The Spanish road authorities have redesigned several road signs, both for logical reasons and for an ideaological one.

For instance, the old, level-crossing-without-barriers sign which depicted a steam engine billowing smoke, has been changed for a modern train from the front.

The sign warning of an area where fog or mist habitually occurs has been changed because the old one, inexplicably, looked like a car being bombarded with small stones. It now looks like a car driving through a Persian blind but depicting fog or mist is Mission Impossible on a road sign.

Next, there is one that is plainly a politically correct modification. The sign for children crossing the road no longer is an older boy leading his younger sister but an older sister leading her younger brother. Just how much money it is going to cost to replace them all, beggars the question, was it really necessary?

As for new signs, there’s the ‘watch out for electric-scooter users/lunatics’ and one for lane-converging junctions. For the latter as an example, there’s where the A-7 joins the A-44 above Motril.

Ageing Road Signs

Road Signs get old and become less effective (sound familiar?) Some are helped on their way by hunters, along lonely back roads who use them for target practice whilst others have degraded reflective quality.

There are an estimated 4,000,000 road signs on Spanish, national roads (carreteras estatales) which is a number that doesn’t include those erected by municipal authorities or provincial ones.

The Asociación Española de La Carretera, which inspects them all once every two years, considers that 100,000 need to be replaced on state roads and another 260,000 signs on regional roads, whose makers’ guarantees have expired (between six and ten years depending on the type of road sign).

This need to replace them is because at night they no longer have enough reflective capacity to be seen clearly.

The Chairman of the Asociación de Fabricantes de Señales Metálicas de Tráfico (Afasemetra). Sr. Arbona, considers that around 80% of road signs are in a regrettable state owing to a lack of clear visibility and which therefore need changing. He also says that at least 2.3 million road signs have expired, makers’ guarantees.

Before we go, a quick explanations about road-number designations. National or state roads begin with ‘N’ such as the N-340, for example. Regional roads in the case of Andalucia begin with ‘A,’ such as the A-4050 Otívar Road, commonly known as the La Cabra. And then you get provincial roads, which in the case of Granada, begin with ‘GR,’ such as the GR-6024 (Polopos) GR-5300 (Molvízar) or GR-3204 (Los Guájares) ones

(News: Spain)

Keywords: Road Signs, National (N) Roads, Regional (A) Roads, Provincial (GR) Roads, Rail Crossings, Children Crossing, Fog, Reflective Capacity

news, spain, road signs, national (n) roads, regional (a) roads, provincial (gr) roads, rail crossings, children crossing, fog, reflective capacity