Last month we heard that the Japanese authorities were considering changing the Japanese stop signs to a shape more internationally recognised prior to the Olympics.
Japanese stops signs look like this. Remarkably similar to Australian Give Way signs (see below).
Here's a Japanese Give Way sign, quite similar in shape, though the red is far less. But the similarity between it and the one below it is quite scary, in a flap it would be easy to miss the little black and white sign below the red triangle. WHAT? You never drive in a flap? Well you've probably never gotten lost in Japan with fractious children in the back seat...
Japanese stops signs look like this. Remarkably similar to Australian Give Way signs (see below).
Australian sign* |
Give way or yield |
Here's a Japanese Give Way sign, quite similar in shape, though the red is far less. But the similarity between it and the one below it is quite scary, in a flap it would be easy to miss the little black and white sign below the red triangle. WHAT? You never drive in a flap? Well you've probably never gotten lost in Japan with fractious children in the back seat...
Slow down |
Here's the backstory: "In 2016, it was announced that the Japanese National Police
Agency was considering changing the design of the "Stop" sign used on
Japanese roads since 1963 from the inverted red triangle sign to an octagonal
design more closely conforming to the recommendations of the 1968 Vienna
Convention on Road Signs and Signals. The inverted red triangle sign was
introduced in 1963 ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, and replaced the
earlier red octagonal sign used from 1960, which in turn had replaced the
yellow octagonal sign used from 1950" (Wikipedia).
Australian stop sign |
Australia's Stop signs are in line with the convention.
So my question is: "Will the influx of foreign visitors surrounding the Olympics be confused and thus cause many bad accidents?"
Then my question is:
"Is the estimated ¥25.5 billion cost of replacing all the stop signs in the country worth it?"
And even, "Aren't there better things to be spending money on?"
No comments:
Post a Comment