New Manhattan Parking Signs to Be Less Confusing: DOT

6,300 signs with confusing phrasing and varying colors, typefaces and font sizes will be replaced

City officials Monday unveiled newly designed Manhattan parking regulation signs intended to be easier to read.

According to the Department of Transportation, 6,300 signs with confusing phrasing and varying colors, typefaces and font sizes will be replaced with standardized two-color signs, phrased and formatted to be more easily understood.

“New York City’s parking signs can sometimes be a 5-foot-high totem pole of confusing information,” said DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “Parking signs play an important role in setting the rules at the curbside and these changes will make regulations easier to read and take the stress out of figuring out where and when you can legally park.”

A little over half of the new signs will be located in Manhattan’s paid commercial parking areas from 60th Street to 14th Street, from Second to Ninth avenues, as well as on the Upper East Side, and in parts of Lower Manhattan.

Some 3,000 other signs for nighttime and weekend parking for the general public, hotel and taxi stands, street cleaning and no standing areas will also be among those replaced.

By reducing the number of characters on the new signs from 250 characters to about 140, officials say the signs will appear less cluttered, while explaining the rules more clearly.

“You shouldn't need a Ph.D. in parking signage to understand where you are allowed to leave your car in New York," said City Council Member Daniel Garodnick, who proposed simplifying the signs in 2011. 

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