More on Road Signs

Staying on the topic of road signs, during our trip we were often confused. My biggest gripe with European roadways is that the highways are never accompanied with their direction. In the US, when you get on I-57, you are told N or S on the sign. In Europe, the sign is accompanied with a city but not a direction. So unless you are familiar with the layout of the major cities you have no idea which direction you will be taken. For example, on our trip we spent a great deal of time on B9. When we were in Koblenz we wanted to go south back towards our hotel, but the city names on the sign were ambiguous to us, and our map reading skills while driving are not the best. Commence U-turn.

On another note, when you are in Belgium, or nearing a country border, there is huge problem with city names. Depending on what language is spoken where you are driving, the city sign will be named accordingly. So when in Germany, the city of Liege is called Luettich, and when in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium the signs will say Luik. And it gets worse than this, at least those all started with "L".

The city of Leuven is in the Flemish part of the country (just barely) but there is another city called Louvain-la-Neuve. This is basically a second Leuven that was created for the French speaking part of the University after they split in the 60s and 70s. Here is a wikipedia entry on the new city.

Unfortunately when you are in Brussels for example, the train routes both look as if they are going to Louvain (Leuven). So many a person has accidentally arrived at one University when they meant to be at the other. I think this issue would be solved if all road/train/travel signs used the name of the city that the people that live in the city use. For example, even when in Brussels, the signs to Leuven (Flemish) should say "Leuven" and those to Louvain-la-Neuve (Walloon) should say "Louvain-la-Neuve". In my opinion this would solve many confusions. But what does an American like me know about language borders, nothing really.