Signage: US vs.European systems.

[-Alex24- 10]

 

lol this is exactly the sign where i have to drive off the highway.. "Wels Ost".. to get to school.. lol

[Will12 18]

I love Australian signage! I agree with the statements about the mix of Euro and US signs. Our system is as follows:M1- Freeways, Tollways.A1- A grade highways. Some at grade intersections.B1- B grade highways. Most at grade intersections.C100- Always 3 digits. A major roadway. All at grade intersections.

[Cob92 360]

A lot of newer signs in the US have less text and use arrows instead to denote lanes and directions. They're also color coded so you know what purpose a sign serves:

-White signs are instructional, like speed limits or "No trucks"

-Green signs are navigational, like "31st Street Next Exit"

-Yellow signs are cautionary, warning drivers of possible road hazards or difficult conditions

-Orange signs signify immediate danger or concern; they are used in work areas or areas where the road has been damaged.

-Brown signs indicate points of interest, like national parks or monuments.

-Blue signs are traveler information, pointing out rest areas, food, hotels, and gas stations so motorists can know when to exit the freeway.

The highways are based on directions, but the signs will also indicate what city or town the driver will head toward traveling along a particular route. For example, the signs at the I-45/Beltway interchange in southeast Houston will tell drivers that taking 45 north will take them toward Houston proper, while taking 45 south will take them toward Galveston. The system is designed the way it is because it has to account not only for locals who will navigate by place names, but also for truckers and travelers who are unfamiliar with the area.

[cmdp123789 710]

What style is this? I always thought that Buenos Aires had a more European oriented signs...

I'm just asking... I really like this thread... I just learned a lot =)

[fonzyfb73 39]

@Cmdp12378, damn, hella traffic.

Yes, this thread is informational and gives perspective to other systems used around the world.

You don't see these often in America though =D

Besides, California always breaks the rules anyways when it comes to signs =P

[FreewayofFlight 41]

So, can you tell if you're in the correct lane while traveling at 70 miles per hour?

  Edited January 7, 2012 by FreewayofFlight  

[fonzyfb73 39]

So, can you tell if you're in the correct lane while traveling at 70 miles per hour?

Oh wow, who came up with that sign?

I guess I'll stay in California instead for the sake of saneness while driving. Drivers are already bad enough anyways, especially in the Bay =P

EDIT: I never actually seen that before... why didn't they use two separate signs like my example. Alot easier to read, even in a confusing interchange.

  Edited January 6, 2012 by fonzyfb73  

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

@Fonzy: I assume that sign is in Sacramento. And yep, you're right about the rules thing; Most of the highway signs in Fresno don't even have an exit number.

[cmdp123789 710]

Well then, how do they come up with the signs then? I mean there's gotta be a "rule"... nah?

[fonzyfb73 39]

@Fonzy: I assume that sign is in Sacramento. And yep, you're right about the rules thing; Most of the highway signs in Fresno don't even have an exit number.

Yes, it is indeed in Sacramento. I pass through it quite often whenever I go to Arden area of Sacramento.

And you're right about exit numbers too. Worse case scenario, while using a GPS in CA, device delivers directions using exit numbers rather than street name. Muahahahahaha!

Unless you pay close attention, you'll probably miss your exit. At least the exit signs (shown below) can give you a clue (but you don't always notice them).

Interstate 5 in Stockton.

[MandelSoft 2,775]

Here in Europe we rarely use streetnames on signage, but rather city quarters. Like when you drive around Amsterdam, the exit signs will give you directions like "Amsterdam-Oud Zuid" or "Amsterdam-Amstel", no streetnames at all. We Europeans navigate on placenames where we want to be rather than street names. These will get important at street level, when you're nearly there. Also, exit numbers are in various European countries signed at least once, and often quite far away before the exit (like 1000m), though some European countries (like the Netherlands, Denmark and Spain) put their exit number on all signs for the corresponding exit.

[figgy 10]

''NOTE: the British routeshield is just flat text'' - mrtnrln

That is true, but ONLY if the road type you're pointing out is THE SAME as the one you're on:

But if the sign points to a DIFFERENT type of road, it is ''patched'', or in a square of it's own colour:

However this differs on motorways, where you CANNOT use anything BUT motorway signs:

By the way, a lot of people think Irish and UK roads are the same but, actually,

-They use M, A and B (And the lesser known C), but we use M, N, R and L (Guess what they stand for )

-Their numbering system is region based, ours is radial (To a point) And integrated (Most motorways have a bit of same numbered national route at their starts and ends, apart from the M50)

-They have coloured hard shoulders with white borders, we just have yellow

-They use red triangle warning signs, we use yellow diamond

-They have signs in English, ours are bilingual

I could go on!

