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Street signs #street-sign
709 clues · 113 countries.
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709 clues · 113 countries.
Showing 709 clues across 113 countries.
The backs of road signs are often painted black.
NOTE: This is also common in Italy and Romania.
The “S” on Albanian stop signs feature a distinct shape; the ends of the S are quite short and have the same angle as the middle, rather than being vertical. This is also sometimes seen on directional signs.
NOTE: Italian stops signs and directional signs have the same feature.
The numbers on speed signs are written in a bold font.
NOTE: The font is much thinner on speed signs in Montenegro.
The Albanian word for street is rruga.
The Catalan word for street is “carrer”.
Pedestrian signs have 8 stripes.
NOTE: Spain is the only other European country that has pedestrian signs with 8 stripes.
Argentinian kilometre markers are typically white with a black strip displaying the road number at the top.
NOTE: The markers on national highways are indicated with RN, while RP indicates a provincial highway. National highways will be labelled white on the map, while provincial highways will be labelled green.
T-Junctions in La Pampa sometimes have these yellow rectangular signs, with a chevron pattern on the bottom, and the Road Number(s) above, with an arrow on both sides.
Give-way signs in Australia have a white border and black text.
NOTE: New Zealand’s give-way signs use red, instead of black, text. Give-way signs are very rarely seen in South Africa.
Green signs with white arrows on either side can be seen at intersections which show nearby towns or cities. A number indicating the number of kilometres away the town can sometimes be seen.
Australian speed limit signs have black text in a red circle on a large white rectangle.
NOTE: New Zealand speed limit signs normally do not have the white rectangular background.
Yellow signposts are specific to Western Australia.
NOTE: Although South Australia does not use yellow signposts for regular road signs, SA bus stops will have yellow posts.
Some signposts in South Australia and Western Australia are flat rather than round.
NOTE: These signposts are usually yellow in Western Australia.
Signposts in the Northern Territory can feature these yellow stickers.
Road signs with a fluorescent border are almost exclusively found in Queensland.
New South Wales is the only state to use red ‘No Stopping’ signs.
NOTE: All other states use white versions.
The white ‘No Stopping’ and ‘No Parking’ signs that include text are unique to the Australian Capital Territory.
White directional signs can only be found in Tasmania.
South Australia is the only Australian state that uses a 25 speed limit in school zones.
Some ‘Keep Left’ signs in New South Wales, Queensland, and the Northern Territory use this thinner version, which does not include an arrow.
Melbourne poles commonly feature these white, rectangular stickers, with a smaller blue square inside it.
This street sign is unique to Brisbane City Council.
This street sign is unique to Gold Coast City Council.
This street sign is unique to the City of Sydney.
Direction signs have a white background, a blue outline, and a unique font.
Similar white signs with a blue outline and unique font can also be seen at the entrance of towns.
NOTE: Germany uses yellow town entrance signs with a black outline.
Green signs can commonly be seen, giving directions to different local facilities.
Pedestrian signs have a unique design: instead of zebra stripes, they have two horizontal dashed lines.
NOTE: All neighbouring countries have pedestrian signs with zebra stripes.
Road signs in Austria are sometimes mounted by four metal clips, which is unique within central Europe. However, plenty of Austrian signs are attached in other ways.
Austrian bus stop signs contain a yellow and green circle with the letter H.
NOTE: This design is relatively unique in Europe. The only other country with similar bus stop signs is Germany.
These one-way traffic signs, with the word ‘EINBAHN’ written on them, are unique to Austria.
NOTE: In Germany there will be “Einbahnstraße” written on the sign.
“No Stopping” and “No Waiting” signs in Austria will often have the words “Anfang” or “Ende” (meaning “beginning” and “end”) written on, or below, them.
These simple dead-end signs with a white upside down T are unique to Austria.
Green “Güterweg” signs are found in Burgenland.
White “Güterweg” signs with a black outline are mainly found in Upper Austria.
In Lower Austria, you may find signs with yellow and blue sign borders, corresponding to the flag of the region.
Vienna street signs are extremely recognizable dark blue plaques with a traditional-looking white serif font. The number at the start will indicate which district you are in (see the map).
You can click the image to enlarge it.
Most other major cities in Austria also have their own unique street signs.
NOTE: Many of the arbitrary blue ones can look similar, but the 4 listed in the graphic can be differentiated by:
Vienna - District Number
Salzburg - Unique Font
Klagenfurt - Irregular White Border
St Polten - Rounded White Border
You can click the image to enlarge it.
Street signs in the Azores are almost exclusively painted ceramic tiles, with blue letters and, typically, a decorative pattern around the edge.
Signposts on the Azores are often striped.
NOTE: These are also seen on Madeira.
Signposts in Bangladesh often have black-and-white stripes.
NOTE: Within Asia, these posts are also found in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Malaysia. Make sure to check other clues before guessing.
The Minsk centre street signs are sea-green, and can be seen almost everywhere.
NOTE: If you are close enough to the sign, you can make out the Cyrillic letters “вул (vul)”, the Belarusian name for “street”.
Directional signs in Belgium are most often blue or white.
Road signs often have an additional small blue sign. In other European countries, these small signs are usually just white.
Belgium uses pedestrian crossing signs without any stripes, but with two horizontal dotted lines. The man on the sign has a square head.
NOTE: France and the Netherlands use a pedestrian sign with a regular zebra crossing with five vertical stripes.
Signposts in Belgium are often orange. The backs of signs are also sometimes orange. This is unique to Belgium.
Street name signs in Belgium are very diverse, and often unique to a city. Most common colours are white and dark blue. They often have the town or city name written on them.
NOTE: These signs often have variable designs, but most of them are fairly short and tall. In comparison, Dutch street signs are almost always much longer than they are tall.
Town entry signs in Belgium are white with a black border. They also mention the name of the city or municipality in bold, black text.
Priority signs in Belgium have an orange diamond and are much smaller than in other countries.
Belgium uses these red water hydrants signs with the letter H on top.
NOTE: You can also find these in Germany.
Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is bilingual. You will see both French and Dutch on signs.
Bus stop signs in Flanders (and Brussels) have a white rectangle at the top. In Wallonia they will have a yellow top.
In Flanders (and Brussels), 95% of warning signs have a thick red outline, without a white border. Contrarily, you will most often find warning signs with a small white outline in Wallonia.
NOTE: The signs found in Flanders are the same as the Spanish ones.
As mentioned before, municipality names are often mentioned on street signs, usually in smaller font than the street name. The map shows a selection of recognizable street signs in the bigger cities.
NOTE: Of the big cities, Bruges (Brugge) is an exception to the rule of signs usually mentioning the municipality name.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Baarle-Hertog, located north-east of Antwerp, is composed of several exclaves and enclaves of Belgium and the Netherlands. You can often see the country's borders in this city (indicated by small white crosses). Street name signs tell you whether you are in Belgium or The Netherlands.
Dzongkha is an official language in Bhutan and has unique-looking letters.
NOTE: On street view, these letters can only be found in Bhutan.
These signs are frequently found in the cities of Bhutan and are often coloured red or blue.
NOTE: As seen here, they will typically have the town name you are in written on them.
Signposts in Bhutan frequently have black-and-white stripes.
NOTE: Within Asia, these posts are also found in Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Make sure to check other clues before guessing.
Bolivia typically uses bulky, white square signposts.
NOTE: Peru typically uses black and white striped “zebra” signposts.
Kilometre markers are black and white. The top part is black and features the abbreviation ‘Km’, while the bottom part is white and shows the distance. These markers do not have road numbers.
NOTE: They can look somewhat similar to Argentinian road markers, especially from a distance. The main difference is that the markers in Argentina feature a road number.
Signs in Botswana are usually in English. Most town names, however, are derived from any of the indigenous languages spoken in the country.
NOTE: The Afrikaans language, which is closely related to Dutch and common in South Africa, is very rare in Botswana. You will almost never find Afrikaans place names.
Botswana has a unique black-and-yellow striped signpost. More rarely, you can see red-and-white signposts.
NOTE: In Southern Africa, these signposts are only found in Botswana.
Just like the other Southern African countries, direction signs have a green background.
The numbers of major roads start with A. These road numbers frequently appear on direction signs.
NOTE: Road numbers in South Africa never start with A.
Some road signs have a blue background. This is an older style of sign that was used before signs with white backgrounds were introduced. They are relatively unique to Botswana.
Note that most road signs will have the newer white background.
Most Brazilian road signs have the backs painted black.
NOTE: This is also common in Paraguay.
Blue road markers with the road number and kilometre can be seen on the sides of roads.
Each Brazilian state has a two-letter acronym. These show up most prominently in the numbers of state roads (found on kilometre markers). They can also be found in other contexts however.
The state acronyms show up when you zoom out a little bit on Google maps, which is also possible in the minimap while in-game. However, for quick and or competitive games, it can be very useful to learn them by heart anyway, as this can help a lot with eliminating scanning time.
Postcodes (CEP) are seen frequently on street signs in Brazil (though sometimes hard to read). The first two numbers will depict an area, a state or multiple states. The numbers go anti-clockwise from São Paulo, ending in Rio Grande do Sul.
Utility poles in Paraná on intersections are sometimes painted with the street name. This can sometimes extend to Santa Catarina or Rio Grande do Sul if there are ladder poles in the city.
Lamps in Ceará often have a fancy and colourful arm, whether as lampposts or attached to utility poles. It sometimes says the town on the arm.
Phone numbers can sometimes be seen underneath kilometre markers in São Paulo.
Street signs in Campo Grande and Joinville are stickers wrapped around a pole at intersections. Campo Grande signs usually have extra information and a red and yellow stripe.
Bulgaria mainly uses the Cyrillic alphabet. However, a lot of signs will also have the Latin alphabet.
The letter “Ъ” is only found in Bulgarian and Russian, although it is fairly uncommon in Russian.
The Bulgarian word for street is улица (ulitsa), sometimes abbreviated ул. (ul.).
NOTE: In older street signs seeing only Cyrillic is more common.
Russia also uses улица/ulitsa.
Bulgarian directional signs are blue, arrow-shaped, and use both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet. Importantly, even if you are far away and cannot decipher the script, you can still see that the sign has two lines of text instead of one.
Town entry signs have a simple white design and also use both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet. Like with the directional signs, the two lines of text are obvious, even when seen from far away.
Bulgarian pedestrian signs have four stripes, and the person is wearing a hat.
NOTE: No other eastern or central European pedestrian signs have four stripes.
White street signs with two red strips; one covering the bottom and one covering part of the top, can be found in Sofia.
NOTE: You can also find other types of street signs in Sofia.
Brown street signs with bright yellow text can be found in Stara Zagora.
Cambodian road markers are made of stone, with a white-coloured base and a rounded red top. You will find the road number on the narrow side and a town name with a distance on the main side.
Throughout the country, you can find distinct blue signs from the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).
These signs occasionally feature the likenesses of major party politicians: usually three men side by side.
Bilingual signs with Chinese writing can commonly be found in Preah Sihanouk.
Canada uses unique diamond-shaped T-Intersection signs.
Some provinces use different designs. You can learn more about those in the region guessing section.
NOTE: Canada is the only country in the world where you can find these signs. The US, for example, uses rectangular T-Intersection signs.
Canada uses the word ‘maximum’ on speed signs. Because speed is measured in kilometres instead of miles, the numbers tend to be higher than the US which can be identifiable from afar.
NOTE: The US uses the words ‘speed limit’ on such signs. In addition, speed limits ending with 5 are more common in the US, and the ‘speed limit’ text takes up two lines versus one for ‘maximum’ in Canada.
Canadian road signs tend to be less wordy compared to their US counterparts. Good examples of this are railroad crossing and yield signs. In the US, these usually have the literal words ‘railroad crossing’ and ‘yield’ written on them, whereas in Canada, these signs are typically blank.
French is the majority language in Québec and parts of New Brunswick.
NOTE: At the federal level, French has official status alongside English, so you can sometimes find bilingual signs in other parts of Canada. In addition, French is also spoken in several communities in Nova Scotia, Ontario and Manitoba.
Each province has its own unique kilometre markers that vary slightly.
Notably, Ontario KM markers have a white square at the bottom, which is unique to the province.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Some provinces have unique speed signs.
Ontario speed limit signs may have a black section on the bottom with the words ‘km/h’ or ‘begins’ written in white.
British Columbian signs also include the ‘km/h’ but lack the black section.
Québec can sometimes have French on their speed limit signs.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
You will often find these yellow fire hydrant markers atop signposts in Québec.
In Québec City these markers will usually have a blue rectangle and markers in Trois-Rivières are distinctly small.
NOTE: Sometimes the markers will have different colours. Beware that Edmundston, in New Brunswick, uses these too.
You can find these rectangular markers on the sides of the roads in Québec. The colours can vary.
NOTE: These can be rarely found on urban divided highways in New Brunswick.
Québec T-Intersection signs do not feature the chequerboard pattern.
Newfoundland T-Intersection signs feature a rectangular yellow border around the diamond shape.
Road signs in British Columbia can have green backsides.
NOTE: Green backsides are also somewhat common on Prince Edward Island.
Signs in British Columbia are sometimes hung down from these unique signposts.
You can sometimes find a green and white striped sticker on signposts in Manitoba.
Signposts in Saskatchewan can feature these white triangles. The number can vary.
Stop signs with the word ‘Arrêt’ are unique to Québec.
Stop signs with both ‘Stop’ and ‘Arrêt’ are most commonly found in New Brunswick.
NOTE: Such stop signs can rarely be found in other provinces.
Like the stop signs, street signs in New Brunswick are also bilingual.
Though unlike the stop signs, bilingual street signs are found in other French minority areas of Canada.
Rural roads in Alberta are numbered sequentially. This makes it easy to figure out your exact location using just a road sign.
Township roads (Twp Rd) run east to west. Their numbers increase the more north you go.
Range roads (Rge Rd) run north to south. Their numbers increase the more west you go. These numbers reset a couple of times.
