Do British road signs display symbols or abbreviations?

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, an abbreviation is defined as a “shortened form of a word in which part of the word is written” [rather than the whole word] while a symbol is defined as a “Mark or character taken as the conventional sign of some object or idea or process”.  As a result, abbreviations are language-sensitive whereas symbols can be consistent across linguistic boundaries.

Do British road signs have symbols on them or abbreviations?  The EU directive on metrication lists the symbols that should be used to represent the various units of measure including “yd” for “yards” and “mile” for “miles” but many British publications such as the “The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002” (now superseded by the 2016 version) use the terms “symbol” and “abbreviation” interchangeably. What then is the difference?

While the 2016 version refers to pictograms as symbols, it appears to be silent as to whether “t” (for “tonnes”) is a symbol or an abbreviation.  At least, in the last decade the Department for Transport now represent tonnes by a “t” rather than a “T”. I sometimes wonder if somebody at the DfT picked up my comment on a webpage that the only vehicle that might possibly have “7.5 T” associated with it was a Tardis (as used in the TV series Dr Who), but I  qualified my statement with the observation that as far as I knew, nobody had reliably measured the magnetic field associated with a Tardis and that 7.5 teslas is a very strong magnetic field.

Perhaps the best way to compare the two is by example. A typical abbreviation is “VAT”.  The table below shows how “VAT” and “Value added tax” are translated in other European languages:

LanguageAbbreviationText
EnglishVATValue added tax
DutchBTWBelasting over de toegevoegde waarde
FrenchTVATaxe sur la valeur ajoutée
GermanMwStMehrwertsteuer
GreekΦΠΑΦόρος προστιθέμενης αξίας
SpanishIVAImpuesto sobre el valor añadido

Now consider “kilometres per hour”. The text shows that the symbol “km/h” is universal across all of Europe, even though the local word meaning “kilometre” might not contain “k” or the local word meaning “hour” might not contain “h”. Most road signs in Europe contain pictograms (which are universal). The units of measure that are frequently encountered are “km”, “km/h”, “m” and “t”.  As a result, motorists with a minimal understanding of the local language will not be confused by the road signs.

LanguageSymbolText
Englishkm/hkilometres per hour
Frenchkm/hkilomètres par heure
Germankm/hKilometer pro Stunde
Greekkm/hχιλιόμετρα ανά ώρα
Italiankm/hChilometri all’ora
Polishkm/hkilometrów na godzinę 
Portuguesekm/hquilómetros por hora
Spanishkm/hkilómetros por hora

These tables should make it clear why symbols are of great use on road signs, but abbreviations are less so.

The Welsh would do well to take note of the use of symbols. As in the Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland and in Ireland (which is not part of the UK), all signs are bilingual. In Ireland, English text is in upper case letters with Gaelic in italicised lower-case letters. In Scotland, Gaelic text is in a different colour to the English text, but in Wales, Welsh and English use the same font.

Since Ireland has gone metric, speed limit signs have the text “km/h” below the number. The text “km/h” is a symbol and applies equally to both “kilometres per hour” [English] and “Ciliméadar san uair” [Gaelic]. In Wales however, units of measure on road signs are spelt out in full with “millitir” being the Welsh word for “mile” and “llath” being the Welsh word for “yard”. One case of excessive overload is the use of time to measure walking or cycling distances. Even here the Welsh have got it wrong. According to the SI Brochure, the term “15 min” is internationally recognised as meaning “fifteen minutes”.  Why then do the Welsh insist on writing “15 mun/mins” on their cycle tracks and footpaths? [Note – in the SI Brochure, symbols do not have an ”s” to signify plurals, whereas in abbreviations the use of an “s” is optional.

In Wales, a conversion to metric units would reduce the number of words on many road signs by a significant quantity while elsewhere in the UK following the Vienna Convention on road signs more closely could reduce verbosity and improve international understanding of the road signs.

References

  1. Welsh road signs
  1. Value Added Tax :
  1. Kilometres per hour :
  1. SI Brochure (9th Edition) (https://www.bipm.org/documents/20126/41483022/SI-Brochure-9-EN.pdf)
  1. The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20023113.htm)
  1. The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/contents/made)
  1. ( https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=legissum:l31057  )  
  1. (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31975L0443&from=EN) (Replace “EN“ by the appropriate code for other languages).
  1. Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals: https://unece.org/DAM/trans/conventn/Conv_road_signs_2006v_EN.pdf

13 thoughts on “Do British road signs display symbols or abbreviations?”

  2. I remember seeing km/j in Malaysia some decades ago. It was on a sticker applied to the back of a vehicle indicating the vehicles max speed. Jam is the Malaysian for hour.

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  3. And, in classic “very British mess” style, the Units of Measurement Regulations specify that the abbreviations/symbols for “inch, foot, yard, mile” should be “in, ft, yd, mile” respectively.

    But, the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions don’t allow the use of “in” and “ft”, and instead specify ″ and  ′. And for mile, they allow the international symbol for metre to be used. Sometimes you can even see “m” being used to represent mile and metre on the same road sign.

