road signs

My family would go on vacation in the summer (usually to the gulf beaches) when I was younger and I used to believe that when we got off a highway or made an interstate change that whatever two cities listed on the road signs were the only two that the road would take you. So if it said I-65 Huntsville, then that is where we were going. I used to think my dad was going the wrong way and I couldn't understand why the sign didn't say Panama City if that is where we were headed.

Mel V.

When on a two-lane road, when it is no longer safe to pass a car (by going into the oncoming lane) - there is a sign "Do No Pass". Until my driving exam, I never understood why those signs where there. Because I thought it meant I should pass beyond that point. As if danger were ahead!!

Anon

the blue 'gas-food-lodging' highway signs used to have a picture of a man taking suitcases out of a car to represent lodging. but i used to believe the sign read 'loading,' and that you could get gas, eat, and have pre-packed suitcases loaded into your car.

since my family never took advantage of this service, i wondered how the man knew what people needed for their trip. i'm no longer confused, as the 'loader' has been replaced by a picture of a 'lodger' in bed...

M.C.C.

Until I was about 9 or 10, I used to believe that the "no outlet" signs (designating a dead end street) meant that the houses there had no electricity (no outlets)!

clover

Up till around age 6, i thought the word must in the traffic signs that said "left lane must turn left" was pronounced MMM-EWWW-ST, like mew the cat makes. I always read them out loud saying it that way and no one bothered to correct me. I could read fluently by then, read the word right in other books, but not on the signs!

*Andrea*

Coming from a large city with hundreds of different street names, I wondered why so many small towns were stuck on using the name 'Frontage Road'.

Karen

When I was little, i thought that it was illegal to drive past the "Do Not Pass" signs on the highway and if you got caught, you would get a ticket. I would always look out the back window as we drove by to make sure we weren't getting pulled over.

Anon

I used to believe that the "Crime Watch" signs in our neighborhood ment "watch for crime, because its really bad here". I used to get so nervous when we'd pass these. This continued until I was 9!

George

I used to believe that the 'Blind Driveway' signs mean that a blind person lived there so you better watch out because they might just walk (or drive!) right out in front of your car.

Holly

A girlfriend of mine believed that the "All Way" sign below a "Stop" sign meant that this time they really wanted you to stop all the way...I don't think she appreciated my reaction...:-)

NotNull

A young friend of the family was driving home from a camping trip with my family at night,he was looking at the reflective road signs when he declared that he wanted to be one of the mean who turn the lights on the road signs when you drove by and off once you passed them :)

Another cuppa?

It used to really scare me when I would see the falling rocks sign in the mountains. I would be on constant lookout for boulders hurling down the mountain toward our car.

emily

When I traveled to Slovenia I saw a sign on the right side of the road which said: Maribor-ZAHOD(west). But on Croatian "zahod" means toilet....I believed that it lead to toilet....not west....

Svileee

When a friend of mine moved to the US from India, he thought that the 'Haz Mat' signs on trucks carrying hazardous materials meant that you could not laugh if such a truck passed by, or while looking at the truck (Huz - to laugh, Mut - not, in Hindi).

Then I pointed out to him the seeming double negative in the 'No Haz Mat' warning signs on roads leading to tunnels, etc...

KP

We used to go to Lake Tahoe every summer, and there are signs everywhere warning of falling rock...my mother convinced my older sister that 'Watch for Falling Rock' was a sign put up by an Indian Chief years ago, becuase he lost his son, Falling Rock, and they never found him. I believe my sister was well into her teens before she figured it out....

Sam

We lived in a very rural part of Pennsylvania where there were no red lights, only stop signs. Someone told my older sister that the stop signs with white around the edge meant that stopping was optional at them. Well, all stop signs have white around them but she believed them until after she was old enough to drive.

Janelle

I thought the 'no u-turns'sign meant 'no horses allowed on the road'..

Anon

When I was five or six and my family was driving I used to pay careful attention to all the road signs (I had just learned how to read). Once we came to a sign that said 'Do not pass' and I got really scared because I thought it was illegal to go past those signs. I believed this until I was about nine.

Gerbilo

I used to believe that the dear crossing sign was a place where the deer in the area would meet each other.

Karly

One day when I was riding with my mother, I asked her what the "Do Not Pass" sign meant. She told me it was for blind people.

I figured that if a blind person was driving, their passenger would have to tell them that they had to stop because of the sign.

Candace