Motorway signs

Direction signs

Australia - Mexico | Netherlands - Vietnam

Australia - New South Wales
Location: M 7 (Westlink - Western Sydney Orbital).
The second sign in NSW usually is another fork sign, this time showing the control city (or, rather exceptionally on this road, control cities) as well. The name of the intersecting road is written in smallcaps against a white background. Australians, after all, tend to refer to the names of roads instead of to their numbers.
Photo: Sam Laybutt / Ozroads

Australia - Queensland
Location: Pacific Motorway (Brisbane - Sydney)
The second sign in Queensland is only a fork sign in complex situation. Most of the time, you'll just get the directions and the words "left lane".

Australia - Victoria
Location: M 1 (Princess Fwy, coastal road from Melbourne - Sydney)
Quite the same as the first approach sign, but the distance has been replaced by the words "left lane". The name of the intersecting road has been placed on a white background, as is common in Australia (except in the Northern Territory, where the name of the road goes in white capitals on green). This sign is overhead, but that needs not be in Victoria.
Photo: Darren Hodges / Signspotters

Australia - Western Australia
Location: SR2 (Perth - Joondalup)
There is no other advance directional sign than the first approach sign, which consequently gives all the focal points for the exit. In metropolitan Perth, where all of WA's motorways are situated, this is only the name of the intersecting road. The sign is made in a shade of green known in Australia as freeway green, as it was only used on freeways. Nowadays, however, the standard type of green is used for all directional signage in WA - on freeways or not.
Photo: Paul Rands / Expressway

Austria
Location: A12 (Landeck - Rosenheim)
The name of the exit is on the top against a blue background; the directions are below it against a white background. Kolsass Weer is not the name of a town, but actually a poorly separated denotation of two exit destinations. The exit number is AWOL on this sign. It should have been placed on the top right corner of the sign. Austrian exits are numbered by the closest kilometer post, by the way.

Belgium - Flanders
Location: E19 (Antwerpen - Rotterdam).
Just the odd fork sign, showing road numbers for both the exit and the road ahead. Rotterdam and Breda are major directions of the road ahead. There's no name of the next exit. For both the road ahead and the exit, road numbers are shown (but no exit number). For motorways, this will always be a European road number. Belgian roads do have national numbers, but they're hardly signposted anymore.

Belgium - Wallonie
Location: E429 (Tournai - Brussels)
This sign usually gives all the destinations and road numbers of the exit. However, there is only one destination for this particular exit. The other one is coverplated for some reason.

Bulgaria
Location: A2 (Sofia - Varna).
The 500m sign is the sole advanced directional sign, and it shows all exit destinations. Blue is highlighted to show that the road ahead remains a motorway and that the intersecting road is a non-motorway. Also to be noted is that major cities ahead are commonly signposted in both Cyrillic and Latin writing, but a simple village next to an exit is not.
Photo: Mediar

Canada - Ontario
Location: Kings Highway 400 (Toronto - Parry Sound)
Same sign as the first approach sign. As a matter of fact, there aren't any further advance direction signs on rural freeways in Ontario.
Photo: Scott Steeves / Ont Highways

Chile
Location: Costanera, Santiago de Chile
The first approach sign already gives all exit destinations. There typically is a second one showing exactly the same information. Slightly odd from a European perspective is the use of the exit symbol together with the word "salida", which also means exit. As such, the symbol seems not to have anything to do with the exit numbering, but is an extra indication that the upcoming "thing" is an exit.
Photo: Wouter Jorritsma

China
Location: Beijing Airport Expressway
The first approach sign already features all exit destinations. Where the interdistance between exits permits so, there will be several of these signs. In rural areas, there are some three of them with the first being placed some 3000 meters before the exit.

Croatia
Location: A 7 (Ljubljana - Rijeka)
Stack sign, giving the same details as the first approach sign.
Photo: Rien / Belgian Roads

Czech Republic
Location: D 5 (Praha - Plzen)
Fork sign with all destinations and the intersecting road number. For the ongoing road, there is the control city, the Czech national road number and the European road number, if any. The exit number comes at the top.
Photo: Ceske Dalnice

Denmark
Location: E 45 (Flensburg - Arhus)
All the destinations of the exit. The "24" in yellow refers is a highway number. The hexogonal with a number in it, is the exit number. Exits in Denmark are numbered as a sequence.
Photo: ABRob

Ethiopia
Location: Addis Abeba - Adama Expressway
Exit destinations and distance to the exit. There is no exit numbering in Ethiopia. Green is the colour for motorways in Ethiopia; non-motorways are typically signed blue (albeit that signage is still rather scarce on non-motorways in Ethiopia).
Photo: Vatse

Finland
Location: E 75 (Helsinki - Lahti)
Same sign as the first approach sign, which already gives all directions. With Swedish being an official language in Finland, this sign is bilingual. Each destination is listed in Finnish first, then in Swedish. Green is the background colour for the motorway, blue for highways and white for innercity destinations. Tikkurila / Dickursby is an area in Helsinki.
Photo: Ronan / Schweizer Autobahnen

France
Location: A77 (Paris - Nevers)
Exit number, distance and all the destinations of the exit. White is the standard background colour for non-motorways, but here you see the use of the colour green too. That is served to signpost major towns (or in this case, a major road) via non-motorway routes.

