Developing Effective Wayshowing for Byways AN INITIATIVE TO ASSIST BYWAY PROVIDERS HELP TRAVELERS FIND THEIR WAY ALONG AMERICA’S BEST ROADS SUMMARY REPORT LOGO: America's Byways Resource Center DAVID L. DAHLQUIST ASSOCIATES, L.L.C. .. .. .. .. .. Summary Byways, and the organizations that support them, are ‘coming of age’. The number of designations is growing; funding is stable; public awareness is up; local byway organizations are becoming better organized; and public officials are taking note. More importantly, intrinsic qualities are being protected; the traveling public has new recreation, tourism, and learning opportunities to enjoy; and citizens can take new pride in the stories that make their local roads America’s best roads. With ‘coming of age’ maturity comes the opportunity and responsibility to make sure that all is being done to make an endeavor effective. That is the case with the America's Byways® Resource Center and its service to the byway communities of America’s Byways® . In all its endeavors, the America’s Byways® Resource Center seeks to build sustainable local byway organizations; foster networking among local and state byway organizations; and deliver authentic experiences for byway travelers. Listening to the community of byway providers--byway leaders and members of organizations that support individual byways, state byway coordinators, public officials, and others who steward a byway’s intrinsic qualities and deliver the desired byway experience--one priority sounds loud and clear: travelers need more effective assistance to find their way to and along byways. SIDEBAR: JUST THE FACTS: WHAT IS THIS? Summary of an initiative for new services to assist byway organizations SPONSOR: America’s Byways® Resource Center Duluth, MN PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT: Gather constructive comments from a sampling of byway providers ULTIMATE AUDIENCE FOR WAYSHOWING ASSISTANCE: Byway Providers: byway leaders, coordinators and individuals as well as professionals, state DOT byway coordinators, volunteers, public officials, special interest representatives, and others who steward a byway’s intrinsic qualities and deliver the desired byway experience AUTHOR: David L. Dahlquist Associates, L.L.C., (515) 326-1593 ddahlquist@mchsi.com RESOURCE CENTER CONTACT: Curt Pianalto, (218) 625-3304 cpianalto@byways.org Byways provide unique and rewarding experiences, benefits, and memories for the traveling public. While the scenery of the roadside, interpretive themes, content, and stories contribute to different byway experiences for each traveler one common characteristic prevails across all byways: byway travelers must be able to find the byway and follow the byway to effectively participate in any byway experience. The byway experience simply would not exist without guidance and effective communication of route information. This characteristic of self-directed travel is described by various terms and titles such as wayfinding, self navigation, sign following, map reading, route following, etc. For the purposes of this initiative, two primary terms are used. Wayfinding is the mental process, performed by byway travelers, that turns a traveler’s goal into decisions, actions, and behaviors. Signs, maps, and brochures are not wayfinding: they are aids to assist travelers in finding the desired way. Wayfinding is continuous problem solving under uncertainty. Wayshowing is the communication of information, intentionally undertaken by byway providers, to aid travelers in setting desired goals, making decisions, and taking appropriate actions. Wayshowing involves planning, design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance of theme, image, content, and the physical means of conveying these to the intended audience. In short, wayfinding is what travelers do, and wayshowing is what byway providers do. Figure 1 provides a comparison of the distinctions between wayfinding and wayshowing. FIGURE 1: Wayfinding and Wayshowing Comparison What Byway Travelers Do Seeing Reading Hearing Learning WAYFINDING What Byway Providers Do Drawing Writing Speaking Teaching WAYSHOWING The initiative being planned by the America’s Byways® Resource Center to advance effective wayshowing for byway travelers is built on six key premises: Effective Wayshowing for Byway Travelers Must: A. Support how people find their way in unfamiliar travel environments B. Provide a guidance system of reliable and consistent components on all byways C. Respond to the unique characteristics of each byway D. Be integrated with pre-visit, visit, and post-visit stages of the byway experience E. Contribute to a safe roadway and travel environment F. Become a widely practiced body of knowledge among byway providers A. Effective wayshowing must support how people find their way in unfamiliar travel environments Dr. Reginald G. Golledge, Professor of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, defines wayfinding as the process of determining and following a path or route between origin and destination1 . For byway wayfinding, this definition is particularly accurate. Byway travelers inherently define travel goals through destinations -- the next town, a well-recognized scenic overlook, an historic landmark, an interpretive stop, the entrance or existing points of the byway. Yet for travel between an origin (where you are now) and a destination (where you want to go next) to be successful, wayfinding requires a considerable mental exercise. As summarized by Golledge, for travel to be successful, it is necessary for travelers to: • identify origin and destination, • determine turn angles, • identify segment links and directions of movement, • recognize on-route and distant landmarks, and mentally embed or visualize the route to be taken in some larger reference frame known as a cognitive map. FOOTNOTE 1: Golledge, R. G. (1999). Wayfinding Behavior, Cognitive Mapping and Other Spatial Processes. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press Byway providers need to understand the essentials of cognitive wayfinding behavior and apply that knowledge to their particular byway settings. The America’s Byways® Resource Center can accelerate the appreciation for and the application of essential wayfinding knowledge for byways. B. Effective wayshowing must provide a guidance system of reliable and consistent components on all byways Every byway needs to provide essential items to communicate with travelers, just as every motor vehicle needs essential components, such as an engine, wheels, a steering wheel, a passenger cabin, and so forth. The motor vehicle operator relies on these components functioning each and every time the vehicle is driven. Similarly, as travelers attempt to find their way along a byway, they need certain essential components in order to successfully travel the desired route. For byways, these essential components make up the ‘guidance system’: On-Route Components: (See Figure 2 for Conceptual Diagram) • Entrances, Exits and Gateways—Identification of where to enter and exist so that travelers know their position relative to accessing and leaving a byway environment • Orientation Stops—Pull-offs, turn-outs and other places for motorists to stop and help them create, refresh, and expand their mental maps of a byway corridor, its intrinsic qualities, and overarching interpretive theme with exhibits, maps, and other means of communication • Repetitive Route Markers—A sequence of visual cues for motorists to follow along a byway’s entire length • Direction Signage to Planned Destinations—Signs that alert and guide motorists to featured stops and attractions along and near a byway Figure 2: Guidance System Diagram LEGEND: Byway Major Highways Entrances Exits and Gateways Orientation Stops Repetitive Route Markers Direction Signage to Planned Destinations On-Board Component: (See Figure 3) • A Portable Byway Map—A carry-on map of a byway corridor and its various attractions and amenities Just as a motor vehicle is dysfunctional if one of its essential components is absent, so too is a byway that lacks its guidance system. These five components (the first four installed in the visual byway environment and the fifth, a carry along map) make up the ‘guidance system’ that every byway provider should offer to every traveler. Supplemental devices and aides, such as 511 information services, mileage or reference markers, printed travel guides, global positioning systems (GPS) data, audio recordings, etc. can also fill important communication roles to meet unique wayfinding or education needs of a particular byway but should not be considered a substitute for the five core items of the byway guidance system. At a minimum, every byway traveler should have access to the core elements of the byway guidance system. Many travelers may not have access to supplemental features. FIGURE 3: Sample Byway Map (Ohio River Scenic Byway-Illinois) A fundamental principle of transportation information systems that support highway travel is reliability and consistency. For example, motorists rely on stop signs being where they need to be, and that stop signs always look like stop signs everywhere. Motorists know to stop wherever the need is manifested by a stop sign. The principle of reliability and consistency runs through all traffic control systems and devices. Presently, this attribute of the wayshowing components for byways (entrance identification, orientation stops, route markers, directional signage, and byway maps) is found on only a few individual byways and certainly is not a currently shared characteristic among the national collection of designated byways. As travelers have come to rely on consistency and uniformity in traffic control devices on all roads, the byway experience needs to become recognized for its reliability and consistency in communicating wayshowing information. Just as there is professional judgment exercised in applying the design standards of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD)2 to achieve the effect and appearance of consistency, professional judgment needs to be exercised in achieving reliability and consistency in the application of the guidance system for byways. C. Effective wayshowing must respond to the unique characteristics of each byway Byway travel experience, as a form of outdoor recreation and ‘edutainment’ (something that educates and entertains at the same time) is a unique experience unto itself. Visiting parks and historic sites, hiking on trails, floating on a lake or river, attending a festival or event are unlike the privacy, intimacy, control, and challenges that characterize the byway experience. And, wayfinding, perhaps more so than in most other outdoor recreation experiences, is at the heart of the byway experience. Furthermore, while all designated byways meet certain thresholds for good corridor management and organization, any similarity among byways stops there. Length and configuration of route, landscape, jurisdictional control, theme and story, etc. all color each byway with a unique set of wayshowing challenges for the byway provider. Each byway is unique and each byway provider needs to recognize the unique challenges they face in providing effective wayshowing for their particular byway. The America’s Byways® Resource Center stresses the unique nature of the byway experience with respect to other outdoor recreation experiences. FOOTNOTE 2: The MUTCD includes the national standards for traffic control devices that regulate, warn, and guide motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and other uses of public roads and highways: http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov D. Effective wayshowing must be integrated with pre-visit, visit, and post-visit stages of the byway experience Wayfinding inherently involves building cognitive maps -- mental or internal spatial representations of the physical environment in which travel will occur. Before, during, and after travel, a traveler’s cognitive map continually evolves becoming more accurate, more useful, and more valuable. Travelers acquire (learn) more information; experience the surrounding landscape (encode); and recall the travel experience (update). In short, the act of wayfinding relative to byways is not limited to the time a visitor spends traveling along a byway route. Byway providers should not limit their focus on helping travelers only when those travelers are on the byway. The byway experience, like many other leisure travel experiences, has distinct stages that precede and follow the time one physically spends participating in the experience on site. Pre-visit, including the decision to participate and the planning needed to participate, are two stages that are essential for the actual experience to be possible, rewarding, and meaningful. Wayfinding by travelers occurs in the pre-visit, visit, and post-visit stages, and byway providers need to take advantage at each stage in assisting travelers to learn and process information as well as build and use their cognitive maps. The America’s Byways® Resource Center and the Federal Highway Administration can increase the success of market development and promotion efforts when those are coupled with providing wayshowing information that is essential to successful wayfinding. Enabling prospective visitors to visualize the travel environment and the benefits that are associated with the byway will eventually lead to the repeat visitation by byway travelers. Figure 4 illustrates the pre-visit, visit, and post-visit stages in the byway experience and a brief description of each stage and the implications for byway wayshowing. FIGURE 4: Five Stages of a Wayfinding Experience for Byway Travelers PRE-VISIT Choose - Select The point at which a prospective traveler chooses or selects a particular byways trip opportunity from all the available options and begins to plan and prepare to take a byway-based trip Wayfinding Needs: *Where is the byway? *What is there to see and do? *How much time should it take? *What is the big story--the big benefit--of travel on the byway Plan - Prepare The stage when the prospective byway traveler plans and prepares for the trip. Wayfinding Needs: *How will travelers get there? *Where will they stay, eat and shop? *How much time should be allotted to travel to and on the byway? *Where are the intrinsic qualities and atteractions of the byway? VISIT Travel - Visit The event itself and what will provide the great core memories for the travel party. Wayfinding Needs: *Where are the entry points to the byway? *How do travlers know this is a byway--something special? *How do they stay on the route? *How do they get back on the route when they get off? *Where are the attractions along the route? Where can travelers get information along the route? *Where are travel-related services located? *What special traffic or road conditions need attention? POST-VISIT Recall - Reflect With a memorable byway travel event, travelers usually want ways and things that will help them recall impressive sites, interpreted stories, and personal experiences Wayfinding Needs: *What will help visitors recall the good times they had on the trip? *Maps to refresh memories? *Pictures of landmarks and travel companions? *Where was the awesome overlook? Repeat - Share This perhaps is the most important stage--providing people with the incentive to 1) revist the byway, 2) travel to a different byway, and/or 3) encourage someone else to visit a byway Wayfinding Needs: *How will travelers be able to share their experiences and recommend to others the benefits of driving byways? *What will be available to help plan a repeat visit or a new visit to another byway? Communicating with travelers is essential at all five stages of the wayfinding experience, even in the stages that follow the on-site Travel/Visit stage. Byway providers need to deploy a comprehensive mix of media to be effective with most travelers. Certain types of media are more useful in certain stages than in others. For instance, web sites and print media are inherently more effective for travelers as they begin to build their cognitive maps in the Selecting and Planning stages than are components of the byway guidance system described above. Signs and wayside exhibits are generally more effective for travelers during the Travel/Visit stage of wayfinding on a byway. All media needs to reinforce critical information, messages, and themes that support creating and manifesting travel goals into action. Figure 5 illustrates this concept. Figure 5: Relevancy of various media for the five stages of wayfinding for byways PRE-VISIT Choose - Select HIGH MEDIA RELEVANCY: Print Brochure Web Site Advertisements LOW MEDIA RELEVANCY: Guidance Signs Merchandise Plan - Prepare HIGH MEDIA RELEVANCY: Print Brochure Web Site MEDIUM MEDIA RELEVANCY: Wayside Interpretive Exhibits Merchandise LOW MEDIA RELEVANCY: Advertisements Guidance Signs VISIT Travel - Visit HIGH MEDIA RELEVANCY: Guidance Signs Wayside Interpretive Exhibits MEDIUM MEDIA RELEVANCY: Print Brochure Merchandise LOW MEDIA RELEVANCY: Web Site POST-VISIT Recall - Reflect MEDIUM MEDIA RELEVANCY: Web Site Guidance Signs Wayside Interpretive Exhibits Merchandise LOW MEDIA RELEVANCY: Print Brochure Advertisements Repeat - Share