[jdenm8 362]

I'm just first gonna pitch in for the Motorway Distance Board races:

(image taken from Google StreetView and yes, that's an M2 Patch, it was originally National 32, then renamed National A2 and then *Brisbane's* M2 was extended to a later intersection.)

Sign is one I'm familiar with at the Warrego Highway/Cunningham Highway/Ipswich Motorway/Brisbane Road pair of Partial Ys. Pity it's gone now, maybe they'll put it back and yes, it's only 13 kilometres away from Astronelson's

As for standards... Australia doesn't actually have a National, uniform standard except for Highway Shields (Which was because they were federally coordinated), it's sheer luck that they all look roughly the same between States.

They generally are good, and do get you around due to generous placement and usually good readability.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Australia does tend to have some unusual signage, notably this one in Canberra:

Unusual because we tend to use US-style signage like this:

Or this (older style, I believe for NSW):

Individual states tend to have a different idea of what constitutes a good sign, though they're slowly becoming unified in style.

[Zeddic 3]

So, can you tell if you're in the correct lane while traveling at 70 miles per hour?

Still better than something I encountered while visiting relatives in USA (Chicago region) around Xmas. Your example actually has some indication of the amount of lanes. I was driving on lane 3 of a 4-lane freeway and suddenly saw a sign indicating I should use "left lanes" for my destination. The interchange was coming up pretty fast and the traffic was heavy, so I'm pretty sure I caused needless braking for someone when I abruptly changed to lane 2, only to see moments later that lane 3 did allow continuing straight on. This despite the fact that at the split itself there were (finally) lane arrows suggesting that only lanes 1 and 2 continued forward! I'm sure the locals learn everything fast enough, but it's little things like this which could help surprisingly much if they were done properly.

Overall the signage felt like nobody had even tried to standardize it. I'm sure someone has, but I'd probably have given up in frustration myself. Hopefully it improves over time, but for now pretty much the only constant was the design of the Interstate shield. It's really quite bizarre considering how reliant on cars the whole society is.

[TekindusT 3,809]

Here in Europe we rarely use streetnames on signage, but rather city quarters. Like when you drive around Amsterdam, the exit signs will give you directions like "Amsterdam-Oud Zuid" or "Amsterdam-Amstel", no streetnames at all. We Europeans navigate on placenames where we want to be rather than street names. These will get important at street level, when you're nearly there. Also, exit numbers are in various European countries signed at least once, and often quite far away before the exit (like 1000m), though some European countries (like the Netherlands, Denmark and Spain) put their exit number on all signs for the corresponding exit.

There is a place where this situation where isn't true: Madrid. When driving along its main ring road, the M-30; you are mainly guided by street names. The white text on green background means a street or avenue name, the typical white text on blue background means "the Spanish city you're going to if you keep this way".

Because of this fixation with streets (and other facts) the M-30 ring highway is regarded as quite a nightmare by foreigners as if you don't know well the city... you won't reach your destination.

  Edited January 14, 2012 by TekindusT  

[FreewayofFlight 41]

So, can you tell if you're in the correct lane while traveling at 70 miles per hour?

Still better than something I encountered while visiting relatives in USA (Chicago region) around Xmas. Your example actually has some indication of the amount of lanes. I was driving on lane 3 of a 4-lane freeway and suddenly saw a sign indicating I should use "left lanes" for my destination. The interchange was coming up pretty fast and the traffic was heavy, so I'm pretty sure I caused needless braking for someone when I abruptly changed to lane 2, only to see moments later that lane 3 did allow continuing straight on. This despite the fact that at the split itself there were (finally) lane arrows suggesting that only lanes 1 and 2 continued forward! I'm sure the locals learn everything fast enough, but it's little things like this which could help surprisingly much if they were done properly.

Overall the signage felt like nobody had even tried to standardize it. I'm sure someone has, but I'd probably have given up in frustration myself. Hopefully it improves over time, but for now pretty much the only constant was the design of the Interstate shield. It's really quite bizarre considering how reliant on cars the whole society is.

