Road signs in Norway
Encyclopedia
Road signs in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

are regulated by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration
Norwegian Public Roads Administration
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the state and county public roads in the country. This includes planning, construction and operation of the state and county road networks, driver training and licensing, vehicle inspection and subsidies to...

, Statens vegvesen.

Signs follow the general European conventions concerning the use of shape and colour to indicate function. Any text included on supplementary signs will normally be in Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

, but may in some cases be bilingual. In Northern parts of Norway, municipal and informative signs may be printed in both Norwegian and Sámi
Sami languages
Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently and erroneously believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami...

.

No more than three signs (road number indications excepted) may be mounted on any one pole, with the most important sign appearing at the top. As is customary in European countries, all signs are partly or fully reflectorized or are provided with their own night-time illumination.

Norwegian signs depict stickman silhouetted persons. The current set of designs were introduced through a reform that went into effect 1 June 2006, replacing the old set from 1967. As the law outlining this reform was published 7 October 2005, some signs were already replaced before the law went into effect. The most notable change was the removal of hats and hair on the stickmen making them gender-neutral, but many signs were redesigned or introduced for the first time, as noted below.

Warning signs

Warning signs are mostly triangular, with black symbols on a white background with a red border. Warning signs that are used only temporarily have a yellow background. On Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...

, a unique warning sign with a black background and white symbol is used for polar bears.

Restrictive signs

Restrictive signs are mostly circular, with black symbols on a white background with a red border. The exceptions are zone signs which are rectangular, and no parking signs which use a red symbol on a blue background. These signs are valid from where they stand and for the entirety of the road until it is ended by another sign, or until the next crossroads depending on the specific sign.

Mandatory signs

Mandatory signs are all circular like the restrictive signs, but feature white symbols on a blue background.

Direction signs

Direction signs inform about places, businesses, routes, choice of lanes, choice of roads and distance to destinations. Direction signs with a yellow background (blue on motorways) show geographical destinations. Direction signs with a white background (or white fields on yellow and blue signs) show local destinations. Direction signs with a brown background show destinations of special interest to tourism. Orange backgrounds denote temporary detours.

Marking signs

Marking sings inform about the continuation of the road, or obstacles near or on the road. Temporary marking signs, e.g. during road works, use a red background colour.
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