Signs of the road ahead

When I was a child, Britain had not yet introduced the international road signs that we have today.

As I travelled across Europe, I was intrigued by differences in design from country to country. The German “roadworks” sign seemed to involve more work than the Italian sign (the pile was bigger and the worker had put more of his back into it) and in some cases the German sign even showed a smaller pile of work already done – a good public relations point.

I was baffled by the huge size of the city of Ausfahrt – so many of the roads off the motorway went to it. I had heard of Berlin and München but this new city must be far bigger. It was made a mysterious city to me because my parents said that once one left the motorway there were no more signs to Ausfahrt. Was it a German secret city like those Soviet cites in Siberia that were not even printed on the map?

I noticed that Germans liked to hang as many signs as possible on one post – I counted twenty signs on one post once. At the other extreme, in Britain it was common to see posts with no signs on them at all.

We have all, no doubt, had thoughts of “low flying motorbikes” or “you have missed your ferry” when looking at signs but until I had looked at this video I had never thought of the “opening or swing bridge sign” in such a way
It is amazing how one’s imagination can wander off whilst walking. Although judging from the signs in this video the author walked through several countries.

Although I walk to work every day there are no traffic signs to see – but that for me is a blessing.