Why US Signs Look Different Than The Rest Of The World’s 

" Americans don't feel the need to listen to anybody least of all their own federal government" too true lol

I like how stop signs in France say "stop" but in Quebec say "arret"

I’m actually impressed so many countries organized to one set of traffic signs. I wish that happened more often.

Australian here, no wonder I found US signs so familiar when driving there, ours are near identical down to the font. Only exception being speed limit signs.

Most of Canada's signs are the same as in the US, with a slight exception being our speed limit signs. They look like the American signs, but ours say "Maximum" instead of "Speed Limit" because Maximum is the same in both English and French.

That stock video of the guy typing on the computer and pulling a kitchen knife is brilliant. Kudos to whoever found that one in the library.

We have SOME pictographic signs here in the US! It's just that they're usually weirdly specific, like, "If you drive through here, a cow might fall on your car." I don't think anyone would believe a "watch out for falling cows" sign (the first time), so that pictogram is my favorite. It really makes you contemplate the potential for projectile bovines.

So basically Americans just can't understand images so they need to have written on the sign what it means.

Australia uses a mish-mash of both, was very intriguing watching this and seeing both very similar and very alien signs.

It also fits quite nicely into something Jeremy Clarkson once commented on when doing that car show thingy he's famous for: European cars use pictograms for the buttons to indicate what they are supposed to do whereas american cars just put the english word for it on the button. His theory: Because european cars are sold all over europe where everyone speaks a different language having pictograms just makes it easier to sell your french car in italy without having to manufacture new buttons that have the italian words on it. But in america, everyone is expected to be able to speak english, so why use pictograms when you can use words because everyone knows what those words mean.

I think the reason is because we all speak English in America (even visitors from Canada and Mexico understand English enough to understand road signs), but Europe speaks a bunch of different languages so their signs need to rely more on symbols than words.

As an australian I can safely say i recognised pretty much all those "US" signs except for things like the US speed limit signs. Our signs down under are very similar, only some slight variations on things like the no stopping which is a red rectangle with "no stopping" in white type

Interestingly, here in China, despite it does not join the Vienna convention, Chinese roadway signs are basically aligned with it.

What I really love about Austrias road signs are those really old fashioned ones, where the "No motorcycles" sign has a really old motorcycle and the guy is wearing a scarf. Or the "No cars" sign shows you a car from the 1900s. The railroad sign that you see in 3:16 with the old steam locomotive on it is actually still in use in most parts of Europe today!

2:45 And then get pancaked into oblivion by Thomas and Friends.

2 things that might need to be added to this issue: 1. European signs are designed to be recognized even when obstructed by dirt or snow, at least the important ones. Stop sign is unique, as are several others. 2. It also helps analphabets, if I couldn't read, I would probably be completely lost in the US. In Europe you just learn the basic shapes and colours.

Ireland is kind of a special case. Most of their signs are in Vienna style, but their warning signs are the American-style yellow diamonds.

1:33 Bless you!

You need pictures in Europe because drivers speak many languages, but in countries where all drivers pretty much share the same language, worded signs make sense as you don't have to learn them (e.g., people familiar with Europe no stopping sign (who understand English) would understand the usa sign, whereas, people unfamiliar with the eu sign would have to guess what that symbol means)

US metric speed signs are circles where we still post both. US uses both road narrows signs, but more commonly the lane merge sign is both text and picture.

Since you mentioned the MUTCD you should do a video on when the US spent millions on developing a new highway font (Clearview) only to learn after it had been installed that it was actually terrible and all Clearview signs needed to be reverted back to Highway Gothic. As a roadway engineer who does sign design it's a fascinating story as is when the signs were required to be changed from all caps to mixed case.

As a roadsign manufacturer, the details of what signs are supposed to be in certain sizes and not in other is also interesting (and usually disregarded by our customers lol). Another interesting feature of road signs is the type of retro-reflective material that they are printed or laid onto. There are a lot of different patterns. Fun fact: In the USA, road signs are technically classified as a traffic control devices, which makes them sound way fancier than they really are. Source: Someone who reads the MUTCD files almost daily

Signage is such an interesting topic, I hope we get a video on the signage on the highways! It has its own font and everything!

