The curse of the installed base strikes again (non tech :-)
November 5 2006
Somewhere around the middle of last week, I wrote a draft blog entry on all the logistical challenges I had in Europe last week. Reviewing it a few days later, a lot of it was pretty whiny. But one thing still really irritates me -- when I pulled out of the Brussels airport, the motorways in front of me bore no resemblance to the navigation instructions I had from map24.com. These instructions guided me to take Motorway A1 towards Breda. Just three problems:
- There were no signs for A1
- There were no signs for Breda
- Map24 gave me my instructions in miles.
After 20 minutes trial and error, I eventually took a chance that the instruction to exit the ring towards Antwerp, since I knew generally that I would be heading the right direction and it seemed to correspond to Map24's exit name. And only once taking this exit, marked E19, did I see the signs along the roadway, with "A1" in prominent red letters, and E19 in small yellow and blue.
I have no idea when the Belgians renamed their A1 into the European route E19, but you would think that Map24.com would have had a clue.
Putting this aside it was an interesting drive. The huge windmills at the Dutch/Belgian border are a major driving distraction -- especially in Tuesday's fog, they seemed really surreal.
Post a Comment
- 2
Fred Janssen http://www.bigbearfreddy.com | 11/5/2006 11:44:19 AM
Yup, the Belgians will do that to you. :-()
But seriously, I think Map24 (which I really like) should have told you about the right road-numbers, because there´s nothing new about the Belgian way of numbering roads and placing signs in not so obvious places...
(no offence intended)
Then again, aren´t you confused by traffic light not being at the other side of the crossing? I know always need a bit of getting used to that when I return from the US.
I think the windmills at the Dutch borders are great. They tell me I am home. ;-)
And I think they´re not nearly as numerous as what I´ve seen in California some time ago...
Fred
- 3
Block F http://www.easi.be | 11/5/2006 1:12:36 PM
Being belgian myself, I can understand how difficult it can be for foreigners since sometimes signs are shown in dutch and sometimes in french :-)
FYI, all motorways in Europe have 2 (or more) names :
- a local one (i.e. A1)
- a european one (i.e. E19). This one was added to allow easier navigation through multiple countries (since this name is common to multiple countries). All uneven numbers (E19, E411,..) are motorways that cross Europe from North to South (or contrary of course :-) ). All even numbers (E40, ..) are crossing Europe from East to West.
All this remains a translation issue :-) (but most navigation engines know about all this)
- 4
Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/5/2006 1:17:42 PM
@3 totally understand that it can have two names -- the motorway near me is both Interstate 94 (east/west, though it runs north/south) and US Route 41. But it has signs for both at junctions, which isn't the case on the Bruxelles ring road.
- 5
Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 11/5/2006 1:34:32 PM
Road signs in the US are much easier to understand than in Europe. Even if motorways are numbered correctly, they do not show in which direction you are travelling. You have to know the relative position of cities. Which is easy for people who live here, but impossible for foreigners.
- 6
Frank Michel http://dominosteine.eu | 11/5/2006 2:42:13 PM
When evaluating directions for europe you may want to take a look at { Link } . I personally feel they give me a better result.
- 7
Jan Van Puyvelde | 11/6/2006 3:48:45 AM
As a local (you passed my home city Mechelen between Brussel and Antwerpen, Ed) I can assure you that Belgians use the E-numbers.
We have done this for decades, even before the numbers were changed in 1986 (the Europe-wide NorthSouth/EastWest thing mentioned above, decided in 1975).
Currently the only exception is the A12, simply because it doesn't have an E-number as it's not a "real" motorway.
Yesterday, I used the E19 and saw the "signs along the roadway" you mentioned that have "A1" on them. Never noticed that before. They are the km-signs and as such, are not used for directions.
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Jamie Houston | 11/6/2006 7:14:42 AM
My favourite has always been France, where it seems to me the roads are either Toute Direction or Autre Direction..
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Lars Olufsen | 11/6/2006 8:15:42 AM
@8
Jamie, there's even a roundabout near Nice that has a "Toute Directions" sign pointing in the direction of traffic in the roundabout, and a "Autres Directions" sign pointing in the OPPOSITE direction of the traffic.
THAT is scary !!!
Anyway ... for european travels, I use { Link }
- 10
Bob Brodsky | 11/6/2006 8:39:47 AM
Ed,
Looks like a cultural difference here: Belgians (in my experience) do not think in terms of North, South, East, and West. Directions are always given in terms of which town one heads to next. I guess a compass is not much help in a small, lovely country.
Bob
A couple of years ago we were in Panama, heading from Panama City toward Gamboa. We had three maps with us and none of them lined up. One would show a street heading NE and another would show it E. Very few of the street names matched, the best we ever could hope for was 2 of 3, and in many cases all 3 were different.
When we were in Portugal we had similar problems. We would come to a roundabout and often none of the destinations they listed were on any of our maps, and sometimes even the roundabout and the other roads were missing. We'd drive around two or three times, pick a likely direction, and head off.
At least in both those cases we didn't have a schedule and the trip was the destination. :)