page_title: Traffic sign
section_title: Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Traffic sign / Europe
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign in Beussent, France
context_page_description: Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones. Later, signs with directional arms were introduced, for example the fingerposts in the United Kingdom and their wooden counterparts in Saxony.
  With traffic volumes increasing since the 1930s, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to overcome language barriers, and enhance traffic safety. Such pictorial signs use symbols in place of words and are usually based on international protocols. Such signs were first developed in Europe, and have been adopted by most countries to varying degrees.
context_section_description: The standardization of traffic signs in Europe commenced with the signing of the 1931 Geneva Convention concerning the Unification of Road Signals by several countries. The 1931 Convention rules were developed in the 1949 Geneva Protocol on Road Signs and Signals.
  In 1968, the European countries signed the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic treaty, with the aim of standardizing traffic regulations in participating countries in order to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety. Part of the treaty was the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, which defined the traffic signs and signals. As a result, in Western Europe the traffic signs are well standardized, although there are still some country-specific exceptions, mostly dating from the pre-1968 era.
  The principle of the European traffic sign standard is that certain shapes and colours are to be used with consistent meanings:
  Triangular signs (black symbols on a white or yellow background) warn of dangers. The Vienna Convention additionally allows an alternative shape for such signs, namely a right-angled diamond – although in Europe this shape is regularly used only in the Republic of Ireland.
  Regulatory signs are round: those indicating a prohibition or limit are black on white (or yellow) with a red border; those giving a mandatory order are white on blue.
  Informational and various other secondary signs are of rectangular shape.
  The animals which may be depicted on warning signs include cattle, deer, ducks, elk, frogs, horses, sheep, monkeys (in Gibraltar), and polar bears (on Svalbard). The Convention allows any animal image to be used.
  Directional signs ("guide signs" in American parlance) have not been harmonized under the Convention, at least not on ordinary roads. As a result, there are substantial differences in directional signage throughout Europe. Differences apply to the choice of typeface, arrows and, most notably, colours. The convention does, however, specify that the type of directional signage used should, for each country, distinguish limited-access roads ("motorways") from ordinary, all-purpose roads.
  Directional signage on motorways uses: 
  white-on-green in, for example, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey
  white-on-blue in, for example, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
  Differences are greater for non-motorways: 
  White-on-blue in Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Turkey, and the Netherlands (in this case the same as on motorways).
  White-on-green in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Poland, France, Hungary, and Portugal (only on the few primary roads that still have not been transformed in motorways),
  Black-on-yellow in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia, Serbia, and Croatia.
  Red-on-white in Denmark (though white-on-blue on motorway exits and all overhead gantries)
  Black-on-white in Spain.
  The black-on-white signposting of secondary roads distinguishes them from primary roads in Finland, France, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania, and Sweden black-on-white indicates urban-only roads or urban destinations.
  The signposting of road numbers also differs greatly, except that European route numbers, if displayed, are always indicated using white characters on a green rectangle. European route numbers are, however, not signed at all in the United Kingdom.
  The Convention recommends that certain signs – such as "STOP", "ZONE", etc. – be in English; however, use of the local language is also permitted. If a language uses non-Latin characters, a Latin-script transliteration of the names of cities and other important places should also be given. Road sig
caption: Road sign in Beussent, France - entrance to built up area with an implied 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph) speed limit.
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