Signs of things to come
This summer I was lucky (or foolhardy) enough to take a few longer road trips across Europe and noticed that road signage is an excellent example of how differences in national temperament are often evident in the design of everyday objects.
The French love their roundabouts and many are presaged by a blue arrow pointing (apparently) in “toutes directions”, or “all directions”. It’s not unusual to see a sign underneath pointed the other way and labelled “autres directions”, “other directions”. It’s definitely a poetic take – existentialist, even. Spare a thought for those banal people trying to get from A to B.
All that driving in existential circles put me behind schedule but I eventually made it across the Spanish border. Helpfully, Spaniards on the A9 to Barcelona are alerted when they enter an accident-prone stretch of highway with a large plaque declaring a “zona de concentración”. A few kilometres later, drivers are informed that the concentration zone has now ended. Time for a siesta at the wheel, then.
In Berlin a few weeks later I was pedalling through Mitte on a road that’s been reorganised to prioritise bicycles. It’s a great development but I do wonder whether it was strictly necessary to put up a whopping 14 signposts at a three-way intersection (Hausvogteiplatz and Oberwallstrasse, if you want to count for yourself). Then again, this German thoroughness is definitely preferable to minimalist Italy, where the start of highway maintenance is often signalled by a road worker waving an orange flag at cars shooting past at 130km/h like a marshal at Monza. One would think that the sacrificial lamb-method sort of defeats the point of alerting drivers at all.
We’ve already figured out universal rules to the manufacturing and design of signage: the most durable finish is enamel on steel and the most readable typeface is sans serif (the standard font is named Interstate). But it seems that road-sign-communication standards remain a topic that would benefit from a diplomatic hashing-out at the EU Commission. On the other hand, once we’re all speeding across the continent safely, efficiently and without surprises, I’m sure I’d find myself nostalgic for the quirks of national design.
Stella Roos is Monocle’s design correspondent. For more news and analysis, subscribe to Monocle today.
