I end up in Europe a few times a year, and despite the excellent train systems and public transit options, I almost always end up renting or borrowing a car to cruise around. I love driving, and I especially love driving small cars really fast down narrow streets. I also find the way Europeans drive (with less timidity and more situational awareness) much more sensible than the laid-back oblivious nature of drivers across America, which is enabled by the proliferation of oversized automatic transmission cars… but that’s a different story. The present rant is about the road signs used all across the European continent. The signs are mostly the same in all countries, though each has some minor variations. Wikipedia, predictably, has a comprehensive visual comparison of road signs from different countries in Europe.
After thousands of kilometers driven, I’ve come to know what most of these signs mean, but every so often I am reminded just how unfriendly and confusing some of them are. Even while acknowledging that the inherent polyglottal nature of the European population means road signs have to rely less on words in any particular language and more on universal symbols, some of the signs just don’t make any damn sense. Let me show you what I mean.
Let’s start off with an easy one, speed limit:
Simple, right? 50 kilometers per hour (unless you’re in the UK of course, which is a country stuck between the metric and imperial systems, then it’s 50 miles per hour).
But what if instead you have a blue background?
Well that’s obviously minimum speed limit. You’re just supposed to know that’s different than an advised speed limit:
And if you see the crossed out number below? Well this one kills me. It implies the end of a speed limit, which is exactly what it is. But the way it’s used is infuriating. In most European countries there are standard speed limits in certain areas that you’re just supposed to know—for example, 50kph inside the town, 90kph on a single carriageway road outside the town, 110kph on a divided highway, etc. So if you see this sign below with end of the speed limit, it means the speed limit now is just what it was supposed to be before there was a special speed limit set by another sign. But if you’re going to put up a sign, why not just put up a sign with what the new speed limit is? It’s so much less useful to say, “here’s what the speed limit isn’t.”
Okay let’s move on.
What if you take that same original speed limit sign with a number inside a red circle and remove the number? What does a red circle say to you?
Well it actually means the road’s closed. Duh, right? How could you not get that?
By the way, that sign is different than this no entry sign:
And you might guess the next one means something similar, that you can’t go in this direction or something.
But nope, it means don’t park here. Which is different than the sign for don’t stop here:
A lot of these signs seem based on the idea that red means don’t do something, like the sign below, which is supposed to mean don’t overtake other cars. But say you’re colorblind and don’t see the color red, what does this mean to you? It’s 2 cars next to each other.
The variation below seems more likely to imply that you can’t pass, when it actually means the opposite, that the restriction on overtaking is ended and passing is now allowed.
It’s all madness, let me tell you.
The list of signs is endless, and I’m still discovering some weird ones. Haven’t even gotten to gems like the one below. (It signifies you’re on a priority road and don’t need to yield to cars coming from the right.)
Now I’m not saying it’s necessarily difficult to get the hang of these signs. If you really take the time to consider them, or maybe after just seeing them in context a few times, you understand what they are. But road signs are supposed to be simple and clear in order to minimize distraction and prevent accidents. If there’s an indication that you’re not supposed to do something and it’s not clear, then that seems like a potentially dangerous situation.
Next time you see a well-designed sign, appreciate it.
End rant.
