Yard Signs, Slow Down Sebastopol [Archive]

Barry

02-05-2010, 09:26 PM

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccobb/ImagesforMembers/SlowDownSebastopol.pngAccording to Chief Weaver, there are still lots of complaints about speeding in Sebastopol. And several members have voiced similar concerns on WaccoBB.net. So I won't quibble about that.

However, what I do take issue with is the design/appearance of the signs. I realize it's probably too late for anything to change, but as these signs become part of the branding of Sebastopol, it sure would be nice if they had a bit more class to them.

Instead, they could be a kind reminder from friendly Sebastopol rather than a somewhat harsh, mid-west/stencil looking affair. Sure, you want it to have a bit of teeth, and I think the PD star conveys that message, and the pedestrians is a nice touch in this genre, but overall it's not something I could feel proud of, and I think it can be, while still serving its purpose. :2cents:

typewriter

02-05-2010, 09:59 PM

...my sentiment in my previous post was not that I doubt that there's a problem...more a question of the overall goal of the campaign. I imagine that after the new ubiquity of the signs wears off, there's a high likelihood that locals will become accustomed to them/ ignore them (as they apparently do of stop signs, posted speed limits, etc.) Or perhaps not.

I was just curious if there's further education or outreach being done toward a larger goal. In my case I sincerely did not realize that it's a pervasive, wide-spread problem...I'm still not clear on where or during what hours this speeding is happening/serving as an immediate danger. Downtown seems to be one area a number of people cite being dangerous.

In addition to the signs specific reminders/interventions to unsafe driving like being aware of when local schools are getting out to plan extra time to get places/be extra vigilant, turning on headlights when it's rainy/overcast, knowing of specific problem areas in my neighborhood and around town, etc. make me feel like I have more control of my actions to contribute a solution(s) to the problem when I'm behind the wheel.

Juggledude

02-07-2010, 09:39 PM

I agree, the signs are offensive, tacky and smack of both a cheap print job and a heavy handed police / authority power trip.

Actually, it's my personal experience that in Sonoma county the streets of Sebastopol are some of the best patrolled, slowest streets I travel. I have long been aware of the ease of getting ticketed in the 25-30 mph zones and watch my speed carefully. I usually notice that everyone else does too. It's rare to be passed while carefully following the posted speed limit.

what statistics or studies show the "problem" being addressed here?

Royce

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccobb/ImagesforMembers/SlowDownSebastopol.pngAccording to Chief Weaver, there are still lots of complaints about speeding in Sebastopol. And several members have voiced similar concerns on WaccoBB.net. So I won't quibble about that.

However, what I do take issue with is the design/appearance of the signs. I realize it's probably too late for anything to change, but as these signs become part of the branding of Sebastopol, it sure would be nice if they had a bit more class to them.

Instead, they could be a kind reminder from friendly Sebastopol rather than a somewhat harsh, mid-west/stencil looking affair. Sure, you want it to have a bit of teeth, and I think the PD star conveys that message, and the pedestrians is a nice touch in this genre, but overall it's not something I could feel proud of, and I think it can be, while still serving its purpose. :2cents:

ccinsebastopol

02-09-2010, 12:08 AM

i think everyone agrees about the signs - they are not nice to look at and honestly, i thought they were a joke until i started seeing more of them... i also have to add the individual signs that people are placing on their lawns are too small to read (especially if you're one of the cars speeding by that they're trying to slow down). my proposal is that people start making their own creative signs. after all, what more 'branding' do we need, we should express sebastopol's creativity and individual participation.

i do think people drive too darn fast around here, so i'm going to pull out my paints and poster board and put a sign on my front yard.

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccobb/ImagesforMembers/SlowDownSebastopol.pngAccording to Chief Weaver, there are still lots of complaints about speeding in Sebastopol. And several members have voiced similar concerns on WaccoBB.net. So I won't quibble about that.

However, what I do take issue with is the design/appearance of the signs. I realize it's probably too late for anything to change, but as these signs become part of the branding of Sebastopol, it sure would be nice if they had a bit more class to them.

Instead, they could be a kind reminder from friendly Sebastopol rather than a somewhat harsh, mid-west/stencil looking affair. Sure, you want it to have a bit of teeth, and I think the PD star conveys that message, and the pedestrians is a nice touch in this genre, but overall it's not something I could feel proud of, and I think it can be, while still serving its purpose. :2cents:

Geni Houston

02-10-2010, 04:33 PM

I think the initial objective was to be bold and not blend in with elegant signage. My understanding is that they are temporary and like a flashing red light, that is their job.

