Hello- I'll be driving through Germany, Austria and Italy in two weeks, and does anyone know of a good guide or a phone app that I can use for meanings? Thanks
Posted by
Sidney, BC, Canada
981 posts
Try Googling Road Signs followed by the country's name. Or see if the local AAA office can help.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32353 posts
Scott, This should provide lots of possibilities. Take your pick and then print out the chart that will be most useful..... www.google.ca/search?q=europe+road+signs&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=YbX&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=DF3-T6DuOMHTrQGq4JSLCQ&ved=0CFUQsAQ&biw=1235&bih=700 You could also stop by your local AAA office. Since they issue I.D.P.'s, they usually have a small booklet on hand with the most common road signs. Cheers!
Posted by
Tilburg, Netherlands
2829 posts
Wikipedia is quite good for this, like this page about Germany traffic signs : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_signs_in_Germany
Posted by
Berlin, Germany
337 posts
Brian's Getting Around Germany web site has an excellent section on German traffic signs including direction markers. Edit: the URL is: http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info
Is there no way to embed links anymore? I tried both HTML and BBCode.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
There are international road signs in Europe, pictograms for no passing, one way, speed limits, etc. You should learn them for sure. The link provided by Andre gives an excellent overview of these signs. In addition, there are signs specific to a certain road or intersection. These signs could say anything and are in German. I remember riding a bus in Germany when it came to an intersection with such a sign. There was no place to pull over to run a translation app, and if you waited at the intersection to run an app, you would have been blocking traffic. BTW, "Ausfahrt" is not a town; "Einbahnstrasse" is not a street name. "Is there no way to embed links anymore? I tried both HTML and BBCode." Sometime this site lets you embed links; sometimes it doesn't. For sure, if the link contains a '?', you can't ever embed it. HTML never works.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33848 posts
Mark, your link is here BBcode works with the >>url<< tag (substitute [] for arrows)
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
For the BBC code, did you start the link with URL=? And did you finish it with /URL (in brackets).
Posted by
Berlin, Germany
337 posts
I used: Getting Around Germany that is:
(url=http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info/auto.shtml)Getting Around Germany(/url) Edit: the code tag doesn't work either, replaced normal brackets for square ones.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
Getting Around Germany I changed shtml to htm.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Here's one you'll see a lot if you're driving this summer: "Staugefahr!"... meaning, traffic is about to suck...
Posted by
Tilburg, Netherlands
2829 posts
Because of higher share of international traffic, Europe has a longer tradition of using pictograms instead of written signs. Virtually all important traffic commands will be given in pictures, not wording, and all the "crash-avoiding" ones. I'd take half an house to memorize completely the signs for priority, do not enter, no traffic allowed in this direction, no car traffic allowed and the compulsory direction signs. The most counter-intuitive one is probably the circle with read border and white empty background (meaning: no access allowed (car, bike, pedestrian or else).