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Road direction signs
The very first road direction signs per se were the milestones that were erected by the ancient Romans alongside their roads. With the collapse of the Roman Empire, road direction signs in the form of finger posts and made out of wood could be seen at cross roads. They were commissioned by local parishes and could easily be read from on horseback. With the development of the turnpike and the stagecoach, the Turnpike Roads Act 1773 was passed, making signposting compulsory to allow the riders to judge their speed and prevent them from becoming lost. Similar signs were developed in other countries and remained in use until the early-20th century, when development of the motorcar made the small and often wordy signs impractical. Most early road direction signs were based on the traditional styles in use in area. The United Kingdom used adapted, cast iron fingerposts for directions, while the United States adopted an ad hoc scheme based on traditional trail markings. The advent of World War II halted sign modernisation efforts across Europe however, and governments, fearing that invading forces or enemy spies could use such signs to navigate, removed all road direction signs from the road networks. Unlike the other classes of sign, road direction signs remain broadly undefined by the Vienna Convention; the only restrictions given are that they must be either a rectangle or an arrow shaped pentagon, and that they may not contain place names in more than two languages. Additionally, direction signs on motorways must be blue or green, while temporary direction signs are yellow or orange.
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