ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Signs & Symbols

At the opposite end of the scale I have just come across this one.

Hutch,
If you haven't come across it, there is a whole collection of such humorous signs at the Road Trip America website.

You're on target with the May-sur-Orne town sign. The red border indicates that a 50km/h (31 MPH) speed limit applies, in the absence of any other signs to the contrary. The name crossed through diagonally in red when leaving town also indicates that the open-highway speed limit of 90km/h (56 MPH) once again applies.

Those who have lived in the U.K. will know that we have an equally (if not more) obscure rule which specified a 30 MPH limit in a built-up area. The latter has a complicated definition that an area is considered built-up if the street lights are less than a certain distance apart. Fortunately, 99% of the time the local council posts a normal 30 speed sign anyway. Who can measure the distance between lights while driving along?

As you say, getting onto symbols more relevant to electricity, the teiangle warnings on equipment are found everywhere these days. But have you noticed that when printed in color they use a yellow background?

I sometimes wonder whether some of these symbols are really necessary. A lightning bolt warning against the terminals of a HV power supply, for example -- Isn't it reasonable to assume that anyone with cause to use such apparatus is already aware of the dangers of such high voltage?

Should we also put such warning symbols on every wall outlet, just in case?

The ESB (Irish Power Company) seems to use a big flash symbol with a guy cringing in agony beside it in blue & white with a "!"

followed by "Electricity Keep Away!"
or "Risk of Death! Keep Away!" (using the word death really does make you think.. High Voltage / High Tension etc doesn't have the same ring to it!)

They put "electricity keep away" and a flash symbol on EVERY single distribution post!! Small yellow plate.

Risk of Death & Keep Away, Stay Away etc.. is usually on substations (district step-down transformers) or pole transformers for individual houses..
or on any high tension cabling. There's a symbol of a guy and an electric flash and the guy looks in pain!

As for Irish road signs... we never particularly cared about European standards/British standards in the past so we developed our own system. The argument now is that the signs are clearly understandable to europeans and since we drive on the opposite side of the road it makes sense to have different looking roads. We've also got a lot of big yellow signs with "Drive on the Left written in 5 main european languages" scattered along main routes and in touristy areas.

The only sign that is confusing is the old regulatory sign which was a symbol in a red circle.. e.g. Keep left is a left arrow in a red circle.. apparently this means the total oppsite in most EU countries?? The regulatory sign (e.g. keep left) is being replaced by a white symbol on a blue background.

When something's forbidden in Ireland it's in a red circle with a line thru it .. No parking, no entry (which is a straigh ahead arrow in a circle crossed out!!!) Which makes more logical sense than that red & white bar thing used in the UK and Europe.

I find the yellow diamonds with a black symbol for warning signs much higher impact though. Although maybe that's just because that's what I'm programmed to see as a warning sign.

Road markings are relatively unique to Ireland too.

White centre line with a yellow margin (outer line) and a system of reflectors (cats eyes) before junctions the usual yellow margin reflectors go green for 300 meters before a junction making them very easy to spot at night.

Currently all distances are in KM but Speed limits are still in MPH (As most cars in the 1970s when we changed were in MPH only as they were british versions) That's changed now and apparently the NRA (national roads athority, not to be confused with the US organisation of the same name) is due to start putting up signs in KMPH which apparently will look clearly different to the current MPH ones! I can just imagine little old ladies being pulled over for doing 100mph on a country road being totally confused !

Rarely seen in Europe and North America from the South African Department of Transport





I can say from personal experience that the middle one tastes good – don’t miss it!!



[This message has been edited by Hutch (edited 01-04-2003).]

There are a couple of warning signs near the marshes here which depict a frog! Not as impressive as an elephant, but then this is England....

DJK,
I agree that the yellow diamonds give better visibility. I'd gotten so used to them in the States that the first time I came over to Ireland it seemed strange to see familiar looking warning signs while having to drive on the left! I noticed that your traffic lights (the few that exist!) follow the American/French pattern of just going straight from red to green as well (UK lights go to red-&-amber for a short while before green). I take it from your comments that the conversion of signposts to kilometers is now complete. When I was there last there were still some of the old white posts marked in miles (I think I even saw a couple which still had T and L road numbers instead of N and R - I don't know when the latter were introduced, 1980s?).