3:40 I can't believe de didn't make a lame joke about that...

Here in Canada they follow more or less the same standards as US road signs, but less wording used and more pictograms because of bilingualism. Apparently the standard of yellow diamond warning signs is also used in Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and most surprisingly Ireland

Me a U.S. based Civil Engineer opening this video: "Oh boy! I hope Sam talks about the history of the MUTCD, an extremely dense and technical manual of almost no interest to anyone outside my specific field" As I glance at the 800 some odd pages of the my 2009 edition on a shelf approximately 5 feet away from my computer.

Australia made its own adaptation of America's MUTCD in 1964 and the current standards are still largely based on this (with some modifications and additions). So American street signs actually look very familiar to Australians! There's a few exceptions that have been picked up from the UN version. Old mph speed signs looks like the American ones but when Australia went metric they put a red circle around the kph speed signs to differentiate them, which is still the standard to this day.

There actually is a road in the US that is marked in kilometers. Interstate 19 is the country's only continuous highway that lists distances in kilometers, not miles. Starting just north of the border at Nogales, Interstate 19 stretches 101 kilometers to Tucson.

It's worth noting that the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic was already a revised and amended version of the earlier 1949 Geneva Protocol and standardised roadsigns were already specified in their earliest predecessor, the 1909 "Convention with Respect to the International Circulation of Motor Vehicles" ratified by a handful of European countries.

What I also like about the non-US system is that the shapes and colours already give a way (part of) the meaning of the sign. For example, the Stop sign is the only octagonal one. So if in case of mist, snow, vandalism or something else only a shape is visible, you still know it's a stop sign. The same applies to the 'give priority' sign (only inverted triangle) and 'priority road' (only tilted square). And even for other signs you can see part of the meaning: a round red and white (and possibly black) sign is always a prohibition, a round blue and white sign is a commandment, and a triangular red and white (and again possibly black) sign is a warning. At least that's how it works in the Netherlands but I've seen this or a similar system in most European countries I've been in.

The signal for no stopping in Brazil is also different. It's like the signal for no parking in the US but when there's X crossing it also means that you cannot stop. Edit: Road narrows: Similar to the US signal but it has a symbol

Here in Australia, we mostly seem to use the American style signs. I never even considered that there were different styles of signs beyond putting it in their native language.

If you ever are in Europe and say: "damn those are ugly signs" you are in Austria

living in australia. literally most of the US signs you showed we have identical if not very similiar

The No Stopping sign at the start of the video intrigued me when I first saw it in real life. The look was familiar through movies and TV shows, but I had no idea what it meant. The fact that it was everywhere, not just near rail crossings, drawbridges, roadworks or whatever, meant there was no context to interpret it.

1:20 Well, Ijust learned about three more YT channels to look for in that space. Awesome, thanks HAI!

Just a small stumble in the thumbnail, as I'm sure other have pointed it out as well: The european one way sign is rectangular. The sign you put there means you can only turn right at the intersection (but it may be a two way road)

Most of South America uses a mix as well, with the no parking sign (crossed out P) being a crossed out E (for prohibido estacionar), similar to the US

Many of us in the traffic engineering profession refer to the MUTCD like (pronounced) "Mutt-Seed." Image based signs are still preferred since there's a little lower level 9f distraction to road users, but, "word" signs have the advantage of being able to be used for special situations.

In Brazil a lot of those signs look the same as in the US but there some changes, mainly because text signs are no that common here, text is more common for regulatory signs ("pare" is a notorious one) and directional signs (highways names, city names, toll booths, km indicator, etc.) but most of the rest are just images, this is good at least for foreign people and it will take down some regionalisms in what the sign mean. I grew up in the south of Brazil and most of the traffic lights are called "sinaleira", although in the southeast where I current live, it's called "semáforo".

While warning signs in Europe use pictograms wherever possible, if one cannot be established due to the difficulty of making a pictogram, an exclamation mark in a red triangle is used followed by a plate below it showing the nature of the hazard in the local language(s) whereas in the US, the nature of the hazard is shown inside the yellow diamond warning sign.

i live in germany, and another difference to america is that we have a real "written" test to get a drivers liscence. some of the signs are not very intuitive but road safety is among the highest in the world here.

