Comments on: Road signs

By: Nabakov

Nabakov — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 08:06:51 +0000

We were driving through the New Zealand countryside once, mulling over the correct pronounciation of Maori place names like “”Kaparatehau”, “Te Taitapu” and “Totaranui” and then up came one that puzzled us for a few minutes, “Takeaway”.

By: Bob Mologna

Bob Mologna — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 22:17:19 +0000

My favourite Irish roadsign is one I saw at a level railroad crossing that reads “herds of cattle must phone ahead”. It makes me think of a Far Side cartoon. I also like the sign on the M50 in Dublin that reads “weaving traffic ahead”.

By: nick sweeney

nick sweeney — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 00:45:54 +0000

The British motorway system (as Black Box Recorder noted) is also curious because it doesn’t really run through cities: it pretty much runs between them for most of the way, unlike the Interstates in the USA, which often run right through downtown areas. I suppose that’s because the smaller space and greater history of travel in Britain created one set of roads that goes from place to place to place—the A-roads, most of which are recorded in the earliest ‘road atlas’ dating from the 1660s—and used the motorways to offer an alternative that ‘eliminates all diversions… eliminates all emotions’. (And I know the US highways are sort of similar to A-roads, but there’s still a big difference. The ‘little difference’ I remember most from driving in Europe is the shift in typography as you pass from the Netherlands to Belgium unimpeded along the motorway. Dutch road signs are smart and crisp and new and Gerard Unger’s lettering makes font-fetishists smile; the Belgian ones are basically the same, but use a pug-ugly sans serif and look tatty by comparison. This makes me look very sad, I realise. But Dutch typography in public spaces is just gorgeous.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 00:22:53 +0000

Tripp> I’ve noticed that as well recently, from the other perspective – British motorways (think: freeways), except for the M6 in the Lake District as far as I know, are all sunk in cuttings – it’s interesting that the British instinct is to hide them away as much as is possible. Oddly, driving along them can be quite relaxing for this very reason, I think because the population density in Britain’s so high, it’s a novelty to be removed from the ever-present British sight of houses and (sub-)urban development…

By: Armature

Armature — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 23:35:45 +0000

Plus, you know what they call a Quarter Pounder With Cheese?

By: Tripp

Tripp — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 21:33:04 +0000

I too, enjoyed the little differences between England and the US. One thing I noticed, SW of London, is that many of the roads were slightly below ground level, whereas in the US most roads are made by digging out the ditches and setting the roadway up above ground level. It wasn’t until I rode in a bus that I noticed how beautiful the English countryside was.

By: Sven

Sven — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 21:06:39 +0000

Multilinguism can also lead to confusion. The other day I came across a van with the word ECNALUBMA pasted on the front. I must have been in an ethnic Russian neighborhood, because the letters appeared to be Cyrillic.

By: Michael Kremer

Michael Kremer — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 20:56:05 +0000

Driving across Ohio one year, having just come through a construction zone with reduced speed limits, I was amused by this sign: RESUME LEGAL SPEED

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 20:09:04 +0000

Interestingly, they do the THING ROADSIGN SAME in the US, too, but I’ve never really noticed it in Ireland before. Maybe the US ones are closer together, which makes you read them top-to-bottom, more than if they were widely spaced…

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 19:49:45 +0000

Favorite road sign from long ago on Crete – in Latin characters, “Deviation.” I was left wondering if it referred to any deviation in particular, or if deviancy in general was just a slight bend in the road away…

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 19:44:26 +0000

I had a similarly unsettling experience in Helsinki. The unsettling realisation in an Indian restaurant, seemingly identical to its English equivalent apart from the menu being written in an incomprehensible language, that all the toilet doors in Finland opened outwards rather than inwards is an unusual one – it’s rarely the big differences that faze us, as we can consciously adjust for those, but the miniscule ones which cause the most psychic dislocation…

By: chanster

chanster — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 17:26:38 +0000

My personal favorite, seen in Glastonbury: CHANGED PRIORITIES AHEAD

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 17:03:27 +0000

Not just zebras, pelicans also.

By: vika

vika — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 16:53:40 +0000

My favorite British road sign: a triangle with what looks like Exupery’s snake-which-swallowed-an-elephant, and underneath: HUMPED ZEBRA CROSSING I present this to you with no comment.

By: brian burgess

brian burgess — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 16:47:13 +0000

Sort of like the Simpson’s attorney’s ad. Started out as: Lionel Hutz, Esq Works on Contingency No Money Down. Claiming a typo, he edits it to: Lionel Hutz, Esq Works on Contingency? No, Money Down!