As long as there have been signs there have also been teenagers who pull them off their posts and take them home, to parade them proudly on their bedroom walls. This type of vandalism is a common problem all over the world. It seems that the younger generation just doesn't understand how important those road markers actually are, until they are decommissioned and end up as old metal signs for sale.
It goes without saying that road signs play a critical role. Strategically positioned, they maintain safe traffic flow by their mere presence. Human traffic direction involves labour costs, while electronic boards generate a power bill. But metal road signs cost nothing once they have been erected (unless people use them for target practice on lonely roads out of town).
The very first road markers were probably stones, or stone piles. People have always navigated according to landmarks and using stones to create artificial landmarks is nothing new. Later on, the stones themselves were marked with numbers or names, such as the remaining distance to a town. The ancient Romans used stone columns to mark out the distance to Rome.
The introduction of the automobile at the turn of the twentieth century gave new impetus to the desire for a comprehensive system of road symbols. The earliest attempt was the one made by the Italian Touring Club, a group of automobile drivers who put together a system of symbols. Since then, there have been other attempts in different parts of the world, as well as cooperative agreements.
Uniformity is a long-held ideal of road symbol designers. But it is difficult to keep the symbols the same from country to country, due to national preferences and idiosyncrasies. The UK was at one time the only country to maintain signage in miles and not kilometers. The USA, on the other hand, developed their own system of symbols in 1960, which was copied by some other countries, but then began to make use of the symbols from other countries as well.
The challenge in designing road symbols is that they have to be universally intelligible. In other words, they need to be understood by a vast variety of people, many of whom have limited literacy or who do not even speak the native language(s) of the country in which the symbols are to be used. Shapes and colors therefore become very important in trying to attain universal legibility.
Another issue is that drivers do not have much time to read the signs, since they are moving past quickly. The design needs to be as basic as possible. Large lettering and eye-catching colors are used to achieve maximum legibility.
Nowadays, road signs are made of metal, usually a light metal such as aluminum, which is coated with a protective synthetic layer. This layer of coating needs to be reflective to enhance visibility at night. The signs are therefore practically worthless as scrap metal, but their real value lies in their historic significance, and this may be what causes people to tear them down and take them home as souvenirs, so that they end up as old metal signs for sale.
It goes without saying that road signs play a critical role. Strategically positioned, they maintain safe traffic flow by their mere presence. Human traffic direction involves labour costs, while electronic boards generate a power bill. But metal road signs cost nothing once they have been erected (unless people use them for target practice on lonely roads out of town).
The very first road markers were probably stones, or stone piles. People have always navigated according to landmarks and using stones to create artificial landmarks is nothing new. Later on, the stones themselves were marked with numbers or names, such as the remaining distance to a town. The ancient Romans used stone columns to mark out the distance to Rome.
The introduction of the automobile at the turn of the twentieth century gave new impetus to the desire for a comprehensive system of road symbols. The earliest attempt was the one made by the Italian Touring Club, a group of automobile drivers who put together a system of symbols. Since then, there have been other attempts in different parts of the world, as well as cooperative agreements.
Uniformity is a long-held ideal of road symbol designers. But it is difficult to keep the symbols the same from country to country, due to national preferences and idiosyncrasies. The UK was at one time the only country to maintain signage in miles and not kilometers. The USA, on the other hand, developed their own system of symbols in 1960, which was copied by some other countries, but then began to make use of the symbols from other countries as well.
The challenge in designing road symbols is that they have to be universally intelligible. In other words, they need to be understood by a vast variety of people, many of whom have limited literacy or who do not even speak the native language(s) of the country in which the symbols are to be used. Shapes and colors therefore become very important in trying to attain universal legibility.
Another issue is that drivers do not have much time to read the signs, since they are moving past quickly. The design needs to be as basic as possible. Large lettering and eye-catching colors are used to achieve maximum legibility.
Nowadays, road signs are made of metal, usually a light metal such as aluminum, which is coated with a protective synthetic layer. This layer of coating needs to be reflective to enhance visibility at night. The signs are therefore practically worthless as scrap metal, but their real value lies in their historic significance, and this may be what causes people to tear them down and take them home as souvenirs, so that they end up as old metal signs for sale.
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