A stupid, stupid, stupid idea

In another move to make New York even more appealing to the tourist masses, the city and some BIDs are teaming up to put decals on the sidewalk at some subway exits. These, planned to help people orient themselves once outside of the subway station, are supposed to help people the article called "New Yorkers" orient themselves once at street level.

Am I the only person who thinks that these are stupid?

a) When you ride the subway, you know what direction the train is headed, and therefore what direction you are facing when you get out of the train.

b) The sign leading to the exit tells you which corner you will be at when you exit.

c) The flow of street traffic tells you which direction you are facing.

d) The street signs for the next short block over are, thanks to those huge signs they put in a while back (that was probably ten years ago now), easily legible from a block away.

e) It's not as if they're putting them in remotest Flushing. They're putting them in Manhattan! In my absence, has Manhattan been re-engineered to consist of meandering cow paths updated for vehicle traffic? Have the streets been de-numbered and renamed for trees?

f) C'mon. Decals?! Decals are for malls, not cities. Those are going to last all of a week, will age horribly, and will be slippery. Depending on where they're placed in relationship to the stairs, there'll be a slip-n-fall lawsuit within three months. Also, (unless that guy in the photo has tiny feet) those are huge! If you're going to insist on orienting people, how about a simple northarrow stamped into the sidewalk the next time curb cuts are re-done (à la San Francisco street names being stamped into the sidewalk at the corners?)

Sigh.