E V A C U A T I O N | Allan Bonner Communications Management Inc.

Urban designers ignore ordinary people’s preferences. The evidence is the well-worn pedestrian path through vegetation.  

This shows how people actually want to use an urban space.  There’s a term for “foot worn dirt paths scuffed across pristine  grass” as noted in a recent Financial Times article entitled “World’s  most impractical buildings?”  

These are called “desire lines” and “clearly show where the  designer of a public space has failed to account for how people  would wish to use it.”  

Governments are guilty of creating “desire lines” when deliv ering programs and services online. There are digital desire lines,  or intuitive ways of navigating a website. But in the case of the  disastrous rollout of Healthcare.gov in the United States, millions  flooded the website to register for Obamacare, only to discover  this new service was inaccessible. 

The US government recognized the problem and called in a  who’s who from Silicon Valley. They came to the rescue to ensure  citizens could register online. 

A secondary benefit? The United States Digital Service (USDS)  was formed, and is mandated to improve digital service delivery  for Americans. Their work is ongoing, and they are making prog ress on many fronts, including employment, veterans affairs, and  immigration. One of their most recent projects included the launch  of login.gov, an identity service that allows people to use a single  username and service to access government services securely on line. This approach ensures all resources are put into securing the  one online identity service, rather than having to maintain multiple  sites which may use different means of authentication or storage.

Worse though is the passing reference in a recent Financial  Times article about an influential psychology paper about why we  get lost in buildings. 

Confusing buildings and signage will kill people, and probably  has. Take Toronto’s underground PATH system, supposedly de signed to connect subway stops and buildings. This connection is  mostly via underground shopping centres, including the only one  Arthitect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed under his Toronto  Dominion Bank complex. The PATH system does have signs, but  they direct pedestrians to buildings not streets. You have to re member (and few do) what street which iconic bank tower is on  if you want to pick the right exit for that street. The colours used  are those of the corporation that is the anchor tenant of the iconic  building — not a colour that draws attention or makes reading  easier. 

The King Street subway stop in Toronto has no exit sign (in  a flag position perpendicular to the wall), but only one which is  parallel to the wall. When I look down the subway platform all I  can see is “Melinda Street.” But I want to go to King Street. Even  when built decades ago, this narrow platform with one exit and  poor signage nearly killed people, and they had to put in an extra  exit. No extra signs though. 

Torontonians who live downtown, and need to renew a health  card or driver’s license, can go to 777 Bay Street. After parking  underground, there’s no indication of how to get anywhere. The  only walkway seems to be straight up a ramp into oncoming cars. I  pressed the button to speak to security and I was first asked where  I was. If I knew I wouldn’t be asking for directions. You’d think  the guard would know each emergency button location. Then I  was instructed to go to a certain set of doors along the red walk 

way with the handrail. Neither can be found. It turns out this red 

walkway is up the ramp, around to the right, with signage at the  end. You have to get to where you’re going before you can know  where you are going. 

I received a second set of directions. I was told to proceed to  the coloured doors. After walking around for a bit, it turns out  there are no such coloured doors. I called back and the man on the  intercom said (straight faced), “Oh, yeah, they’ve been painted.” 

The property management company and the Ontario Fire  Marshall’s office didn’t seem concerned or take any action. This will kill people. Imagine an evacuation in which the se curity guard gets on the intercom to tell all in the underground  parking lot to go to the wrong coloured doors, which don’t exist.  How about intercom instructions to find a red walkway that is  nowhere in sight? How about stampeding people up the ramp into  on-coming cars? 

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