The transportation network is an indispensable part of a country. It can provide basic transportation services to the city and is the foundation and key to ensuring the normal operation of other functional systems in the city. In the 1980s, we often heard the saying "If you want to be rich, build roads first", which illustrates the important role of transportation in economic development.
With the rapid construction and formation of highways in our country, our country's highways are also bordering the international market, and the signboards on the highways are in Chinese and English coexistence mode. However, my country's highways may undergo reforms in the near future, and may all Chinese and English signs be replaced?
1. China's high-speed development
Today, China has the largest transportation network in the world, including highways, high-speed rails, and airplanes. At the beginning of the founding of New China, my country's transportation development was still very backward. There is not a single expressway in the country, and even the roads are only 81,000 kilometers long, let alone railways and air routes.
By 1978, my country's railway operating mileage had increased to 52,000 kilometers, and the national highway mileage reached 890,000 kilometers. China's transportation infrastructure construction was developing rapidly, but it was also subject to the influence of domestic and foreign talent and technology that was not in place. From 1981 to 1985, the Ministry of Transport put forward the principle of "whoever builds, who uses, and who benefits" to encourage the development of transportation facilities across the country.
The ten years from 2004 to 2013 are known as the "golden decade" of China's transportation development. In 2008, the "Ministry of Transport", one of the national organizations, was officially listed. The 2014 National Transportation Work Conference set China’s transportation policy to transform from a “large transportation country” to a “powerful transportation country.”
Today, China's expressways rank first in the world. Expressways, high-speed rails, aviation, etc. have created a world-renowned "China's traffic speed" in the history of world transportation.
2. On the importance of highway signage
Although my country’s transportation network is fully developed, for short-distance travel, holiday travel or logistics transportation, highways are more convenient than high-speed rail and aviation.
When you drive on the highway, you will see the signs on the side of the highway. As the name suggests, signboards help car owners guide the direction. When we drive on the highway, the highway requires a minimum of 60 kilometers per hour and a maximum of 120 kilometers per hour. At such high speeds, road signs are an important means of guiding traffic. Whether it is its color, font, or layout, it plays an important role in conveying visual information.
In the high-speed driving environment of highways and urban elevated expressways, due to the extremely high speed of vehicles, the text information on the sign usually flashes by. If there are too many details and unclear information on the signs, resulting in misreading or misunderstanding, the destination will be missed. The driver must go to the next exit to adjust the itinerary, which greatly increases the driver's travel cost.
When drivers look at road signs, it is impossible to stare at the signs for a long time. If the guidance information is not clear enough, the driver will need to spend more time to obtain the information and become distracted, unable to take into account the vehicle condition, which will not only threaten traffic safety but also increase the probability of a car accident.
3. Disadvantages of Chinese and English signage
In order to connect with the international community, all signage in my country is in Chinese and English. However, although the signage is in Chinese and English mode, the use of Chinese and English is not standardized. As I told you before, the Ministry of Transportation of my country has put forward the principle of "who builds, who uses, and who benefits" for highway construction in China. Therefore, the specific operation and implementation are in charge of each province, city, and district. This has resulted in a lack of highway construction. Unified specifications.
This phenomenon is particularly common on highway signs. Some signboards use a translation method of place names that combines Chinese and Pinyin, which is typical Chinese English.Some translations use Chinese pinyin translations, which may make foreign friends confused.
There are also some signs that are not only in English but also in Korean, Japanese, etc. It is almost impossible to write on one sign, which makes it look too cluttered and is not conducive to the driver's identification. Therefore, non-standard signage not only fails to bring convenience to the driver, but also distracts the driver's attention and increases safety risks.
Conclusion:
my country's highways may usher in reforms in the near future. Chinese and English signboards must be used uniformly and standardizedly, and English translations must be removed. unified signage can improve the efficiency of text information recognition in high-speed driving environments and the safety of driving on highways.
As for foreign friends who cannot understand the signs, there is no need to worry. First of all, foreigners who drive on the highway in China need to pass my country's motor vehicle driving test and have the most basic listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The basic knowledge of transportation that we need to master, foreigners also need to master; the signs that we know, foreign friends also need to know, otherwise there will be great safety risks, so don’t worry too much about foreign friends not being able to understand.
Will the replacement and unification of Chinese and English signboards on highways affect foreign friends? What do you think about this?
