Strange signs from Atlantic Canada

If you follow this space regularly, you know I’m driving around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick this week.

For the most part, I find that Canadians do things at least as well as what I’m used to in the U.S. — usually better.

And the road signage is remarkably similar, down to the type used on the highway exist markers.

But some of the road signs are puzzling.

I found this “keep right” sign a little rococo: it seems to be encouraging me to drive as if I am on the Indianapolis speedway:

What would you look out for if you saw one of these? (I saw a bunch.)

Beware trucks crashing into walls?

The signs for points of interest are less than transparent. Can you identify all of these?

In case you’re wondering, the key is a heritage or museum site, the upside-down T and circles indicate a winery, the @ sign is Wi-Fi, and the spinning wheel is . . . would you believe, antiques?

But I think I saw this sign more than any other here:

Do you “get” it? It’s the very common warning that the bridge you’re about to drive over can get icy. Unlike in the U.S., where this sign is usually rendered as a simple text sign that reads “Bridge ices before road surface,” the Canadians need to render it without words (because any words would have to be in both English and French, and that’s too many words to read before you start careening off the edge of the bridge).

But is this really the best combination of symbols to get the meaning across?

• I get the car sliding around. But is the best way to indicate that it happens when the temperature gets below freezing with a thermometer that appears to be twice as large as a car?
• Why is this rendered with characters for 0° C when all the similar signs use only symbols?
• Why is the thermometer in red, when in other similar signs the red indicates something prohibited (like “No Parking”)? And doesn’t red communicate heat, not cold?
• Do they really think we’ll puzzle this out before the car starts sliding?
• How did this unbalanced, clumsy design get included in a set of signs that is otherwise both elegant and cleverly symbolic?
• Why do they feel a need to put it in front of every bridge in Canada, in both directions? That’s 40,000+ bridges. Surely any driver will get the idea after seeing it a few dozen times, no?

I didn’t see this Québécois road sign for the same condition, but it’s a lot more fun:

If one of you amateur designers can come up with a better-looking design, I have about 80,000 signs for you to replace.