Help, I'm lost!

I was reading this rather interesting article a couple of days back about sign design (http://www.slate.com/id/2245644/) and its importance, and it struck me how often I have complained about the lack of proper signage in this country. It doesn’t seem awfully complicated to get signage right… if at all, it is probably very logical. Why then are we so poor at it.
The best-marked roads that I have seen here are undoubtedly in Delhi. At some point a few years back, the government woke up to the need for these, and we have clearly marked big blue overhead boards announcing where the roads are headed. Even so, every once in awhile one finds a major turn unmarked, leading to much inconvenience, such as happened with us a couple of months back when we were headed to Sonepat in Haryana. For the longest time my parents were talking about this turn they needed to take towards Sonepat. But in the absence of any proper signs, they had to rely on memory to figure it out. Sure enough we missed it, and overshot by several kilometers before they realized their mistake. And this is an experience of someone who has lived in Delhi for decades now, and has in general a very good sense of direction. God help directionally challenged people like me.
I’m reminded also of my recent trip to Japan, a country where the train network is extensive and excellent, and therefore the preferred mode of travel, and where almost no one speaks English. So did we have problems traveling in Japan… not at all! Apart from the fact that the people are extremely helpful, and do all that can to be of assistance in spite of the language barrier, their maps and signs are excellent guides. Tokyo for instance has the most intricate network, of railways and subways. But all the stations have assistance booths with the exact same map with colour coded routes. One may make a mistake like choose the more crowded train, or the longer route, but it’s almost impossible to pick a wrong route… everything is so clearly marked. Then again, in the stations, the platforms and lines are clearly marked. And make no mistake, I am talking about big underground stations here, and long corridors leading from one line to the next… so much so it seems like another city underneath! The assistance counters too are logically placed. The point is there is a standard logic that has been followed in the design. Once your mind gets used to that logic, it automatically looks for signs in the right places. This would be crucial I imagine for the kind of traffic that the Tokyo rail network handles everyday.

(This brings back such nice memories :) Of lots of pouring over maps, friendly Japanese wanting to help out, and walking endlessly in large underground stations. We were staying in Ikebukuro and used both the Subway and train lines extensively in the three days we were there.)

I’ve never really had that much of a problem traveling by Indian railway either, but then I have grown up in this country. I do wonder how foreigner friendly our signages are. Certainly our road signs can do with some improvement, especially in b-tier cities, towns and villages, heck sometimes even in the metros, as we realized that day on our way to Sonepat.