Road Signage

Road Signs Road Signage

It is generally accepted that road signage has been around for at least 2000 years, many of these old signs in the form of milestones can still be found dotted about the European countryside at the side of old Roman roads. As traffic between cities and towns became more crowded, first with the wagon, then the stage coach and then the motor car, so it became necessary to place more and more direction indicators, and then warning signs, and later information signs at the side of main roads. When international travel started to get popular so it became necessary to standardize road signage. By 1900, a Congress of the International League of Touring Organizations in Paris was considering proposals for such standardization. The basic shapes and patterns of most traffic signs were set at the 1908 International Road Congress in Rome. In 1909, nine European governments agreed on the use of four pictorial symbols, indicating "bump", "curve", "intersection", and "grade-level railroad crossing". The intensive work on international road signs that took place between 1926 and 1949 eventually led to the development of the European road signage system.

Today the different shapes, colours and sizes that you see in road signage today is generally speaking laid down by international convention:

Rectangular signs depict information to drivers. They can be public information signs such as road direction signs, toll charge signs, selective restriction signs (e.g. time limits for parking) and tourism signs.
Circular signs depict an instruction that must be adhered to. Both the mandatory and prohibition signs give instructions that have to be adhered to.
Triangular signs are warning signs that are used to depict danger and to provide information about it.

If you would like any further information regarding signage please contact us at +27 11 222 9800