If they were to be permanent, I would push for a better design. I do object to the little signs though, but you do have to slow down to read them!

Barry

02-10-2010, 05:37 PM

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccobb/ImagesforMembers/SlowDownSebastopol.pngSebastopol Police Chief Weaver has kindly agreed to do another interview with me. The first one was about the DUI checkpoints (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/general-community/57605-sebastopol-police-chief-speaks-about-dui-checkpoints-audio.html?highlight=%2Aweaver%2A). This time it will be about the new Slow Down Sebastopol campaign.

Several questions come to mind (see below). Please let me know (publicly (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=107046) or privately (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/sendmessage.php?do=mailmemberprivately&u=81&p=107046)) if you would like to submit any other questions as time allows. I can try to slip in questions about other police department matters, but again, no promises if I'll be able to ask them.

Here's what I got so far:

1) What prompted the Slow Down Sebastopol campaign?

2) Besides the signs, what other actions are part of the campaign? Is increased enforcement part of the campaign?

3) What is the duration of the campaign? Will the signs come down once it is over?

4) What can you tell us about how design of the signs? Who was responsible?

5) Where did the money for the campaign come from?

Do any other questions come to mind?

Thanks!
Barry

Zeno Swijtink

02-10-2010, 06:09 PM

Do any other questions come to mind?

What would success mean for this campaign, and how is it going to be measured?

Geni Houston

02-11-2010, 02:14 PM

Upon reflection, revising earlier post. I DO think the small signs are working, although I do not consider myself a speeder - the little reminders have brought my speed down several times and keep safety in mind more often.

dandss1

02-11-2010, 06:05 PM

Zeno Swijtink

02-11-2010, 06:51 PM

Actually they need a few dozen of these signs and a cop with radar on Pleasant Hill south of the cemetery. The speed limit on Pleasant Hill south from Bodega to the curve is 25mph, yet people use it as a speedway with no concern at all for bicyclists or pedestrians. This is a serious safety issue.

One would think that with all these progressive and informed people on the Sebastopol City Council traffic calming research would determine policy! There is no evidence that more signs has any lasting impact on traffic calming.

As a good article in Wired of a couple of years ago has it:

"The common thread in the new approach to traffic engineering is a recognition that the way you build a road affects far more than the movement of vehicles. It determines how drivers behave on it, whether pedestrians feel safe to walk alongside it, what kinds of businesses and housing spring up along it. "A wide road with a lot of signs is telling a story," Monderman says. "It's saying, go ahead, don't worry, go as fast as you want, there's no need to pay attention to your surroundings. And that's a very dangerous message."
Wired 12.12: Roads Gone Wild (https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html)

Apparently the moral appeal approach still wins out. It's a deeply religious nation.

erinsheff

02-12-2010, 12:35 PM

When I saw the new signs for Slow Down Sebastopol, I was disappointed. I immediately compared them to a postcard I bought in Hawaii. It showed a hand-written sign that said "Slow Down. This is Molokai." I found this sign to be creative and effective. It implies: "This is the way we drive here," and invites the driver to do likewise. It informs rather than lectures. It subliminally suggests the pace of the town's lifestyle. That it was handwritten made it human, made by someone who cares; not the product of a faceless bureaucrat like the printed sign suggests.
The new signs would be more visually effective if the logos had been left off. Who cares who is sponsoring this? One has to take their eyes off the road to identify the organizations, making the logos counterproductive. Personally, I find the arrangement of the logos to be unaesthetic.
Hopefully the next time the police department needs a sign, they will ask for some input from a professional in communications. Such as me.
Erin Sheffield
Sebastopol

Barry

02-12-2010, 01:51 PM

I've just interviewed Sebastopol Police Chief Weaver about the Slow Down Sebastopol campaign.

I've posted the 13 minute interview in a new thread called: https://www.waccobb.net/forums/general-community/63648-slow-down-sebastopol-campaign-interview-chief-weaver.html#post107148

Barry

02-12-2010, 06:48 PM

When I saw the new signs for Slow Down Sebastopol, I was disappointed. I immediately compared them to a postcard I bought in Hawaii. It showed a hand-written sign that said "Slow Down. This is Molokai." I found this sign to be creative and effective. It implies: "This is the way we drive here," and invites the driver to do likewise. It informs rather than lectures. It subliminally suggests the pace of the town's lifestyle. That it was handwritten made it human, made by someone who cares; not the product of a faceless bureaucrat like the printed sign suggests.

The new signs would be more visually effective if the logos had been left off. Who cares who is sponsoring this? One has to take their eyes off the road to identify the organizations, making the logos counterproductive. Personally, I find the arrangement of the logos to be unaesthetic.

