# Most unusual warning/traffic sign you've seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 25, 2002, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489 "2002-04-25T03:05:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/101 "2004-09-27T09:05:12Z")
Seen in San Diego, on a stretch of expressway formerly part of US-101, an exit sign reading: “Roadside Business” At Disneyland: “Speed Limit 14MPH” In front of a middle school in Chula Vista CA (south of San Diego): “DEAF CHILDREN NEARBY” Also in Chula Vista is a major arterial street called Telegraph Canyon Rd. When driving eastward along said street one comes to a right turn marked “Old Telegraph Canyon Rd”, but which is in fact a driveway leading into the parking lot of some sort of meeting hall (Elks Club, maybe?) Driving north on I-5 at the northern edge of San Diego county: “Dust Clouds Next 27 Miles” Oddly enough, the southbound side of the road lacks a corresponding sign. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/102 "2004-09-27T12:17:19Z")
Down here in Fort Myers we have alligators. Sometimes really close-up alligators. Just about every apartment complex or subdivision has lakes and water retention areas that the gators occasionally get into. I’ve seen all sorts of signs arning residents not to walk their dogs near the waters edge in order to prevent snacking by the gators. But the best one was at a single-family house that was next to a little water retention pond. There was a little (4"x9"), carved wooden sign at the side of the house. It was it was only a foot off the ground and didn’t have words. Just a black alligator silhouette on a yellow background. I love the discrete suburban sensibilities. Nothing garish, just a little reminder: “Oh, We have an allligator.” Spoken in the same way as Sybil Fawlty saying, “He’s from Barcelona.” There’s also the problem of citrus canker around here that is killing off our orange trees. It can be spread from the soles of shoes walking from infected areas to new places. Therefore, several fields have signs along the lines of, “If you walk in here, we WILL shoot you!” ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/103 "2004-09-27T13:41:05Z")
I don’t remember exactly where it was, but I think it was somewhere in eastern North Carolina, I saw an official state-type road sign that said: “Test Sign” It was there for years. I never found out what they were testing. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/104 "2004-09-27T15:23:42Z")
Not a sign, but a flyer handed out by the Rangers at Yellowstone. A drawing of a man getting [tossed](http://www.dommelen.net/miata/trip/img/buffaloq.gif) in the air by a buffalo. Another one that gives me a chuckle is a “Danger Thin Ice” sign in Brule, Wisconsin that I drive by every summer. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/105 "2004-09-27T15:44:03Z")
> [@Kalashnikov](#): > > New Hampshire has moose crossing signs. > > We also have “angled railroad tracks: motorcyles take care” (with an appropriate image) and when the road crews are in the middle of re-paving roads they put up “caution motorcyles: ridged pavement” signs. > > There are also official signs on the highways and elsewhere directing you to the nearest (state-owned) liquor store. Fishkill, NY has a moose crossing sign. Only it’s right in the middle of their “downtown”, and is a very busy intersection. It’s funny as hell. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/106 "2004-09-27T15:54:51Z")
I had a similar experience to an earlier poster - when I was a kid, I never knew what “Ped Xing” meant. My most curious sign was spotted in Oklahoma. In the middle of nowhere was a sign saying “ **Don’t drive into smoke.** ” You got it, boss… ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/107 "2004-09-27T22:09:09Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I had a similar experience to an earlier poster - when I was a kid, I never knew what “Ped Xing” meant. In a book published in 1968 titled _How to Avoid Automobile Accodents!,_ it said "A pedestrian could be knocked flying while a motorist is puzzling over the [abbreviated thus cryptic] meaning of PED XING. ☹ “(It might be better if the PEDS did their XING at JCTS!”) ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/108 "2004-09-27T23:21:58Z")
I went to college in Santa Cruz, CA, where the local government is fond of making laws and resolutions about things they can’t control and ignoring the things they can. When you enter city limits, you are treated to the following sign: NUCLEAR FREE ZONE Oh darn, I guess I’d better leave my warheads in Watsonville. My senior year of college, the town gained a certain amount of notoriety for trying to make Santa Cruz a “Hate Free Zone”. It ended up not getting on the ballot due to a technicality, but I understand that the city council eventually did it on their own. I’m not sure if they have a sign indicating this under the Nuclear Free Zone or not. There was a sign near my university in Jerusalem that said, in Hebrew: WARNING: SENIORS with an accompanying picture of an old guy, dressed in ultra-Orthodox Jewish costume, crossing the street. I always called it the “Haredi crossing sign” (haredi = very orthodox Jew). I even took a picture of it. Hee! That reminds me, I also took a picture of a sign posted to the entrance of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of J’salem during Pesach, explaining (in three languages) that you were entering a bread-free area. I think my most favorite sign ever was when my friend and I went to Sinai. You go through Israeli customs, and then you walk about a quarter of a mile and go through Egyptian customs. Since the path that goes along the border is guarded and fenced, it’s impossible to lose your way, but just in case, there are signs that say EGYPT -----------\> We loved it. We got a guard to take a picture of us in front of the WELCOME TO EGYPT sign. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/109 "2004-09-28T00:12:33Z")
