Road signs in America/Europe

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RouWa

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Germany
Osnabrück
A friend of mine and his girlfriend have recently been on vacation in America. Besides problems with renting a car he told me he had serious problems with american road signs. Most signs have text and no symbols so it is hard for foreign people who don´t speak English at all or not very well to unsterstand the meaning of those signs.

I was wondering if this is true. Isn´t it dangerous to have signs with text?

I decided to have a look at american road signs and clicked the first link in google:

http://street.safeshopper.com/index.htm?56
http://street.safeshopper.com/7/cat7.htm?541

My English is not the best but much better than the one of my friend. I have no problems with the most popular signs like "dead end", but I didn´t get the meaning of other ones like "no outlet". Never heard "outlet" before...

Here in Germany and the rest of Europe all road signs have no text, probably because there are so many countries with so many different languages:

http://rmv.hqusareur.army.mil/drivrman/190-34.htm#APPB (Explanation in English. Scroll to the middle of the site)

I was now wondering if people from america understand the meaning of those signs. I.e. sign No. 282, a withe circle crossed with 5 black stripes. This sign ends all previous restrictions (for example, speed, no passing) and can mainly be found on autobahns without speed limits. I doubt there is a similar sign in America.

My questions to the american users here:
- Out of 100 road signs in America, how many do you think have text?
- Do you have any problems with the german/european signs showed in the second link?
 
When I went to Florida my dad found it hard getting around Oralndo, especialy in the dark.
There are no or few signs prior to junctions, the name signs for the crossing road are located high on the lighting scaffholding making it hard to read, and they weren't lit at night either. The highway junction signs were c**p! It is easy to find you way along the motorways in the UK. There is so many signs.
 
There is so many signs
Click to expand...

Haha, here in Germany you have signs "every two meters". You could remove 90% of the signs without problems. I.e. on autobahns I don´t need signs every 500 meters that tell me how fast I am allowed to drive.
 
Some people now thing that too many road signs contribute to road accidents. I think I read it in the motoring part of the telegraph last week or something. But it was kind or ironic.
 
theres way to many sighns here in florida, in fact i rode up to the corner store on my bike(to aviod paying $2.00 a gallon for gas) with my freind and smacked one of the one thousand speed limit sighn poles and got a huge lump on my head.

but any ways you cant go two feet without finding a trafic sighn.
 
I manage to get around just fine with the signs. They teach you what each sign is in drivers training, so you get to know them quite well. I have been to Germany and not all the signs are easy to read sign there are a lot in German but I could figure most of them out.

But I don't blame them, you shouldn't have to make it easy for someone from another country, they should learn the language of the place they are in. I didn't get all mad cause I could read the German signs, I didn't expect them to make things easy on me.
 
We do have a lot of text on our signs, but when we went to Canada on our family vacation once I thought that they had close to the same amount. What do you have for road signs. I have never seen one's with pictures. At every highway exit we have big green signs with the city names, street names, and exit number. We have big green signs that say how far it is to a certain exit. Our street signs are poor, because they don't reflect well and many times are hard to find because they are located in a poor sign. We have stoplights at most intersections so that isn't text. Otherwise most other signs are all text. Stop signs, Do Not Enter signs, and parking signs like no parking from here to stop sign or 2 hour parking.
 
What do you have for road signs
Click to expand...

Click the last link, then press STRG+F and enter 282, then "find next". You will then jump to the road sign No. 282. You can have a look at all the other signs there.
 
RouWa
I was wondering if this is true. Isn´t it dangerous to have signs with text?
Click to expand...

The really important signs typically don't have text on them, and could be recognized by someone who doesn't speak English. I guess Stop signs have text on them, but then stop signs look the same everywhere, just with different text. Signs for merging, traffic lights, the sorts of things where you could have an accident if you don't understand it, those don't have text on em.

The only important one I can think of that has text on it is the DO NOT ENTER signs... but then I can't really think of a good symbol for do not enter. Is the red circle with the white line an international one?

Other signs, like no outlet... you might end up lost if you can't read english, but it's not dangerous, you won't get in an accident because you ended up in a dead end street.
 

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