Why US Signs Look Different Than The Rest Of The World’s

Video written by Adam Chase

[brandonking]

Most of Canada's signs are the same as in the US, with a slight exception being our speed limit signs. They look like the American signs, but ours say "Maximum" instead of "Speed Limit" because Maximum is the same in both English and French.

[marcwenger]

I like how stop signs in France say "stop" but in Quebec say "arret"

[mrbigsmile]

I’m actually impressed so many countries organized to one set of traffic signs. I wish that happened more often.

[shakey]

" Americans don't feel the need to listen to anybody least of all their own federal government" too true lol

[simrock_]

That stock video of the guy typing on the computer and pulling a kitchen knife is brilliant. Kudos to whoever found that one in the library.

[Edawg_]

Australian here, no wonder I found US signs so familiar when driving there, ours are near identical down to the font. Only exception being speed limit signs.

[blackmniac]

It also fits quite nicely into something Jeremy Clarkson once commented on when doing that car show thingy he's famous for:
European cars use pictograms for the buttons to indicate what they are supposed to do whereas american cars just put the english word for it on the button. His theory: Because european cars are sold all over europe where everyone speaks a different language having pictograms just makes it easier to sell your french car in italy without having to manufacture new buttons that have the italian words on it. But in america, everyone is expected to be able to speak english, so why use pictograms when you can use words because everyone knows what those words mean.

[SabreVDM]

Australia uses a mish-mash of both, was very intriguing watching this and seeing both very similar and very alien signs.

[CZpersi]

The advantage of pictograms is that while it takes time to learn them, they are much more visible from a larger distance and most importantly do not require you to understand the language. This comes extremely handy not only in Europe, but also in many countries, which are multilingual by nature - imagine India with its hundreds of languages and non-latin alphabet trying to use text-based signs.

[loebi]

Interestingly, here in China, despite it does not join the Vienna convention, Chinese roadway signs are basically aligned with it.

[LordofGold]

What I really love about Austrias road signs are those really old fashioned ones, where the "No motorcycles" sign has a really old motorcycle and the guy is wearing a scarf. Or the "No cars" sign shows you a car from the 1900s. The railroad sign that you see in 3:16 with the old steam locomotive on it is actually still in use in most parts of Europe today!

[DutchLabrat]

You can paint a lane on the road bright red, stencil a clearly recognisable bicycle every 25 meters, have a large blue sign with again a clearly recognisable bicycle on it at every entrance, .... and the average American tourist would walk on it, stand still right in the middle, and then complain about all the bicycles there.

Some people

[ihathtelekinesis]

Ireland is kind of a special case. Most of their signs are in Vienna style, but their warning signs are the American-style yellow diamonds.

[geronimowindow]

Here in Canada they follow more or less the same standards as US road signs, but less wording used and more pictograms because of bilingualism. Apparently the standard of yellow diamond warning signs is also used in Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and most surprisingly Ireland

[onbearfeet]

We have SOME pictographic signs here in the US! It's just that they're usually weirdly specific, like, "If you drive through here, a cow might fall on your car." I don't think anyone would believe a "watch out for falling cows" sign (the first time), so that pictogram is my favorite. It really makes you contemplate the potential for projectile bovines.

[RageXBlade]

As a roadsign manufacturer, the details of what signs are supposed to be in certain sizes and not in other is also interesting (and usually disregarded by our customers lol). Another interesting feature of road signs is the type of retro-reflective material that they are printed or laid onto. There are a lot of different patterns. Fun fact: In the USA, road signs are technically classified as a traffic control devices, which makes them sound way fancier than they really are. Source: Someone who reads the MUTCD files almost daily

[gregrelyea]

Since you mentioned the MUTCD you should do a video on when the US spent millions on developing a new highway font (Clearview) only to learn after it had been installed that it was actually terrible and all Clearview signs needed to be reverted back to Highway Gothic. As a roadway engineer who does sign design it's a fascinating story as is when the signs were required to be changed from all caps to mixed case.

[kineticdeath]

As an australian I can safely say i recognised pretty much all those "US" signs except for things like the US speed limit signs. Our signs down under are very similar, only some slight variations on things like the no stopping which is a red rectangle with "no stopping" in white type

[somitomi]

It's worth noting that the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic was already a revised and amended version of the earlier 1949 Geneva Protocol and standardised roadsigns were already specified in their earliest predecessor, the 1909 "Convention with Respect to the International Circulation of Motor Vehicles" ratified by a handful of European countries.

[redyau_]

Just a small stumble in the thumbnail, as I'm sure other have pointed it out as well:
The european one way sign is rectangular. The sign you put there means you can only turn right at the intersection (but it may be a two way road)