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August 08, 2006
Road Signs
They did things differently in the past. Road signs in Poland did not always strictly conform with the strait-jacketed expectations of west European motorists. For instance, there are at least two different signs to indicate pedestrians crossing! How many accidents has that little fanebrium caused? One shows a girl (she has a pony tail) and a boy running across the road. Another shows a girl (she has pigtails) crossing the road with an outsized lollipop in her hand. Both signs are black on a yellowish orange background. The Germans too were not immune to these outbreaks of wilfulness: their sign showed a solid citizen with a pipe and a hat crossing the road.
Fortunately, this foolishness is being phased out. A bland and sexless eurostickperson with a head the size of a pea in familiar blue and white colours now bestrides more and more pedestrian crossings in Poland so that even the dullest-witted car-hire patron can figure out what's going on around him without being subjected to culture shock.
Note: I had to rephrase the above as after another day's research on the by-roads of Poland it appears that lollipop girl warns of a pedestrian crossing and pigtail girl warns that child pedestrians might be crossing. I'm sticking with "fanebrium," though, word or no word.
Posted by hgrodsk at August 8, 2006 07:46 PM
Comments
You are somewhat wrong about the roadsigns ;) We have standard sign for pedestrian crossing and it's blue-white as you described above. We have also a warning (yellow) sign with a pedestrian - that sign warns that a pedestrian crossing is ahead and you should be more aware. The sign with running kids warns that the children may be crossing the street anywhere ;) And the sign with the girl and giant lolipop informs that this crossing leads to school. And it always comes with the blue-white one. Easy, isn't it? ;)
Posted by: Minder at August 17, 2008 12:02 PM