Kyiv authorities are rapidly putting up English-language signs in an effort to prepare the city for the influx of thousands of football fans for Euro 2012.
Long-overdue metro signs and map boards in English now help tourists to make their way around the city. Even the voice in trains on some metro lines has started announcing stations in English.
But critics say the efforts are insufficient and signs are often unclear.
In recent weeks, new signs have appeared in metro stations marking the exits and listing the stations the trains from a particular platform depart for. Maps inside the carriages display the names of stations on the network.
“Kyiv metro has been preparing for Euro 2012 in advance,” said Serhiy Tkachuk, head of traffic service for Kyiv metro.
Kyiv metro has been preparing for Euro 2012 in advance.
– Serhiy Tkachuk, head of traffic service for Kyiv metro
He said that as of April 13 all stations had new information boards with streets and stations names translated into English. Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Khreshchatyk, Arsenalna, Ploshcha L’va Tolstogo, Slavutych and Dnipro stations still need some improvement, he added, and will get new boards soon.
The English version is usually written in a smaller font underneath the Ukrainian one. But even with station and street names being fully translated, the navigation system of Kyiv metro is far from convenient. The lack of navigation boards causes particular problems when trying to find one’s way through a station with multiple exits, like Kontraktova Ploshcha.
Other signs are set to be erected before Euro 2012.
City officials say 50 large map stands will be in place before June, showing 80 important tourist sights.
Vyacheslav Myronenko, director of the recently established Kyiv City Tourism Information Center, said the city is also launching a chain of Tourism Information Centers, spots where guides can answer tourists’ questions and hand out free maps and other printed materials. Twenty-three such centers will be established in Kyiv before Euro 2012.
Some critics, however, say Kyiv’s signs need a more fundamental overhaul.
Ukrainian designer Igor Skliarevsky created a new modern sign system for the city metro and then for the rest of the city. But in March, the authorities turned it down, giving preference to clumsy-looking signs produced by a budget-financed institute instead.
[Kyiv’s] navigation system doesn’t meet any standard it must meet: readability, brevity, informativeness and relevance.
– Igor Skliarevsky, Ukrainian designer
“[Kyiv’s] navigation system doesn’t meet any standard it must meet: readability, brevity, informativeness and relevance,” Skliarevsky said. “If I need more than one second to decide [where to turn] and slow down, people behind me start pushing me in the back.”
In Kyiv metro stations, there is no system for locating direction signs. Only a limited number of people coming out of the train can immediately see them. But even when they do, they are barely readable. Skliarevsky says that the current style of design, where directions are listed in a line and separated by commas, takes twice as long to read than an alternative design. If the letters are capitalized, the processing time doubles again.
He says that Kyiv metro has a peculiar architectural design typical for Soviet-built metro stations but confusing for travelers. The stations where lines intersect, such as Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti, are two separate stations connected with a bridge or a path. In most countries, metro lines tend to intersect at the same station.
Skliarevsky, a 34-year-old Kyiv resident, started working on his sign system in November. His initiative gathered 1,500 friends on Facebook, many of whom were eager to help, and they were going to hand the project to the city for free.
Apart from the metro navigation system, he is working on regular street signs, with building numbers, directions and other vital information.
But Kyiv’s municipal authorities weren’t impressed. The city’s head architectural office decided that Skliarevsky’s project does not meet their requirements and recommended improvements. They chose to use another set of signs produced by the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute for Design and Ergonomics, which is a part of the National Science Academy financed from the state budget.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected], Alyona Zhuk is a former Kyiv Post staff writer