This infographic shows which numbers are found where. You need to multiply the numbers on the grid by 10 to get the road numbers. For example, the junction in the image example is found just north of Red Deer.
NOTE: Similarly named roads can also sometimes be seen in Saskatchewan, however they are more common in Alberta.
Rural roads in Manitoba are organised in a grid and referred to only by their number and cardinal direction.
Roads ending in N run east to west. Their numbers increase by one for every mile north of the US border.
Roads with E or W run north to south. They tell you their position relative to the principal meridian, located just west of Winnipeg.
For instance, this image was taken 105 miles north of the US border and 147 miles west of the principal meridian.
You can spot these wooden boxes holding up signs in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Iqaluit is the capital of Nunavut, meaning it is more urban, and built up compared to other Nunavut settlements. The city features bilingual turquoise street signs. Speed limit signs are also uniquely bilingual. And on the outskirts of the city, these unique road markers can be seen.
The remote town of Churchill in northern Manitoba features a trekker with a distinct thin antenna visible on the front right side of the car. The town also has unique street signs.
NOTE: This coverage is also seen in the surrounding area.
Slots can often be seen at the top of signposts.
Orange street signs can be seen at almost every intersection in the city of Lanco, and occasionally in the nearby town of Malalhue.
Villa O’Higgins can be recognized by the large mountains located immediately to the east. To the west, snow-capped mountains are seen in the distance. Street signs, fences and many other structures throughout the village are made of orange-stained wood.
Signposts in Colombia are made of white metal, and join to form a distinct cross on the back of signs.
NOTE: White metal signposts can also be found in Brazil, however these are usually wider.
Intersections in the coastal city of Barranquilla are commonly marked by small concrete poles (mojones) bearing street names. For example, this image was taken at the intersection of Carrera 42 and Calle 68.
Like in Mexico, Panama and Guatemala, Costa Rican stop signs display the word “ALTO”.
NOTE: Stop signs in Panama use a thicker font. Furthermore, in the rest of Spanish Latin America they say “PARE”.
Many road signs have a distinct cross on the back. This is most common on diamond-shaped warning signs, while others are mostly attached regularly.
NOTE: Signs in Colombia almost always have a cross at the back, but they use white signposts.
The provinces are sometimes written on signs, so they are useful to know. We will also refer to them in the clues below.
White pole plates with black lettering are specific to the Greater Metropolitan Area. They are usually attached to the pole using metal bands, although these may sometimes be missing.
These black pole stickers with yellow lettering, located near the bottom of the pole, are limited to western Guanacaste province and the Nicoya peninsula.
Taxis in Costa Rica are red, featuring yellow triangles on the sides and top containing the city/town name as well as a letter code denoting the province.
The entire municipality of San José consistently uses these green street signs with a white rectangle containing an emblem. Calle/Avenida streets are numerically ordered, increasing from downtown outwards.
By the entrance of Jardín Botanico Lankester, located southeast of Cartago, you can find a poorly maintained dirt road, surrounded by mountains in the distance, as well as a sign with the name of the garden.
Within the garden itself you will find a plethora of different plants, with the walkways having many soft curves, and almost never being straight.
Croatia has direction signs with a yellow background and a black outline. They often have a pencil-shaped tip.
NOTE: The other former Yugoslav countries of Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia have similar signs. A comparison can be seen here.
Croatia’s pedestrian sign features a pedestrian with a belt and a zebra path with 5 stripes.
NOTE: The pedestrian on Slovenia’s sign does not have a belt.
Bilingual street name signs with Croatian and Italian are typically found in Istria, especially in the western cities.
The coloured border or road signs can typically be seen continuing onto the back of the signs. These will generally be red or blue.
Blue street signs attached to the top of yellow signposts are common in Curaçao.
A former crown colony of the United Kingdom until 1960, Cyprus continues to use some borrowed infrastructure, like signs and roadlines. This is also why Cyprus drives on the left, and why English is so widely used.
Directional signs are very similar to Greek directional signs, with the one notable difference being that the Greek text is written in all-caps.
Town entry signs consist of either a yellow rectangle with a red border, or just the smaller white rectangle that contains the town name in both Greek and English. The signs will also contains a speed limit sign above them. These designs are unique to Cyprus.
Cyprus uses four-digit postal codes, grouped by region. They can be found on street signs, and are denoted by either T.K. or T.T.
The first digits can be useful to memorise.
With a Russian-speaking population of around 17%, many commercial signs in Limassol feature Russian translations.
It is common in both Czechia and Slovakia to see temporary square sign posts coated in red and white stripes.
These black signs can often be found by the end of bridges in Generation 4 coverage. The road number is displayed on the left.
The borders of Czech road signs are almost always separated from the edge by a strip in the same colour as the sign background.
NOTE: In Slovakia, it is more common for signs to have the border on the edge of the sign.
The most common type of street sign in Czechia are bright red signs, which can either be wide and stuck on walls, or thin and attached to signs posts. Note that other street signs do occur in some areas, most notably in Brno. Similarly designed blue signs are also fairly common.
Furthermore, the Czech word for street is “ulice”, unlike most Slavic languages which use “ulica”. This word is usually omitted, but finding “ulice” on street signs is still possible.
NOTE: Slovakia typically uses white street signs with a red border and blue text.
House numbers in Czechia are generally written on blue or red signs with thin white borders.
NOTE: On the contrary, Slovak house numbers are typically written on white signs with a thin red or black border.
Czech sign posts typically have thick, black caps.
NOTE: While some European countries have similar caps, Slovakia usually does not have them.
Czech pedestrian signs have five stripes.
NOTE: The stripes on Slovak pedestrian signs are a smaller scale. This is noticeable when comparing the outermost stripes to the edge of the triangle.
Czech road signs have a fairly thin font.
NOTE: Slovak signs normally have a much bolder font. The same font is however used in Luxembourg and Germany.
Czech kilometre markers have a yellow outline outside the black frame and do not have a black horizontal middle line.
NOTE: Slovak kilometre markers typically have a black horizontal middle line and do not have a yellow outline.
Bicycle signs in Czechia are yellow. You may also find markings similar to hiking markers, but with yellow stripes instead of white.
Czech railway crossing signs do not have a background.
NOTE: Slovak railway crossing signs have a white rectangular background.
While possible to find in most of the country, blue street signs are more common in the east of the country, with Ostrava being the only major city to mainly use them.
If you see a white street sign with blue text and a red border, the same as is typical for Slovakia, then you should be near the Slovak border.
White street signs with red text are most commonly found in the eastern parts of the country. They can also be found in the southernmost parts.
NOTE: Brno notably uses this design.
White street signs with blue text are most common in the eastern parts of the country, but can also be seen in the central northern parts.
White street signs with black text are most commonly found in the southeastern parts of the country. Note that these can look very similar to the ones with blue text.
Polish bilingual street signs are found in Český Těšín, and very rarely in other nearby towns.
The street signs in Šumperk can be recognized by being blue, with text filling out almost the entire sign.
Denmark has very unique-looking direction signs that are very useful to recognize the country. They are low to the ground and framed by pipes. They are either coloured red and white or blue and white, with a directional arrow incorporated into the background. Signs often feature road numbers.
Some larger road signs have a more standard layout without the pipe frame. Highway signs have blue or green backgrounds.
Most Danish street names end in “vej.” This is the Danish word for “street.” Street signs most commonly have a blue background with white text.
This signpost, where the pipe frame is bent around the sign, is unique to Denmark.
This Danish pedestrian sign has 5 stripes. Uniquely, the first and fifth stripe touch the edge of the white triangle.
NOTE: Sweden’s pedestrian sign has 4 stripes. Norway almost always has 4 stripes too, but very rarely you can find signs with 5 stripes.
This unique sign is found when entering a town. When leaving, there will be a red slash through the sign.
Bus stop signs in Denmark are black and yellow. A small sign is attached to the top of the pole, with the bus schedule underneath. Additionally, you may see this older blue and white version.
In addition, these regions each have their own bus stop sign.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
These green bicycle signs are found on the island of Bornholm.
Despite being located in Central America, stop signs in DR contain the South American “PARE”. Moreover, many signs are attached to yellow signposts.
NOTE: ‘PARE’ is also used in all of South America as well as Puerto Rico.
Street name signs in Santo Domingo often contain the letters “ADN”, a reference to the Distrito Nacional, which the city is located in.
Ecuador uses a lot of square road signs with a white background, of the design shown in the image.
Sometimes, the back of the signs are painted a teal blue colour. The signposts are thin and made of metal.
NOTE: Ecuador is the only country in Latin America to use teal blue sign backs.
Ecuador uses these signs to indicate one or two-way streets.
NOTE: The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are the only two other Latin American countries to use similar signs with text inside the arrow.
The official language in Egypt is Arabic. You can occasionally see it on signs in several of the trekkers. Its script can be identified by its lines and dots.
Each Baltic country has a slightly different border for its warning and speed signs.
Estonian signs have a thin red border, with no white outline around it (the red border extends all the way to the edge of the sign).
Estonian pedestrian signs have 3 stripes. The shape of the pedestrian has a relatively high level of detail, detailing shoes and an attached head.
NOTE: Lithuanian signs also have 3 stripes, but the pedestrian looks less detailed.
!!Latvian pedestrian signs have 5 stripes.
Estonian bus stop signs have this design.
The bus has four windows. This is mostly useful to distinguish it from the Latvian bus stop sign, which has five windows.
Note, however, that Lithuania has the same bus stop signs as Estonia.
These blue and white signpost wrappings are very common in Estonia.
NOTE: They are also common in Finland and Sweden.
Directional signs in Estonia are blue with white text and a white outline.
NOTE: In Finland, the arrow is built into the white border instead of being an icon inside the border. The arrow on Latvian signs is more stylized than in Estonia and Lithuania, where the back part of the arrowhead is vertical.
Estonia has a large Russian minority. In most of Ida-Viru County, they form a majority. As a result, you will sometimes see bilingual signs with Russian Cyrillic and Estonian in the region in and around Narva.
Note that the majority of signs will still be in Estonian. You may occasionally see Cyrillic in other places.
Roads starting with the letters “MR” are exclusive to Eswatini.
If you see Portuguese text in Eswatini, you are most likely in the small town of Lomahasha.
NOTE: This is because of its proximity to Mozambique, where Portuguese is spoken.
Directional signs are yellow with a thin black border and a metal frame, very similar to the ones in Iceland.
Most Finnish street names end in “tie” or “katu.” These are the Finnish words for road and street. Street signs most commonly have a white background with black text.
NOTE: You may find roads ending in “polku” and “kuja”.
Finnish road signs have a yellow background.
NOTE: Signs in Sweden and Iceland also have yellow backgrounds. Norway, however, has signs with a white background.
On traffic signs that have a red border, you will find a thin yellow stroke on the edge of the sign.
NOTE: You will not see this in any other Nordic country.
Finnish pedestrian signs have 5 stripes.
NOTE: Pedestrian signs in Sweden and Norway usually have 4 stripes. In rare cases, you can find 5 stripes in Norway.
Finnish directional signs consist of a solid blue background, white text, and a white border with guiding arrows.
Traffic signposts often have blue and white striped markings.
NOTE: This pattern can also be found in Sweden. While the same colour scheme is also common in Estonia, the markings typically have a wider shape and attach to the signpost in a looser way.
Finland has two styles of bus stop signs, a blue and white one, and a yellow and black one.
NOTE: This can be used to tell Finland apart from Sweden, which has many different bus stop signs (example), most of which have the names of the stops on them.
Finnish regional roads have 3- or 4-digit road numbers. The first digit of those road numbers is region-specific. These regions are distributed in a rough south-to-north order, starting from 1 in the south to 9 in the north.
These road numbers often appear on direction signs. Learning the regions can help with cutting down on scanning time for 5k’s, or give you a rough region to plonk in during quick no move games.
NOTE: Major roads with 2-digit road numbers do not adhere to this geographic pattern.
The Sámi languages are spoken in the far north of Finland. In this region, you can sometimes find bilingual signs with place names in both Finnish and Sámi. Unlike Finnish, its alphabet uses the letter c.
Some pedestrian signs on Åland have four stripes, with the exact same design found in Sweden. Beware that many pedestrian signs will still be the typical Finnish design.
This style of blue street sign with white text is unique to the cities of Seinäjoki and Isokyrö southeast of Vaasa.
Lahti uses these street signs with a black border and all capital letters.
NOTE: You can rarely find similar signs in other cities, but Lahti almost exclusively uses this design. Notably, Kuopio can use these signs, which use a thicker, more compact font.
The city of Kerava uses street signs with this blue-and-yellow coat of arms in the top-left corner.
The city of Järvenpää uses street signs with this blue-and-grey coat of arms in the top-left corner. The neighbourhood name is also written above the street name.
NOTE: If you see a street sign with a coat of arms not mentioned in this guide, you should be near Kerava or Lahti.
The French word for street is “rue”.
Small yellow signs displaying the road number, which typically starts with a “D”, are unique to France. They are commonly placed on top of directional signs or town entry signs.
French directional signs are usually white with a black outline slightly offset from the edge. They have an arrow-like shape, with the black border getting thicker at the point.
Highway directions have either a blue or green background.
Smaller places and points of interest are frequently written in an italic font.
Town entrance signs in France have a red border with a thin white outline.
French road signs have a red border with a thin white outline. You will often find white rectangular signs with black text below traffic signs.
NOTE: Road signs in Spain have a thick red border that goes all the way to the edge.
Many traffic signs in France have flat rectangular signposts.
Signposts, along with signbacks, can be dyed with unorthodox colours, more so than in other countries. Some of those are regional, which you can learn more about in the regionguessing section.
NOTE: The only other European countries with flat signposts are Portugal, Spain, and Andorra.
Traffic signs with particularly short signposts are very common in France.
Pedestrian crossing signs in France have five stripes and a disconnected head on the person. They have the usual white border of French traffic signs.
