One step

A great solution to encouraging the right pedestrian traffic flows in busy public places.  This from Sheffield Train Station.  So there's dedicated stairs to go up and dedicated stairs to come down.  To help reinforce the overhead signage there's "no entry" symbols on the steps (with equivalent arrows on the neighbouring ones).

Sure in crowds these might not be visible, but those crowds would start with light pedestrian flow. Something about "a stitch in time". There's also something here about the fact we tend to be careful and observe where we step if mostly with our peripheral vision, and this seems to play to that.

Flummoxed Floors

A lift at the University of Sheffield.  Rather than numbering the floors, here they are lettered.  To be fair part if the problem is caused by the building being on a hill with ground level being one floor different front and back of the building, but is's a poor solution.

Letters can work as 'ordinal scale' in that there is an known order.  But numbers often work better as labels as their order seems to be more intuitively natural.  That's because numbers are and 'interval scale' where the difference between the numbers (the 'interval) has some meaning....the fifth floor is three floors up from floor two.  Rather than floor K being three floors up from floor B.  We can more easily add or subtract with numbers that we can with letters in the alphabet.

Try 'counting' backwards through the alphabet.  What's the letter two before I? Compared to...  what's the mumber which is two before 5? In the former it often needs to be worked out from the original alphabetic order starting from a,b etc, while in the numbers example there's no need to start with zero.

To compound matters, not only are the floors vertically differentiated but the labeling also runs horizontally too.  So you have to read up and down and left and right.  With numbers that works a bit easier, for example double figures are more easily differentiated from single figures.  With letters maybe they could be "zones" rather than floors...rather like the Rohald Dahl's 'great glass elevator' in Charlie and the Chocolate factory where the lift goes left and right as well as up and down.

To compound matters, the use of letters has also required some post installation signage to make sense of it all.   A sign to identify the ground floor, which would more usually be 'G' or '0',   In this case the floor labelled 'G' is in fact the first floor.

No Cycling or No Cycles

Here's some very sensible precautions around a facilities block at a cap site... "No cycling, skateboards or scooters".

A mixed use if verbs and nouns here. No cycling but not explicitly no cycles.  So you could legitimately push your bike.  By contrast it's no skateboards or scooters, rather than no skateboarding or scooting, which technically implies no pushing scooters or carrying skateboards.

It's probably down to a natural reluctance not to use the more clumsy and less common "skateboarding" and "scooting".

Not Withstanding

A visiting miniature ride on railway.  A mini steam engine with a few mini carriages to sit on.

Here's the safety message... "Do not stand up, no leaning".  It's mixed dynamics here..'Do Not Stand' rather than "No Standing", and equally "No Leaning" rather than "Do Not Lean".

A shorter and more consistent message could have read "No Standing or Leaning", or "Do Not Stand or Lean".    There's probably an emphasis here though on the process of standing up....it's that rapid movement of the centre of gravity, and especially while the train is in motion.  Probably less severe or volatile impact with just leaning.

And technically you'd be standing, both before sitting down for the journey and then afterwards to get off.....

Landfill Leverage

Some powerful signage for would ordinarily be a litter or rubbish bin, which would of course typically be signed as litter or rubbish.  This one takes it a step further making the longer term destination for it's contents very explicit - landfill - even emotionally loaded.