Europe
The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals specifies that "road identification signs" consist of the route number framed in a rectangle, a shield, or the relevant state's route classification symbol (if one exists). The extent to which such signs are used varies between countries.
In the Republic of Ireland, such signs appear normally on national routes and upgraded regional roads. Officially known as route confirmation signs, there are two variants; the smaller (featuring just the road number) is common after minor junctions, and a full route confirmation sign will feature the route number and several destinations and the distances to them (with distances not directly reached by that particular route number in brackets). Euroroute numbers have begun to appear on these signs but are not yet commonplace. On motorways and high quality dual carriageways, they appear after every junction (except on the M50, on which they are not typically used). On other national, roads they appear when leaving built-up areas. Some regional roads feature route confirmation signs, but they are not common on these roads.
In the Netherlands, frequently-positioned hectometer posts include the route number, the distance in hectometers, and the current speed limit. In some European countries, highway location markers (distance posts similar to milestones) are placed at regular intervals along roadsides. As well as giving the distance to or from one end of the route, these posts include the route number.
Read more about this topic: Reassurance Marker
Famous quotes containing the word europe:
“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“In times like ours, where the growing complexity of life leaves us barely the time to read the newspapers, where the map of Europe has endured profound rearrangements and is perhaps on the brink of enduring yet others, where so many threatening and new problems appear everywhere, you will admit it may be demanded of a writer that he be more than a fine wit who makes us forget in idle and byzantine discussions on the merits of pure form ...”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The city is recruited from the country. In the year 1805, it is said, every legitimate monarch in Europe was imbecile. The city would have died out, rotted, and exploded, long ago, but that it was reinforced from the fields. It is only country which came to town day before yesterday, that is city and court today.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)