Traffic signs
Oct 31st, 2008 | By Maribel | Category: English
Traffic signs provide information about the routes to assure that no problem will happen. In order to avoid any kind of misunderstanding, the signs contain images instead of words.
In general, there are two types of signs: the European system and the American system. In Latin America the second system is widely used, however, the signs vary from country to country. In Colombia, the signs are classified in three kinds: Warning signs, Mandatory signs and Information signs.
Warning signs are yellow diamond shaped with a black symbol. Mandatory signs are circular with a red border; they have a white background and a black symbol. Information signs have many shapes and colors; but they are mainly blue with white and black symbols.
In Colombia, as in many other countries, there are some campaigns that promote the good circulation to avoid accidents. “Las Estrellas Negras” (black stars) is a campaign developed some time ago that aims to make pedestrians as well as drivers aware of the danger on the routes. When someone dies on the way due to the imprudence, a black star is painted on the road surface, so everybody realizes what happened. Some people say that this is not enough or that painting starts can be expensive; nonetheless, more than one person have thought twice before crossing.
Familiarity with one system of road signs over another can also affect our interpretation of other visual messages appearing in different contexts, e.g. black symbols on a yellow background implicitly tell Americans that they should pay attention, but might not have the same effect on Europeans who might be better alerted with black symbols on a white background and a red border.
If you speak Italian, I briefly covered this in http://blogs.technet.com/terminologia/archive/2008/09/23/segnali-di-globalizzazione.aspx