Less commonly, you can find a design with two dashed lines instead of stripes.
Kilometre markers in France most commonly have a yellow or red semicircle on top of a white rectangle. They can be found in the form of a waystone or as a flat sign and can be either parallel or perpendicular to the road. Major highways can have square markers with a red top.
Each department has an assigned number to it, arranged mostly alphabetically. This is most useful in postal codes, consisting of 5 digits, the first two representing the department they’re in.
NOTE: the same regional codes are used inside the right blue strip on licence plates.
Most departments have their own unique logo (formally called official flag), often containing stylized initials or the entire name. Notable infrastructure with department logos include bus stops, kilometre markers, trail banners, directional signs and signbacks. Learning what each logo looks like is not recommended for beginners, but it can be helpful to know what they stand for when scanning.
You can find the full list of logos here, or see them projected onto a map here.
A flag made up of red and yellow stripes, based on the Senyera, is the official flag and department logo of Pyrénées-Orientales. You will often find the pattern used in coats of arms on street signs.
NOTE: The flag of Provence looks similar, but with vertical stripes instead.
Dark green road signposts and backs are most commonly found in Brittany and around Paris, but also various southern regions in the country.
NOTE: Beware that this, and the following coloured infrastructure can rarely be found in other parts of the country.
Signbacks in Eure-et-Loir may include a green sticker, the department’s logo. They’re usually placed on a dark green back, without a matching post.
Still in Eure-et-Loir, this is also where D-roads with a superscript number are most common. On the map, these are expressed as decimals, e.g. D134.10 and D121.9.
NOTE: They are rarely found in other departments.
A greyish green signback supported by a darker green post, is found in three areas: Brittany (Côtes-d'Armor and eastern half of Ille-et-Vilaine), Pyrénées-Atlantiques and rarely near the Alps.
In the Pas-de-Calais department, you may find road signs with the following colour arrangement: a dark green post paired with a signback of a lighter shade of green, ranging from matcha green to greenish turquoise. The department’s logo, a green and blue triangle, is occasionally present on the signback.
NOTE: Under certain lighting, they can appear similar to the greyish road signs mentioned in the previous tip.
Road signs where both the post and back are painted brown are most commonly found in Seine-et-Marne, and rarely in Ille-et-Vilaine. It is more reliable when the post is square, however round signposts are equally common.
Directional signs in Haute-Garonne often use burgundy red attachments and ornaments. This is sometimes paired with yellow signposts.
Most town entry signs in Marne follow a unique format: Instead of having separate entry and exit signs, they are combined into a single, noticeably thicker block.
Street signs in the metropolitan area of Paris often say the name of the city, which is generally atypical for street signs in France. The signs will often be made in a modern design, and many city names will be river based, notably named after Seine and Marne.
NOTE: This can be seen sporadically throughout the country, so consider other clues.
Alsatian, a dialect of German, is occasionally found in Alsace, a region that changed countries 4 times in modern history. Most bilingual street signs use some variation of gasse or strasse.
NOTE: Streets containing German names are also concentrated in this region, though not as consistently.
Occitan is a Romance language closely related to Catalan that’s sparsely concentrated in the South of France, most often found on street signs in big cities, and very rarely on town entry signs. It can be divided into dialects, each using a slightly different word for street, all similar to Catalan “carrer”. For example, in Toulouse, you’ll find the Languedocian carrièra and in Avignon carriero, in the Provençal dialect.
Click here for a more extensive infographic.
NOTE: The street sign designs pictured are also unique to the two cities respectively.
Bilingual signs in Basque, a language isolate, are concentrated In the western half of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, bordering the Basque speaking regions in Spain. Common letters include K, X and Z. On directional signs, it’s written with a thinner font, which is unique within all minority languages in France.
The word for street is karrika, in contrast to “kalea” in the Spanish Basque country.
On the island of Corsica, you may find bilingual signs in Corsican, a Romance language that utilises many features found in Italian, like words almost always ending in vowels. In particular, the endings u/iu/ju, changed from o/io, are common in Corsican. Moreover, placenames will usually have an Italian origin.
The far southern department Pyrénées-Orientales, also known as Catalunya Nord (Northern Catalonia), uses Catalan on their various signage.
It is closely related to both Spanish and French, with Ç being considerably more common than in French. The word for street is carrer.
Many French cities contain the name of the river they lay on, usually in the format -sur-[river]. On signage, sur are often shortened to ˢ/, in this case Chalonnes-sur-Loire (Chalonnes upon Loire). The picture shows five of the longest and therefore most common origins of river based names, but cities can bear the name of any river, regardless of length.
Similarly, city names containing -sur-mer (=on sea) or -plage (=beach) are found exclusively on the coast.
Paris, Lyon and Marseille are the three largest cities in France and the only ones divided into municipal arrondissements (Arrᵗ or Arrt. for short). The arrondissements appear on google maps, so finding these street signs can help a lot with pinpointing.
The street signs of these three cities will be further described in the following tips.
Paris uses an iconic green & Prussian blue design with a top arch that has also been replicated in Bucharest, which is sometimes referred to as Paris of the east.
NOTE: The simple rectangular form of the sign can be found in the towns nearby and rarely in other cities.
Lyon’s street signs feature four corner bolts and an uninterrupted inner white border that cuts a notch for the arrondissement and each bolt.
NOTE: Outside Lyon proper, the street sign will display the name of the suburb instead.
Marseille’s street signs will usually feature the city’s emblem, a variation of the Greek cross. The white border will usually be interrupted at the top, even when the cross is absent.
Small tables with “Arrᵗ” written on a small separate sign, are found in Bordeaux, despite being a city not divided into arrondissements.
Montpellier street signs will typically contain a blue ‘M’ on a white background in the top left corner.
Street signs with a red slanted fleur-de-lis are unique to Lille.
In the outskirts of Bordeaux, you may find square traffic signposts with the Bordeaux shade of red, named after the wine grown in the region.
NOTE: Red posts by themselves are not unique to Bordeaux, so apply this meta with caution.
On the French Riviera (Côte d'Azur in French, literally translated as Blue Coast), you can find regular traffic signposts painted azure blue. Uniquely, Cagnes-sur-mer, west of Nice, will feature lighter, powder blue infrastructure.
NOTE: Blue infrastructure can be found to a lesser extent all across France, particularly Brittany, so consider the landscape as well.
Germany also has a wide variety of sign backs. Notably, you can commonly find black or dark grey sign backs, which are rather rare in Europe. Most signs will also feature this sticker, with an upside-down red triangle on a black rectangle.
NOTE: Italy, Romania and Albania also have black sign backs, however landscape should be sufficient to tell them apart.
German town entry signs are yellow with black text and have a metallic frame.
NOTE: These signs can include a lot of useful information too:
!!The town and or city name on the top.
!!The Municipality in the middle.
!!And the county on the bottom.
Germany uses these blue rectangular kilometre markers with a white border for A-Roads (Autobahn). B-Roads and local roads have white markers with a black border.
NOTE: On smaller roads, you will also see triangular markers. See Step 2 below to get acquainted with the regional differences.
German pedestrian signs have five stripes and the person has a belt.
NOTE: The same design is used in Luxembourg.
These one-way traffic signs, with the word ‘Einbahnstraße’ written on them, are unique to Germany.
NOTE: In Austria, there will be “EINBAHN” written on the sign.
“No Stopping” and “No Waiting” signs in Germany will often have white arrows drawn on them.
Postal codes are arranged in a counter-clockwise fashion, starting with 0 around Saxony and ending with 9 in northern Bavaria and parts of Thuringia.
Bicycle direction signs typically feature a white background with green lettering. In Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and a neighbouring part of Lower Saxony, you will instead find red lettering. The Saarland has its own distinctive design, with white text on a dark green background.
Bavaria uses these white rectangular road markers, which are divided by black lines into three sections. The left section provides the road you are currently on.
These markers with a metallic border around the marker itself are found in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony.
NOTE: The numbers after the comma are usually smaller on the markers in Lower Saxony.
These triangular posts are commonly found in these regions.
You can go more in-depth with them, too.
Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony use unpainted, rocky-looking posts, with white plates stuck on each side.
Saarland, Thuringia, and Baden-Württemberg use white posts, with the same white plates attached. The posts are usually quite tall, except in Baden-Württemberg, where shorter ones are used.
Baden-Württemberg also uses grey posts.
North Rhine-Westphalia uses white posts without white plates on the sides. You can also find posts which go all the way to the ground.
Hesse barely uses these posts at all. However, when they do, it is quite unpredictable.
Berlin uses white signs with a grey border, and a separate section for numbers under the street name. Also note how the letter ß looks.
Munich has blue street signs with a white decorative border that does not touch the corners. Also note the unique font.
Stuttgart uses black signs without a border.
Düsseldorf has black signs with a white border, similar to Munich. The signs have a metallic frame.
Dortmund uses blue signs with a white border and a grey frame. The signs also have a separate section for numbers under the street name.
Essen has blue signs with a very thick metallic frame.
Dresden has blue signs with a unique font.
Hanover uses white signs with a wider than usual gap between the sign and metallic frame.
Nuremberg has blue signs with a unique font. The signs also have a grey frame with a small gap between it and the sign.
Wuppertal uses white signs with a unique font and a white painted frame with a small gap between it and the sign.
Mainz has a mix of blue signs, and this unique red variant.
Frankfurt uses blue street signs with a metallic border around the sign, as well as the separate section for numbers under the street name.
NOTE: More rarely, some smaller towns can use similar signs to those in this graphic.
Sorbian, a Slavic language, is spoken near the Polish and Czech border. You can find it on a variety of signs in these regions.
Lampposts in Cologne will often feature these bright yellow numbers on a black piece of plastic.
NOTE: Similar looking things can be found elsewhere as well.
Black and white striped signposts in Ghana are typically seen in cities. On rural roads, you will mostly see classic, non-painted, metal signposts.
NOTE: Black and white signposts can be seen in other countries as well. Make sure to look at other clues before guessing.
The main language used in Gibraltar is English. This can be especially helpful if you see English on official signs in a Mediterranean setting.
NOTE: Note that English is also one of the main languages of Malta, which also has a Mediterranean landscape and vibe.
Greek warning signs have a red border and a yellow background.
Greek directional signs are typically blue and arrow shaped. One of the most recognisable features are the place names, which are written in Greek with a yellow font, and in English with a white font.
Greek town entry signs are white with thick horizontal blue stripes at the top and bottom.
Greek kilometre markers are blue, having “km” written on the left with both the latin and greek alphabet.
Pedestrian signs have two dotted horizontal lines, rather than vertical stripes.
Guam uses green street signs, unlike the Northern Mariana Islands, which use blue street signs.
Some Signposts near the town of Apra View are coloured yellow.
Like Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica, Guatemala uses the word “ALTO” on stop signs.
Most green utility poles contain a white pole plate, for which the top two characters will determine which road you are on. These roads and their corresponding characters are shown in this infographic.
These white rectangular stickers that have the word ‘electricista’ written on them are unique to Guatemala City.
Hawaii is the only state to use its own language, though English is still predominantly used. Most place names are in Hawaiian, so you can spot it on street signs, and other road markers.
Hawaiian is a vowel-oriented language that only uses eight consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W, and (ʻ), called an ʻOkina.
Every Hawaiian word ends in one of 5 vowels: A, E, I, O, or U.
Each vowel can also have a macron over it: Ā, Ē, Ī, Ō, and Ū.
These vowels are often combined to make Diphthongs. I.e. UI, AI, AE, etc...
Hawaii uses highway shields that resemble a guitar pick, with the numbers on the bottom of the shield. Most highway signs also use yellow signposts.
Hong Kong has two official languages: English and Chinese (legally, no variety is specified, but residents primarily speak Cantonese).
Bilingual signs are common, with English next to traditional Chinese characters.
Road signs are white and rectangular, with a thick black outline and bilingual text.
Give way signs feature a white upside down triangle with a thick red border and bilingual text.
Hungarian sign posts commonly appear to be abnormally tall, often taller than the Street View camera.
Hungarian signs are usually bolted to the sign post using four bolts, going through the sign, in the shape of a tall rectangle.
NOTE: This is not common in any other Eastern European countries.
Hungarian pedestrian crossing signs have five stripes. The person is wearing a belt. There is also a second, less common, type with four stripes and the person holding a bag.
The belt is located noticeably low on the person’s body, almost as if the person is sagging his pants. This is unique to Hungary.
NOTE: Among neighbouring countries, Croatia and Slovakia also have five stripes and a belt.
Apart from European highways, there are two types of numbered roads in Hungary; roads marked with green signs, and highways beginning with the letter ‘M’, marked with blue signs. These road numbers are contained within a small shield shape on the sign.
Most directional signs are green, having a white inner border and a green outer border. Directional signs on M-numbered highways are blue, having a white inner border and a blue outer border.
Many Hungarian town names use local prefixes, the most common of which are shown in this infographic. Note that some rare exceptions exist.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
If you see a street sign with a thick metal frame around it, you are very likely to be in the western parts of the country.
If you see a blue or green street sign shaped like an arrow, attached to a utility pole or street light, you are likely to be in the county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg.
NOTE: Blue arrow-shaped street signs can also be found in Dunakeszi, north of Budapest. However, those are attached to blue sign posts.
This infographic showcases ten of the largest towns and cities with unique street signs, and explains what makes them unique.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
The road direction signs of Iceland are yellow. They usually have a white inset box that shows the road numbers. If the inset box has a dashed border, the number listed refers to a nearby road, not the road you are currently on.
NOTE: Direction signs for very local destinations, such as farmsteads, typically have different background colours: blue or white.
Icelandic pedestrian signs feature four stripes and often have a slight yellow tint.
NOTE: Iceland is the only European country that uses pedestrian signs with a yellow background.
Iceland’s street signs use a white background and black text. They often have a thin metal rim and are attached to lampposts or traffic lights.