Australia and NZ use an interesting blend of MUTCD and Vienna Convention styled signage. Canada's signs are also MUTCD styled, with Quebec having more picture - rather than word - based signage. Also, speaking of the federal gov't extorting DOTs.. From 1956 to 1993, Florida would give their US route shield signs various colors rather than the plain black and white signs, in order to make the routes more identifiable. This is also why state road A1A is A1A and not just 1, as to prevent confusion with US 1. Unfortunately, FHWA was so offended by Florida getting colorful with their signs that they threatened to pull funding from Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) over it, despite FDOT spending state money on it.

I personally like the signs with words because there’s no ambiguity or guessing as to what the sign means. I feel the same when I’m on a website and there are a bunch of random icons and I have no idea what they mean and end up clicking on the wrong thing.

That "existential urbanist" bit was brilliant.

Australian road signs are a combination of the UK and US systems. We basically cherry picked the best sign for the job from both, and then added highway numbers which no-one understands or cares about because overseas people like them.

Here is component engagement just for you mister video narrator! I love this channel!!!

Even the form of important signs makes sense. You can identify them from the back or if covered by snow. Such as Stop, right,of way, yield.

In Indonesia, "No Stopping" is a red-slashed "S" in a white disc with red circle border. Even if the map says we're a signatory of the Vienna convention.

i love the stock footage at 5:15

I would love a deeper dive into this subject, would a Wendover Productions video be possible on Nebula? 👀

The UK has a very interesting take on road signage which I think would make a good video, but in short while they do mostly conform to the Vienna convention we also spearheaded the use of lowercase letters in signage and a whole lot of the image based signs we use are decently different design wise

Boy I sure hope it's more interesting than "we ain't letting no standard dictate what to do"...

I really appreciate Sam's dedication to pronouncing the acronym as mutt-kid

I can't even get used to Oregon's weird "SPEED 55" instead of "SPEED LIMIT 55" signs

"... increases comment engagement..." 🤣🤣🤣 Really takes the wind out of trolling. Nicely done!

The European system using symbols makes much more sense. When traveling by car across the continent, every few hours you will arrive in a different country speaking a different language. Commonly used symbols are understood by all. In the US, people speak the same language (and suffer a bit from the "everyone must know English" + "no one will tell me what to do" complexes), so it's not a problem to verbally describe the meaning of road signs instead of symbols.

Glad to see my faves Adam Something and Not Just Bikes be recognised for their hard work at 1:20

Australia has US-style road signs except speed limits, which are Euro-style, from the shift to metric in the 70s.

Sam's insistence on using acronyms makes this video so much better

It is quite noticable in anime too when all the signs are Vienna Convention type.

10th Amendment is what defends the State's power over the roads. SCOTUS ruled that NHTSA is allowed to pull Federal funding, as an exercise of the Spending Power that Congress holds, as long as the condition attached isn't coercive. For example, when they wanted States to raise the drinking age to 21, they threatened to pull 10% of Federal funding; since it was only 10% it was ruled as non-coercive. This is also known as a 'Congressional String'. Also, we Detroiters know Henry Ford didn't invent the car, he invented the moving assembly line!! 🚘

When watching American movies, I always just thought that those signs were set pieces to make everything look a bit vintage because surely no country would have such impractical signs like tha- oh

I love these videos!!

Although China didn’t sign the Vienna convention, their road sign is still mostly the same as ones from Vienna convention, not hard for recognize the signs with the same meaning. I actually think the Chinese system makes more sense. Red border is reserved for prohibitive signs like no parking, no entry etc. while warning signs have a black border. In EU it’s only the difference in shape differentiate between the two kind, they all have red borders. (But I argue in rainy conditions it might not be easy to tell a triangle from a circle at distance with rain water on the lens/windshield)

Wow an informative video with no crazy intro, no filler, and gets right into it? Subscribed in the first minute.

