An Obey the Signs Sign
by Chris MacDonald
I love this sign, which is posted near the building formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens, on Carlton St in Toronto.
It’s a sign that encourages pedestrians to obey traffic signals, which are of course themselves a kind of normative sign. So, it’s a sign telling you to obey signs. Philosophically, that makes it a meta-normative sign.
I have to wonder about the likely effectiveness of such a sign. I mean, if a pedestrian wasn’t already disposed to obeying signs and signals, would they be disposed to obeying this particular sign? Maybe there’s a kind of bootstrapping at play, here: its a verbal reminder to obey other kinds of visual signals. So maybe (another metaphor) it serves to ‘prime the pump.’
Normative Signs: The Poetry of "Ought" 
[…] like meta-normative signs, signs that tell you to obey other signs (like this sign telling pedestrians to obey traffic signals). The photo above is of a sign that is kind of like that. See the coaster on the table? The […]