Just like Sweden and Finland, Icelandic signs feature a yellow background.
Iceland has a very sensible road numbering system that allows for quick 5k’s, provided you find the yellow direction signs that list the road numbers of the intersection you are on.
The main ring road, which circles the entire island, simply has the number 1. There are no other roads that start with 1.
The first digit of the other road numbers is region-specific. These regions have a sequential distribution around the island, starting from 2 in the south and increasing up until 9 in a clockwise direction (see map for approximate distribution).
English is also an official language in India and can be seen on a lot of signage.
India typically has black and white striped signposts.
NOTE: Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka also have black and white signposts.
The City of Chandigarh is a planned industrial city. As a result, the city features a lot of unique infrastructure, such as blue signs mentioning sectors and industrial areas, round yellow markings on street lights, and street signs which will typically feature several numbers rather than street names.
NOTE: The nearby cities of Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar and Panchkula are also planned industrial cities, which feature somewhat similar signs.
Usually yellow waystones that are angled towards the road, and have a cutout close to the top are unique to Indonesia. They include shorthand for three cities or towns, with the biggest one being on the top in the cutout section.
NOTE: Waystones in the Philippines are perpendicular to the road and have the text facing away from the road.
The names of 2nd level subdivisions, named ‘Kabupaten’ or ‘Kab’ for short, translating to regency, can be found all over Indonesia on various signs and billboards. Each province is split up into multiple Kabupatens, totalling to 417 which are covered by street view, and therefore applicable in Geoguessr. These are learnable with enough time and patience.
See the resources section for more information.
You can find the cardinal directions written on many addresses. They are as follows:
North = Utara
East = Timur
South = Selatan
West = Barat
Central = Tengah
While kabupaten names appear significantly more often, a number of signs also display the postal code. Postal codes are five digits long and grouped by their starting digit, ranging from 1xxxx in Jakarta to 9xxxx in Maluku and Papua.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Ireland is the only European country that uses yellow diamond-shaped warning signs.
Note that this only applies to warning signs. Regulatory signs (circles and upside down triangles) have the normal red border and white background, like most other European countries.
Irish signage is often bilingual, with English in a regular font, and Irish in italics. Place names, regular words and phrases are all translated.
Irish language is somewhat less common on non-official signage.
Irish yield signs feature the word “YIELD”.
NOTE: UK yield signs have the phrase “GIVE WAY”.
Pedestrian crossing signs are somewhat rare in Ireland. They are yellow and diamond-shaped, like other road signs.
Instead of pedestrian signs, you will often see these black and white signposts with a yellow bulb on top.
Note that the UK uses exactly the same signposts.
This generic lamp design with a blue base and a small blue sticker can be found on most of the island, except for around Douglas, and some parts northeast and south. In addition, the top 2 letters can be used to narrow your location down to 1 of the 21 parishes.
A small yellow sticker is present on lamps in southern Onchan. The 2 letters are the initials of the road name. E.g. ‘SD’ for Sunningdale Drive.
Many street signs in Ramsey feature the oval shaped coat of arms.
The coat of arms is placed above the text on many signs in Port Erin.
Rather than having a word meaning ‘stop’ written on them, stop signs have a hand painted on them.
You can often find this yellow warning sign on poles.
These white rectangular signs with a thin blue border are typically found in Jerusalem.
These yellow fences and signposts are unique to Kiryat Motzkin.
Blue house numbers with the number written with Arabic numerals in the top left and with Eastern Arabic numerals in the bottom right, with a thin diagonal line between them, can be found in Bethlehem. Street signs will generally have the same format.
Roundabout signs which are either very thick or attached to a large cube, can be found in the city of Raanana.
Italian is the most spoken language in Italy. It uses many double consonants, and typically has a very large number of i’s. You can also find ì, é and à. Most words will end with a vowel.
NOTE: The Italian word for street is ‘via’, and can be found on most street signs.
It is very common for the back of Italian road signs to be black, or dark grey.
Directional signs are blue with a white arrow. All letters on these signs will be capitalised.
Directional signs in national roads (Strada Statale) are blue with a white and blue border.
Divided highways (Autostrade) have green signs with a white and green border.
Italian kilometre markers are white squares with a roman numeral on top and an arabic numeral on the bottom. The arabic numeral gives you the number of kilometres and the roman numeral gives you the number of hundred metres from the start of the road.
Italian road numbers will normally begin with the letters “SS”, “SR” or “SP”.
The second letter can be used to identify the type of road.
"S" when it is a State road, so the number is unique within the country.
"R" when it is a Regional road, so the number is unique to the region.
"P" when it is a Provincial road, so the number is unique to the province.
Street signs are typically white with a thin blue border and black text.
Italian pedestrian signs have five stripes and a basic person without a belt.
These signs, featuring a “no parking”-sign with the text “passo carrabile” are commonly found in urban areas. At the top of these signs you will typically find the municipality (comune) name.
The region of South Tyrol has a German majority, and as such uses German bilingual signs.
French can be seen on signs in the Aosta Valley. Most notably, street signs often use both the Italian word “via” and the French word “rue”.
Close to the Slovenian border you can find Slovene bilingual signs.
Prefecture roads are identified by their hexagonal-shaped shields. The prefecture is often written under the road number in kanji. While the shield design remains, other variations can be found:
On prefectural highway shields (with kanji).
On directional intersection signs.
Or on small, directional arrow signs.
As multiple prefectures can have the same road number, it is recommended to first find the prefecture you are in.
Some frequently seen infrastructure in Japan consists of:
This unique stop sign.
A school pedestrian crossing.
And these traffic mirrors.
While many infrastructural clues exist, these three are very common, and may very well help you identify Japan on a difficult round.
Most Japanese prefectures have unique stickers you can find on their signposts.
These specific black signs with two yellow circles are found in Kagawa. Other variations can be seen, including them stacked on top of each other, or with an arrow attached above.
Cyrillic can be found on signs in the cities of Wakkanai and Nemuro, in northern Hokkaido.
In general, road infrastructure is similar to that found in the United Kingdom. This includes driving on the left, as well as directional signs, chevrons and warning signs. Some of the subtle differences are discussed below.
Jersey has an extensive network of cycling routes. Most notably, you will find signs referencing the start or end of a “Green Lane”. Blue route markers, containing a map of the island in the centre, are also common.
Some road signs are asymmetrically attached to their signposts. This appears to be more prevalent on Jersey than on the British mainland.
NOTE: Keep in mind that this only applies to a minority of signs. Most are attached regularly.
Most street name signs in Jersey are adorned with the coat of arms of the parish in which they are located.
You can click on the graphic to enlarge it.
The official language used in Jordan is Arabic and can be identified by its lines and dots.
NOTE: Unlike the UAE, Jordan does not have English writing on most commercial signs. This can be helpful to distinguish the two countries.
A lot of Kazakh infrastructure, from pedestrian signs, poles, houses, to bollards, is very similar to what you see in Russia.
Street Signs in Kazakhstan are often attached to buildings and are blue in colour, with white intricate patterns on the top and bottom. They are usually bilingual or trilingual and can also contain a QR code.
NOTE: They are often inconsistent, with many designs being found in a single city.
While rarely possible, being able to read the letters under a QR code on a street sign will give you the region.
These street signs attached to buildings are generally quite inconsistent, but there are some worth knowing.
Aktobe has compact signs where half of the space is taken by the QR code.
Petropavl uses white signs, with a blue semicircle below the street names.
Astana consistently uses this fairly generic design.
Zhetisay also uses a fairly generic design, but it is not found in Turkistan or Shymkent.
Directional signs are green with a white border and text. They often display road numbers in white or yellow.
While infrequent, road signs in Kenya will mostly be red and white.
Upon closer inspection of signs, billboards and posters, you will notice that the county name is often written. Therefore, knowledge of Kenyan counties can be extremely useful in region guessing.
You can practise Kenyan counties using the quiz in the resource section.
This section of road goes through mountains that have rocky cliffs. These mountains are a habitat for lots of spruce trees that grow on the cliff sides. A more diverse selection of trees grows next to the river that follows the road. You can see that some mountains still have snow on the peaks. Most signposts along the road are coloured blue.
NOTE: The southern section of the road features more rocky cliffs that cannot sustain any trees.
Stop signs feature the Lao script. Sometimes, the sign features the word ‘stop’ in Latin script below the Lao script.
NOTE: In Laos, stop signs only have 2 characters, compared to 3 in Thailand.
Within Laos, blue sign backs are only found in Luang Prabang.
Vang Vieng is also very touristic: you will see a lot of signs for hotels, guesthouses, and other tourism-related enterprises. In the (very few) rounds that the distinct mountains are blocked by buildings, this is a good way to recognize the town.
Each Baltic country has a slightly different border for its warning and speed signs.
Latvian signs have a thick red border, with a thin white outline around it.
Latvian pedestrian signs have five stripes, which is unique within the Baltics. Uniquely, the pedestrian has noticeably long legs compared to pedestrian signs in other European countries.
The other two Baltic countries have three stripes on their pedestrian signs.
The Latvian word for street is iela. This word is unique to Latvian.
Very rarely, you might see ‘gatve’ in Riga (abbreviated as gat.). This word is also the standard word for street in Lithuania (usually abbreviated as g.).
Bus stops in Liechtenstein use a green-and-white design, with a black metallic border around the sign. The phrase LIEMOBIL is written at the top.
NOTE: The metallic frame is not always black.
Like Switzerland, directional signs in Liechtenstein are generally white (smaller roads) or blue (bigger roads), and they have a pointed arrowhead, with a contrasting colour.
Liechtenstein pedestrian signs have seven stripes. The signs also have an oddly tall rectangle.
NOTE: Switzerland uses identical signs.
Road signs in Liechtenstein commonly have a round, grey metal border around them.
NOTE: Swiss and German signs can also have similar metallic borders.
Unlike the rest of Liechtenstein, Vaduz sometimes uses red bus stop signs.
NOTE: Regular bus stops are also present.
Unlike the rest of Liechtenstein, Balzers sometimes uses black bus stop signs.
NOTE: Regular bus stops are also present.
Blue street signs with a thin white border will place you either in the south of Liechtenstein or in the north around Bandern.
Blue street signs that don’t have an outline are found in Eschen.
Flat black signs are found in eastern Liechtenstein.
Black signs with a white border and embossed letters can be found in Schaan.
These brown street signs with a font reminiscent of traditional German typefaces, along with a white border, are found in Vaduz and the northern towns.
Brown street signs that have an arrow design are unique to Ruggell.
NOTE: The regular brown signs are also present in Ruggell.
Browns signs which have a more ‘generic’ font will place you in Planken.
Each Baltic country has a slightly different border for its warning and speed signs.
Lithuanian signs have a relatively thin red border, with a thin white outline around it.
Lithuanian bus stop signs have this design.
The bus has four windows. This is mostly useful to distinguish it from the Latvian bus stop sign, which has five windows.
Note however, that Estonia has the same bus stop signs as Lithuania.
The Lithuanian word for street is gatve, often abbreviated as g. on signs and Google Maps.
This word is almost entirely unique to Lithuanian. However, very rarely, you might see ‘gatve’ (abbreviated as gat.) in the Latvian capital of Riga.
In Generation 3 coverage, you will often see random small blurs. These blurs look similar to the ones that are used to blur out licence plates or faces, but instead they cover seemingly random parts of the image – often on direction signs.
NOTE: This is also common in the Russian oblast of Kaliningrad, just to the southwest of Lithuania.
!!These random blurs are not typically found in Estonia or Latvia.
Rarely, you can see bilingual signs with Polish language in a small area southeast of Lithuania.
Note that this is by no means very common, but it can help with getting very close guesses if you do see bilingual Polish-Lithuanian signs in an otherwise obvious Lithuanian setting.
Luxembourg is a highly multilingual country. It has three administrative languages: Luxembourgish, French, and German.
French is the language that is mostly used for public communication. Road signs and advertisements are usually in French.
Presence of German on signs is less common compared to French, but certainly not non-existent.
Directional signs are yellow with a thin black outline. Town names are written in uppercase. The signs have a pointed tip. They are completely surrounded by a frame, making them very recognizable.
Some directional signs feature road numbers:
Regional road numbers have 1 or 2 digits and a red box.
Local road numbers have 3 digits and a yellow box.
Town entrance signs are also yellow and surrounded by a frame.
Most of these signs have bilingual versions of the town name. They frequently have the road number on the top, along with a speed limit sign.
Almost all Luxembourgish road signs will be supported by a white signpost.
NOTE: While not nearly as common, white signposts are also found in France.
Street signs are almost always short and usually have a white background. The exact designs vary from town to town.
A very common design is the one pictured on the left in the example image, with slanted blue corners.
NOTE: Belgian street signs often appear short as well, but can have other background colours – not just white.
In addition, Dutch street signs almost always have a blue background and tend to be much longer than they are tall.
Some signposts have this bulky, round reflector with blue and white markings.
NOTE: Similar markings are found in Sweden and Finland. Landscape should be sufficient to tell these apart from Luxembourg, however.
Pedestrian signs have 5 vertical stripes.
NOTE: Belgian pedestrian signs have 2 horizontal stripes.
Bus stop signs are blue and always have this exact design. The bus has six windows.
NOTE: Bus stop signs in Belgium and the Netherlands have significantly different designs. For example, the Belgian bus stop sign always has a yellow signpost.
Due to Macau’s history as a Portuguese colony, Portuguese language can commonly be seen, especially on storefronts, along with Chinese.
These white street signs with a blue border around the Chinese and Portuguese text are unique to Macau.
Bus stops signs on Madeira follow a unique black, white and yellow colour scheme.
These speed limit signs are unique to Madeira and can be found on its highways.
Signposts on Madeira are often striped.
NOTE: These are also seen on the Azores.
You can sometimes find free roaming cows on high-altitude roads on the island, as well as warning signs for those cows. The cows will typically be brown with white spots, contrary to the Azores, where the cows will typically be black and white.
