Print kit

Everything you need to make the sign. Takes about an hour, including the walk to the print shop.

1. The sign

Sign reading STOP BEING THE BOTTLENECK, myfleet.dev Download the print file

2. Get it printed

Take the file to any copy shop. In San Francisco, FedEx Office at 726 Market St is the closest reliable option (also 120 Bush St, 400 Howard St, 4 Embarcadero Center). Ask for exactly this:

"24 by 36 poster, matte, mounted on 3/16 inch white foam board, same day."
  1. Check the proof at the counter for two things only: the black is solid, and no words are cut off.
  2. Do not let them shrink it to fit. It should fill the board edge to edge.
  3. Matte only. Glossy blows out in sunlight and ruins the photo.

Typical cost is $60 to $110. Keep the receipt, you are reimbursed.

If the print shop is backed up

Ask for the poster flat with no mounting, then buy a 24x36 white foam board and a can of repositionable spray mount at Blick Art Materials, 979 Market St. Spray the board, not the paper. Lay the print down from one edge, rolling flat as you go. Starting in the middle traps bubbles.

3. Taking the photo

The photo is the whole point, so this part matters more than the standing around.

  1. Hold it at chest height, both hands at the bottom corners, square to the street. Do not tilt it back. A tilted board photographs as an unreadable trapezoid.
  2. Keep your face visible above the sign. A person holding a sign gets shared. A sign alone does not.
  3. Put the sun behind whoever is shooting, not behind you, or you will be a silhouette and the board will blow out.
  4. Get the location in the frame. The street sign, the building name, the entrance. That is what makes it obviously real.
  5. Send at least 4 photos: one close enough to read the sign easily, one wider showing where you are, and two others you like.

4. Standing there, legally

No permit is needed. One person on a public sidewalk holding a sign is protected expression. Three rules keep it that way:

  1. Keep at least 4 feet of clear walking space. Stand with your back near the building line or the kerb, never in the middle of the path.
  2. Never set the sign down. Hold it the whole time. A sign resting on the ground becomes an object in the right of way, which is a different rule.
  3. Public sidewalk only. Not a private plaza, not a doorway, not transit property. If anyone official asks you to move, move. That ends it.
Be friendly. If someone asks what it is, tell them: it is for myfleet.dev, an app that runs a crew of AI coding agents so one person is not the thing holding up the work. You are not required to pitch anyone.