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  4. We also still see T as well as t used to denote tonnes and I know of several road signs in Cambridgeshire which have the words ‘tonne’ and ‘ton’ on them.

    Even after I’ve complained about this discrepancy, they replaced these signs because the old ones were worn out but the new ones still contain this mistake!

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  5. We should be grateful to Martin for this detailed and well-researched and referenced article about symbols across languages. We should also be grateful that international symbols relate well to the English language, and less well to some other languages. What at pity it is then, that our Department for Transport continues to reject kilometres for road distances!

    Symbols are not necessarily shorter than abbreviations. Apparently the symbol for mile is the full word, mile. At school in the 1950s, our maths teacher made a strong point that we should not use m as short for mile; m meant metres. He bemoaned the practice of its use on road signs. He recommended mi for mile, which I have used, where necessary, to this day. I don’t see that it can be confused with anything else familiar.

    I received a package from Amazon yesterday. Amazon is one of the few organizations that can get my name and address correct down to the last fine detail. Its a pity about the bit in the top corner – 0.050 Kgs. I presume that doesn’t mean Kelvin gram seconds, whatever they might be. But at least Amazon is using the metric system; we should be thankful for that.

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  6. The US is equally confused. The short forms of SI units are generally treated as symbols per the SI Brochure, while the short form of Customary units are treated as abbreviations. NIST has a set of symbol-like short forms for Customary units, where capitalization, pluralization, and punctuation are not used, but other Federal agencies are much less rigid. In net contents declarations, pounds can be anything from “lb” to “LBS.” under the rules, while kilograms are supposed to be “kg” and no other (some producers screw up).

    The Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and companion Standard Highway Signs and Markings (SHSM) are the US equivalent to TSRGD. It uses “MI” as the symbol for miles (caps are generally preferred on our road signs), although spelling out the word is preferred if space allows. For overpass clearances, we use FT and IN on signs attached to the structure but single and double prime on advance warning signs.

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  7. For some reason, Spain doesn’t seem to like using the SI symbol for metre. More often than not a distance on a road sign is shown as so-many ‘mtrs’, for ‘metros’, the Spanish word for metres. So they choose an abbreviation of the word rather than the metric symbol.

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  8. Admittedly off the topic of road signs, but fascinating up to the minute abr / symbol fiasco.
    “Solar storm hits Earth with 21 lakh kmph winds.”

    Followed by the explination: – “2.1 million km/h (21 lakh kmph).”

    Not sure it my tears are laughing or crying.

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  9. Martin Vliestra wrote. ” in the UK following the Vienna Convention on road signs more closely could reduce verbosity and improve international understanding of the road signs”.

    I would say that following the Vienna Convention on road signs in the UK would improve national understanding of the road signs too. There is too much clutter on many road signs, too many words when pictograms could be used and too much of a jumble of different units, sometimes even on the same sign.

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  10. Metricmac‘s () above.

    Amazon’s Kgs – I’ve complained numerous times, over a very long period, and in various different ways to Amazon. – No luck yet to get them to change their inkorrect symbol to the correct one ‘kg’.

    Similarly, Hotpoint are also guilty – the inkorrect ‘Kg’ is on many (? all) of their washing machines.

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  11. I think the worst use of unit symbols that you can see on roads, is probably those on the back of international shipping containers (KGS, CU.M, etc.).

    Are there any international regulations governing the format of these labels?

    Of course, if they stuck to just metric units, the text wouldn’t have to be half-height either.

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  12. M wrote regarding international shipping containers: “if they stuck to just metric units .. “

    The customary (imperial) units will be on the back of containers for when they are shipped to the USA. These containers go all round the world.

    I suppose the use of capital letters and abbreviations, rather than the proper SI symbols, is to make the figures more easily readable from a distance in the docks. But it is true that this does nothing to promote the use of the correct symbols. It’s probably why supermarkets (and washing machine manufacturers) in Britain use abbreviations or symbols such as Kg. I imagine they don’t give much thought to it.

    Is it worth getting too bothered about? Yes and no, I would say. But inclining towards no, as there’s probably not a great deal the average person can do about it. Famous last words, but it’s supposed to be metric!

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  13. Shipping Containers – size/volume/weight markings.

    I expect there are international recommendations/guidelines/regulations that should [? must] be followed.

    I don’t know what these regulations etc. are; however I expect/suggest that some (? many) companies/nations don’t follow them exactly. And if there is non-compliance, I suggest there may be little or no enforcement etc.

    Perhaps, in the past there have been incidents, for example accidents where non-compliance with the markings has been blamed as a cause etc.

    The size/volume is probably easy to see. But the weight isn’t so easy to determine. How many containers are overloaded? I would expect the enormous cranes at container ports are able to determine whether it’s safe to lift individual containers.

    The international recommendations probably follow discussions and decided on the common sense idea that upper case is easier to see.

    (By the way, a former CEO at Sainsbury’s said over a decade ago, when he was criticised about a TV advert which showed the inkorrect ‘Kg’ – said something along the lines like “the big K looks better on the adverting page”. Since then, most of the time, Sainsbury’s tend to use the correct ‘kg’.)

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