BERHENTI stop signs and BERI LALUAN yield signs are both unique to Malaysia.
This is a typical Malaysian directional sign. Hexagonal yellow highway shields are unique to Malaysia.
Malaysian kilometre markers have a unique white-and-blue colour scheme. Note that the hexagon shields are often visible.
Signposts in Malaysia almost always have black-and-white stripes.
NOTE: Within Asia, these posts are also found in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Make sure to check other clues before guessing.
Each Malaysian state, excluding the three federal territories, has its own road numbering system with a unique letter at the start of the road number.
NOTE: Sabah also has A roads, but only the A2 and A7.
Malaysian postal codes are useful to know, since they can be found on most street signs in the country.
Yellow street name signs with a black outline are specific to the state of Johor.
NOTE: This arrow-shaped street sign, regardless of its colour, is exclusive to Malaysia.
NOTE: Yellow signs are also found in southern Negeri Sembilan, however only the tip of the arrow will be black.
Green street signs that form an arrow shape and have a yellow hexagonal symbol with the letters JKR on the left side are found in Sabah.
The Maltese word for street is “triq”, which can be seen on almost every street sign.
These blue signs are unique to Valletta.
Mexican directional signs have a distinctly large, all-caps white font.
Mexican kilometre markers are white, with black font and outline.
Mexico uses the word “ALTO” on stop signs.
NOTE: All of South America uses the word “PARE”.
Arrows on signs are noticeably very thick.
Similarly, Mexican postal codes can be seen on this map. They will commonly appear at the bottom of street signs, and are ordered alphabetically based on state names.
A thick cross can be seen on the back of signs in Chihuahua.
Poles in Chihuahua city occasionally have a strip of white pole paint with the street name written in black or blue text.
Mongolian infrastructure has clear Russian influence. Wooden poles with supporting stone blocks, white lamp posts, and three-striped pedestrian crossing signs are common to see.
Unique to Mongolia is the “ЗОГС” stop sign.
NOTE: Each town has unique lamp post designs, so learning them can be quite useful.
Choibalsan is the only major city to have several concrete roads. In most parts of the city there is a visible smoke stack, which is in the southeast corner of the city. It appears to have just rained as the roads are slightly wet and the sky is overcast. Additionally, you may occasionally find unique pedestrian signs with a short figure over three stripes.
The desert town of Zamiin-Uud on the border with China has unique sailboat lamp posts featuring a golden flower pot around them. Often, white signs with Mongolian folded script can be seen attached to these lamp posts.
NOTE: The other desert towns of Choir and Sainshand look similar to Zamiin-Uud and have the same Street View car but use different lamp posts. Choir can be identified by its blue lamp posts and Sainshand by its white lamp posts.
Namibia uses green directional signs with the road number in yellow.
NOTE: Green directional signs with yellow road numbers are also used in South Africa and the other Southern African countries.
Namibia uses A, B, C, D, M, and sometimes F-roads.
South Africa uses N and R-roads.
Windhoek is by far the largest city in Namibia, as well as the richest, with many high rise buildings near downtown. Affluent and often gated single family houses are a common sight on the sides of hilly streets, which are often well marked with simple white street signs.
In the northwest of the city you’ll find the slums dotting the hills.
Gobabis is a big north-south gridded city in the desert, with red soil permeating the landscape and roads, which are very often unpaved. A faint green ridge is sometimes visible to the north to northwest. The street signs, while rare, are also green, with silver framing on the top and bottom. Blue bins are also a good clue for Gobabis.
The coastal cities of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay are flat and often have sandy streets, with palms and Norfolk pines planted around. Street and road signs often have square-shaped signposts.
Road angles can be used to line up parts of the city, but a northeast bound angle is common in both.
These white and blue plastic containers are common in Swakopmund, as are yellow lamp posts in downtown areas.
Oranjemund is a well-off gridded city with almost exactly east to west streets, with an abundance of planted vegetation all around the city. Multiple Norfolk pines can be seen almost everywhere. Streets are well organised with E-W avenues and N-S streets, which can be seen written on small blue markers next to the gates or on street signs, which have varying designs.
Nepal uses the Devanagari script, which can be recognised by the line going through the top of each word and the straight vertical lines found in the majority of all letters.
NOTE: The characters ङ and especially ङ्ग are much more common in Nepali than in Hindi/Marathi. It is also quite common to find native Devanagari numbers on signage in Nepal, which is very rare in India.
Nepal uses black-and-white striped signposts.
NOTE: Within South and Southeast Asia, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Malaysia also use black-and-white striped signposts.
Districts can show up on addresses, often in English as well.
Street signs are almost always blue with white lettering. Very rarely, you can find yellow, white or green street signs.
The Dutch word for street is straat. Other common road name endings are -weg, -laan, -pad, and -plein. However, if you see a blue sign with the word ‘fietspad’, do not search for it; it simply means ‘bicycle path’.
NOTE: Street signs in Belgium come in a variety of colours and usually mention the municipality, which is rare in the Netherlands.
Dutch direction signs are blue with white lettering. Signs for bicyclists are white with a red border.
Dutch town entry signs are blue. The signs sometimes have very elaborate designs, often with frames and additional signs.
NOTE: Often, these signs list the municipality they are in, after the word ‘gemeente’ (gem). Many municipalities are named after larger towns or cities in the vicinity, which can help a lot with scanning.
Dutch road markers are green. Many list the road number in a small yellow or red box.
Highways have a red box and start with the letter A. Regional roads have a yellow box and start with the letter N.
NOTE: Some of them have province-specific designs. You can learn more about this in the region-guessing section.
Edges of Dutch road signs will extend to the back, creating a border visible from behind, sometimes retaining the colour of the sign. This is both consistent and unique to the country.
Many Dutch signposts feature striped markings with a black-and-white or blue-and-white colour scheme.
Road signs on traffic islands often have these bulky yellow signposts.
In the province of Friesland, the Frisian language is commonly spoken. While Dutch language is still most prevalent on signs, a lot of town entry signs will feature bilingual town names.
Some street names in Friesland uniquely end in -wei or -strjitte.
NOTE: Frisian has vowels with circumflex diacritics (“little hats”): Â, Ê, Ô and Û. Dutch does not have these letters, except in loanwords. In addition, the Y is significantly more common compared to Dutch.
Amsterdam street signs feature the city district in a smaller font size below the actual street name.
NOTE: This design is very uncommon in the rest of the Netherlands.
The municipality of Oegstgeest, just northwest of Leiden, uses uniquely illegible street signs with yellow text on a red background.
Many streets in Lelystad follow a fairly distinct naming scheme: instead of having unique names, they are named after the neighbourhood they are in, followed by a number. Some of these neighbourhood names show up on the Google map.
Give-way signs in New Zealand have a white border and red text.
NOTE: Australia’s give-way signs use black text.
The majority of directional and warning signs in New Zealand are held up by white posts. Warning signs are diamond-shaped and painted yellow.
New Zealand often uses blue street signs with white text, particularly in rural areas. While street signs of other colours can be often seen, blue is by far the most common.
NOTE: Australia almost never has blue street signs.
New Zealand uses green directional signs. If the sign is on a state highway, the highway number will always be shown in a red crest.
NOTE: Brown signs indicate the direction to landmarks, which can be useful when pinpointing.
Bridge markers can be found on most paved roads in New Zealand. If the sign is on a state highway, the highway number will always be shown in a red crest on a white marker. The yellow marker indicates the name of the river or bridge.
NOTE: Some bridge markers indicate very small streams or culverdens which can be hard to find.
The cities of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch all have unique bus stop signs.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Poles near Timaru often have a tall rectangle of orange paint on them with the text “DANGER LIVE WIRES”.
There are many town and city specific street signs in northern New Zealand, which can be seen in this graphic.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
There are many town and city specific street signs in southern New Zealand, which can be seen in this graphic.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
City and state names are often found on storefronts or banners in Nigeria, so knowing them can be quite useful.
Direction signs in North Macedonia are typically yellow with biscriptal text: town names are written in both Latin and Cyrillic script.
NOTE: Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro have similar signs. Serbia is the only one that will have biscriptal text though.
Macedonian is a Slavic language which uses the Cyrillic script. Road signs have Latin on them too, although most other signs are fully in Cyrillic.
The letters ‘Ѓ’ and ‘Ќ’ are unique to Macedonian. ‘Љ’, ‘Њ’, and ‘Џ’ are only in Serbian and Macedonian.
North Macedonia normally uses yellow-filled in warning signs. Most of Europe uses white ones.
NOTE: In southeastern Europe, Greece also commonly uses yellow-filled in signs. Slovenia sometimes has yellow-filled signs.
The Northern Mariana Islands uses blue street signs, unlike Guam, which use green street signs.
Norwegian pedestrian signs typically have four stripes and a very simply drawn person. Note however, that there is a version with five stripes and a version where the person is more detailed and wearing a hat.
NOTE: While Finnish pedestrian signs have five stripes, Swedish pedestrian signs have four stripes. However, the person on Swedish signs is detailed, but without a hat.
Norwegian directional signs are yellow with a black border. You will commonly see the road number displayed, either in a green box for European highways and major roads, or in a white box, for smaller roads.
On smaller roads, it is common to see these blue signs with a large white M.
NOTE: Similar signs can be found in Sweden, however the font is distinctly different. The middle point of the M does not extend to the bottom of the letter. There are no similar signs in Finland.
Norwegian bus stops usually have this small, blue sign with a white bus.
NOTE: Sweden has a lot of different bus stops, none of which look like this.
White signs with the text “Sone”, generally featuring a speed limit, are common in urban areas.
Street signs will generally be centred on top of sign posts.
NOTE: Street signs in Sweden will normally be attached either to the side of sign posts or lamp posts.
You can also find these road construction signs, with a bright yellow background.
Most smaller road signs will be attached with four visible sign bolts in the shape of a tall rectangle. Beware that you may occasionally find framed signs instead, particularly in urban settings.
Small white square signs, displaying the road number on top, and the distance to the closest town, are common to see along medium sized roads.
The road number will be preceded either by an R or an F. F roads show up as Fv on the map and are generally difficult to locate, while R roads lack any letters on the map and are generally more findable.
Bilingual signs with Sámi can be found in several northern areas in Norway. While the Sámi languages are very different from Norwegian, the best way to recognize them are the letters Á, Đ and the use of several vowels in a row, something which is uncommon in Norwegian.
Note that not all signs in these areas will be bilingual.
Russian can sometimes be seen alongside Norwegian on signs near the Russian border. It is mostly found on roads E6 and E105 near Kirkenes.
The official language in Oman is Arabic.
NOTE: Due to high tourism, signs in Oman often have English writing alongside Arabic. The same also applies to the UAE.
Directional signs are blue with white text and are usually in Arabic and English.
NOTE: The UAE and Qatar use similar signs.
Many signposts in Oman have black-and-white stripes.
NOTE: Within the Middle East, striped signposts are only found in Oman and the UAE.
While many languages are spoken in Pakistan, Urdu is considered the National language and most commonly found on signage. It is written in the Urdu alphabet, which is closely related to the Arabic alphabet and may appear almost indistinguishable, however Urdu often uses softer and curvier fonts.
Notably, English is also an official language in Pakistan and is fairly common on signage.
Panama uses the Spanish word “ALTO” on stop signs.
NOTE: Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala also use “ALTO”, but the font is thinner.
Red octagonal signs with an oddly realistic eye are unique to Panama.
Many poles in the western provinces will have horizontal plates attached to them. However, if one of these is accompanied by an eastern vertical plate, the eastern plate takes precedence.
Peru is the only South American country to use black-and-white striped signposts. In some areas, black-and-yellow signposts can be seen.
NOTE: Uruguay sometimes uses black-and-white posts for its traffic lights, but not for road signs.
Peruvian metal signposts feature concrete blocks at the bottom.
NOTE: Within South America, Peru is the only country to do so.
Sign posts are often painted red, orange or yellow.
Although Filipino is the official language of the Philippines, English is extremely common to find on signs. It is the only major Southeast Asian country where you’re likely to come across English.
These black or white boxes are commonly seen on utility poles. Most of the time they feature a three letter abbreviation of the municipality you are in. The abbreviations will either have all three letters stand for the municipality, or the first two letters will abbreviate the municipality while the third letter indicates the province.
In the first image the "GMI" and "GMU" stands for the town of Gamu in the province of Isabela while the second image the "BGE" stands for the town of Bangued.
NOTE: Most towns do not have any standardised abbreviation so you might find many different abbreviations for the same place.
Province names are very common to find on signs and can thus be very useful. However, they do not appear on the map, meaning they’re necessary to memorise in order to use them.
It is worth mentioning that Davao de Oro changed its name from Compostela Valley in 2019.
However, prohibitory signs are round and have a white background with a thicker red border.
Poland has a unique pedestrian sign. Instead of the usual zebra stripes, it just has a single horizontal line.
NOTE: Austria and Belgium also have horizontal lines, but they use two lines instead of Poland’s single line.
Regular Polish direction signs have a green background. These signs use a distinct font, which is a good clue for Poland.
NOTE: Signs on expressways have a blue background.
Poland has two town entry signs: a green one with the locality’s name, and a white-and-black one with a stylized urban area.
NOTE: Like direction signs, town entry signs use a distinct font.
Regional roads have 3-digit road numbers. These numbers often appear in yellow boxes on direction signs. The first digit is usually region-specific, as there is a high level of geographic clustering of these road numbers.
There is some overlap between numbers near the margins of the regions. Some exceptions also exist.
NOTE: This tip only applies to 3-digit roads. Bigger roads with 2-digit road numbers mostly do not adhere to this geographic pattern.
While rare, bilingual signs can be found in the highlighted regions.
Wszëtczi lëdze rodzą sã wòlny ë równy w swòji czëstnoce ë swòjich prawach. Mają òni dostóne rozëm ë sëmienié ë nôlégô jima pòstãpòwac wobec drëdzich w dëchù bracënotë.
