Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Worldwide Walking: Signs

To end on a lighter note, I wanted to share a few pedestrian-oriented signs from Austria--but only after first posing the question: can any one explain why pedestrian crossing signs in Europe are blue instead of yellow or green? It strikes me as an odd color choice, as I can't imagine blue signs standing out very well at night.

I find this bright yellow "Children at Play" sign much more striking, especially with snow as the background. Of course, we know that while signs like these are charming to look at, they don't do much to slow traffic.
This sign, on the other hand. Well, it's pretty hard to miss...

2 comments:

  1. A blue or black background apparently is required by the "Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals" (see page 48 of http://www.unece.org/trans/conventn/Conv_road_signs_2006v_EN.pdf)

    Of course, that doesn't tell you why. But I wonder if the white portion of the sign might actually stand out better at night against the blue background because of the contrast?

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  2. Nice article although I think your best getting away from all the signs and escaping to the country for a Lake District Walks within this National Park of England with the world famous lakes.

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