Road Signs

Road Signs Road Signage

Traffic signs can be grouped into several types. For example, Annexe 1 of the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals (1968), which at 30 June 2004 had 52 signatory countries, defines eight categories of signs:

Danger warning signs
Priority signs
Prohibitory or restrictive signs
Mandatory signs
Special regulation signs
Information, facilities, or service signs
Direction, position, or indication signs
Additional panels

Road signs have become more and more necessary in direct proportion to the amount and speed of traffic on our roads. The very first signs were probably the mileage indicators that were erected by the Romans through their Empire to show the distance to Rome. Gradually, as stage coaches appeared in Europe, finger signposts began to appear at major road junctions indicating the direction and distance to the next important town. With the advent of the motor car and the building of more and more roads, so road signs took on different shapes and graphics began to appear on them.

The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals came about through the United Nations in an effort to standardize traffic signage throughout the world for obvious reasons. The convention generally lays down the shape, size and colour of the different categories of road signs. Generally speaking these are adhered to by different governments. Circular traffic signs depict a mandatory instruction that must be adhered, for example a maximum speed limit. Triangular signs depict some sort of warning of – for example the warning of a cross roads or T-junction ahead. Other signs that are purely information signs and are usually rectangular. For example road toll charges, direction and mileage signs, tourism signs and so on.