German is mostly found in the Opole Voivodeship.
Lithuanian can be found around Puńsk, near the Lithuanian border.
Belarusian is found near the Belarusian border.
Lemko, another Cyrillic language, can be found in the southeast.
Białystok uses turquoise street signs, with the district marked on the bottom.
Szczecin uses colourful green and blue signs. The city district is marked on the bottom.
Street signs in Poznań are mainly black, with the district being marked on the blue section at the bottom.
The Portuguese word for road is ‘Rua’.
NOTE: In Galician, the word for road is ‘Rúa’, with an accent on the ‘u’.
Hunting signs with a red and white colour scheme are a common sight in rural areas. They are either diamond shaped or rectangular.
NOTE: In contrast, Spanish hunting signs are white and black.
Directional signs are generally white, with black arrows that are not touching the borders of the sign.
NOTE: Spanish directional signs will typically feature the road number in colourful boxes and do not have a black arrow, other than a thin black border.
Most kilometre markers are wide rectangles with a coloured section on the left side divided diagonally from the white part. Every kilometre you will find a larger square sign with a coloured top half featuring the road number.
Stop signs in Portugal feature a fairly large font.
NOTE: This is mostly useful to distinguish it from Spain, where stop signs have a distinctly small and compact font.
Pedestrian signs have five stripes, and the person is wearing a belt, which is noticeably high.
NOTE: Spanish pedestrian signs have eight stripes, Italian signs don't have a belt and Greek signs have two dotted lines instead of stripes.
Portuguese road signs are typically encased by a white border.
NOTE: Most Spanish signs don’t have a white border.
Lime green street signs can be found in Porto.
Spanish, instead of English, can commonly be seen on signs around Puerto Rico.
Speed limit signs in Puerto Rico are identical in shape and size to speed limit signs seen in the mainland US. The major difference is that these signs will always be in Spanish, instead of English.
Stop signs in Puerto Rico say ‘PARE’ instead of stop.
NOTE: ‘PARE’ is also used in all of South America as well as the Dominican Republic.
Puerto Rican kilometre markers are tall, green and with “km” written at the top, followed by a number written vertically in large text.
Qatari crossing signs feature a man in a thobe.
Qatar is divided into municipalities, further divided into numbered zones, which can be seen on street signs. This infographic shows which number corresponds to each zone.
Brown street signs, often fixed to the ground, are seen in Education City.
It is very common to see waystones in Romania. They are typically fairly large, with red or blue framing with the road number on the side, or made of actual stone and somewhat rugged-looking. There is also a very small variant which is all white.
Romanian directional signs are blue, arrow shaped, and have a white border. They will very often display the road number, which can be either red or blue.
The most common type of town entry sign in Romania is a yellow sign displaying a speed limit and a city skyline, with a white sign displaying the town name below.
NOTE: The upper sign can also either be white or completely absent.
Romanian sign backs are often black.
NOTE: This is also common in Italy, Albania and Germany.
This yield sign, with an extremely thick red border, with a thin white outline, is unique to Romania. Beware that different yield signs also exist in Romania.
Bilingual signs with Hungarian are mostly found in the central regions of Covasna, Harghita and Mureş, but also less commonly near the Hungarian border.
Several Romanian cities and towns have unique street signs. This infographic covers all with a population above 100 000.
The Russian word for street is улица (ulitsa), sometimes abbreviated ул. (ul.).
NOTE: Bulgarian and most other Slavic languages also use улица / ulica. The Ukrainian word however is вулиця (vulytsya), abbreviated вул. (vul.).
The Russian word for city is город (gorod), abbreviated г. (g.).
NOTE: The Ukrainian word is місто (misto), abbreviated м. (m.).
Signposts in Russia often have black painted bottoms.
NOTE: This is also common in Kazakhstan.
Russian pedestrian signs have a simply drawn person and three stripes. Signs will commonly have a bright yellow border.
NOTE: Ukraine, Lithuania, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan use the same design.
This black traffic sign bottom is primarily found in Stavropol and Chechnya, as well as western Dagestan. Rarely, exceptions can be found in other southern federal subjects such as Kabardino Balkaria, but these will typically be uncolored.
Clips on edges of signposts are found in Leningrad and St. Petersburg, and very rarely in Pskov, Novgorod or elsewhere.
Some republics of Russia with minority languages use bilingual town entry and directional signs, such as in Bashkortostan and Tatarstan displaying Bashkir and Tatar respectively.
Town names written in both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are common near the Baltic border and around Moscow, and to a lesser extent in federal subjects on the Finnish border.
These brown signs, pointing to typical tourist attractions, are common in Moscow Oblast and the oblasts bordering it. However, they can also less commonly be seen in city centres or near tourist attractions of other regions.
These blue signs are only found in Moscow and usually feature English translations of important tourist points.
St. Petersburg street signs include a transliteration of the street name on a black background. They are primarily found downtown.
Saransk has an exclusive circular street sign design with the street name being written in up to 4 different languages.
Tatar bilingual signs use “урамы” (ур., abbreviated) for street instead of “улица” and are unsurprisingly found in Tatarstan.
Bashkir bilingual signs are found in Bashkortostan and use “урамы” for street, the same as Tatar, but are often not abbreviated.
Chuvash bilingual signs, found in Chuvashia, use “урамӗ” for street.
Mari bilingual signs, found in Mari El, use “урем” for street.
Komi bilingual signs, found in the Komi Republic, use “улича” for street.
On the main road of Murmansk in generation 4, as well as some roads in Karelia covered in 2018, the vast majority of signposts will have two yellow bands wrapped around them.
Pedestrian signs with a U-shaped hook attached to a pole are unique to Chelyabinsk.
This distinct decorative design of pedestrian sign holders is specific to Pskov Oblast.
The city of Nizhnevartovsk has these unique hanging pedestrian signs.
Street names often have a two-letter code, which tells you the district you are in.
Lampposts along many national roads will have the road number painted in black letters. Below that, you will find the lamp number, which generally, but not always, increases the further from Kigali you get.
Road signs and bollards are generally identical to the ones used in Italy.
NOTE: Many road signs give directions to the nearby Italian city of Rimini.
These elaborate pedestrian crossings, with painted blue crosswalks and hanging signs, are specific to San Marino.
On top of the language, the Portuguese influence can also be seen in infrastructure, such as ladder poles and pedestrian signs with the same design as in Portugal.
Being a former French colony, Senegal uses French infrastructure such as bollards, poles, signs and road lines.
Most town entry signs in Senegal are white and feature a thick pink outline. The town is also written in a bold, black font.
Bilingual signs with Serbian alongside Hungarian can be seen in northern Vojvodina, where there is a Hungarian majority.
All street name signs in Singapore follow this unique format. They are green, with rounded edges and a distinct white font.
Directional signs are also green, with white letters and English writing.
NOTE: Expressways each have a three-letter code (e.g. TPE), making them easy to spot on signs.
Road signs in Singapore are unique in that they are always set on a square white background.
NOTE: Road signs in almost all other countries will not have this square background.
Warnings are often written on the road in large letters, such as the famous “HUMP AHEAD”.
Many streets are named after the neighbourhood they are in, especially in the suburbs.
NOTE: These neighbourhood names appear very quickly on the map, so you can save yourself a lot of time scanning for 5k’s that way. For example, the sign in the image refers to Street 31 in the neighbourhood of Ang Mo Kio.
You can easily recognise the island of Sentosa thanks to the green signposts, winding roads and general resort feel. Occasionally you might see a green lane like this as well.
It is common in both Slovakia and Czechia to see temporary square sign posts coated in red and white stripes.
These black signs can often be found by the end of bridges in Generation 4 coverage. The road number is displayed on the left.
Slovakia uses blue directional signs, with small white arrows.
NOTE: Czechia has large filled in white arrows instead.
Slovak road signs commonly have the painted sign border right at the edge of the sign.
NOTE: The borders on Czech signs are almost always separated from the edge of the sign by a strip in the signs background colour.
White street signs with blue text and a thin red border are by far the most common in Slovakia.
NOTE: The same design can also be found in Czechia, near the Slovak border. However, Czech street names never feature the word “ulica”.
House numbers in Slovakia are typically written on white signs with a thin red or black border.
The top of Slovak sign posts are typically either open, have a grey metal cap or a thin black cap.
NOTE: Most Czech sign posts have a thick black cap.
Slovakia uses two major pedestrian signs, both having five stripes. The first has a simply drawn person with a belt, and the second has the stripes very close together.
NOTE: The same belted design is found in Germany. A similar design, with a distinctly lower belt, is found in Hungary. While very rare, pedestrian signs with similarly condensed stripes can also be found in Czechia.
Slovak kilometre markers typically have two sections divided with a black horizontal line. The top section contains the road number.
NOTE: Czech kilometre markers do not have a black horizontal line.
Slovak cycling signs use the letter C as their symbol, unique to the country. They’re visually analogous to the Czechoslovak hiking markers mentioned in step 1.1, including the yellow post on directional signs.
The Slovak railway crossing sign has a white rectangular background.
NOTE: Czech railway crossing signs do not have a background.
It is fairly common to see small signs with double sign posts in Slovakia.
NOTE: While large signs may have double sign posts, small signs rarely do in Czechia.
Several areas in southern Slovakia have a Hungarian majority, with bilingual street and information signs.
In the northeastern parts of the Prešov region, you may find bilingual town entry signs in Rusyn, a Cyrillic based language closely related to Ukrainian.
Skalica, in the northwestern corner of the country, has red street signs, similar to the ones commonly found in Czechia. However, the somewhat stylized font distinguishes it from the Czech signs.
Slovenian directional signs are yellow with a black border.
NOTE: Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro all have similar directional signs. Austrian directional signs are typically white with a blue outline.
Slovenian kilometre markers have a very distinct design. At the top left the road number is shown in a yellow rectangle, and a second number is to the right of it. A horizontal black line divides the top and bottom, and the distance is shown below.
NOTE: Austrian kilometre markers are blue with a white number.
Slovenian street signs are most commonly white with a metal border attached to signposts, or red and attached to house walls.
NOTE: Czech street signs are also typically red and attached to walls. However, Czech street names will not contain the word “ulica”, which most Slovenian street names have.
Italian bilingual signs can be found in the westernmost region.
Instead of the normal red house numbers, Ljubljana will typically feature green house numbers.
NOTE: Street signs in Ljubljana are also occasionally green.
Street signs in Celje feature the emblem of the city, a blue shield with three yellow stars.
South Africa uses green directional signs with the road number in yellow.
NOTE: Green directional signs with yellow road numbers are also used in Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana and Namibia. Here, the format of road numbers is useful:
!!N and R-roads are exclusive to South Africa.
!!A and B-roads are exclusive to Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia. In addition to this, Namibia uses C, D, M and F roads.
!!MR-roads are exclusive to Eswatini.
South Africa utilizes triangular warning signs with a red border and a white background.
NOTE: The four other southern African countries use similar warning signs.
!!Australia and New Zealand use yellow diamond-shaped warning signs.
A map of major highways in South Africa. On road signs, the letter ‘N’ should appear in front of the highway number. On Google Maps, however, the letter ‘N’ will not be present. Instead, a blue pentagon with the number will be displayed.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Square, red stickers on the back of regular signs are often found in Eastern cape and close to Eastern cape in Northern Cape and Free State. You may see them in the North West province as well, but to a lesser extent.
NOTE: Red stickers on the back of chevrons can be seen in almost every province.
Metropolitan Routes are major roads around cities. They are designated with the letter M.
These distinct and unique M route signs are commonly found in Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) and Durban, respectively.
Triangular warning signs have a yellow background.
Note that circular prohibition signs, such as speed signs, have a white background. Yield signs also have a white background.
Street signs will be blue, arrow-shaped and commonly hanging from a metal bar mounted to utility poles.
Direction signs in South Korea have white text on a green background.
South Korean pedestrian crossing signs can be easily recognised from the distinct pentagonal shape combined with the blue background.
House numbers in the Hampyeong region can be recognised from the large white section at the top of the sign.
Spain has distinct road markers with a variety of colourful borders. The code on top is the number of the road.
NOTE: Andorra has similar markers and the letter codes preceding the road number on these markers are often an important region-specific clue. You can learn more about these codes in the region guessing section.
In rural areas you will often find hunting signs. There are two versions, both of which are unique to Spain. One is a simple white sign with a text starting with “coto” and ending in “caza”. The other one has a diagonally divided black and white background.
NOTE: These signs have an identifying code that can sometimes be read. In this case “Ex” stands for Extremadura.
Spanish pedestrian crossing signs have 8 stripes. This is the highest number of stripes in Europe, and almost unique to Spain.
NOTE: The only other European country with 8 stripes is Andorra.
Spanish stop signs have a distinct small font.
NOTE: These are mostly useful to distinguish Portugal from Spain: Portuguese stop signs have a noticeably larger font.
Red borders on road signs extend all the way to the edge of the sign. There is no small white border separating the red part from the edge.
NOTE: France, Italy and Portugal have a small white border on the edge of such road signs.
Almost all traffic signs, kilometre markers, chevrons and some direction signs in Spain have a flat signpost.
NOTE: Flat signposts in Europe are also present in Portugal, France and Andorra.
Spanish direction signs have a white background. They often feature colourful boxes with road numbers, making them recognizable. These road number boxes can be many different colours.
Highway signs have a blue background.
You will often find no parking signs in front of garage doors and gates. They will usually read “Vado permanente”.
These signs will very often have the name of the municipality after “Ayuntamiento de”.
NOTE: Italy uses signs that read “Passo carrabile”.
Spanish regional road numbers feature region-specific codes. These are found on road markers, and sometimes on direction signs.
For example, the SG code on road markers refers to a road in Segovia province.
The infographic shows almost all the regional codes, except for some very rare codes. Click on the image to enlarge it.
