Even for longtime New Yorkers, there’s nothing shameful about getting lost outside of the numbered grid. Just because you live somewhere in the city’s confines doesn’t mean you should be expected to know every part of the city like you know your own neighborhood, particularly if you’re in a new area or you’re in one of those places where the streets seem to collapse into themselves.
So for the sake of both residents and tourists, the city’s Department of Transportation plans to begin installing street signs with local maps to help pedestrians find where they’re going. Of course, smartphones are much more useful at finding directions than stationary, GPS-less maps, and in a few years, everyone on earth will have them. And a few years after that, our brains will be connected to the Internet, and nobody will ever be lost again. But until then, this program is going to be kind of helpful.
City Signs to Help Pedestrians (They Aren’t Just for Tourists) [NYT]
