July 26th, 2004

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Technology
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Good Thinking, Victoria

Recently I was bemoaning the lack of innovation in government. However, the Engineering Department of the City of the Victoria have shown me up. They’ve found an inventive use for those ubiquitous traffic control boxes you see on lamp and traffic light posts. In high pedestrian traffic areas, they’ve pasted neighbourhood maps on them. The maps wrap around three sides of the box, identifying areas of interest (as well as, interestingly, the city’s URL).

What a great idea. Not only do they use existing visual real estate (avoiding the need for other street-level maps), but it’s a really cheap, low-tech solution to graffiti. As a guy who spent two sweltering summers across the street from the pictured box, at the busiest Tourism Information Centre in the country, I appreciate any non-human assistance for tourists.

I was going to include a quote from this PDF on the city’s website, but it’s been secured to prevent cutting and pasting. They may be inventive, but they’re also freakin’ paranoid down at City Hall.

UPDATE: I may be giving the municipality too much credit here. As Cheryl points out in the comments, these maps actually come from The Rock Solid Foundation, a group of police officers in Victoria that provides young people “with positive solutions to violence, threats, intimidation and aggressive behaviour.” Well, Victoria at least gets credit for permitting Rock Solid to implement the maps.

There are photos after the jump:

Comments: 17 Responses so far

City Comforts Blog
July 26th, 2004
10:39 am

Theere is enormous energy and talent deep down things

Darren Barefoot - Miscellanist points out: What a great idea. Not only do they use existing visual real estate (avoiding the need for other street-level maps), but it’s a really cheap, low-tech solution to graffiti. As a guy who spent

Cheryl
July 26th, 2004
10:45 am

I noticed these a few months ago — the first one I saw was on Government and Fisgard (across from the Gate of Harmonious Interest) and I was stunned by the common sense of it all, too.

The anti-grafitti decals started in Esquimalt on mailboxes and are done through Rock Solid. Most of the decals are kind of mediocre art, but the maps are a great idea.

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nick
July 26th, 2004
11:41 am

big deal

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Barc
July 26th, 2004
11:55 am

Yes it is a big deal. Common sense and good ideas actually implemented by the City of Victoria. Who’da thunk it?

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datacloud
July 26th, 2004
12:07 pm

Maps on Utility Pole Boxes

In Victoria, BC, Darren Barefoot notes that the city has begun putting neighborhood maps on the eye-level traffic control boxes on utility poles. Cool solution, Barefoot says, in multiple ways: provides much-needed info for tourists; turns a relative e…

Richard Hillls
July 26th, 2004
12:19 pm

A wonderful piece of inventiveness. Has Victoria patented the idea. If they can it would also help the city revenues. Rick Hills

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Greg Smith
July 26th, 2004
12:41 pm

It’s a great idea, but I doubt it’s sufficiently innovative to merit a patent.

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Noah Sachs
July 26th, 2004
2:22 pm

Very cool

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The Map Room
July 26th, 2004
4:34 pm

Maps on Traffic Control Boxes

Forty-two traffic control boxes in downtown Victoria, British Columbia have been wrapped in maps of the downtown area. The goal is to combat graffiti — the maps are supposedly easier to clean than the boxes themselves — but the side…

Justin
July 26th, 2004
6:28 pm

Multi-purposed things like this are definitely efficient, saving duplication.

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inkheart
July 27th, 2004
12:22 am

for the sake of balance, i like these AND i like grafitti. maps like this connect people to where they are, just like really good graf. and maps help people find places, just like really memorable graf. “yeah, the bar is just down the street from that mural with the dragon.” you can like public art and still be civic-minded, y’know :)

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Christopher L Drake
July 27th, 2004
6:12 am

I love this idea, to tell the truth. I’m a pedestrian, in the purest sense. I don’t drive at all.

The only way to make this better would be to sneak low-energy bluetooth map transmitters into each box, siphoning a negligable amount of city power and purveying a free city-approved tourist map and possible sites agenda. Then, as you walk by it, you could sync to the map in the closest box like a cheap in-city GPS for anyone that is trying to find their way around.

Then again, I’ve always felt graffitti should be invited in some areas too. For instance: http://www.neonsight.com/gallery/komposition/

I saw a lot of good graffiti in my home town growing up, then again, I also saw a lot of lost tourists.

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Candice
July 27th, 2004
12:07 pm

I live in Amsterdam, Netherlands and I think they should do that here. Very cool idea.

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Beyond Brilliance
July 28th, 2004
10:05 am

Signal Box Maps

Victoria, BC: I’ve always found public maps to be of great benefit when you’re navigating unfamiliar ground, but they can be fairly expensive to set up. A group known…

'nee
July 28th, 2004
7:55 pm

Apparently somebody thought to put city maps on storm drains, as in this picture.

http://www.drainspotting.com/view_photo.php?photoid=144&large

Brilliant!

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Cam Newton
July 29th, 2004
12:48 pm

I love these maps. For tourists, they are great. Walking around downtown our visitors can find out quickly where they are and see where they want to go. The ubiquity of the maps is key to their usefulness. Way to go Rock Solid.

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Sarah Singarella
May 17th, 2007
6:22 pm

To google i am making a compaint about your websites they are teribbel i want when i look up something i want to find the best website i have ever seen. so i can fing something for my serch. so please listen to my complaint. it would relly help if you listen to me and do what i said. because you will have more people on your website. and you will make more money and people will want to have your website people from all over the world. so can you please listen to me Regards Sarah singarella

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