Germany
Location: A61 (Ludwigshafen - Venlo).
All destinations for the exit and, where applicable, the number of the intersecting road. The town at the top of this fork sign is the name of the next exit, not a control city.

Greece
Location: A8 (Patras - Athens)
All directions for the exit and the road ahead. The white symbol on the upper right-hand side points to the ferry terminal of Patras.
Photo: E. Gavic / autosnelwegen.net

Hungary
Location: M7 (Budapest - Zagreb).
All destinations for the exit and, where applicable, the number of the intersecting road. The exit number is always on a stack sign at the top, while the distance is always at a separate sign at the bottom.
Photo: Falusi

Indonesia
Location: Jakarta Ring Road
The first approach sign gives all the focal points for the exit right away. Space permitting, the destinations will be posted twice, at the first approach sign (1 km before exit) and at 500 meters.
Photo: Gibranal NN

Iran
Location: Motorway 1 (Tehran - Rasht)
Exit destinations, the road number and the distance. Arab and Roman characters neatly separated. There is no exit numbering yet in Iran.
Photo: Vatse

Ireland
Location: M6 (Kilbeggan - Athlone)
The first approach sign gives all the directions straight away. The number in the top-left corner is the exit number, pretty much in the same style as the exit numbers on the other side of the Irish Sea. Exits in Ireland are numbered sequentially.
Photo: Wouter Jorritsma

Israel
Location: Hwy 1 (Tel Aviv - Jerusalem).
These signs are normally placed at 1000 and 500 meters from the exit. They show all exit destinations (which is just one in this case and the distance to the exit. The airport pictogram survives the language issues, as would any road number posted on the sign. But the road to Ben Gurion Airport doesn't have any. Photo: Marcel Monterie

Italy
Location: A1 (Napoli - Milano)
The exit name in black-on-white and, on a blue background, a number of destinations that can also be reached via this exit. In Italy, this list can be rather long. Not too much of a problem, because most of the destinations won't be signposted anymore on the exit (which is a good rason to ignore this type of signs). The reason why Emilia is written in regular letters is that this is the name of a road, not a place name.

Jamaica
Location: T 1 (Kingston - Ocho Rios)
The first approach sign gives all directions of the exit straight away. No further signs appear before the exit itself.
Photo: Dwarf

Japan
Location: Chuo Expressway (Tokyo - Nagoya)
All exit destinations, plus where relevant the intersecting national road number at the top (prefectural road numbers are not being signposted from the motorway). There won't ever be more than two exit destinations and these two focal points are always placed next to one another. A comparable sign is typically placed at 500 meters from the exit.

Korea
Location: NH 1 (Seoul - Busan)
The first approach sign already features all the exit destinations. The blue oval number shows that the intersecting road here is a national road. Some information considered minor is often printed in Korean characters only. An example here is the repetition of the name of the exit (Yangsan) next to the exit number.

Latvia
Location: A8 (Joni�kis - Riga)
The first approach sign is the only advanced directional sign in Latvia.
Photo: RipleyLV

Lithuania
Location: A1 (Klaipeda - Vilnius)
Only one sign before the exit in Lithuania, which is the 500 meter sign showing all exit destinations.
Photo: RipleyLV

Luxembourg
Location: A13 (Saarbr�cken - Bettembourg - Esch).
The first approach sign is actually the only AD sign in Luxembourg. This sign is of the more recent style, with older signs still using a standard fork instead of this smallash one. The older signs also show cities ahead, whereas this one doesn't. Yellow is the background colour for non-motorways in Luxembourg. The black arrow seems to be copied from France's first approach sign.

Macedonia
Location: E75 (Skopje - Athens)
Destinations for the road ahead and for the exit. The transcriptions in two character sets make the sign a very crowded one. Yellow is the background colour for ordinary roads, not being motorways or expressways. Exits are not (yet) numbered in Macedonia.
Photo: Bojan / Build.com.mk

Malaysia
Location: E1 (Kuala Lumpur - Ipoh).
The name of the exit and the exit number still on a white background, then the exit destinations on stack format. Much like the first approach sign really, but then in a different format.
Photo: Kekgi

Mexico
Location: MEX-180d (Canc�n - Merida)
Fork sign with the control city for the road ahead and the two exit destinations for this cloverleaf. It looks though to read the road numbers and actually is. Exit numbering is still AWOL in Mexico.