Hopefully the next time the police department needs a sign, they will ask for some input from a professional in communications. Such as me.
Erin Sheffield
Sebastopol

All good points, Erin, especially about working with professional!

I found some examples of the Molokai signs that illustrate the point:

https://visitmolokai.com/graphics-attractions/head-tips-slowdown.jpg https://molokai-art-hawaii.com/graphics/bk-slow-friday.jpghttps://z.about.com/d/gohawaii/1/0/0/1/1/south_shore_molokai_06.jpg

pearl g

02-13-2010, 09:41 PM

Not only are the signs ugly, they are unnecessary. The town will always be unfriendly towards bikes and pedestrians just because of the vibe that occurs when two highways converge and blow through a town instead of around it. I accept the way motorists deal with the city plan. I disagree that there is a speeding "problem" in Sebastopol. Of course people will complain, because some people do speed. Speed limit signs are adequate and speed limits should be observed and enforced. I was sad to hear our tax money paid for those crappy signs. Who made those things? Luckily it will only be for a month. Or will it? Somehow I doubt that.

Ted Pole

02-15-2010, 04:57 PM

I must agree that the signs are unduly harsh, and not in the spirit of our community. I think we would all be better served by signage that was rendered in natural tones of green and tan and soft grays, to better blend into the surrounding environment. And with a typeface that is more in keeping with our respect for Gaia and native cultures. A runic script of some sort, perhaps.

In addition, the message of the signs is all wrong. Far too harsh and authoritarian, not to mention judgmental. I don't think we, as a community, through our signage should be assuming that everyone is speeding. Who are we to make those kinds of accusations? These signs make me ashamed of the entire town.

I would recommend something along the lines of "Consider a more peaceful path through our town".

By following these simple suggestions, I feel that our community could have a more fully integrated and less invasive nature to our warning signs. Drivers have enough to worry about with stop signs, route makers, caution lights, crosswalks, etc. We shouldn't add to the visual clutter, but instead, provide signage that is a relief from the clutter.

I think it also would be of benefit to create a People's Ad-hoc Organizing Committee to address the entire community's concerns regarding this issue.

:yinyang:
Namaste!

beargulch

02-15-2010, 09:57 PM

I certainly appreciate what you're saying, but maybe those signs aren't meant to be speaking to everyone. Maybe they are meant to catch the attention of people who are not part of our community but who are in a rush to get to work in the City and driving through Sebastopol to get there. I know several people who drive through who don't understand that we value some deceleration here.

A friend of mine got a $340 ticket for going 9 miles over the speed limit on Bodega avenue (going 34 in a 25 zone). Maybe these signs might save someone from that.

Again, I appreciate your sensitivity, but we all have different thresholds for that.

I must agree that the signs are unduly harsh, and not in the spirit of our community. I think we would all be better served by signage that was rendered in natural tones of green and tan and soft grays, to better blend into the surrounding environment. And with a typeface that is more in keeping with our respect for Gaia and native cultures. A runic script of some sort, perhaps.

In addition, the message of the signs is all wrong. Far too harsh and authoritarian, not to mention judgmental. I don't think we, as a community, through our signage should be assuming that everyone is speeding. Who are we to make those kinds of accusations? These signs make me ashamed of the entire town.

I would recommend something along the lines of "Consider a more peaceful path through our town".

By following these simple suggestions, I feel that our community could have a more fully integrated and less invasive nature to our warning signs. Drivers have enough to worry about with stop signs, route makers, caution lights, crosswalks, etc. We shouldn't add to the visual clutter, but instead, provide signage that is a relief from the clutter.

I think it also would be of benefit to create a People's Ad-hoc Organizing Committee to address the entire community's concerns regarding this issue.

:yinyang:
Namaste!

Ted Pole

02-16-2010, 08:19 PM

Well, to be honest, my original post was intended to be satirical, but I must assume I may have been a bit too dead in the pan for some, if not all.

I actually think the signs serve their purpose quite well, grabbing eyeballs and focusing attention on their very important message. In other words, exactly what they need to do.

As others on this thread have mentioned, the signs do convey serious intent and with their various design elements have a believability that the artifice of "professional design" tends to undermine. I differ with them in the sense that they should be less intrusive or "ugly". In a community where the hand-painted, the graphically designed and/or tastefully rendered signage creates a stupor-inducing visual glut, I for one, don't want to invoke the spirit of Aloha to speeding drivers. I want them to slow the fuck down. That someone would actually consider how the town's branding would be affected versus the safety of its residents is beyond me. Branding is part of the problem.

