Raleigh's Guerrilla Wayfinding Signs Deemed Illegal

UPDATE (3/2): City staff in Raleigh have come up with a plan for accommodating Walk Raleigh's delightful but dubiously legal guerrilla wayfinding signs, which have become a cause célèbre for walkability enthusiasts far from North Carolina. The city notes that the intent behind the project (if not its tactics) was in fact consistent with Raleigh's long-term goals to integrate travel modes, enhance bike/ped infrastructure and even expand wayfinding signage. And so officials are proposing to put the signs back up in a three-month pilot "formal public education campaign."

Since the signs are meant for education and not advertising, Raleigh planning director Mitchell Silver tells us the city staff was able to think a little more creatively about how to re-hang them without requiring a permit (governments, he says, can be innovative, too!). Under the plan, Matt Tomasulo will "donate" the signs to the city as a gift, and city staff will post and maintain them. This recommendation goes before the Raleigh city council next Tuesday, March 6. If it's approved, Silver says, the signs could be back up within a week or two.