LA Tests New, Easy-To-Read Parking Signs

Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Councilman Paul Krekorian and other officials were at Sixth and Spring streets for installation of the first sign displaying visual, grid-style graphs to indicate parking restrictions.

"The truth is ... these signs, as we have them now, are practically hieroglyphics sometimes,'' Krekorian said. "So, I think this is going to be much easier, and I am very pleased the mayor has helped lead the way in helping to clarify this.''

Asked if he's had any personal parking problems, Krekorian said, "Oh, everybody does. I've gotten a ticket myself when I thought I was legally parked. It turned out I wasn't. And everyone on the council has constituents who have expressed this concern. So the response (to the new signs) has been terrific.''

The new signs feature vertical bars representing 12-hour cycles for each day of the week, with no-parking times in red, and green representing the times when parking is permitted. The City Council agreed earlier this week to spend $20,000 to test out the new signs.

The city Transportation Department is installing about 100 signs on seven blocks of Spring and Main streets -- between Second and Ninth streets -- and test them out over a six-month period starting this spring.

In introducing the motion to look into redesigning parking signs, Krekorian said he does not want parking to be a "guessing game where people worry about getting ticketed because they can't easily tell what the restrictions are and when they are in effect.''

The idea to redesign parking signs is also part of the Transportation Department's Great Streets for Los Angeles strategic plan released last September.