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Volume 114, Number 343 - Tuesday, November 3, 1998
Hard to find your way around by the numbers
by John Friedlander
For those who missed my introduction, I've been comparing Middletown to the very similar west coast city I lived in for nine months before returning here recently to continue my nearly twenty year stay.
Here's my first complaint.
As a newcomer to Middletown, try finding your way around. Try to find the name of the street you're driving on. Try finding numbers on buildings. Good luck.
We seem none too interested in wayfinding -- the art and science of figuring out where we are, and how to find somewhere else. We label streets at their beginning and end, but not in the middle. We put street signs at one corner of an intersection, and very discretely color them green, so when trees or shrubs grow closely around them they almost disappear. What's more, we only label cross streets. We don't label major roads except at their beginning and end. What if we arrive at these streets somewhere in the middle? How do we know where we are?
To see what I'm talking about, take this little tour: follow Randolph Road west from Route 9. Turn right when you see the sign for South Main Street. Turn left when you see the sign for Pameacha Avenue. Turn left when you see the sign for High Street. Turn right onto Bretton Road. Turn right when you see the sign for Pine Street. Turn right when you see a sign for either Cross or Church Street. Turn left at the end of Church, then left again when you see the sign for Main Street. For those of you who don't drive, or who don't need signs to navigate, I'll give you a little hint: you won't find these signs. They don't exist.
In many cities, street names are hung on a sign similarly to a traffic light: front and center, nice and big, parallel to the road it describes, so when you're sitting at a light, you look up and know what street you're about to cross. No looking around desperately trying to figure out which corner the tiny little sign might be hidden on, and no struggling to read too-small print. I see new light and signal poles going up downtown. Perhaps the signs I describe are on order as well?
Then there are building numbers. Try finding 558 Newfield Street. (I couldn't find a number on the building nor the sign in front of it, nor could I safely read all the stacked up business signs when driving by at 25 miles per hour. I chose another place to do business.) Or 89 and 91 Broad Street. (The numbers are there, but they're tiny, and the same color as the building they're mounted on.) Or 700 Main Street. (Hint: it's between 169 and 179. Huh? I thought even and odd addresses were supposed to be on opposite sides of the street? Oh, I get it: it's 700 Plaza Middlesex. Excuuuuuuuse me, but I couldn't find Plaza Middlesex on a map, and the building faces Main Street and a parking lot. Seems like this Plaza needs a little attitude adjustment -- it's not good enough to be on Main Street, eh?)
For our next exercise, try to find a new friend's house for a get-together that starts after dark, but there's no number on the house, or it's hidden by shrubs, or it's the same color as the building.
You're wondering what the problem is, right? It's worked for years, right? Except it hasn't worked for years, we're just used to the way it doesn't work, and we've come up with ways around the problem ("That's 540, 620 is way up the street, so one of these must be 592!"), or we go without finding places in parts of the city we don't know well.
This is basic stuff we can do better. Middletown should be easier to find our way in, and our homes and businesses should be easier to locate. When we give an address, we shouldn't have to add "there's no sign, but it's the second intersection past the light, just past the top of the hill, next to the big tree with the broken mailbox next to it." Perhaps schools looking for a fund-raiser could have their students (with adult supervision, of course) solicit small donations from building owners to paint stenciled numbers on curbs in front of buildings. Block watch organizations could organize to put numbers on the buildings in their areas.
Finding unfamiliar addresses, or giving directions to visiting friends or new neighbors will get a whole lot easier after we solve this silly little problem.
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