Polish parking signs
We found walking Polish streets that cars seemed to be parked in numerous ways, without any rhyme or reason – sometimes on streets, sometimes on sidewalks, and sometimes on a mix of both. And this wasn’t for parking on side streets, but on the major streets going through the heart of the cities.
It turns out that the jumble of parked cars wasn’t completely random. Poland has a graphical system of showing how cars must be parked in a certain section of the street – from on the street to on the sidewalk, and even sometimes a requirement that the cars be half on, half off. The signs even specify whether the cars should be parked parallel, angled, or perpendicular. I loved the signs, because they are so much better than the boring NY parking signs full of text. I became a little obsessed with the signs, trying the find the craziest ones, as shown below. On each sign, the gray area is the street, and the white the sidewalk.
-
- Parallel parking on the street.
-
- Parallel parking, half on the street, half on the sidewalk.
-
- Angled parking, must stay in the street.
-
- Angled parking, half on sidewalk, half on street.
-
- Perpendicular parking, all on sidewalk.
-
- Perpendicular parking, half on sidewalk, half on street.
This really is crazy! Do you think the citizens understand and obey the various parking configurations?
Once we figured out the system, it seemed like the cars were usually in line with the signs.
I passed the driver’s test earlier this year here in Poland, and after driving in the U.S. for most of my life, I was soooo confused by the rules! Poland has a mind of its own in many aspects, traffic rules and parking signs included
Great blog guys, looking forward to reading on about your travels and impressions!
Thanks for the comment – great meeting you!
Aaron Johnson is my hero. Also, you should frame each of these individually and then hang them up on a wall. You could even find that wall in a lovely NYC apartment…when you move back.