One of my complaints about the UK/Euro signs is that some are very inconsistent and illogical. No left turn, no right turn, etc. show the appropriate action in a red circle, croseed through with a diagonal red bar. That makes sense. So why then, do the signs prohibiting some other things NOT have the red bar? (e.g. the sign for "no bicycles" just shows a bicycle inside a red circle - no diagonal cross through it).

Back to electricity: When I was a kid in the 1970s our distribution cabinets, sub-station enclosures and poles had simple red and white signs with wording such as "Danger - High Voltage" or "High Voltage - Keep out." These days, the yellow triangle and lightning bolt symbols are everywhere:


(Taken from this thread. )

This one is quite restrained. Some of the new notices then go into a whole paragraph of smaller print underneath: "Touching or approaching this equipment may result in death or severe injury..." blah, blah, blah.

I wonder how much of this is caused by the dreaded "L" word.



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-05-2003).]

you were obviously living in the middle of no-where.. if you lived in Dublin, Cork etc you'd be regularlly driven insane by traffic lights that seem to be set up specifically to delay you as much as possible.

The sequence is amber then red amber meaning to stop if it's safe to do so. There's no amber before green (never understood the logic behind that? signal to rev your engine?)

We've also got flashing amber which is effectively yeild (to cars/pedestrians) and flashing red has appeared more recently (in cork anyway) and apparently has the same meaning as a stop sign.

So on a 4+ way junction if the lights failed the higher priority route would flash amber and the lower ones would flash red.

Well, I'm afraid I didn't think much of Dublin City, so I just passed through it to/from the ferry terminal as quickly as possible. I traveled across the midlands area by way of Athlone, then mostly around Co. Roscommon, Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim and Cavan. I avoided most of the big towns, so I guess that's why it seemed that lights were rare. (Never got as far south as Cork or into any of the other big towns such as Galway or Limerick.)

The flashing amber and red signals you describe sound as though they're another idea that Ireland has adopted from America. In many U.S. towns you find that during quiet periods the lights at an intersection are switched to flashing amber and flashing red on the thru-route and side roads respectively. You'll also find places where there aren't regular traffic lights but where they have installed flashing red lights to emphasize a regular STOP sign.

I agree on the peculiar U.K. red-&-amber phase. I've never seen the point of it either, and all it seems to do is encourage the more impatient driver to jump the line before green. We don't have the red and amber arrows that are used on American lights either, only the green arrow.

I have come across the sequence:- Red; Red+Yellow; Green only in Iceland and Argentina (Must have been good customers!) - The Argies have red telephone and pillar boxes too. If there are any others with red+yellow aspects out there, I'd be keen to know.

I too have no understanding why these aspects should be so!

Ireland also has those amber flashing arrows - meaning that you can turn left/right but must yeild to any on-coming traffic. Generally they're used to let pedestrians across a slip road (i.e. the lights go red intermitently for a crossing and then back to flashing orange arrow) or in various junction set ups.

Loads of UK tourists seem totally confused by the flashing red and the orange flashing arrows. they presume that Ireland should obey UK rules (not an entirely stupid presumption considering that we do drive on the left too) and I've seen people drive thru flashing orange arrows into traffic and one incident of a guy driving thru flashing red at speed into a police car while hurling abuse about broken traffic lights! (they slip into flashing sequence during the night) needless to say he didn't get much sympathy from the police!

Hope you don't mind me hopping on in here from the USA...

Prior to a steady "DON'T WALK" there is a flashing "DON'T WALK" to warn that one should not start crossing the street. I was once told that when one sees the flashing "DON'T WALK" it really means, "DON'T WALK...RUN!"

I recall hearing my cousin being quizzed on the traffic lights.

"Red?" "Stop."
"Green?" "Go."
"Yellow?" "HURRY UP!"

No wonder so many states are making the requirements more stringent for younger drivers to obtain a learner's permit!

P. S. If you want the official list of American signs, here's the link:
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/