AHEAD STOP: do drivers really read from bottom to top?

Around here, painted notices on the road warning of an upcoming stop sign usually read …

AHEAD

STOP

I think it’s assumed that a driver will read the word that’s closest to them first, and thus read “STOP” before “AHEAD”. I never do that, though; instead, I see b oth words at the same time, so to my eyes it registers as “AHEAD STOP”. Am I in the minority in reading such pavement markings that way? Do most drivers really instinctively read pavement markings from bottom to top?

I read traffic signs from the top down. That sign is just silly.

I’ve seen those signs, and I agree it’s stoopid. If I look ahead on the road and see words painted there, I’ll be reading from top (farthest away from me) to bottom (nearest), same as I do in every other context.

Those started appearing around Spain years ago. I still have to meet a single person who reads them bottom-up.

The ones saying GOZA ZARA (which are close to Zaragoza, a large town which acts as the local supermall for people in a large area) can literally be translated as “enjoy Zara.” Talk about the pun writing itself… (warning, noisy link)

What if traffic is heavy enough that you can only read one word at a time?

This is one of those things I have always thought was stupid. But it seems to be universal. Do they brainwash traffic engineers in school?

They do this in New Zealand too, although in this example the words are spaced out enough that it kind of makes sense:

BRIDGE

LANE

ONE
Here in the UK we do it sensibly. (Although you could argue that “ONLY AHEAD” makes sense anyway :wink: )

I always liked the Yoda-fied ones:

LANE

IN

STAY

I suppose there are some people out there who read really slowly, and will only see one word at a time, but even as a kid I thought these silly.

I’ve always thought that “Stop Ahead” worked OK backwards. The most important word is “Stop” so if you read that first, you’ve got the gist of the warning.

On the other hand, they could draw a red octagonal stop sign sign with the word Ahead right next to it. It would save a bunch of paint, fit on one line and be easier to read.

I actually saw a paper that somebody in a psych department (at MSU in Bozeman, MT) did on this topic. It seemed to have been a well-designed study, and she concluded that signs painted on the road surface in this “backwards” fashion were indeed perceived more readily. She had gotten permission to close off a local road, paint signs on it both ways, and test drivers.

This is exactly the same as American ambulances having “Ambulance” written in reverse.

Look, guys, we can understand the word “Ambulance” when it appears in our mirror, even when reversed. It’s a fairly distinctive word, particularly when painted on the front of an ambulance. We get it.

Anyone who can’t read the word “Ambulance” in reverse probably can’t read it in its proper orientation, either.

My favourite: Only Turn Left. This one conveys the same meaning no matter what order you put the words in.

It took me ages to figure out why the bike path was telling me to “Turn in the Down Slow”.

Alessan, I was told a long time ago by a EMT that they painted it backwards so that dyslexic people reading it in a mirror would be able to read it better…

But I would think that the big red cross and horn and flashing headlights would be a dead giveaway… :smack:

I don’t know if the guy was BSing me or not.

I always figured it was for night-time purposes. You might only see one word at first in the headlights, and STOP is much more important than AHEAD. Gives you an extra bit of time to react.

Ambulances generally have a blue star on them, not a red cross.

Yes. This or fog has always been my assumption. You don’t actually need the sign in times of clear visibility; there’s an actual stop sign for that.

Nearly all these signs are painted so that you see all the words at the same time, so it doesn’t work. The problem is that they should paint them bigger and farther apart, so you see the first word much sooner, and you see them one word at a time (like a Burma Shave ad :))

I’ve noticed them, too. There are quite a few on the toll road on the way to my parents house in Illinois. I always read them from top down, unless I’m in bumper to bumper traffic and can only SEE one word at a time.

In Australia we have:
LANE
ONE
FORM

I will join the chorus to say that it’s stupid.