The meaning is the same in all of Europe, and has been for a hundred years.
It’s also taught to everyone before they are allowed to drive.
It doesn’t need to be intuitive, and crossing it out would make it much harder to see what’s actually crossed out.
There are different meanings of “intuitive”. One is that anyone with experience of the world should understand it, even without education. By that definition, this is not intuitive. But nor would it be with a slash through it: the world does not teach us that slashes through things mean “don’t do it” except through education.
By the other meaning of intuitive, that it aligns with other things which hopefully you have been educated about, this is pretty intuitive. Red circle means “don’t” and there’s a picture of a motorbike.
Funnily enough, I’ve never needed to drive, which resulted in me never bothering to actually get a licence. So I’d have easily missed that memo at many points in my life. I don’t need a licence to walk or ride a bike on roads where it might be valuable to expect everyone on them to understand the signage in non-opposing ways.
Now I’m gonna preface this with: I can comfortably pass a driving theory test with no issue whatsoever, before anyone assumes I’m coming from a place of complete ignorance.
Slashes, crosses & bars through something are commonly understood by everyone to kinda mean the opposite of the thing that’s got a line through it. When a kid wants to erase a mistake in school, they’re taught to cross it out. Basically making that concept intuitive to everyone who made it through the first year of school.
Now, when other circles with crosses, slashes and bars exist in the same signage design language, it heavily implies an icon in an open circle is intuitively a signal something is permitted and not prohibited.
The only people you can guarantee that a red circle means “don’t” for, are people who have a driving license in a country that isn’t the US
That’s far from everyone out there. Which feels like a fairly clear failure for a sign that would typically be important
I have always assumed that there is no slash because it vastly impedes how easy the sign is to read, which is critical for road signs where you’re almost certain to be moving at speed and soon out of sight.
I know what this means
It is not remotely intuitive that it means that
The meaning is the same in all of Europe, and has been for a hundred years.
It’s also taught to everyone before they are allowed to drive.
It doesn’t need to be intuitive, and crossing it out would make it much harder to see what’s actually crossed out.
Okay. That actually helps me understand. Thanks
There are different meanings of “intuitive”. One is that anyone with experience of the world should understand it, even without education. By that definition, this is not intuitive. But nor would it be with a slash through it: the world does not teach us that slashes through things mean “don’t do it” except through education.
By the other meaning of intuitive, that it aligns with other things which hopefully you have been educated about, this is pretty intuitive. Red circle means “don’t” and there’s a picture of a motorbike.
Funnily enough, I’ve never needed to drive, which resulted in me never bothering to actually get a licence. So I’d have easily missed that memo at many points in my life. I don’t need a licence to walk or ride a bike on roads where it might be valuable to expect everyone on them to understand the signage in non-opposing ways.
Now I’m gonna preface this with: I can comfortably pass a driving theory test with no issue whatsoever, before anyone assumes I’m coming from a place of complete ignorance.
Slashes, crosses & bars through something are commonly understood by everyone to kinda mean the opposite of the thing that’s got a line through it. When a kid wants to erase a mistake in school, they’re taught to cross it out. Basically making that concept intuitive to everyone who made it through the first year of school.
Now, when other circles with crosses, slashes and bars exist in the same signage design language, it heavily implies an icon in an open circle is intuitively a signal something is permitted and not prohibited.
The only people you can guarantee that a red circle means “don’t” for, are people who have a driving license in a country that isn’t the US
That’s far from everyone out there. Which feels like a fairly clear failure for a sign that would typically be important
I have always assumed that there is no slash because it vastly impedes how easy the sign is to read, which is critical for road signs where you’re almost certain to be moving at speed and soon out of sight.
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