Abstract
Recently, public signs that support citizens' activities are introduced and improved in many cities. The urban spaces are, however, already full of variety of signs, creating confused and disorderly streetscapes. To clarify basic indices for structuring a public sign system that takes into account the existing signs, the present study (1) investigates the types and amounts of all the elements constituting the urban streetscapes including the public signs; (2) classifies public signs of all sorts by their use and type of information conveyed; and (3) attempts a statistical cross analysis of the investigation by nothing the distribution characteristics of the existing public signs. The public signs are found responsible for unbalance in information types and lack of types in information supply. The public signs also account for the disorderly urban streetscapes because of their proportion among other component elements constituting the urban streetscapes. This suggests need for an well-organized public sign system that can replace the conventional sign systems that were managed separately by different organizations.
