Crazy Canadian Road Icons
 

Hi All- I am constantly bewildered by the various road sign icons up here in Canada (a favorite is the different sized bare butts for the Family nudist colony) _ Does the vase over the hand mean a Pottery is near? Is there a website that explains them ? thanks!

This is an interesting question as explanations would be helpful. We just got home from Canada this week and had a few questions about interpreting the signs. We liked the one with a bed over an egg in an egg cup, and we thought it meant Bed and Breakfast. May be some one else knows if a brochure is available.

The symbols vary from province to province, but generally, yes the egg/bed is for a bed and breakfast. The hand/vase means that there is some type of handcraft workshop/store. It may or may not be pottery.

I have no idea what these signs are and have never seen them, ever. Where in Canada did you see them?

If you are talking about the BLUE signs and I'm sure you are, these are not official road signs, but rather signs paid for by the company advertising their tourist attraction/B&B or whatever.
I am not aware that their are any official icons associated with them. I looked at some today on the highway, and mostly saw a golfer, advertising golf courses. ( I didn't see the butt one !!)

I think our green signs are pretty well standard road signs.

As I said before the symbols on the signs will vary from province to province and perhaps the colours of them also. I am only familiar with Alberta, so if you're somewhere else, this may not apply...

There is a trend before towns nowadays to have names/logos for restaurants, gas stations and hotels, but there are still lots of "generic" symbol signs.

I found this PDF about promoting farmer's markets and on page 301-2 there's a couple of pictures of road signs with some of the symbols.

Most of them should be fairly obvious, but here's what they mean:

Gas pump: gas station
Knife, fork, cup: restaurant
Bed with roof: hotel/motel
Trailer and tent: Campground
Picnic table: picnic site, park
Police shield: police station
Spinning wheel: museum (I believe)
Pumpkin and farmer: farmers' market
Propane tank: propane
Trailer with square underneath: dump station
Question mark: information center
Golfer: golf course
Person reading: library
Tow truck: service station
Cross country skier: cross country ski trails
Swimmwer with roof: indoor pool
Downhill skier: ski hill
Grocery cart: grocery store

This website has a picture of the Saskatchewan farmer's market road sign which is different from Alberta's:

http://www.saskfarmersmarket.com/

Hi Thanks for the info - I thought the building with an M and the Key were museums and or historic sites - I am still not convinced about the spinning wheel :) We saw the butt one one a previous trip in Quebec province.

For those who are interested, here is the complete listing of official tourist highway signs for Québec (including the nudist camp sign):

http://www.bonjourquebec.com/mto/pub...riteres06a.pdf

I sent an inquiry to the Alberta government about the road signs and they sent me a link to a PDF.

It seems that they are transitioning the tourist signs from brown to blue as both appear in the document. The spinning wheel is listed as a museum sign (brown) and there's also a sign with an "M" in a building (blue) that's also listed as a symbol for a museum.

The hand and the pot is listed as "hand crafts".

Feel free to browse the pdf yourself, but, CAUTION!!! The file is 22MB and takes a long time to download.

http://www.transportation.alberta.ca...D-FACILITY.PDF

Oh, and apparently we don't have nudist colonies in Alberta, or advertise them anyway. No bare butts signs in the document. ;)

WOW! Once again the Fodorites come through! You people are the best - I started to look at the Quebec book - the difference between a winery and cottage wne and cottage mead producer! So wacky - without these crib notes - how would any one know! Once again, thanks for the great info :)

Yes the bed and eggcup is a Bed & Breakfast in New Brunswick too!

Bookmarking this for the next time this comes up. What a hoot. And useful, thanks.

It took me a few trips before I realized that the sign with pine tree silhouettes was marking an official scenic route in Quebec. I thought it denoted a forest, which seemed pretty self-evident!

The <I>flashing green light</i> is another Canadian classic.


And my favorite Canadian road sign was in Quebec, where I once found myself driving along, on my late grandmother's birthday, only to see road signs with <b>my grandma's first name</b> on them in big, prominent letters.

<i>(I hope it didn't mean that I wasn't supposed to stop on the shoulder of the freeway and take a photo with the date imprinted in the lower corner)</i>