On the Topic of Garage Sales: Having Your Own Sale Part 4: More Sign Placement

My last post discusses where to place signs in your neighborhood; today I am going to discuss where to place your signs at intersections.

Last week I discussed that our model neighborhood needed signs at twelve intersections. If you have forgotten, those twelve intersections are circled in red below:

No matter how good your signs are, and no matter if you have all the necessary intersections in your neighborhood covered, if your signs are not well-placed at your intersections, people are going to have trouble finding your sale.

Long-distance readability is the most important factor in intersection sign placement and really trumps all the other rules I'm going to list later. You want people to be able to see your sign from one hundred or more yards away (remember your fluorescent paper?) so you need an unobstructed line of sight. Don't place your sign someplace where it may be blocked by trees, other signs, parked cars, etc. If in doubt, walk down the street after you place your sign to make sure you can see it.

One mistake I see frequently is that people place their signs on stakes which they then stick into the ground. It's good in the short run -- it takes only a few seconds to set up -- but it's bad in the long run because people driving by have trouble seeing it. You want your signs to be eye-level, so tape them to light, signal, or sign poles. This rule is a part of long-distance readability and should therefore always be followed.

Traffic and the number of lanes at an intersection determine whether you place the sign at the intersection or before it and which side of the street you place it.

Streets with low traffic volume, low speeds, and only one lane in each direction (typically streets within subdivisions) are the easiest intersections to place signs at. Speeds are low enough (and there's only one lane) so you don't have to worry about people missing your sign or not having time to turn so you can just place your sign at the intersection (ie, on the street or stop sign). If it's a right turn, put the sign on the right side. If it's a left turn, the street is narrow enough for you to put the sign on the left side of the street because it's preferable for you sign placement to suggest the turn direction.

Drivers on heavily-trafficked and wider streets need more of a warning before they can turn. I usually place a sign around one hundred yards before the turn and then another sign at the intersection. If it's a right turn, both signs go on the right side of the street. If it's a left turn, the first sign (the sign away from the intersection) goes on the right side and the second sign goes on the median. If there's no median, the second sign goes on the right as well because it can be difficult to see signs across so many lanes of traffic.

When placing signs at intersections, you want to place them before the turn. This is kind of hard to describe so I'll conclude this post with some images I think will clarify what I mean. The dotted rectangles represent a possible median.