to the capital, they expect to be able to walk around and find their way easily.

But right now, a tourism study has found, there’s a gap.

“Wayfinding has been in place, but in sort of a chopped-up manner in Ottawa for a long time,” said Catherine Frechette, senior director of destination development for Ottawa Tourism, explaining the City of Ottawa had its own signs, the National Capital Commission (NCC) had its own signs and Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) had their own signs.

A new initiative aims to change that by putting up unified signs on both sides of the river with maps that show interesting things to see within a five-minute walk.

Fourteen organizations have come on board, including the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau, the NCC, the province, Parks Canada, Tourism Ottawa, Tourisme Outaouais and several BIAs.



“Tourism is the third largest economic generator for Ottawa. Currently we see over 10 million visitors a year,” Frechette said, adding the signs will also help promote attractions that visitors may not otherwise know about.

Such signs can already be found in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton and in major international metropolises like London and New York City.

On Wednesday, Frechette and her team presented the idea to the public at Ottawa City Hall.

“Some of the comments that we’ve heard are: ‘Finally!’ and ‘Why is it taking so long?’” she said. “I think it’s more complex in Ottawa because we have more jurisdictions. We have federal entities and municipal entities that own different areas and their own systems in place.”

A feasibility study is underway and a plan for what the signs could look like and how they could be rolled out and maintained is being developed. The results of both will be presented to both Ottawa and Gatineau councils, and to the NCC, in the fall.

If the idea is approved, it will be piloted next summer.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/...al-region.html

[Acajack]

Actually, Gatineau just announced this last week. Cynics will say it's a bit of a lipstick-on-a-pig thing, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

https://www.tourismeoutaouais.com/en...culture-trail/

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Actually, Gatineau just announced this last week. Cynics will say it's a bit of a lipstick-on-a-pig thing, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

https://www.tourismeoutaouais.com/en...culture-trail/

It's a very simple and affordable way to do what they've been wanting to do for years; get tourist beyond the Museum of Civilization, deeper into the Hull sector .

[J.OT13]

Is this part of the aforementioned new signage?


https://twitter.com/MathieuFleury/st...94729876844544

[TransitZilla]

^Does the wifi symbol on the top right mean that this is also a wifi access point? That would be pretty cool!

[caveat.doctor]

Really glad to see the new wayfinding maps. They are much clearer and more useful than the OC Transpo maps of areas near stations:



vs



- OC Transpo maps showed the outlines of every building: unnecessary and cluttering detail. The wayfinding maps show only the useful destinations and landmark buildings needed for orientation

- OC Transpo maps showed only building outlines from above, which aren’t really recognisable. (Would you recognise the Shaw Centre from an overhead outline?) The wayfinding maps have drawings of what the buildings look like, much more useful for orientation

- OC Transpo maps indicate things off the map with an arrow, but you have no idea how far they are. The wayfinding maps provide the walking time

- OC Transpo maps used an odd colour scheme: parks are in gray, for example. The wayfinding maps use usual conventions, like green for parks.

- Odd symbols as well on the OC Transpo maps, like the “flame”-like sign for trails (used for some, but not others), whereas the wayfinding maps simply show the trails in an appropriate contrasting shade. Byward Market on the OC Transpo map is, oddly, a brown rectangle (even though the City's own signage uses a market pictogramme), but on the wayfinding map, it's a recognisable market building.

- OC Transpo maps generally picked odd things to highlight: all the hotels in the area around the Rideau Centre, for example, with the usual hotel pictogramme; but things like station entrances/exits are barely visible (just the red O, which gets lost in the excessive map detail and poor colour contrast). The wayfinding map shows the expected tourist destinations and landmarks with the right pictogrammes, and even does a better job than OC Transpo itself at showing station entrances/exits (red O, on a white background) with indication of wheelchair accessible points as well.

Still some oddities on the wayfinding map similar to the OC Transpo one (e.g. sometimes street names are in ALL CAPS, sometimes in Normal Case), but definitely a more useful design. Would have liked them to have outlined other destinations like commercial strips: I think Elgin, Rideau and Dalhousie Sts would have been worth highlighting as destinations in their own right, for example. Clearer indication of bike routes would also be welcome.

Hopefully they replace the OC Transpo ones with these new ones for consistency and actual utility.

[J.OT13]

I haven't seen the map in person yet, but I agree it looks far better than OC's. I'd also like to see them highlight commercial streets/areas.

Strange that they show the Rideau Centre outline pre-expansion.

[funforgot]

A black background is a somewhat puzzling colour of choice. Text on black is a bit harder to read but a mostly black sign can hide markings.

[DEWLine]

Interesting news, that. I hope to see one or more of those signs in person soon. Static backlit, all of them?

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by funforgot

A black background is a somewhat puzzling colour of choice. Text on black is a bit harder to read but a mostly black sign can hide markings.

I think it’s an emulation of NYC’s pedestrian wayfinding maps
https://segd.org/walknyc-pedestrian-wayfinding