Have you ever noticed that the road signs in Europe are pretty universal. They are like a symbol in a logo (or should be) where you don’t need words to understand them. You can get the gist of what they mean without any or little explanation. These European signs are in contrast to the United States where we spell out our roadside stops like “gas”, “food” and “lodging”. I understand that most of the world speaks English but I feel like this is being very rude of us to not also include a gas pump or a bed symbol. I’d love to see more inclusive signs to help everyone.
The shell logo is pretty iconic worldwide but I’m not sure you really know that it’s for a gas station. Plus, I’m fairly confident the rest of the world calls it petrol and not “gas”. Do you know that blue square with the red six in it? I’m not sure anyone knows that’s a hotel but they probably know the logo. I mean, you already guessed it, right?
Do you know what “rest area” means? Or do you think it’s better to have the tree with the bench like the photo above?
In this photo above you get that you should yield because there is construction or people working ahead. It’s pretty universal and clear. This sign was seen in Estonia.
There are a lot of signs in this image which might make it a bit more confusing than just having one sign to look at in this alley. Here you can see there are bumps ahead and that the two land road leads to a one lane road in 100 m. Did you get that too? I hope so otherwise my point, signs for everyone, is not a great point.
Together maybe we can think more about inclusive signs. But how do we get everyone on board?