Navigating portions of Peoria could be much easier in the near future. City officials unveiled a Downtown Wayfinding Plan at an open house Tuesday night. It includes a series of directional signs to navigate from the interstate to various destinations in the downtown, city center, riverfront and warehouse districts.
The Downtown Wayfinding Plan was created by Michigan-based Corbin Design. Lead designer Jeff Frank wayfinding is direction for people in motion.
“Our goal here is to bring people in efficiently from a vehicular standpoint, find the most convenient parking nearest their destination and convert them to a pedestrian and keep them a pedestrian as long as we can by providing pedestrian information in a way of pedestrian kiosks and guidesigns," says Frank.
City Traffic Engineer Nick Stoffer says the final design will be unique to Peoria and should help guide visitors and residents to key destinations and attractions.
“There’s a sign family and starts from big to small. So you have signs that will direct you off a main route and then once you get out of your car there’s going to be smaller pedestrian scale signs with maps and different ways to locate throughout the downtown," says Stoffer.
Stoffer says the cost is not determined, but he hopes to present a final plan to city council in the next few months. The design phase was funded with a Tri-County Regional Planning grant.
