Originally Posted by
mtkeller
Maybe it's just me that finds the signs nonstandard, but I think that at a major international hub, signage should reflect whatever predominates globally. If there is no consensus and I've just not been to other countries using the down arrows, then the local consensus makes most sense even if it confuses Americans.
Well, that is debatable. Assuming that the premise is correct (viz. French people expect down and up arrows to mean respectively straight ahead and up whereas non-French people expect down arrows to mean respectively downstairs and straight ahead), I am not quite sure why the latter constituency should necessarily be regarded as more deserving of directions corresponding to their expectations. The number of French people using CDG will be probably just as large as the others. Moreover, if the premise is right, I would not necessarily assume that French practices have not been followed in a number of other countries, in particular Francophone ex-colonies, which would also represent a sizeable number of CDG users. Realistically, in such a situation, the political pressures on adp would be to comply with French usage.
That said, I am not so sure about the premise. I cannot say that I have actively thought about it but I have not found signing in France and England generally any more or less confusing so it cannot just be a direction of arrow thing, otherwise I would have thought one country confusing and the other not. Actively thinking about it, I would regard an up arrow as signifying EITHER straight ahead or upstairs depending on the available pathways and similarly a down arrow as EITHER straight ahead or downstairs.
Systematic use of a stairs or escalator pictogram next to the arrow to signify changes of level seem to me a better way to distinguish change of levels rather than attributing a change of level to a down arrow (or up arrow) and not to the other.