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this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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That sign usually means no entry for bikes so I was confused for a moment
Also fits because tourists would ignore most posted signs.
Don't signs usually have a line through it when it means "no", or is that just american signage?
Thats confusing.
instructions unclear, the banana is up my ass
You missed the "Caution: A Bannana" sign then didn't you?
there were three bananas before the caution sign and I slipped
Also, stop signs are ~~hexagonal~~ octagonal and yield signs triangular so you could notice them even when they're not facing you.
Edit: octagon/hexagon
Or when covered in snow or if the sign is badly damaged
Stop signs are octagonal.
Thanks, forgot how the shapes work lol
Red state. We can't afford the extra 2 sides.
This should be in drivers education in Europe
they are, aren't they? not with a banana ofc, but I know they are categorized based on shape and color.
European bike lanes (like this one should probably depict) are round and solid blue with a bike depicted on them.
In Europe, lanes, where biking is prohibited are denoted by a round white sign with a relative wide red border (circle) and a bike depicted at its center.
if I didn't already know better, i would have interpreted these two signs to be synonymous.
Yeah a / would make more intuitive.
One is for waterbikes, one is for Fancy Dress Bicycles Only
Mandatory signs are road signs that are used to set the obligations of all traffic that uses a specific area of road. Most mandatory road signs are circular in shape and may use white symbols on a blue background with a white border, or black symbols on a white background with a red border, although the latter is also associated with prohibitory signs.
i am now more confused than I was before.
Learning Vienna Convention road signs takes a few minutes for the basic principles, an hour or two for the really arcane signs such as "watch out for carriages" and "levy ahead".
The system is superior to the North American hell system by a huge margin, not least of which because it allows me to drive to Spain or Czechia without needing to study their traffic laws and learn the local language. The signs will be very similar and their meanings otherwise easy to intuit.
Now let me blow your mind: you already do this in NA. But you stopped at yield signs and stop signs. Their shape is immediately recognizable and parseable even if you don't speak English or even if they are covered in snow (that's on purpose). Now just imagine every sign is like that instead of the designers giving up and writing some text on a yellow rectangle. "Road work ahead"? Bitch, just put a schematic road worker in a red triangle instead of making me read shit at 90 km/h, this ain't book club!
Red means stop not road work. Here orange is used for road work.
Plus some things really need text.
How would that 60 means 60 km to next town with the name.
How would that 60 means 60 km to next town with the name.
If it meant that it would have the name of the town on it.
Is there a problem having a little line through the thing you’re not supposed to do?
/American (sorry) question
That is used for cancelling a previous sign.
Ooooh how interesting!!
Thanks for the embeds as well
In the Netherlands (where this is depicted) it's typically a white sign with black letters and a red line around it for prohibited, or blue with white text for required
So a white sign with black numbers 80 and a red line around it means prohibited to drive faster than 80, s similar sign with a biker means forbidden for bikes there. If it's a blue sign with a bike, it means bikes are required ro go here.
A line through it actually means "end of this particular prohibition"
...does a blue sign with a white 80 mean you must travel at least that quickly?..we have minimum speeds posted stateside, although it's not common...
I can only talk about the Netherlands: Round white sign with a red band, black letters: maximum speed Square blue sign with white letters, advisory speed (advisory speed < maximum speed - 20 )
There is no minimum speed (round blue sign white letters): this is for the simple reason you could technically be ticketed in the case of a traffic jam, yield sign or traffic light
Yeah, as far as I learned, that would be the minimum speed you have to drive in this segment of the road.
Usually, as crossed out sign means it got annulled but there are also some signs, like the sign prohibiting U-turns that have a line through them. But generally the coloring is the major indicator.
At least in the UK which has a lot of common signage with the rest of Europe you normally just have a red circle sign (generally prohibitive orders) with the picture of a disallowed vehicle in. Or a blank interior for 'no vehicles'. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/traffic-signs
I agree the the comic is a bit confusing but to be fair it's in black and white. A red border would mean no entry but a completely blue background would be only bikes allowed.
It makes sense to think that they are car owners that in their regular life wouldn't tolerate bikes but on holidays find it great.
It does?!
With the wide circle that would normally be red it means no bikes beyond this point in Europe and most of the world
Poor design. If you were colour blind, that sign would be very confusing. It needs a line through it.
For example, these signs all mean not to do something, and anyone should be able to figure that out:
Oh good point about color blindess. I never thought about that.
Why would color blind people struggle with this sign? There are no similar looking signs which mean something different.
The closest one would be this one:
And any color blind person is able to distinguish those two easily.
I see how it can be confusing for someone not used to it but for anyone who grew up in a country where this is the default it is perfectly understandable.
Accessibility needs to be universal. There may not be other signs like that in a particular city or country, but the rest of the world uses a line through "do not" signs.
Even a child could understand what it means, compared to different random coloured edge markings. And that's exactly the point.
We go through all the trouble of making signage without language barriers and still can't communicate, it's ridiculous. I would 100% misunderstand European signs in a quick moment even knowing what they should mean, because I have to unlearn 40 years of sign instinct.
well, that's very counterintuitive for someone from south america. I'd read it as a sign to communicate the presence of bikes to car drivers.
If that’s the signs intent, shouldn’t it also have a line through it? (Like the old no smoking signs?)
Nope:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibitory_traffic_sign
Many countries use red circle + symbol to depict who is not permitted to drive there.
me too
Now you are confusing me. I thought she is taking about the sign and about if someone would propose to put it in her town.
I think she means the whole idea of bike friendly infrastructure as a US citizen. But thats my interpretation, the comic isn't very clear.
Yeah it is confusing. But as you pointed out the sign means no entry for bikes in most of the Europe, it doesn't mean anything in US.
On the other hand this is titled car-brains on vacation. Implying they normally drive cars.
Really confusing.
I think, a "biking prohibited" sign would have a wider black border. Yet, the border of the "bike lane" sign in the picture is a bit too wide, in my opinion, to avoid confusing it with a "biking prohibited" sign.