There is a sign at a nearby park which amuses me no end. NO SPACEWALKS IN PARK I’m told the sign refers to things like the inflatable bouncy things you can rent for parties, but it’s much funnier if you don’t know that. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/110 "2004-09-28T00:14:19Z")
> [@aurelian](#): > > My friend has a sign from Iowa City; apparently sometime in the seventies, the city passed a declaration proclaiming itself ‘nuclear free’ and put up some large signs with an exploding mushroom cloud and the words NUCLEAR FREE ZONE underneath. Berkeley, CA has one of those too (but with the three-triangles radiation symbol, not a mushroom cloud). Someone put a sticker on the sign (the one on College Avenue near Alcatraz Avenue) so it now says “Nuclear Weapons Research Zone”, or it did for a long time until the sticker faded. ---
**Author:** ![Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji_Kitakyusho)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/111 "2004-09-28T00:17:35Z")
One of my favourites, which I think has since been changed due to its ambiguity, was: CHAIN UP AREA --\> (CHAINS NOT REQUIRED) ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/112 "2004-09-28T00:39:35Z")
I forgot one of my favorites from my childhood. There is a big cemetery (poorly placed across the street from a hospital) that used to have a big orange sign on the entry gates: DEAD END :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/113 "2004-09-28T11:26:53Z")
I don’t think this one has been posted: in Essex, the road signs proudly point the way to the **Secret Nuclear Bunker**. Oops, what a give-away! [Pic of the sign](http://www.jeffsnet.co.uk/pics/signs/nuclear%20bunker.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Iceland\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/114 "2004-09-28T11:43:57Z")
Reminds me of the program(dammit can’t remember his name)'s Secret Map of Britain about things that exist(like bunkers) that aren’t on maps and are apparently secret…or so you think. Classic moment was calling a government installation… ‘Hello.Is that the Command and Control Center.I’m calling from Channel 4’ ‘How did you get this number?This is a military base and the number is on a strictly restricted military list for authorized personnel only’ ‘I rang up directory inquiries and they got it out the Yellow Pages’ Good to know Britain is protected as long as our terrorists don’t know how to deal with Directory Inquiries… So perhaps THAT’s why they changed it from 192… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/115 "2004-09-28T14:06:05Z")
DAMMIT SLOW DOWN San Francisco. Handmade sign on a telephone pole, put up by the workers at the metal shop at the corner. The road does a sharp right turn around the metal shop, directly onto a freeway onramp. I guess they got tired of helping people out of their wrecked cars. ---
**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/116 "2004-09-28T14:32:02Z")
The juxtaposition of the following two signs in a Florida lake cracked up this Midwesterner who grew up in a man-eating reptile free zone: “No Swimming” “Do Not Feed the Alligators” The redundancy amuses me, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/117 "2004-09-28T17:35:09Z")
I thought it was against the rules to revive ancient threads. This one appears to be two years old! Anyway…my favorite road sign was on a section of back road in northern California after a particularly harrowing drive along shear dropoffs: “Resume Breathing”. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/118 "2004-09-28T18:42:07Z")
Driving on South I-95 towards DC once, I saw one of those big, over-the-road digital light up-signs (where you can change the message). It said: “Batteries need charging.” Thanks for the reminder… ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/119 "2004-09-28T18:46:23Z")
“Hijacking Hotspot” in South Africa. It was more unsettling (and sad) than unusual, but it was certainly unusual to me! ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489/120 "2004-09-28T18:47:23Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > The sign as such is not very unusual, but the setting is. A friend of mine has a cousin, who’s in charge of road and street maintenance on the island of Gotland in the Baltic, and gave said cousin an “elk crossing” (for the merkins: an elk in Europe is what you call a moose) sign as a birthday present to put up in his garden. The problem is that Gotland is the only Swedish region lacking the critters. We have moose and elk here, they’re different animals. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unusual-warning-traffic-sign-youve-seen/105489.md?page=7)