The idea that there should be some focus-grouped, designed-by-committee signage that won't upset the delicate sensibilities of a self-anointed community "taste" was written in jest, but should anyone take me seriously,
I can assure you that it virtually insures increased costs, and never, ever pleases every constituency.

I respectfully suggest you try to appreciate the signs for what they are and for what they do, and consider that taste is often at odds with communication.

:Hello kitty:
:poof:Manaste!:poof:

Larry Robinson

02-17-2010, 08:40 AM

Thank you, Ted Pole, for offering some medicine for our collective irony deficiency.

"Mad" Miles

02-17-2010, 06:10 PM

Well, to be honest, my original post was intended to be satirical, but I must assume I may have been a bit too dead in the pan for some, if not all.

:Hello kitty:
:poof:Manaste!:poof:

Hey Ted, or should it be Tad?

I just want to assure you that I read your original post in this thread and was sure you were writing with your tough firmly pressed against the inner cheek, of your mouth!

The suggestion for Runes pretty much gave it away. Even without the Rune reference, the call for an unobtrusive, soft, green and gray color scheme was a sure marker of sly wittiness, at least for me.

Not all of us here in waccoland are humor/irony impaired.

One of the problems with the Gratitude button is that it does not distinguish between: I agree, You so funny, Well put, Thank god someone said it even if I'm not totally down, etc...

I may not fully agree with you about the usefullness of the signs. Nor your, "opinions differ" defense of them. But I appreciate your wry sense of humor and your willingness to tweak the hippies (for the record, I LOVE Hippies, so don't get me wrong my fellow crunchies) on this board.

Keep it coming!

Please,

"Mad" Miles

:burngrnbounce:

sambacat

02-17-2010, 10:14 PM

After seeing a beautiful young buck that has been making my soul happy, watching him cope with the loss of his apple orchard, but making due with the new vineyard, dead on the side of my road (Pleasant Hill near Watertrough), I shall, sadly a little late, get my own yard sign to Slow Down Sebastopol.

broadbandersnatch

02-18-2010, 06:55 PM

Ditto - you totally cracked me up wiyj your drole satire of Sebastopol's own brand of political correctness.Bravo!

Hey Ted, or should it be Tad?

I just want to assure you that I read your original post in this thread and was sure you were writing with your tough firmly pressed against the inner cheek, of your mouth!

The suggestion for Runes pretty much gave it away. Even without the Rune reference, the call for an unobtrusive, soft, green and gray color scheme was a sure marker of sly wittiness, at least for me.

Not all of us here in waccoland are humor/irony impaired.

One of the problems with the Gratitude button is that it does not distinguish between: I agree, You so funny, Well put, Thank god someone said it even if I'm not totally down, etc...

I may not fully agree with you about the usefullness of the signs. Nor your, "opinions differ" defense of them. But I appreciate your wry sense of humor and your willingness to tweak the hippies (for the record, I LOVE Hippies, so don't get me wrong my fellow crunchies) on this board.

Keep it coming!

Please,

"Mad" Miles

:burngrnbounce:

"Mad" Miles

02-28-2010, 05:05 PM

Greetings Fellow Denizens of this Pseudo-Society we call "The Board",

On my way to work Thursday morning, I was looking to see the reviled signs, and noticed that nary a one was on my route into Sebasto from Forestville. Is this some kind of discrimination! (You know I'm all about decrying bias from my posts here.)

Or do drivers from the "Russian River Resort" communities just not speed as compared to those miscreants coming into "town" from the south, east and west?

I doubt it. So what's up wi' dat?

Has anyone else noticed the chunk of torn off telephone pole hanging above the edge of the highway on the east side of 116, just to the north of the Henweigh/Mom's Apple Pie?

I spotted it over a week ago, and attributed it to the storm before last. Perhaps it's been there much longer but didn't enter, "my reality."

I expected PG&E to remove it tout suite, but apparently not. I suppose it has been deemed safe and is waiting for a backlog of more urgent work orders to be completed. But it's still kinda creepy hanging there...

Finally, to anyone not at "Celebrate Okili!" tonight at the Community Center, you missed a rocking party! Best one I've been to since his last benefit, and the one before that. Granted I haven't been getting out much, but I still say the United African Club (North Bay) events are the best dance parties of the season!

A La Prochaine,

"Mad" Miles

:burngrnbounce:

P.S. This is a reposted copy of another thread I created last night, because I couldn't find this one. I don't know why a search for "Slow Down Sebastopol" didn't turn this thread up, but it didn't....? Thanks to Barry I can now place my comments in the place I originally intended. Cool!