Direction, Position, or Indication Sign - Design

Design

The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals divides the direction, position, or indication sign category into direction signs, which are only those giving distances or directions to a given location; road identification signs (also known as "reassurance signs"), which repeat the name or number of the road, and place identification signs, which give the name of a landmark, such as a town, river or border. Unlike the other classes of sign, direction signs remain broadly undefined by the convention; the only restrictions given are that direction signs must be either a rectangle or an arrow shaped pentagon, and that they may not contain placenames in more than two languages. Additionally, direction signs on motorways must be blue or green, while temporary direction signs are yellow or orange.

As a result, different nations can have wildly different direction signs; the United States uses verbose green gantry signs almost universally in built up areas, with few diagrams beyond basic arrows, while the United Kingdom, Ireland and Iceland use signs with fewer words but detailed maps of the approaching junctions. Most areas use different colours to show different road types, but the implementation varies: the United Kingdom (and Ireland) uses full colour boards, colour-coded to match the type of road they are placed on, with relevant text highlighted within patches of other colours to indicate different road types using the Guildford Rules. The United States, Canada, and Australia on the other hand almost universally use the plain green signs, but some signs use different colours to highlight certain types of destination such as hospitals and rest stops, or, in Australia that the road is a tollway. Road signs in Israel and the Palestinian territories are of similar design to North American signage, but vary in color depending on whether the sign indicates direction for through traffic, exiting traffic, etc.

Direction signs can also be used in conjunction with other types of sign: for example, in the United Kingdom, if a warning or prohibitory sign appears on a direction sign, it means that the route indicated by the sign contains the hazard or prohibition sign posted.