“Of the many ways that cities try to get drivers to reduce their speed, traditional iterations of the “Slow Down” sign like the ones above may be the most useless, and borderline harmful. These signs often display a disregard for basic wayfinding and legibility, and rely on overly complicated messaging. …
There’s also dissonance in the contrast between serious messaging and often playful graphics. While dissonance can be useful, in this case it’s not. “It really does seem to trivialize the issue by having them be cartoony,” says Nancy Smith Lea, director of the Toronto Centre for Active Transport, in response to the latest crop of signage (below), which includes line drawings of smiling kids and seniors. “They just don’t convey the gravity of the issue.” Read full article – Slowing Down to Design a Better Sign.