Motorway signs
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	Australia - New South Wales Location: M 7 (Westlink - Western Sydney Orbital). The second sign in NSW usually is another fork sign, this time showing the control city (or, rather exceptionally on this road, control cities) as well. The name of the intersecting road is written in smallcaps against a white background. Australians, after all, tend to refer to the names of roads instead of to their numbers. Photo: Sam Laybutt / Ozroads
Australia - Queensland Location: Pacific Motorway (Brisbane - Sydney) The second sign in Queensland is only a fork sign in complex situation. Most of the time, you'll just get the directions and the words "left lane".
	Australia - Victoria Location: M 1 (Princess Fwy, coastal road from Melbourne - Sydney) Quite the same as the first approach sign, but the distance has been replaced by the words "left lane". The name of the intersecting road has been placed on a white background, as is common in Australia (except in the Northern Territory, where the name of the road goes in white capitals on green). This sign is overhead, but that needs not be in Victoria. Photo: Darren Hodges / Signspotters
Australia - Western Australia Location: SR2 (Perth - Joondalup) There is no other advance directional sign than the first approach sign, which consequently gives all the focal points for the exit. In metropolitan Perth, where all of WA's motorways are situated, this is only the name of the intersecting road. The sign is made in a shade of green known in Australia as freeway green, as it was only used on freeways. Nowadays, however, the standard type of green is used for all directional signage in WA - on freeways or not. Photo: Paul Rands / Expressway
	Austria Location: A12 (Landeck - Rosenheim) The name of the exit is on the top against a blue background; the directions are below it against a white background. Kolsass Weer is not the name of a town, but actually a poorly separated denotation of two exit destinations. The exit number is AWOL on this sign. It should have been placed on the top right corner of the sign. Austrian exits are numbered by the closest kilometer post, by the way.
Belgium - Flanders Location: E19 (Antwerpen - Rotterdam). Just the odd fork sign, showing road numbers for both the exit and the road ahead. Rotterdam and Breda are major directions of the road ahead. There's no name of the next exit. For both the road ahead and the exit, road numbers are shown (but no exit number). For motorways, this will always be a European road number. Belgian roads do have national numbers, but they're hardly signposted anymore.
	Belgium - Wallonie Location: E429 (Tournai - Brussels) This sign usually gives all the destinations and road numbers of the exit. However, there is only one destination for this particular exit. The other one is coverplated for some reason.
Bulgaria Location: A2 (Sofia - Varna). The 500m sign is the sole advanced directional sign, and it shows all exit destinations. Blue is highlighted to show that the road ahead remains a motorway and that the intersecting road is a non-motorway. Also to be noted is that major cities ahead are commonly signposted in both Cyrillic and Latin writing, but a simple village next to an exit is not. Photo: Mediar
	Canada - Ontario Location: Kings Highway 400 (Toronto - Parry Sound) Same sign as the first approach sign. As a matter of fact, there aren't any further advance direction signs on rural freeways in Ontario. Photo: Scott Steeves / Ont Highways
Chile Location: Costanera, Santiago de Chile The first approach sign already gives all exit destinations. There typically is a second one showing exactly the same information. Slightly odd from a European perspective is the use of the exit symbol together with the word "salida", which also means exit. As such, the symbol seems not to have anything to do with the exit numbering, but is an extra indication that the upcoming "thing" is an exit. Photo: Wouter Jorritsma
	China Location: Beijing Airport Expressway The first approach sign already features all exit destinations. Where the interdistance between exits permits so, there will be several of these signs. In rural areas, there are some three of them with the first being placed some 3000 meters before the exit.
Croatia Location: A 7 (Ljubljana - Rijeka) Stack sign, giving the same details as the first approach sign. Photo: Rien / Belgian Roads
	Czech Republic Location: D 5 (Praha - Plzen) Fork sign with all destinations and the intersecting road number. For the ongoing road, there is the control city, the Czech national road number and the European road number, if any. The exit number comes at the top. Photo: Ceske Dalnice
Denmark Location: E 45 (Flensburg - Arhus) All the destinations of the exit. The "24" in yellow refers is a highway number. The hexogonal with a number in it, is the exit number. Exits in Denmark are numbered as a sequence. Photo: ABRob
	Ethiopia Location: Addis Abeba - Adama Expressway Exit destinations and distance to the exit. There is no exit numbering in Ethiopia. Green is the colour for motorways in Ethiopia; non-motorways are typically signed blue (albeit that signage is still rather scarce on non-motorways in Ethiopia). Photo: Vatse
