Revisiting proposed installation of Village directional signage, La Jolla Village Merchants Association in May vetted recommendations made by an Ace Parking representative. Brad Elsass, VP of strategic initiatives for Ace, conducted a parking study a year ago for LJVMA, noted the merchant group’s executive director, Jodi Rudick.
“Our research was primarily focused on off-street parking utilization in the Village, which indicated that parking capacity is not a significant barrier to visitation to La Jolla, particularly during nights, weekends, holidays, and events,” said Elsass. “The wayfinding recommendation was developed to improve several aspects including pedestrian flow, better access to the coastline, and improvements to congestion by informing visitors where services and points of interest are located in the Village.”
Added Elsass: “When benchmarking other communities, such as Encinitas, which share similar challenges as the Village, it was noted that targeted wayfinding programs improve the overall visitor experience. As such, a phased approach to improving signage in the Village was recommended as a potential solution.”
Elsass told Village merchants Phase 1 of a new wayfinding program would be focused on “static signs that would highlight points of interests such as the Children’s Pool, Whale Point, and Downtown.” He pointed out Phase 2 of a wayfinding program “would be centered around dynamic signage to direct visitors to available parking to reduce the congestion in the Village created by visitors searching for a parking stall. Parking occupancy data can be displayed in real-time, and sent to various mobile parking applications to direct visitors to open parking, thus reducing the impact of visitors circling the streets in search of available parking.”
Concluded Elsass, “What we’re looking for is for LJVMA to lead the way in bringing this wayfinding idea around to the community groups.”
Elsass estimated it would cost about $3,500 to create plans for a directory and signage for the Village including graphics.
