Signs in Place: Choreographing Travel Flow in Urban Spaces

Travelling in unfamiliar areas is usually very interesting, however it can also be stressful. People travel or move around in an urban space according to their needs, and the environment can also influence the way people move about from one place to another. If a person gets lost, a map or GPS can be an effective guidance tool. However, “signs in place” offer alternative or additional guidelines to help people with their journey. This paper firstly seeks to understand road traffic signs in terms of mobility in everyday life. It then attempts to distinguish the different perspectives of mobility and geosemiotic studies with regards to the road traffic signs used in urban spaces. The paper ends with a discussion on how people choreograph their movement in their everyday life from two different perspectives: above vs. below.