Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 199

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i' .1 Says Our Auto Editor Dy Hal Foust THE MILLION Americans who visit Europe each year nave little difficulty reading the foreign traffic signs. The half million Europeans visiting here are not so fortunate. Americans, notoriously ignorant of languages other than their own, obligate the visitors to read English to be able to drive here. An alien driving in the United States and coming upon a yellow, diamond-shaped sign with a word in black reading "HILL" would get an idea of the situation ahead only if he knew the meaning of the word "hilL" At similar locations in most European countries, the signs would be a triangle bordered in red, the shape denoting danger. Inside the red border, a blackened sector would indicate by its tilt whether the approaching grade was up or down.

In a white sector of the sign would be an Arabic numeral and the universally used percentage symbol It might be "6," requiring no gear shifting or it might read "12," definitely calling for a downshift. This is an example of the international system of highway signs used in 30 countries, none of them English-speaking. The general scheme of the international signs is that all danger warnings should be red triangles; all definite instructions should be red circles, and all informational notices should be in blue rectangles. Different pictures in black silhouettes within the triangles provide a wide variety of warnings without written amplification. Instead of a sign reading "watch out for low flying aircraft" as in the United States the international sign simply shows a picture of an airplane in a red and white triangle.

A locomotive pictured in the triangle means unmistakably, whether you are in France, Germany, Italy, or Czechoslovakia, that there is a railroad grade crossing ahead. The silhouette of a deer or a cow on a sign warns to watch for the animals crossing. A man bent over a shovel is easier to understand than "slow for construction" or "men working," and a couple of little girls running means "watch out for children" in any language. The circle signs may have either (Continued on Page 31) 7 I' TRIIUNE Photo by Itobart MaclUy Foust plans a oute for one of his weekly driving trips, which have helped form his views about highway signs. 7 1 "My preference for Europe's pictures rather than America's script on traffic, signs is not based solely on study of international and United States sign manuals.

It comes mainly from my experience in driving 1,200,000 miles in this country as Tribune auto editor for three decades and on Iiaving jeeped thru Europe tvith troops during World War II, and toured the continent for three years tliereafter as a foreign correspondent. I also drove thru Europe on extended vacation trips in 1961 and 1962." Hal Foust October 21. 1962.