Needed: UNIFORM ROAD SIGNS
An American couple drove 3,700 miles across Europe and came home sold on the
international "picture language" traffic signs in use there By WILL OURSLER
FILLING
STATION
ESS
OPENING
BRIDGE
ROAD CLOSED
Last summer my wife
and I fought traffic, trucks,
and Sunday drivers on a
3,700-mile junket through
eight European countries.
Often we could not speak or
understand the local language
or dialect Sometimes, as in
Southern Yugoslavia, we could
not even decipher the alphabet.
Yet we were able to drive across
France, Switzerland, Italy, Yugo
slavia, Greece, Liechtenstein, Ger
many, and Austria and through the
traffic jams of 60 teeming European
cities without the least confusion re
garding traffic signs, speed limits, or
warnings of assorted dangers ahead.
Behind this ease in driving stand the
international road signs a uniform "pic
ture language" of the highways that is used
by SO nations in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the
Americas but not the United States.
"The signs are saving thousands of lives," an
official of one French automotive club told me.
"Wherever they are and no matter what lan
guage you speak you can read them like the
morning paper in your home town."
Many of the pictorial signs were designed origi
nally to provide symbols which could be easily under
stood even by illiterate drivers, but the need for an
international system was recognized as more and more
people began traveling by car through other countries.
Simplicity and clarity are the keys in the new inter-
NO ENTRY national highway lingo. Signs come in three easy-to-
recognize shapes. Information signs are rectangular; warn
ing signs are triangular; regulatory signs giving specific in
structions are circular.
My wife and I arrived in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, at twilight
in a downpour. Policemen were on every corner, and I had no
desire to make a mistake and wind up in a Communist traffic court
The global sign system saved us. Every few yards along the
main streets there were circular signs with diagonals running
downward from left to right Translated into the jargon of the
TELEPHONE
UNEVEN
ROAD
American highways, the
signs said: no stopping,
standing, or (by inference)
parking. But on a side street
I spotted a rectangular blue
sign with a white "P" in the
center. Although neither my wife
nor I understood Yugoslavian, we
knew that meant we could park.
Language barriers are never in
volved because all symbols and pic
tures are simple and easy to remem
ber. The silhouette of a car with skid
marks tells its message sharply: caution
the road ahead is or may be slippery.
The silhouette of a cow on a triangular
sign indicates that this is a cattle crossing,
and a leaping deer on a triangle warns of a
deer crossing.
A circular sign with the figure 45 in the
center sets the speed limit for the stretch of
road ahead, and a similar sign with a diagonal
bar running across the 45 means that is the end
of the speed limit
There are now 68 of these signs recognized in
ternationally. As new needs develop, new signs are
designed. Host become quickly familiar. A blue rec
tangle with a red cross or red crescent in the center
means a first-aid station ; a sign with a monkey wrench
in the middle indicates that mechanical help is ahead,
and a sign with a gasoline pump signifies that a gas
station is just up the road.
A few attempts have been made to introduce the signs
in some American communities, but generally the United
States has shunned the international road signs. Difficulties
in getting state and local governments to give up their own
marking systems is one of the chief reasons.
But with foreign motorists becoming more and more common
on both sides of the Atlantic, the importance of an international
code increases daily. Because these signs are so quickly recog
nized and understood, they help cut down sudden stops, uncer
tainty, backing up, and dangerous mistakes in the midst of speed
ing traffic. Thus they make driving easier and safer, even for a
complete stranger to the local roads and the native language.
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