What in the World Is CSAH 12?

This week, I am going to indulge myself with a little rant. But there is a definite lesson in communication here, so please bear with me.

The other day, I was driving down a local road here in Minnesota and came upon an electronic sign reading, “CSAH 12 REPAVING STARTING MAY 23. EXPECT DELAYS. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.” Clear enough, right? Except I had no idea what CSAH 12 was! I was driving on Noble Parkway. Was it the road to be repaved? Was it the intersecting street? Another street a block up? And what in the world is a CSAH?

When I got home, I googled CSAH and found out that it is a “County State-Aid Highway.” Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. A little more research confirmed that CSAH 12 is, indeed, Noble Parkway. Now, unless I’m mistaken, not everyone travelling past that sign is going to go to the trouble of looking this stuff up. And I would imagine that very few would already know what a CSAH is – or that Noble Parkway is number 12. Not very helpful information on a road sign if you have to decode it several hours later at home.

So what went wrong here? Communication has three basic components, and the perpetrators of this useless message fractured all three:

• The Audience: The folks who programmed the sign were likely county employees. Like any subculture, they have their own arcane jargon. But the audience for this message, the average driver, should not be expected to be familiar with this special language. The message writers misjudged their audience. Or worse, they were just arrogant and expected people to know what they know – or the heck with them. (See my April 24^th blog, “Feeling Left Out?”)
• The Message: Like all road signs, this message was meant to be read and understood quickly. But, if people are trying to figure out the first part of the message, they may easily miss the rest of it. The message is confusing and unclear.
• The Call to Action: What did the authorities want drivers to do as a result of the message? Be prepared for delays on the road which was being repaved. But if they weren’t sure what road was being described, how could they be prepared? Fail.

Thanks for letting me rant. With such a transgression of all the rules of communication, I couldn’t resist at least trying to make something good out of it!