Signs to point way for downtown guests

Locals and visitors are getting additional assistance as they navigate downtown Boston on foot.

The Downtown Boston Business Improvement District is rolling out new directional signs that will help people identify where they are, points of interest inside and outside of the district — including tourist attractions, hotels, public parking and transit, and free Wi-Fi zones — and how many minutes it should take to walk to those destinations.

The organization, which is funded by property owners, already has two of the signs in place in front of Macy's on Washington and Summer streets, with more to come in June on existing street furniture and new structures under design.

The BID will spend approximately $750,000 on the way-finding project, which will take two to three years to complete to accommodate construction projects in the district.

"There's no question that everyone needs this assistance based on the feedback we have from our ambassadors," BID president Rosemarie Sansone said, referring to the paid BID employees who patrol the district's streets and handle cleaning and hospitality duties.

Those workers assist visitors with directions about 60,000 times per year, according to the BID, which has coordinated its efforts with WalkBoston and local hotels among others with tourist and map expertise.

"We want this system to help them get from one point to another as easy as possible," Sansone said.

The most frequently asked questions at the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau's Tremont Street visitor information center also involve directions, according to CEO Pat Moscaritolo.

"Now you're going to have current, up-to-date, user-friendly maps that will help both people who are new to our city, who are visitors to the city or haven't been down in the area for a while," he said.

Even with GPS technology in mobile phones, it's reassuring to see directional signs that tell where you are and whether you're on track, he said.

"It's all part of having a service-oriented focus in taking care of visitors. We need to replicate that across our city, not just for the area that the BID operates in."

The BID's way-finding program coincides with an initiative by the city's Geographic Information Systems Division to create new informational maps that are displayed in outdoor advertising stands and include information such as tourist destinations, hotels, hospitals, MBTA stations and public toilets.

But existing city maps are "very stagnant" and don't really help people navigate from one place to another, according to Sansone.

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