MEDIUM MEDIA RELEVANCY: Print Brochure Web Site Guidance Signs Merchandise E. Effective wayshowing must contribute to a safe roadway and travel environment Research reported by the Institute of Transportation Engineers indicates that driver error may account for approximately 90% of all vehicle crashes3. A report indexed by the Transportation Research Board suggests that the lack of effective wayshowing elements “represent(s) a threat to driver safety and mobility, leads to wasted time and fuel, contributes to traffic congestion, and causes drivers stress and embarrassment.”4 All byway providers must do their utmost to assure that wayshowing for byway travelers is designed, installed, and sustained in an effective manner to support safe driving and navigation. It can be argued that byway travelers are particularly at risk since this group includes a higher portion of drivers who have never traveled a byway’s corridor and consequently they have unreliable cognitive maps (experience) to draw upon when executing driving maneuvers. The America’s Byways® Resource Center along with the Federal Highway Administration continues to accentuate the importance of safety and the benefits that effective wayshowing for byways can provide. F. Effective wayshowing must become a widely practiced body of knowledge among byway providers Recognizing the importance of responding to the five points above, the America’s Byways® Resource Center intends to expand the body of wayshowing knowledge among byways providers. Rewarding byway experiences for the traveling public cannot be left to chance or taken for granted. As the central theme of this report suggests, the byway experience is not possible without wayshowing being effectively planned, implemented, and sustained. The body of knowledge that supports effective wayshowing is emerging and various interests and professionals all can contribute to growth and practice of the body of knowledge. While each local byway organization assumes the responsibility for employing the means and methods of communicating with the traveling public, the America’s Byways® Resource Center can provide four types of service for byway organizations: FOOTNOTE 3: Institute of Transportation Engineers, “Human Factors Issues in Intersection Safety”, April 2004 FOOTNOTE 4: P. C. Burns. “Wayfinding Errors While Driving”, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol. 18, p. 209-217 • Knowledge Repository -- Become the most comprehensive source of information pertaining to wayfinding and wayshowing related to byways • Skill Development --Implement delivery methods so that byway providers can practically apply learned knowledge of wayfinding and wayshowing • Visitor’s Eye Perspective -- Afford byway organizations a better understanding of the effectiveness of their byway’s wayshowing guidance system—a methodical and objective through-the-windshield evaluation • Organization Encouragement --Facilitate the unique partnerships that are characteristic of successful byway organizations The America’s Byways® Resource Center can become the most comprehensive source of information pertaining to wayshowing and it will provide the means for skill development of byway providers across the country. It will offer methodical and objective evaluations of the effectiveness of byway communications from a visitor's perspective. The America’s Byways® Resource Center encourages and facilitates organizations when needed to reach their byway goals. The America’s Byways® Resource Center will sustain, enhance, and expand the wayshowing body of knowledge for byways. Figure 6: Wayfinding Projects and Activities, illustrates nearly 20 ways the America’s Byways® Resource Center can deliver the four service quadrants to byway organizations and stakeholders. Activities (indicated by circled numbers) positioned near the center of the diagram are those which generally involve lower levels of resource (time and financial) allocations. FIGURE 6: Wayshowing Initiative Projects and Activities Organization Encouragement *Multi-byway Facilitation *Organization Audits *Organization Canvases *Outreach and Orientation Visitor’s Eye Perspective *Visitor's Eye Orientation *Visitor's Eye Canvases *Visitor's Eye Audits Knowledge Repository *Staff Skill Development *Sample Visitor Media *Electronic Data Bases *Profession Refer. Library *Byway Development Library Skill Development *Knowledge Hotline *Publications *Web-based Services *Group Training *Agency Partnerships *Customized Training The unique experiences offered through traveling byways and accessing a byway’s intrinsic qualities are not possible unless travelers are successful at wayfinding. Most travelers who decide and plan to engage in a byway experience need information and assistance in the form of travel directions, signs, maps, and route markers. For the majority of potential byway travelers, the byway experience simply would not exist without guidance and consistent communication. Not unlike the nature of wayfinding and wayshowing, this report represents a roadmap of sorts. People pick travel objectives or destinations and make plans to reach those places. The America’s Byways® Resource Center seeks to build sustainable local byway organizations; foster networking among local and state byway organizations; and deliver authentic experiences for byway travelers. People use different means to reach their travel goals. In providing a holistic array of services that will assist byway organizations implement effective wayshowing, the America’s Byways® Resource Center will reach many of its goals for delivering safe and rewarding byway experiences to the American traveling public. Prepared by David L. Dahlquist Associates, L.L.C. For the America’s Byways® Resource Center February 27, 2007