Finland Location: E 75 (Helsinki - Lahti) Same sign as the first approach sign, which already gives all directions. With Swedish being an official language in Finland, this sign is bilingual. Each destination is listed in Finnish first, then in Swedish. Green is the background colour for the motorway, blue for highways and white for innercity destinations. Tikkurila / Dickursby is an area in Helsinki. Photo: Ronan / Schweizer Autobahnen
	France Location: A77 (Paris - Nevers) Exit number, distance and all the destinations of the exit. White is the standard background colour for non-motorways, but here you see the use of the colour green too. That is served to signpost major towns (or in this case, a major road) via non-motorway routes.
Germany Location: A61 (Ludwigshafen - Venlo). All destinations for the exit and, where applicable, the number of the intersecting road. The town at the top of this fork sign is the name of the next exit, not a control city.
	Greece Location: A8 (Patras - Athens) All directions for the exit and the road ahead. The white symbol on the upper right-hand side points to the ferry terminal of Patras. Photo: E. Gavic / autosnelwegen.net
Hungary Location: M7 (Budapest - Zagreb). All destinations for the exit and, where applicable, the number of the intersecting road. The exit number is always on a stack sign at the top, while the distance is always at a separate sign at the bottom. Photo: Falusi
	Indonesia Location: Jakarta Ring Road The first approach sign gives all the focal points for the exit right away. Space permitting, the destinations will be posted twice, at the first approach sign (1 km before exit) and at 500 meters. Photo: Gibranal NN
Iran Location: Motorway 1 (Tehran - Rasht) Exit destinations, the road number and the distance. Arab and Roman characters neatly separated. There is no exit numbering yet in Iran. Photo: Vatse
	Ireland Location: M6 (Kilbeggan - Athlone) The first approach sign gives all the directions straight away. The number in the top-left corner is the exit number, pretty much in the same style as the exit numbers on the other side of the Irish Sea. Exits in Ireland are numbered sequentially. Photo: Wouter Jorritsma
Israel Location: Hwy 1 (Tel Aviv - Jerusalem). These signs are normally placed at 1000 and 500 meters from the exit. They show all exit destinations (which is just one in this case and the distance to the exit. The airport pictogram survives the language issues, as would any road number posted on the sign. But the road to Ben Gurion Airport doesn't have any. Photo: Marcel Monterie
	Italy Location: A1 (Napoli - Milano) The exit name in black-on-white and, on a blue background, a number of destinations that can also be reached via this exit. In Italy, this list can be rather long. Not too much of a problem, because most of the destinations won't be signposted anymore on the exit (which is a good rason to ignore this type of signs). The reason why Emilia is written in regular letters is that this is the name of a road, not a place name.
Jamaica Location: T 1 (Kingston - Ocho Rios) The first approach sign gives all directions of the exit straight away. No further signs appear before the exit itself. Photo: Dwarf
	Japan Location: Chuo Expressway (Tokyo - Nagoya) All exit destinations, plus where relevant the intersecting national road number at the top (prefectural road numbers are not being signposted from the motorway). There won't ever be more than two exit destinations and these two focal points are always placed next to one another. A comparable sign is typically placed at 500 meters from the exit.
Korea Location: NH 1 (Seoul - Busan) The first approach sign already features all the exit destinations. The blue oval number shows that the intersecting road here is a national road. Some information considered minor is often printed in Korean characters only. An example here is the repetition of the name of the exit (Yangsan) next to the exit number.
	Latvia Location: A8 (Joni�kis - Riga) The first approach sign is the only advanced directional sign in Latvia. Photo: RipleyLV
Lithuania Location: A1 (Klaipeda - Vilnius) Only one sign before the exit in Lithuania, which is the 500 meter sign showing all exit destinations. Photo: RipleyLV
	Luxembourg Location: A13 (Saarbr�cken - Bettembourg - Esch). The first approach sign is actually the only AD sign in Luxembourg. This sign is of the more recent style, with older signs still using a standard fork instead of this smallash one. The older signs also show cities ahead, whereas this one doesn't. Yellow is the background colour for non-motorways in Luxembourg. The black arrow seems to be copied from France's first approach sign.
Macedonia Location: E75 (Skopje - Athens) Destinations for the road ahead and for the exit. The transcriptions in two character sets make the sign a very crowded one. Yellow is the background colour for ordinary roads, not being motorways or expressways. Exits are not (yet) numbered in Macedonia. Photo: Bojan / Build.com.mk
	Malaysia Location: E1 (Kuala Lumpur - Ipoh). The name of the exit and the exit number still on a white background, then the exit destinations on stack format. Much like the first approach sign really, but then in a different format. Photo: Kekgi
Mexico Location: MEX-180d (Canc�n - Merida) Fork sign with the control city for the road ahead and the two exit destinations for this cloverleaf. It looks though to read the road numbers and actually is. Exit numbering is still AWOL in Mexico.