I think it would be a lot simplier of the signs simply red LEFT X LANES or RIGHT X LANES (X= Number) instead of trying to figure out how many lanes you needed to get over based on the diagrammic posted earlier. Advanced notice on lane splits are essential too, there are signs for the split I posted 2 Miles in advance.

[Duke87 1,070]

European signage system are oriented to cities to point direction.

{...}

American signage systems however are navigating mainly onto route numbers and wind directions. City locations don't play as much of a role in navigation as in Europe. You can find your location by following a certain route in a certain direction.

This isn't quite accurate. While it is true that in Europe destinations are used instead of cardinal directions, in the US we actually use both. Major signs will, for instance, say "I-95 South - New York", although standalone reassurance shields will only say "I-95 South". And, there are in fact cases where you will see the cardinal direction absent ("I-95 New York") - this is actually fairly typical for short highways with only one logical destination.

The key, I think, is that in the US people tend to drive longer distances. It is not unheard of for someone to take several days to drive the 2500-someodd miles from New York to Los Angeles. Truckers in particular make trips like this constantly. So, the problem with orienting navigation purely based on major cities is that on a long trip one will pass quite a few major cities before they reach their destination, and knowing that I'm headed towards New York is a lot less helpful if I'm eventually looking to get to Chicago (800 miles - that's 1300 km - away). Call it the effect of 1) having gasoline that's a lot cheaper than in Europe, and 2) having long-distance train service that's either a joke or outright nonexistent.

But it's true in general that in North America, we love setting things up in grids, whereas Europe arranges things more organically.

Classification by road owner

This classification system is determined who owns the road (nation, state, etc.) rather than it's layout. This is common in the US and Canada. For instance, the US has the following classifications:

Interstate Routes: Main routes in the US, commonly freeway, owned by the nation.

US Routes: Secondary routes in the US, also owned by the nation.

State Routes: Tertiary routes in the US, owned by their corresponding state.

This is false, actually. While Interstate and US routes have their numbering systems and some of their funding handled nationally, individual states are responsible for their construction and maintenance within their borders. USDOT (Department of Transportation) is merely an oversight agency, it doesn't actually own or maintain anything. I-70 is owned and maintained in Missouri by the Missouri state DOT, in Illinois by the Illinois state DOT, etc.

There's also a fourth level of classification you've left out: County Routes, which are owned and maintained by county government (states are divided up into counties). Depending on the state they are usually either signed with a blue and yellow pentagon or a simple black and white square. Although, there are a few states that don't have county routes because they don't have county government.

If you want to confuse things further, some states (Virginia, Tennessee, Texas) have multiple different kinds of state routes!

(let's also not go into how many states have portions of state routes which are maintained by the county or the municipality rather than the state)

  Edited January 14, 2012 by Duke87  

[fonzyfb73 39]

So, can you tell if you're in the correct lane while traveling at 70 miles per hour?

Still better than something I encountered while visiting relatives in USA (Chicago region) around Xmas. Your example actually has some indication of the amount of lanes. I was driving on lane 3 of a 4-lane freeway and suddenly saw a sign indicating I should use "left lanes" for my destination. The interchange was coming up pretty fast and the traffic was heavy, so I'm pretty sure I caused needless braking for someone when I abruptly changed to lane 2, only to see moments later that lane 3 did allow continuing straight on. This despite the fact that at the split itself there were (finally) lane arrows suggesting that only lanes 1 and 2 continued forward! I'm sure the locals learn everything fast enough, but it's little things like this which could help surprisingly much if they were done properly.

Overall the signage felt like nobody had even tried to standardize it. I'm sure someone has, but I'd probably have given up in frustration myself. Hopefully it improves over time, but for now pretty much the only constant was the design of the Interstate shield. It's really quite bizarre considering how reliant on cars the whole society is.

I think it would be a lot simplier of the signs simply red LEFT X LANES or RIGHT X LANES (X= Number) instead of trying to figure out how many lanes you needed to get over based on the diagrammic posted earlier. Advanced notice on lane splits are essential too, there are signs for the split I posted 2 Miles in advance.

Or just use down arrows.

[MandelSoft 2,775]

^^ While that sign looks awfully patched, it looks more clear than the huge diagramatic sign...

@Duke87: But then again, I'm not really an expert of US signage. I just notice what I see and read here and there.

  Edited January 15, 2012 by mrtnrln  

[Cob92 360]

So, can you tell if you're in the correct lane while traveling at 70 miles per hour?

