Comments on: German signs tell you what the speed limit isn’t

By: Manuel

Manuel — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:38:23 +0000

OK, late comment, but anyways.
Anyone driving in Germany (or practically anywhere in Europe) knows or should know the general speed limits. In Germany this is 50 in towns or bigger villages, 100 on general streets outside mentioned towns and villages, and light speed on designated Autobahns.
Because this is common knowledge, it doesn’t have to be declared every time, only restrictions have to be lifted and this is what this sign is for. If the speed limit would have to be declared every time there is none other than the normal limit, this would increase the number of useless signs and cost millions.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:34:34 +0000

THIS sign just lifts the speed limit, but doesn’t affect an “Überholverbot”.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:16:06 +0000

Plus, it’s not a German thing. I’ve seen them in the Netherlands, too.

By: Florian

Florian — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:51:19 +0000

Only a striped sign means, that ALL restrictions (such as no parking) are lifted.
And every German knows, that you are allowed to drive 100 km/h on Landstraßen.
It’s really pretty logical, and I would argue ’till I were blue in the face.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:32:14 +0000

Very true, even as a German who payed 2000 $ and spend half a year in driving school to get a drivers licence, I have to admit that infact it makes no sense at all to have sighs that say what the speed limit isn’t.
It keeps confusing me, cause sometimes, like after that crossed out “60″ sign, the speed limit is 100 km/h, but it doesn’t say anywhere, you just have to know that on that kind of street, the speed limit is always 100. Confusing hoch drei.

By: Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:37:53 +0000

What’s the problem with those signs?
The red colour is always reserved for something that is out of the ordinary and needs your attention. Red and roundshaped signs always mean ‘forbidden’, red triangular ones always mean ‘danger ahead’, with no exception.
Blue always means, that you have to follow certain rules that come with that sign.
And finally grey always means a sign is longer valid, regardless of the colour of the former sign.
To me, it all makes perfect sense, but it’s something you grow up with and learn in kindergarten, so you almost intuitively follow this particular set of rules.
But I have to admit, that sometimes these signs are put up unnnecessarily, because the square-shaped ‘Vorfahrtstraße’-Sign makes all previous signs invalid. That’s something even a lot of Germans don’t know.
To make it even more confusing for you, there are blue round-shaped speed signs, but they are pretty rare, though. These signs mean, you have to at least drive the speed indicated, and they are not overruled by grey signs, but signs of blue colour crossed out in red.
There might be a lot of signs, but there’s no inconsistency in shapes and colours of any sign in Germany. I think it’s thought out really well.
It’s like those Autobahn-signs, Americans seem to think it’s somehow wicked how Germans use them. But there’s a general rule nobody speaks about, too. All Autobahns with odd numbers run north-south, all with even numbers east-west. One digit ones run through the whole of Germany, two digit ones are local Autobahns. Three digit ones lead to two digit ones, the first two digits indicate, which one it is.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:15:15 +0000

I totally agree with the inverted signage. I’ve been in Germany for four years and have witnessed the difficulty multiple friends / relatives have when trying to get around in a rental.

“So…how fast can I drive here?”

“Well, you no longer have to drive 60.”

“Oh…” (blank stare)

If Europe is trying to make signs universally understandable to improve unity among the countries in the future, they might reexamine their speed sign’s tendency to dwell in the past (or not exist at all i.e in Holland).

By: Ralf

Ralf — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:18:13 +0000

Besides all the fun here, I think the ‘60 stroke through’ sign thing is a very good sample, of how one (or lets better say a hole nation) sort of becomes ‘Betriebsblind’ (professionally blinkered) for the reason of being used to each and every nonsense from childhood days on.

No question, placing a sign telling what the currenty speed limit is, instead of what the speed limit is no more, would ease the task.

But as you said, people who have to pay 2000 Euro or more for their driving licence, want to have some return of investment — a proof that the 2000 Euros have been worth it!

But probably there is another psychological aspect of this. We are the volk of Freie Fahrt für freie Bürger and so the End Of Speed Limit 60 sign is far more liked then a Speed Limit 100 one. It’s sort of a common self-deception.

By: Till

Till — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:16:09 +0000

While it is true that Germany generally has more road signs than the US, this sign makes perfect sense as Andreas and Florian explained so well.

A look at traffic statistics shows that Germany has less deadly accidents even if you figure in such things as traffic density, road conditions and distances traveled and speed limits.

Given that the German system is more complicated it is only normal that our driver’s ed be more involved, too. However, it seems to work pretty well. In my driving practice in Germany I do encounter less incidents of dangerous driving where the reason is most likely that people either don’t know the rules or neglect them. The incidents where someone is just driving like a jerk are about equal, though.

By: Eddi

Eddi — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:11:57 +0000

> If they would leave out the green lights, you would never know, if you really may cross the street or if just the red bulb is damaged.

Actually, we do have traffic lights like that here, whose states are “yellow”, “red”, “off” [where “off” means to behave according to the usual traffic signs]