NOTE:
National roads use the following codes: E, AP, A, R, N. These can be found anywhere in the country.
Be careful: A is also used for community roads in Andalusia and Aragon.
Some autonomous communities do not have community roads, only provincial roads. These have been indicated with grey on the map.
Asturias uniquely has a large variety of local road codes.
Ceuta only has N-roads. Melilla uses the code ML.
Catalan is a Romance language that is closely related to both Spanish and French.
It is spoken in Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and the Balearic Islands. In Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, it is (much) more common than Spanish on signage. The Valencian Community is more bilingual.
If you are unfamiliar with Romance languages, it can be hard to distinguish between Catalan and Spanish.
The Catalan word for “and” is i, compared to Spanish y.
The grave accent (à, è, ò), is exclusive to Catalan within Spain and very common to see in words, especially on à.
The c with cedilla (ç) is also exclusive to Catalan within Spain.
The Catalan word for street is “carrer”.
No parking signs in Catalan speaking areas will read “Gual permanent”. Most municipalities use “gual” in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, while it’s more common to find a mix of Spanish and Catalan signs in Valencia.
Basque is a language isolate that is spoken in the Basque Country and northern Navarre. In these regions, you will find a mix of Spanish and Basque signs (often bilingual).
Basque is not related to any other language, so it has a unique look. Z and K are common letters.
NOTE: Basque is also used in the border area of southwest France.
Streets in Basque-speaking areas are sometimes called “kalea”. However, Spanish “calle” is also still common.
Road signs in the Basque Country and Navarre often have these distinctive bilingual sub-signs with a thick black border.
Generally you will find Basque on top in the Basque Country, while it is more common to find Spanish on top in Navarre.
Streets are commonly called Rúa in Galicia, whereas in Portugal they are called Rua (without an accent). However, you can sometimes find signs without the accent in Galicia.
Many Galician town names start with A, O, As or Os articles (examples: “A Pena”, “O Burgo”, “As Cruces”). This is both very common and unique to this region, and rarely over the border in western Asturias.
Most kilometre markers in Spain are either rectangular or square in shape. This can be a good clue to exclude half the country if you can see one in the distance.
There are also some unique designs.
Andalusian markers are especially tall, featuring an extra stripe with the name of the governing body responsible for the road.
Madrid markers are square and feature the regional flag at the top.
Markers in Biscay are bigger than usual and feature a semi-circle shape at the top.
NOTE: National roads will always have a red rectangular marker.
Kilometre markers in Spain feature a coloured border. The standard colours, going from bigger to smaller roads, are orange, green, and yellow.
Some autonomous communities and provinces use different colours, or even unique designs altogether.
You can read more about the unique designs in this document.
Galician towns frequently use signs with a green or blue strip at the top featuring the name of the municipality.
NOTE: “Concello” is the Galician word for municipality, and exclusive to the region.
Many signs in Catalonia have round, corrugated signposts. This is especially common for direction signs. A similar design is also common in the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands.
Note that municipalities may use signposts like this anywhere in the country, and that regular traffic signs retain the standard flat Spanish design.
NOTE: French signs have a very similar design.
In Catalonia and sometimes the Balearic Islands you will find huntings signs in Catalan, usually reading “Àrea privada de Caça”.
Signs from the local government of Andalusia are very recognizable because of the green stripe on the left side.
It is also very common to see small versions of these signs around nature reserves with green signposts.
The city of Bilbao uses this unique street sign, with a very elaborately decorated frame. It is not found anywhere else in Spain.
Tall, white concrete waystones with an indented section near the bottom containing a yellow road number, are unique to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka commonly uses black and white striped signposts.
NOTE: Within South and Southeast Asia, such signposts are also found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Malaysia.
The presence of the Tamil script is strongly correlated with the distribution of Hinduism (though not all Tamils are Hindu and vice versa).
There are two groups that use the Tamil script:
Native Sri Lankan Tamils, who predominantly live in the north and the east.
Indian Tamils, who mostly live in and around the central Nuwara Eliya district.
Note that it is not uncommon to find bilingual Sinhala and Tamil signs far outside the area where Tamil is the predominant language. However, Tamil-only signage can be a strong indicator for one of the Tamil-majority areas.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Russian can sometimes be found on signs.
Swedish pedestrian signs have four stripes. There is notably a version featuring a female silhouette.
NOTE: Finnish and Danish pedestrian signs have five stripes. Norwegian pedestrian signs usually have four stripes, but can also have five.
Most directional signs are blue with a white font and border. A thin arrow shows the direction.
Yellow signs with a black font and red border are also common. Places showcased on yellow signs are typically very small and thus hard to find on a map.
NOTE: Norwegian directional signs are yellow or white, and the white arrow on Finnish signs is filled in.
Swedish road signs have a red border and a yellow background.
NOTE: Finnish road signs have a thin yellow border outside the red one.
On smaller roads, it is common to see these blue signs with a large white M.
NOTE: Similar signs can be found in Norway, however the font is distinctly different. The middle point of the M extends to the bottom of the letter. There are no similar signs in Finland.
Signposts will often have striped markings. Blue and white, and red and yellow are the two most common, but you can also find other colours such as blue and red or white and red.
NOTE: Blue and white markings can be found in several other countries, such as Finland and Estonia, however the other colour schemes are essentially unique to Sweden.
On top of having red and yellow road signs and signpost markings, Sweden often has a lot of road infrastructure, such as road work signs and road blocks, painted red and yellow. You can even come across red and yellow chevrons.
Swedish street names most commonly use the suffixes “vägen” and “gatan”. They are often shortened into “v” and “g” respectively on street signs. Street names can also use “väg” or “gata” as a separate word in a street name. Additionally, the suffix “gränd” can be found near city centres.
NOTE: Norway uses veien or vei, gate or gaten, and gata attached to the rest of the street name, rather than as a separate word. Denmark uses vej and gade.
Each administrative region in Sweden has at least one, and in many cases several, bus stop signs which are unique to that region.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
The backside of railway crossing signs have a yellow sticker with a 5-digit ID number. The first digit indicates the region, and it predominantly increases to the northeast.
NOTE: The first digit may also be a 6, which can be found randomly throughout most of the country.
Sámi bilingual signs can be found inland in the northern parts of Sweden.
Meänkieli is a language closely related to Finnish, which is found close to the Finnish border. One of the most common occurrences on signage is for river names, which will end in “väylä”. It is also possible to find trilingual signs with both Meänkieli and Sámi.
NOTE: As a general principle, if you encounter Finnish sounding place names, you are also likely to be fairly close to the Finnish border.
Many cities and towns have their own local bus stop signs, which are different from the signs in the rest of the region (as shown in the infographic in section 2).
NOTE: The Växjö sign can also occasionally be found in Älmhult.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Neon-yellow school bus stop signs are commonly found in the municipalities of Linköping, Norrköping and Jönköping.
Street signs in Stockholm will have two rows divided by a black line and will usually lack a black border. Similar signs can also rarely be found in central Gävle.
NOTE: Several suburbs in Stockholm use plain white street signs.
The entire city of Gothenburg uses these unique blue street signs. Note that they almost always have two lines.
NOTE: Some other cities will have blue street signs near the centre, however they use a different design.
These somewhat old-looking, white street signs, with black corners, can be found all throughout Malmö.
Signs similar to the ones in Malmö, but with a yellow background can be found in Ystad.
Blue street signs similar to the ones found in Gothenburg can be found in Vellinge municipality. Note that these normally only have one line, compared to the two lines on Gothenburg street signs.
Plain, yellow street signs can be found in Falköping. Note that yellow street signs may very rarely be seen in other towns, however they will always have a distinctly brighter colour.
Blue street signs with a thin, black outline can be found in Köping.
Three yellow stripes can be found on signposts and street lamps in Karlstad as well as on traffic lights in Stockholm.
These small yellow signs advertising tree felling are commonly found on utility poles and lamp posts in the suburbs of Stockholm. While the phone code for Stockholm is usually written on the signs, it is often difficult to make out from a distance.
Sundsvall is known as Drakstaden (the Dragon City) in Sweden, which can be seen referenced in the form of dragon statues in the central parts of the city, and on signs.
The colour of directional signs indicates which type of road you are on. Main road signs will be blue, while side roads are white.
Major place names will frequently appear on blue signs, while smaller places tend to be on white signs. However, you can still find large city names on a white sign.
Swiss pedestrian signs have seven stripes, making it almost unique for Europe. Furthermore, rather than the typical European square shape, the signs appear as tall blue rectangles.
NOTE: Liechtenstein uses identical signs.
Swiss road signs commonly have a round, grey metal border around them.
NOTE: Liechtenstein uses almost identical directional signs. Somewhat similar metal borders are found on some directional signs in Denmark.
Town entry signs in Switzerland are usually white or blue, with a metal frame around them.
NOTE: On the back of these signs you may often find the distance to larger, nearby cities. Furthermore, the abbreviation for the canton can often be seen on the bottom of the sign, especially when the town is situated near a canton border.
These bus stop signs, with thick metal signposts going around them, are unique to Switzerland.
The text on the speed limit signs varies depending on the official languages in the region.
Cantons are the first-level administrative division of Switzerland. It is very common to find the two-letter abbreviation for the canton that you are in, as seen on some town entry signs. As such, remembering these can be a great asset when region-guessing Switzerland.
NOTE: If you happen to come across an unblurred licence plate, the first two letters will correspond to the canton that it is registered in.
These large town entry signs can sometimes be found in the canton of Vaud.
Olive green infrastructure, particularly signposts, sign borders and sign backs, are found in Basel-Landschaft.
In Geneva and in the valley between Martigny and Lake Geneva, you can find bike path symbols painted on the road with a simplified person on top of two disconnected wheels.
NOTE: This stands in contrast to the rest of the country, where the symbol will be a somewhat detailed bike.
These blue street signs, with rounded edges on the sides, are unique to the city of Sankt Gallen.
Large blue street signs, attached to a low double signpost, similar to directional signs in Denmark, are found in Basel.
Taiwan uses Traditional Chinese. It is one of the most complex scripts visible on street view, with intricate characters that consist of many strokes.
NOTE: Hong Kong also uses traditional Chinese characters on signage.
!!Japanese uses some Chinese characters (kanji), meaning the script can look somewhat similar. However, Japanese will also have a considerable amount of more simplified looking characters (katakana and hiragana).
These signs indicate Township roads, with the character written before or above the road number indicating the county.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Many poles in Taiwan feature these blue plaques with strings of letters and numbers that act as precise coordinates.
For an example of how to read the plaques in-game, the only thing that is useful here is the string “E3264”. “BE08” can further narrow down the position but is not practical in-game.
“E” refers to the 50x80km rectangle from this map.
“3264” means that within the rectangle, we are 32% eastward and 64% northward.
This article explains how the string “BE08” can be further used to narrow down the exact coordinates of the telephone pole.
These bent sign and chevron holders with two black and yellow-striped stickers are only found in Pingtung, Kaohsiung, and Taitung.
Signposts in Thailand are square and bulky in shape, usually white, and often have the bottom painted black.
NOTE: In Southeast Asia, this design is unique to Thailand.
Directional signs on smaller roads are white, and are composed of two signs: one with an arrow at the bottom, and one with the information at the top. These can have place names. When they do not, you will see them as just the road number with a Garuda. Moreover, highway signs are green, and frequently feature the place names in Latin script below the Thai name.
Stop signs in Thailand feature the Thai script, instead of Latin.
NOTE: Stop signs in Laos feature the Lao script, similar to Thai, but they have just 2 characters instead of 3.
These distinctive green signs can be found all around Thailand, often in small villages.
NOTE: You will not find this sign in any other country.
Waystones and road signs on provincial roads will often provide a two-letter abbreviation of the province in Thai script. They will not appear on waystones or road signs for national roads.
You can use this site to view and practice all province abbreviations.
These black boxes will often provide a three-letter abbreviation of the province. Two formats are used:
Starting with the abbreviation followed by 4 numbers
Starting with TCC-L2, or rarely TCC-L1, followed by the abbreviation
Shown in the picture is the abbreviation “NTB” for Nonthaburi. The abbreviations may vary slightly in each province depending on the format.
NOTE: Other boxes may feature different formats that correspond to the subdistrict of the province.
The majority of Muslims in Thailand live in the very south of the country. In these areas, you will often see Islamic religious attire, Jawi script, based on the Arabic script, on signs and mosques.
Street signs with a smaller green section underneath a blue section are found in Bangkok and Nonthaburi.
Street signs shaped like a helm are exclusive to Pattaya City.
Red street signs with golden decorated borders can be found in Mueang Chiang Rai.
NOTE: It is possible to see blue street signs with the same border in the city.
In Tunisia, both French and Arabic are common. The Arabic script can be identified by its lines and dots. You can often see bilingual signs.
NOTE: The UAE and (more rarely) Jordan use English and Arabic.
Most direction signs have a white background with towns listed in Arabic and Latin script. The font of the Latin script is usually quite distinctive.
NOTE: Many direction signs include the capital Tunis, but this does not necessarily mean you are anywhere near that city.
These white concrete markers with a rounded red or yellow top can be found throughout Tunisia. The top can be red, yellow, or green.
NOTE: They are very useful for pinpointing your exact location. On either side, they show the distance in kilometres to the nearest town. The side facing the road shows the road number.
Tunisia has a fairly unique stop sign with Arabic and Latin script.
NOTE: Similar stop signs can be found in Jordan and the UAE. However, Israel and Palestine use a different unique stop sign with a hand instead of text.
Direction signs use a very distinct font that can often be recognised by the noticeably wide letter spaces.
Stop signs have the word “DUR” written on them. This is unique to Turkey.
The third type of roads are provincial roads. While these generally aren’t labelled on the map, they can still be used to regionguess since the kilometre markers feature the provincial code as the first two digits on the sign. These codes generally increase alphabetically from 01 to 76 with some newer regions being unordered. Shown in the image is a road from the Afyon Province (03).
