Be on the Lookout for New Wayfinding Signs

Be on the lookout for downtown Tacoma's new wayfinding signs!

Today, Chris Storey, the Civil Engineer of the City's Public Works Department, presented a wayfinding update to the Tacoma City Council Economic Development Committee. You may recall previous discussions on the wayfinding project, which included public outreach, two open houses, surveys, and an advisory committee.

Currently, the sign designs are complete and the foundation installation is underway. Signs will be installed in two phases. Phase 1 consists of 11 signs along Pacific Avenue. Phase 2 will include 18 signs at identified downtown gateways, ranging from the Dome District to the Stadium District. Signage installation will begin next month and be completed this December.

The signs will be hard to miss standing at 13 feet high with large, readable print designed for cars travelling at 30 miles an hour. David Schroedel, the Chamber's Metropolitan Development Director, supported Storey in developing criteria for signage content. Criteria was determined based on the proximity of the destination to the current location and public feedback collected overa  ear from online surveys and open houses. Many responses came from area visitors and individuals from the hospitality industry.

A historic image covers the backside of the sign. The signs are removable from the base with the option to be changed out at a later time.

The Committee also discussed the future expansion of wayfinding and destination signage for the City, such as signs that lead to the different neighborhood districts, as well as utilizing existing transportation infrastructure to be used toward pedestrian oriented wayfinding options, like bus shelters and transit centers.

Downtown Tacoma Parking Update

Since paid parking began in downtown Tacoma in September of 2010, there has been a steady increase with over one million transactions taking place last year alone.

Today, Kurtis Kingsolver, Tacoma’s Interim Public Works Director/ City Engineer, along with the Parking Technical Advisory Group Co-Chairs Rollie Herman and Judi Hyman, presented a parking update to the Tacoma City Council Economic Development Committee. The presentation provided an overview of Tacoma’s parking system, key issues, potential solutions, and next steps.

The presenters identified two key parking areas. First, the area surrounding the Pierce County Court House and Bates Technical College in between South 9th Street and 13th and Yakima and Tacoma Avenue was identified as being at capacity for street parking. Currently, this area does not have paid street parking. Typically, those visiting the court house need parking for around four hours, whereas the nearby students need parking all day. Both users, however, likely do not have the ability to pay for parking.

The second area identified is the area surrounding the University of Washington, Tacoma from 17th to 21st Street and Jefferson and Pacific Avenue. Even with paid street parking, this area is often at capacity, limiting local business’ customer volume. The advisory group proposed three suggestions to encourage higher turnover: 1). Reduce the time from two hours to 90 minutes; 2). Extend the paid parking time from 6 pm to 8 pm; and 3). Remove Saturday’s all day parking.

The advisory group also described how the City could promote parking in their off-street parking structures by improving signage that would make it easier to locate and enter and possibly tying into the current Pacific Avenue Streetscape Wayfinding project.

Moreover, the advisory group noted how License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology may be used to promote better compliance, high scofflaw capture, and improved payment compliance through greater system efficiency and the collection of data.

Lastly, the City is well overdue for an updated Parking Master Plan (the last one was completed in 1992), which would take into account parking demand and occupancy data, pricing, an evaluation of the current system’s performance, an evaluation of the City’s role in parking, stakeholder input and public outreach, and a financing strategy.

Wayfinding on Pacific Avenue and Beyond

At City Council's Economic Development Committee Meeting a couple of weeks ago, City staff presented an update on the Pacific Avenue project and wayfinding.  (A 4MB copy of the handouts is here.)  While we've been tracking the Pacific Avenue project as it continues to move towards construction, we were most interested in the discussion of wayfinding.

As you may recall, we asked you what gateways into downtown you thought were the priority and what destinations visitors were looking for.  And with 130 responses, you answered.  The wayfinding working group went through all the responses, including all the great open ended responses and recommended some locations to the City.  These can be found as the green and red dots on the wayfinding map in the handouts.

Looking forward, we are hoping for continued community support of the wayfinding project.  We believe that helping visitors get easily to their destinations is critical to making us a friendly, welcoming city.  If you have any additional thoughts on wayfinding for visitors, please let us know.