Alex Trelinski
A SERIES of jumbled road markings around Benidorm that are meant to signify areas where pedestrian can cross have become a social media hit.
Benidorm council introduced the markings in the vicinity of the town hall due to complaints from pedestrians over where it is safe to cross.
The problem is that road users have been left scratching their heads because it is not clear what the signs mean.
The sheer number of the “painted people” has also added to the confusion.
Benidorm appears to enjoy making news with painted signs as back in 2016 it produced some in English.
The council put down some “Look Left” warnings on certain pedestrian crossings in parts of the resort dominated by British tourists who might lose concentration because their minds are elsewhere.
The sign is clear to all who bother to learn Spanish road signage. It’s S-28 “Calle Residencial”, which is described as follows in the DGT documentation:
“Indica las zonas de circulación especialmente acondicionadas que están destinadas en primer lugar a los peatones…”
In other words, drive slowly (20 km/h max) and with extreme care, pedestrians have right-of-way here, even in the middle of the street where you’ll often find children playing.
I went through driving school instruction in Spain to receive a Spanish driving permit. I have been driving for 50 years without incident in 12 nations. Signs in Spain are at times in need of deciphering, like the silly one shown in this article: it’s cluttered, lacks focus and with the graffiti on the roadway, is visual gibberish. Likely, a tenured civil servant who travels by bus and works in a windowless room transforms arcane Spanish legalese into road signs.
Visual signs should be visually intuitive. There should be no distracting perceptual layer(s) between symbol and its intent which would distract the driver. And by the way, my other favorites are the direction signs placed at the turn-off instead of before: they should say “You have just passed your turn off. The next one is 40 kms.
With respect, chas, you’re being unfair. S-28 is found throughout Europe; Spain wisely adopts what is a European standard so that international drivers don’t have to relearn signage whenever a border is crossed.
I refer you to this interesting article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_European_road_signs
I share your dream of a world where informative iconography is intuitive and unambiguous. Alas, the buttons on my vacuum cleaner convince me we have not yet attained that ideal.
Yes, there is an EU standard, but as your link points out, there are also differences. Here we are looking at a local example which I hope does not represent the official’s perceptual and mental skills.
Looks like human road-kill. Probably has the desired effect though, i.e. slow the gormless boy-racers down, while they figure it out…