its really a pain in the popo! its a phenomenon that i notice all over switzerland, not only zurich. further it sucks when the road takes a turn and another one goes tsraight and none of them has a sign saying which road continues or starts and walking around drives me crazy! no wonder the peeps here are that slim!
geez, how i hate that so many streets dont have street signs with their name on!? i have been to Emmen recently and had no navi with me. again it happened that i had to walk for ages until i found a street sign that told me where i was.
You might like to look into one the latest gadgets now available globally. It's this piece of paper with words and pictures printed on it, and acts a bit like magic in that it shows you where you are on the picture. It's called a 'map'.
And I'm puzzled. If you don't have one of these, how do you know where to go to look for any given street anyway?
I agree with you. We should get the Germans to run this country and show them how things should be. Also missing house number signs! In Germany you must display the house number.
Britain is also bad for anouncing towns, I used to look everywhere to work out where I was in a big city. Only some post offices had the town name on the front.
You're German, aren't you? And you can't find any road signs? You don't reckon that... er... well...
For me, it is the poor exit signs.
Basel center--------- turn NOW. What? Too late, you missed it. Dawn, need to drive an other 15 kilometers to the next exit.
I really like the French signage. Never lost and a map or this even newer GPSs gadged is not really needed. Into the city, follow "Centre ville" Out of the city follow "Autre directions" until you get to the distination you need. Also the postion of the signs follow a clear rule and are easely spotted. Some Swiss sign post are at very obscure and confussing places (if they even exist) and have illogical and changing destinations.
pssst, don't mention the w..
oh soddit
"Why do you have a steering wheel sticking out of your underpants? It looks uncomfortable"
"I know. Its driving me nuts"
I'm not convinced about French signage, TBH. One thing that still causes confusion is their tendency to have left/right signs on the opposite corner when you're at a crossroads, and what appears to be Right actually means Straight Ahead, as this is on the left corner. I'm quite used to it by now so rarely get caught out, but in effect anything that's _really_ a right turn will show up on a different sign altogether, on the other side of the junction, which you may or may not be able to see at the same time.
And your centre-ville example is valid when you're approaching a town (although often adding significant time or distance to your journey) but once you're in a town, wanting to find the best route out, there are often no signs at all to where you want to go, so you may end up coming out on the wrong side of town altogether, only to then be posted all the way around a by-pass to get to the side you wanted to be at in the first place.
OMG, the things you Europeans complain about drives ME nuts! The directional signs on this continent are fabulous and, yet, you complain. They are SO logical and SO detailed that we always trust the signs over and above whatever that lady on the GPS is telling us.
I would like to plop all of you complainers down somewhere in, say, Wyoming. Literally, the signs on the freeway say "Next services, 65 miles". (100 km). That's it. That's all you get.
What does that mean? Well, it means that there is absolutely nothing for 65 miles ON THE FREEWAY. It doesn't tell you about any town along the route. It doesn't tell you what may be coming up ahead or on your left or on your right. It means that you just cross your legs, (so you don't wet yourself), check to see how much gas you have, and put the pedal to the metal. (They don't call it the Wild West for nothin', you know).
Now, that's just cruel!
TBH in most of Wyoming that's true. There really is nothing for 65 miles (more like hundreds of miles), not even a tiny town. Okay, some deer and hawks and that's about it. But pretty scenery and nice, big roads with virtually no traffic.
maybe you should pay a visit to Fielmann
Dougal's Breakfast is not completely wrong actually (rough translation):
Unfortunately, due to the legendary slowness of the Swiss most signs have not been re-erected since and has prevented most of Switzerland from being navigable to this day.
In fact in the canton of Bern they are still in the process of removing, collecting and storing the signs. Also there are several referendums hanging regarding re-erection of certain signs after residents complained regarding the shadowing impacts of the signs on their property.
I however do not understand why the English removed the road signs. Clearly if the German troops had asked for directions, the courteous English citizens would have provided detailed directions or even driven them to their destination with their private cars.
Kümmerly&Frey and Hallwag want to sell maps of the cities
Wot iz your neehm boy?
Don't tell him, Pike!
[QUOTE]You might like to look into one the latest gadgets now available globally. It's this piece of paper with words and pictures printed on it, and acts a bit like magic in that it shows you where you are on the picture. It's called a 'map'.
And I'm puzzled. If you don't have one of these, how do you know where to go to look for any given street anyway?[/ QUOTE]
I have gone to Google maps. Written down the address, word for word, arrived at the area, am pulling my hair out as I guessing where I supposed to turn. I suppose printing out a map is an option I hadn't thought of either. But why there a missing street signs I don't know either. "F-ing Switzerland" has come out of my mouth a million times for that very situation while I am holding up traffic, making people think when they see Swiss license plates think Swiss drivers are the worst in the world.
Then again I am from Detroit, where having working traffic signals are optional and acknowledging their presence, a safety issue(if you don't run reds sometimes it can be worse for your health then waiting for them to turn).
latest gadgets: check, google maps: check. approached Emmen, found the right crossing, turned into one street... lost. next crossings: no streetnames! i had to drive one street down and up again as there was no street name and at this point i could not check the iphone as the battery was down. circled around, found one to ask for direction, sorted. time lost: 14mins, nerves: nevermind.