Still better than something I encountered while visiting relatives in USA (Chicago region) around Xmas. Your example actually has some indication of the amount of lanes. I was driving on lane 3 of a 4-lane freeway and suddenly saw a sign indicating I should use "left lanes" for my destination. The interchange was coming up pretty fast and the traffic was heavy, so I'm pretty sure I caused needless braking for someone when I abruptly changed to lane 2, only to see moments later that lane 3 did allow continuing straight on. This despite the fact that at the split itself there were (finally) lane arrows suggesting that only lanes 1 and 2 continued forward! I'm sure the locals learn everything fast enough, but it's little things like this which could help surprisingly much if they were done properly.

Overall the signage felt like nobody had even tried to standardize it. I'm sure someone has, but I'd probably have given up in frustration myself. Hopefully it improves over time, but for now pretty much the only constant was the design of the Interstate shield. It's really quite bizarre considering how reliant on cars the whole society is.

I think it would be a lot simplier of the signs simply red LEFT X LANES or RIGHT X LANES (X= Number) instead of trying to figure out how many lanes you needed to get over based on the diagrammic posted earlier. Advanced notice on lane splits are essential too, there are signs for the split I posted 2 Miles in advance.

Coming from Texas, that's how our signs are usually done around here, especially in the cities where stuff is constantly getting rebuilt and replaced, but Houston tends to have an issue in the inner city with putting the sign too close to the exit. When you take the ramp from I-10 onto the northbound side of Loop 610 on the west side of downtown, you have about 10 seconds to get from the far right lane to the far left lane so that you can turn onto US 290. They've gotten better on the new highways though; now you have several miles notice before the exit comes up and the lanes themselves have the shields painted on them. The new Katy Freeway and West Loop are particularly good IMO.

[godrock24 12]

@Cmdp12378, damn, hella traffic.

Yes, this thread is informational and gives perspective to other systems used around the world.

You don't see these often in America though =D

Besides, California always breaks the rules anyways when it comes to signs =P

Think about this California has more Freeway thus more times for people to

get Lost so they use a Eruo US Mix

[Markus J 242]

My stubborn ways, I cannot for the life of me learn Km, I need my good old (be it out of date) Metric!

Ah... yes, ignorance is bliss...

[Wiecher 192]

My stubborn ways, I cannot for the life of me learn Km, I need my good old (be it out of date) Metric!

Ah... yes, ignorance is bliss...

Uhm, Kilometers are in the metric system.

I think you mean imperial/US customary.

[Jimmy Buzaid 53]

Here's a US sign in my area (Westchester). Also I wish they would have the parkway shield on big signs like this.

Here's one with that shield. New York is one of the only states to use shield's for parkway's. This is an old button copy sign.

[rweather5 22]

Do European signs always have the yellow exit only?

[MandelSoft 2,775]

No. Actually, we never use EXIT ONLY because here exit only is so standard, it doesn't have to be signed. The combination of block markings (can be found in any European country) and exit signs makes a lane automatically exit only. EXIT ONLY seems to be typically American (and Down Under too)

Example: the right lane here is automatically Exit Only. The other two lanes are thorough-lanes. A bit further away, another exit lane is added by a taper construction:

If you use arrows pointing upwards for a similar situation, you get this:

Who needs EXIT ONLY now?

I can have quite a discussion with me arguing that I find the EXIT ONLY designation useless, but let's not get into that now...

Best,

Maarten

[rubberduck3y6 45]

I know this thread is mostly about directional signs (understandably) but warning signs also tend to come in American and European styles.

The American style (which is also used in Australia and Ireland) uses a yellow diamond with black text or symbols (mostly text in the US, symbols elsewhere) and a thin black outline.

In Europe a white triangle with a black symbol (or occasionally text eg. UK 'flood' sign) with a thick red outline.

For example, US and UK tunnel warning signs:

See this Wikipedia page for loads more examples.

  Edited July 16, 2012 by rubberduck3y6  

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

The only notable EXIT ONLY signs in my city are around Warrigal Rd exit on the M1 (Monash Fwy), done after the freeway upgrade.

This is done because the freeway cuts from 4 lanes all along to 3 lanes.

However there is no sign at the actual exit.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Sorry for bumping, but I guess since i'm posting something relevant, it's okay.

So, someone correct me if i am wrong, but I don't know how many times you see a Exit#, A, B, etc on a European sign.....

(Btw I saw this sign in Italy this past summer, forgot to photograph it but found it on google street view)