Here in England, we had very similar written road signs, on a white square background, new ones being made right up into the late 60s. I seem to think that it was a combination of it being thought to be a good idea and then actually joining the EEC, that we adopted the 'internarional' set of roadsigns that they were using.

in defence of the US, Australia and Canada - those countries (bar the US which has *one*) do not have international borders with non-native speaking languages that can easily be crossed. So having the majority language (i.e. English) written signs isn't as awful as it would be in say, Germany, which can easily be accessed by road by anyone in Europe. However European road signage is incredibly easy to read and understand in comparison. A simple glance at any European sign - even as someone who hasn't studied at all - is enough to understand the meaning (with a few exceptions, such as "no stopping"), whereas in the US system you have to read an entire sign before you necessarily understand the meaning. For example: A picture of a set of traffic lights, in a red triangle warns a driver of "Traffic lights ahead", whereas on a US system you would have to read a sign saying "TRAFFIC LIGHTS AHEAD" which takes more than a quick glance.

Brazil's "no stop" sign is similar to the "no parking" (a white circle with red borders like the speed limits one, an E and a /), but, instead of a single slash, it has the red X

1:34 Congratulations on that beautiful German pun in the lower right corner. 😆

When I drove in the US, the sign that unexpectedly gave me consternation was “Right lane ends in 1000 feet.” Now, I’m from the UK, and I can use both imperial and metric units for distance quite well. But…. When it’s that kind of length, WHY ARE YOU USING FEET? It should be written in YARDS!! Or maybe fractions of a mile. But feet? I have no instinctual concept of how long 1000ft is. It’s like saying something will last 1000 seconds; you can work out how long that will be in minutes or hours if you think about it, but you can’t grasp the length instinctually. I know it’s not that hard to convert to yards (333.3yds) but I was trying to convert it while travelling at 75mph with about three-quarters of my brain screaming “Wait, does that mean I’ve got a good amount of time to find a gap in traffic and move over, or am I going to crash before I can even finish this thought?”

The only sign I know that was changed to the international style is the "yield" one. Originally yellow with the word on it, it was changed to white with a red border with a small "yield" on it.

Japan is a weird hybrid, where most general regulatory signs follow the Vienna convention, while the warning signs follow loosely to the MUTCD. The stop sign, called 一時停止, is an downwards-pointed triangle reading 止まれ (lit. "Stop" as a command). And, most of the niche signs are written in Japanese. I guess, it's essential to be able to read a five-character Kanji compound while traveling at 80 km/h. Also, they have no Yield sign (if you want to stay kosher with how you use supplemental plaques...)

I'm not sure there's any pressing need to change road signs just as long as they're clear. I drive in the UK, in Europe, in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and have never found any difficulty. Besides, variety is what you hope for when travelling overseas.

I love the pronunciations of those acronyms

To be fair, that draw bridge sign is really unintuitive ... "Draw bridge" hits the brain much quicker

There is a mistake in the thumbnail. The one way sign should be square instead of circle. The circle means mandatory right turn.

1:33 Gesundheit!😂😂 This already made my day

0:42 the Rest of the worlds sign for keep left is a right pointing arrow. Clever...

I will say, the words "Draw bridge" would definitely take me less time to figure out than the associated pictogram

I've often wondered why this is, so thanks for explaining it in such an easy to understand manner! 😃 I've often been concerned though - Given the U.S. has Spanish and English as native, plus French, German, Italian and Welsh as community languages in various places - That some of the essential signage (Speed limits and level crossing 🛤 warnings) isn't given in a language-neutral fashion. ⚠ The existing US speed limit signs could easily be converted by nothing simpler than the addition of a red ring around the posted speed limit 🔴 and a plate with the standardised steam loco graphic could always be added below the U.S. standard R❌R one. 💡

Awesome video!!

Why do I get the feeling that Half as Interesting is deep down, is seething with ANGER that the US refuses to “get with the rest” of the world? I kind of get that indirect feeling with his videos lately.

In Mexico is the same, we pretty much just look at the other side of the river see wathever looks fine and try to immitate as best as possible without knowing wether that would work or not.