Street signs in the Ankara Province are blue with a small round top. Similar street signs can very rarely be found in Giresun.
Beware that some newer street signs are red.
Street signs in the Izmir Province are dark blue, noticeably bulge outwards and very commonly have the emblem of Izmir in white at the top of the sign.
These light blue and grey touristic signs which are either arrow shaped or rectangular with a half circle on the top can be found on the island of Bozcaada.
Red street signs with a coloured bottom strip are found in several cities. In the bottom right corner, you can find a white arrow and some numbers. If this arrow is pointing in both directions and has a single arrowhead, rather than double, then you are almost certainly in Istanbul.
Beware that simple arrows pointing in only one direction can be found in both Istanbul and in other cities. However, if you see such signs in combination with red house numbers, then you should be in Istanbul.
Street signs in Trabzon and Yalvaç are red and oval-shaped. House numbers also feature the same design.
Street signs in Bursa are green, and generally have slightly extruded letters, meaning the signs are not completely flat.
NOTE: Several other types of infrastructure in Bursa, such as fences and guardrails, may also be coloured green.
Street signs in Bolu are also green, but are completely flat and lack any kind of border.
The city of Entebbe, southwest of Kampala, can often be recognized by feeling slightly emptier than most of the capital, with more greenery and somewhat fancier houses. The area also has significantly more street signs than the rest of the capital.
The Ukrainian word for street is вулиця (vulytsya), abbreviated вул. (vul.).
The Russian word is улица, abbreviated ул., without a в at the beginning.
The Ukrainian word for city is місто (misto), abbreviated м. (m.). It can be used both to differentiate it from other cyrillic languages and to quickly find the city name in addresses.
Ukrainian pedestrian signs have three stripes.
Russia, Estonia and Lithuania also use pedestrian signs with three stripes.
Ukraine uses white town entry signs.
The Russian language can be found in Ukraine, particularly in the east and south. While there are several differences between Russian and Ukrainian, these are some of the most noteworthy:
The letters Ы ы, Э э are only found in Russian.
The Russian word for street is улица, abbreviated ул.
The Russian word for city is город, abbreviated г.
The area near the border with Hungary is majority Hungarian. As a result, you will see a lot of signs with Hungarian language on it – bilingual or even monolingual.
The official language in the UAE is Arabic. Its script can be identified by its lines and dots.
NOTE: Due to high tourism, signs in the UAE often have English writing alongside Arabic. While this is also common in Qatar and Oman, it is not common in Jordan.
Many signposts in the UAE have black-and-white stripes.
NOTE: Within the Middle East, striped signposts are also found in Oman.
These blue street name signs, with a narrow metal border, are specific to Dubai.
Like most European countries, the UK uses triangular warning signs with a red border and a white background.
NOTE: This is mostly useful to distinguish between the UK and Ireland, as Ireland uses diamond-shaped yellow warning signs (being the only European country to do so).
Direction signs in the United Kingdom can be blue, green, or white. Look for the letters A or M, as these are the major roads in the country. Smaller roads start with B.
NOTE: Irish direction signs are typically bilingual, with Irish names in italics, making them easy to distinguish from the UK ones.
The UK commonly uses these white street signs with black text, that are positioned low to the ground. They are usually supported by two small posts. Many street signs in suburban areas will have a small cul-de-sac icon.
They can sometimes have different colours or feature small designs, like coats of arms.
UK yield signs feature the phrase “GIVE WAY”.
NOTE: Irish yields signs just have the word “YIELD”.
Pedestrian crossing signs are almost non-existent in the UK. Instead, pedestrian crossings will often have these distinctive black and white striped poles, with a yellow light bulb on top.
NOTE: These signposts are also common in Ireland.
Bins in urban areas often have the city name on them.
These diamond-shaped ‘Passing Place’ signs are most commonly found in Scotland.
Welsh is a Celtic language that is spoken throughout Wales. Road signs in Wales are usually bilingual English and Welsh. Towns often have Welsh names too.
Welsh uses the letters D, W, and Y much more commonly than English. The double LL is also very distinct.
NOTE: Scottish Gaelic and Irish are both also Celtic languages. They can look somewhat similar to Welsh.
In Wales, markings on the road are in both English and Welsh. One of the best examples of this is ‘Araf’, which means ‘Slow’. This marking is only found in Wales.
NOTE: Araf is not the only Welsh language marking you can find, it is just the most common. Whenever you see an obviously non-English marking next to an English one, consider guessing in Wales.
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language that is closely related to Irish. They have a very similar look and use accent marks commonly. Common and recognizable letter clusters include bh, dh, fh, mh, ai, ea, eo, and ui.
Scottish Gaelic on road signs is found most commonly in the Scottish Highlands, and is almost always found north of Glasgow.
NOTE: Scottish Gaelic on road signs will often be in green or yellow text. This will not happen with Welsh or Irish on road signs.
These black stickers with yellow text sometimes appear on lampposts in Northern Ireland.
London street signs have a distinct look. They usually feature the street name in black, followed by the postcode and borough in red.
Street name signs in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire typically feature a simple blue background with white lettering.
NOTE: Central Aberdeen uses a different, black-and-yellow design.
Signs with green text underneath the street name, indicating the townland, can be found in the western part of Northern Ireland.
Especially towards the north of the shaded area, there may be a metal divider between the two lines.
Most street signs in the Wakefield council are black with a white outline and letters. They use the Monotype Rockwell Nova font.
The majority of poles and signposts in Birmingham have either yellow tape or yellow paint wrapped around them. Lampposts will also usually have this yellow sticker.
Speed signs with green borders with the text “Twenty’s Plenty” are mostly found in and around Glasgow.
Road signs in the US tend to use more words compared to their Canadian counterparts. A good example are railway crossing signs, which feature the literal words ‘railway crossing’ on them. In Canada, these signs are typically blank.
This tendency is also noticeable on yellow diamond warning signs. In Canada, the words will usually be on a rectangular sign below the yellow diamond, which would have a diagram on it instead.
The US uses the phrase ‘Speed Limit’ on their speed signs.
The numbers on American speed signs are usually lower than that of Canada’s, since they use miles instead of kilometres. In addition, speed limits ending in 5 are more common in the US.
NOTE: Canada uses the word ‘Maximum’ on their speed signs.
Triangular yellow signs with the phrase ‘No Passing Zone’ are exclusive to the US.
American yield signs are shaped like an upside down triangle with a red border, with a white field with the word ‘YIELD’.
NOTE: Canadian yield signs look similar, but lack the ‘YIELD’ text.
American one-way signs are usually a horizontal black rectangle with a white arrow inside of it. These signs will also always have the words ‘ONE WAY’ printed on them. In cities, they are a white vertical rectangle with the words ‘ONE WAY’ on them and an arrow underneath.
NOTE: Canadian one-way signs are of the same shape and colour, but might not have the words ‘ONE WAY’ on them.
Parking indicator signs in the US are typically white metal signs with red, green, or black text. They may include specific information about when you can park on said road, and arrows indicating where parking is (or is not) allowed.
NOTE: Canadian parking signs use similar styles and colours, but typically are less ‘wordy,’ instead using more symbols when applicable.
Large highways in the US use large, rectangular, green metal signs with curved edges and white text to mark highway exits, distances to nearby towns, and the names of upcoming roads (mainly in cities).
NOTE: Canadian highway signs have a similar appearance, but will typically have squared edges, instead of curved edges.
Leading up to exits on large highways you commonly see large, blue rectangular signs with white text, highlighting services, such as food, lodging and petrol, that are available at the upcoming highway exit.
NOTE: Canada uses similar signs on some of their highways.
These rectangular junction signs with a single or double arrow are found in the US.
NOTE: Canada uses diamond-shaped junction signs.
In the US and Canada, especially at large intersections, long metal bars with stop lights attached to them hang over the street. These bars also commonly have street signs, highway signs, or other signs attached to them.
Thin metal sign posts are common. They will typically either have several small holes or have a U-profile.
Interstate Highways are divided highways that often span large areas of the United States. Even-numbered Interstates run west to east, with the lowest numbers along the Gulf Coast and Mexico border. Odd-numbered highways run south to north, with the lowest numbers along the West Coast.
US Highways are also typically long roads that are sometimes (but not always) divided. The numbering system is generally the inverse of Interstate Highways, with low odd-numbered highways located along the East Coast and low even-numbered highways located close to the Canadian border in the north of the country.
NOTE: There are generally more exceptions to the US Highway numbering system than the Interstate Highway numbering system, in terms of placement.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Each state has their own highway shield. Some states have their own unique, recognizable highway shields that can be seen here.
Most states have unique, distinct and learnable Adopt-a-Highway signs, which can be seen on the side of roads. A map of those can be seen here. Keep in mind, some states have slight variations in design.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Blue and yellow shields are used for county roads, and can be seen in certain states in the US. Keep in mind, unique designs can be found in some counties in certain states. For more information, see here.
Wisconsin and Missouri are the only two states that use a lettering system (A - ZZZ) for their county highways. Wisconsin signs typically have the word ‘county’ above the letter, while Missouri signs typically do not. The borders of the signs also vary slightly.
Speed signs in Oregon often simply have the word ‘Speed’ instead of the standard ‘Speed Limit’.
Streets in Utah and Idaho, particularly in urban areas, are often named by using a combination of a number and cardinal direction (i.e. ‘600 South.’)
NOTE: This style of street naming can be found rarely in other Western states.
Yellow or red bands can commonly be seen around signposts in Texas.
NOTE: Similar reflectors can sometimes be seen in other states, such as Hawaii.
These white reflectors on signposts are unique to Kansas. They are most commonly seen on ‘stop’ signs in rural areas.
On most rural ‘stop’ signposts in Minnesota, a black-and-white marker is attached to the posts horizontally. The shape may vary slightly.
These green ATV Route signs are unique to Wisconsin.
A rectangular white metal plate, with an orange rectangle and diamond, can be seen on most poles in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
A horizontal blue, red, or green sign can commonly be seen at the ends of driveways in Wisconsin and the Michigan peninsula. The house number is present, in addition to either the town name and or the road name (usually.)
NOTE: Nearby states often use similar markers, but typically lack any town or street name information and only feature numbers.
Signs attached to two signposts can be seen in Michigan. Not all signs are attached to two signposts.
NOTE: Double signposts can also be seen in other states, but are not as common.
Many large intersections in Michigan have stop lights and signs that hang from wires that stretch across the middle of the intersection. These markers are commonly in yellow boxes.
NOTE: These are not completely unique to Michigan, but are most commonly seen there.
Properties in rural and exurban Ohio, Lower Michigan, and Indiana commonly feature a vertically-oriented metal sign with white numbers, indicating the house number of the adjacent building. These signs are most commonly blue or green, and are commonly attached to mailboxes.
NOTE: These may be rarely found in other states.
West Virginia sometimes features street signs with a symbol that resembles a fraction inside a circle.
North Carolina commonly uses a style of street signs showing street numbers and arrows in addition to the street name.
NOTE: Other states occasionally feature street signs with similar designs, so use other clues before guessing.
In Oklahoma, you can often find a green rectangular sign with 3 rows of numbers attached to the back of stop signs at rural intersections.
Rectangular white signs can sometimes be seen attached to signposts at intersections in Pennsylvania. On top, the number of the converging state route is written.
Rectangular white signs can sometimes be seen at intersections in Virginia.
White signs attached to signposts can commonly be seen in North Carolina.
Black street signs with white text can commonly be found at intersections in South Carolina.
In New Hampshire there will often be a white metal sign with the characters ‘E-2’ on it adjacent to the road, typically at either end of bridges.
Vermont features small rectangular green signs on stop sign posts with three rows of horizontal numbers. The top row of numbers correlates to the highway or road number that the road with the stop sign intersects with. For example, this image is taken from Vermont State Road 116, looking towards the intersecting road.
The State of New York uses similar style signs. However, these signs can be attached to different types of sign posts (town entry signs, highway signs, etc.)
Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts use small green and red rectangular signs to mark the ends of bridges and guardrails.
NOTE: Not all bridges and guardrails in these states will have these markers.
Interstate 19 in Arizona from Tucson to the Mexico border uses kilometres on the exit and distance signs. This is the only part of the country that uses kilometres instead of miles for highway signs.
NOTE: Speed limit signs in this area still use MPH instead of KPH.
Uruguay uses thick wooden signposts, which are typically painted white. They often have up to four rectangular notches at the back of the post.
NOTE: Thick wooden signposts can also be seen in Bolivia.
Owing to its former status as a Danish colony, some streets and localities still have Danish names (e.g. gade) or display bilingual signs. This is most common in the historical downtown areas.
The posts of road signs are usually painted with a red and white stripe pattern.
Road signs have a yellow-orange background. Within southeast Asia, this is unique.
Waystones that are painted white with a colourful top, usually red or blue, are common throughout the country.
NOTE: Waystones like these are also common in Thailand and Cambodia. Often, they will include the road number in a large font on the side, and in a smaller font in the red area on the back and front. In addition, the front and back will list distances to towns. This information can be really helpful with pinpointing.
Directional signs are typically blue with either a very thin white border or no border at all. The signs usually contain white arrows, which rather than being orthogonal often point in slightly strange directions.
Addresses on signs are _extremely _common in Vietnam, in particular on storefronts. These addresses follow a hierarchical sequence that usually goes from specific (house/building) to general (city/province). These can be tremendously helpful to find your exact location.
Usually an address will contain all or some of the following elements, from left to right:
House and street number
Ward/commune:
District:
Province/City
These words are often abbreviated. For example, huyện can be abbreviated as just H., thành phố as just TP., etc. Additionally, sometimes the province itself may be abbreviated, for instance here Thái Bình is abbreviated as TB.
Some place name prefixes, meaning the start of a city name, are regional within Vietnam.
Near the beach resorts just east of Phan Thiết city, most signs will have Cyrillic text alongside Vietnamese, catering to Russian tourists.