Please “Actuate Signal”

C’mon, really? Who wrote this? Who thought most people think about the sensor for traffic lights as “actuating signals?” Really?! This sign is at the exit of my office building, the Smith Bros. Hardware building in Columbus, OH. The sign is meant to tell drivers where to stop so the sensor is activated and the traffic light changes.

It blows me away every time I see it. It’s a constant reminder that bad design decisions are made all the time with everyday objects like this sign.

I originally thought this was a custom sign (made to look standard/official), but after a little search I found the Standard Sign Design Manual from the Ohio Department of Transportation, Office of Traffic Engineering. The image below is from the black and white regulatory series. Evidently, it is an Ohio specific sign type.

First of all, the sign itself shouldn’t be necessary. The sensor for the signal is in the wrong place based on user behavior at this intersection. The sensor is further back from the intersection than most people stop, because they always creep forward to see if any cars are coming around the corner.

But if the sensor can’t move, let’s at least create a sign that people won’t find odd and maybe even understand. Even if you just changed “actuate” to “activate” it would make more sense. Some may argue that actuate is actually more semantically accurate, meaning “to put into action; start a process; turn on” as opposed to “to make active; cause to function or act,” but I think the semantic accuracy is immaterial. It doesn’t matter how that actual physical thing (the engineering of it, the system design) works; what matters is the user’s mental model and how they think it works.

This a classic example of the system design being directly represented in the user interface. It may be a 1:1 and truthful representation of what is happening, but it’s not how people think about or interact with the system.

How would you change this sign to make it more understandable to the everyday user?

btw, that arrow looks non regulation to me.

UPDATE: (02-02-10):

I came across another sign today that says “stop here to trip detector.”