1:34 Dieses "Gesundheit" 🤣

1:22 It's really important to curve your slow klaxon when encountering a double drive horn.

TL;DR: most road signs were designed or popularized in America; and drivers are broadly literate and can recognize english words faster than abstract signals in most circumstances.

I actually like Canada's "no stopping" sign better than the Vienna Convention OR American system. It's image-based (so there's no language issues), and features a black octagon (obviously representing a stop sign) crossed out with a red slash, inside a red circle with a white background. It's easy to understand because a stop sign means stop (that's internationally-known), and to cross it out means you are not permitted to stop there. The sign is occasionally accompanied by the time periods of the week and day when stopping is not permitted*. It also has a correlate in the "no parking" sign, which is the same, but instead of an octagon, a big letter P is crossed out instead, but I think that one could be improved on (since to understand this, you need to know a bit of English). I always wondered what those big red x's on a blue background were when I visited Italy. Fortunately, I didn't get a ticket, but I legitimately could have. *For example, it might read 07:00 - 17:00 (yes, 24 hour time), and then Mon-Fri below the sign in black text. I'm not crazy about the Mon-Fri, because it requires a rudimentary understanding of English to comprehend, but the worst thing that could happen is a driver came on a weekend between 0700 and 1700 and didn't stop there, even though they could've. Misinterpretation of the sign due to language issues will not result in a fine, just minor inconvenience.

From Canada: I don't know about Europe but city street signs we have are variations on a theme No Stopping, No Parking, No Waiting. Any of them may be modified with time of day. not certain how thse nuances would be done pictographically.

In Indonesia, we use the diamond yellow warning sign with images replacing the words. The no stopping sign uses a red circle and a line slashing the letter S. The same is use for no parking slashing the letter P.

Having two standards isn’t a particularly standardised standard. USB-C : hold my beer.

In Canada we seem to have just done whatever the US was to avoid any confusion. Road signs, driving on the right side of the road unlike the rest of the British world, etc.

Video suggestion: tulip mania - about crazy Dutch tulip futures

brazil uses mostly european signs, but our no parking sign is based on the american one (it’s the same but with an E for estacionar instead of P for parking) and the no stopping is just like the no parking but with a double cross like the european sign. also our stop signs say PARE

What I noticed as someone living in the Philippines is that we have signs that are similar to the US. Like these signs from 0:32 to 0:43

We live in sign pollution. There's one section of road where I counted 28 "left turn only" signs in both the road and in the median. Regardless of how many signs, people notice at the very last second the lane ends and suddenly jump to the right in their BMW without looking or signaling.

I have lived in four different countries in three continents and I don't really have trouble with American road signs. In fact, having it written in letters prove to be better in understanding what I need to understand, of course, this is only true when you're an English speaker. Sometimes, symbolizing everything does not bring the optimum results. I also think US already having so much of their road network finished and so many vehicles/drivers were already there by the time the international society came up with a protocol, it is understandable it would be cost/time consuming to change what has been already there for a long time although sooner would have been better. With all said, US does not have to listen to others telling what to do? Yes, that could be the biggest reason why they have a lot of things left unchanged including red blinkers and even the imperial units.

Up here in Ontario, our signs are basically 95% MUTCD format, but we went for the Vienna Convention's more icon-based format, instead of text-based format, simply becuase we have two languages... sure, you might see an orange sign that says "CONSTRUCTION ZONE BEGINS / ZONE DU CONSTRUCTION DEBUT" but instead of "Pavement Narrows", you'll see the Vienna convention icon inside the yellow caution square. at least Canada, british columbia, ontario, and quebec try to make their signs look as close to the american ones as possible, for cross-border traffic.

I never seen that drawbridge sign before but I figured that's what that sign meant before I was told what that means I could see the water waves I could see the bridge raised and an angle I could see it not connected to the road. it's a win-lose-or-draw version of a drawbridge. if I had to convince someone to say the word drawbridge in 60 seconds without using any letters or numbers that would probably something similar to why I go for. you forgot to mention the other bugaboo about miles per hour versus kilometers per hour.

This video is so US centric and I love it