City drivers are in for a real tweet.
After years of complaints about hoplesssly confusing parking signs, officials are taking a cue from Twitter and improving the signage by limiting the number of characters on each one to the same as a tweet — 140.
By spring, 6,300 of the currently cluttered signs —which now average about 250 characters — will be replaced with the more simple ones inspired by the social Web site, officials said.
“I think Twitter was on to something,” said city Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan in announcing the move.
And drivers should expect fewer tickets as a result — because they’ll actually understand when they’re legally parked or not, said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
“How many of us have gone back to our cars and seen the dreaded parking ticket in the window and said, ‘Wait a minute! The sign said I could park here!’ ” she said.
“These signs will make sure that what you see is really what the rules are.”
The first wave of the signs are already being installed in the zone from 60th to 14th streets bordered by Second and Ninth avenues.
After that, officials plan to add the revamped signs to the Upper East Side, lower Manhattan and the Financial District — where most of the confusing messages are.
Unlike their predecessors — which were about as easy to read as “Finnegans Wake” — the new signs will clearly spell out when parking is commercial-only and when those restrictions end.
“The signs are more clear,” Giovanni Euceda, a truck driver for a Manhattan messenger service, said of the new signs on West 55th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
“A lot of people, like the tourists, for example, people from another state, they just park over here [during the commercial only times]. It’s more clear now,” said Euceda, 52.
But other drivers weren’t convinced.
“I don’t like them. They’re supposed to be easier to read, but they’re not. You can’t see the times,” said Danny DiRienzo, 24, a construction worker who often drives into the city from Westchester.
“People could probably figure it out, but I wouldn’t say it makes it easier at all.”
The changes include revamping the exasperatingly wordy “no standing except commercial vehicles” signs, which will be replaced with the more concise “commercial vehicles only.”
Under that, the new signs will add, “Others no standing.”
And the days of the week that the regulations are in effect will be spelled out first, followed by the hours when they apply.
That’s the opposite of the current method.
The sheer number of signs per street pole also will be reduced.
In addition, officials are switching from all-cap lettering to a mix of upper and lower-case, similar to how most text is written, to make them easier to read.
Those signs also will go from red background with white lettering to a mostly white background with red letters — again making it easier to see, officials said.
As part of the changes, the city also is eliminating all of the blue and white “Pay at Muni Meter” signs, which typically went underneath the parking-regulation signs.
“You shouldn’t need a Ph.D in parking signage to understand where you are allowed to leave your car in New York,” said City Council Member Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan).
He received so many complaints from constituents about the confusing signs that he proposed legislation requiring the DOT to make the signs easier to read.
That legislation was nixed after the DOT voluntarily agreed to revamp its signs, he said.
Most drivers thought the signs were intentionally confusing so the city could rake in more parking-ticket revenue, Garodnick said.
“That perception alone is a problem,” he said.
“You never want to play ‘gotcha’ with New York City drivers.”
The city contracted with Pentagram Design for less than $20,000 to come up with the new sign scheme.
Additional reporting by Liz Sadler