How Brasília street signs work

A model of Brasilia Street Signs, designed by Danilo Barbosa in 1976, is part of the Museum of Modern Art's collection (MoMA)  in New York since 2013. 

Created with a very clear and modern concept, Brasília's street signs are aimed at facilitating the life of drivers and pedestrians getting around the city. They are provided with specific sizes, colors, symbols and positions. However, they can remain somewhat obscure to some tourists or even expert locals. 

Here are a few tips to better understand them.

First of all, the street signs in Brasília use the plain green signs, but some signs use different colors to highlight certain types of destination according to the following:

Blue: indicates where you are

Green: indicates a direction where to go

Brown: indicates a touristic attraction

White: explains the location. For example, if you take the direction "Eixo L", you'll drive along the blocks 202  to 216 or 402 to 416.

Touristic attractions contain placenames translated into English. It doesn't mean that the English version is satisfactorily translated ;-)

Another source of confusion are the "arrows". But they are quite simple, too. You only need to know that:

Up and to the side sign: indicated direction is after the sign

Down sign: indicated direction is before the sign

I'm sure that after this hot tip, you'll never drive into a street only to find yourself one or two blocks away from the intended address again. 

The same is true for pedestrians, the only difference being that they have a map at hand. The totems are spread across the city to display information on the current position, the localization of onsite buildings, as well as bus stops, subways (if available in nearby destination), underground passageways, local shops (supermarkets, drugstores, bakeries), churches, libraries, schools, newsstands, and the complete map of Brasília. These totems are available in Spanish and English.

What I find more useful about these pedestrians maps are the localization of the buildings, because sometimes it's simply impossible to understand how to get to them once you're in one superblock area.

They can be found in the core of Brasília too, bringing information on the monuments and everything along the Eixo Monumental, the Church Rainha da Paz, the main bus station, and the fire station.

Did you find these tips clear and helpful? Please, let me know!

:)