Difference between revisions of "Signs"

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== Examples for Germany ==
 
== Examples for Germany ==
  
'''Signs for hitchhiking trough Germany:''' Write the following letter(s) on a card board sign when hitchhiking in Germany, because thus people can easily understand where you want to go to. It's always the number plate sign of the city you want to reach.
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'''Signs for hitchhiking trough Germany:''' Write the following letter(s) on a card board sign when hitchhiking in Germany, because thus people can easily understand where you want to go to. It's always the number plate sign of the city you want to reach.  For destinations with many foreign drivers it's probably better to write out the full name, e.g. there are always plenty of Polish drivers on the way from the Netherlands or Belgium towards Berlin, they might just not understand if you only put a big B.
  
 
:HH for Hamburg
 
:HH for Hamburg

Revision as of 21:33, 25 April 2010

Tmoon's collection of signs

Hitchhikers often debate about whether to use a sign. If you decide to use one there are several important things:

  • Think well about what place or text to put on it: use well known places, and sometimes also road names can be used or more humorous phrases ("I don't stink").
  • Use the same font as the route directions
  • Use contrasting colors: black on brown cardboard is not very good readable for passing drivers, black on white is far more readable
  • Write only the initial letters in capitals. The human brain detects a word not only by combining a few letters, but also by recognizing the different ascenders and descenders (the heights of the different words). When writing only in capital letters you lose this advantage. That's why street signs respect the upper and lower case.

Tip #1: Make a sign of a large sheet of brightly colored paper glued to a sheet of cardboard. Cover this with self adhesive transparent book wrap. Now you have a re-usable sign which you can use with a whiteboard marker and clean again with a small towel.

Tip #2: Make use of waterproof, dust-proof document bags. There you can store many sheets of paper and signs you can reuse. Nothing falls out, you could hang them somewhere and you can use both sides of the folder to have two signs at once. Ortlieb is one company that produces good ones.

Tip #3: Buy a pad of A4 plain paper, and use it inside a waterproof, dust-proof transparent plastic folder that you can find in most stationary shops. When writing, insert something under the page to stop the pen ink running through to the page underneath (a document bag is good for this). With a pad of paper, you can quickly flip through pages to find the sign you need. Also, the pad can be a great souvenir of your journey.

MayaCova using was using a white board with considerable success.

Tip #4: If you have a chance to plan a long hitchhiking trip in advance, some find using an erasable white board as a sign to be very useful for making big, clear and reusable signs.

Tip #5: If you're hitching in a foreign country, it might be a good thing to express your nationality on your sign. Drivers will think you're more intresting, or will feel sorry that someone who lives that far off has to stand by the road in his country. For example, Nathan and Bob, who hitched through France had great help writing '2 belges' on their sign.

Even this can work great
Some more examples


When not to use

Some hitchhikers think it could be better not to use signs at big crowded petrol stations where it's up to you to ask people, like in the United Kingdom and Germany on highway petrol stations (and speaking fluent English/German). It's not very likely that holding a sign will help if you can already clearly state where you want to go and that you are hitchhiking.

Others always have a sign. To show it to people while their still in the car and then ask them when they pass by to pay for their petrol. If they don't understand what's written on it they also ask. And I already have it with me when getting out of a car, so people sometimes ask me right away if they can take me... So it's definitely good to have it. It doesn't have any negative effects so why not use it?

One reason not to take a sign is if you are woman hitching alone and you want to have additional leverage in declining offered rides. If someone stops you ask first "where are you going?" Even if they are going exactly where you want to go, if you are not comfortable with them, tell them the ride is not going to work, but thanks anyway. Ditch the sign, they will stop without it.

In conflict with the above, a sign only makes sense when you stand next to the road. At the petrol station you could better show the driver on a map where you want to go and so he can show you where he can take you. You even don’t need to speak his language for that. The big problem with signs is that the driver must read it, then he must wonder if goes the same direction, than he wants to know if he likes your face and if he can stop somewhere...but than he realises that he passed you, he is now 500m away from you ...so he will decide to drive on!

File:Guaka my bithday2.jpg
Sometimes you can use special signs

If you just use your thumb the driver only has to decide if he likes you and if he can stop his car in this place. If he is going the right way, you can find out when he stops. Another bad idea is the use of shortcuts, because only locals know them (like HH for Hamburg). Also, the driver can see your faraway destination city and although he doesn't want to go there, he could take you for the next 200km. Most drivers don't realise how helpful they could be with these 200km, so they drive on. If you already have a lot of baggage you probably don't want to carry around another square meter of waterproofed cardboard in your backpack. Use what you find and what you can put in the next garbage can! Another option is to just use normal A4 paper and a plastic map. Some only use sometimes funny signs or at some crossroads they could be helpful and or when they're not the only hitchhiker who is standing next to the motorway. ...but it's like religion, everybody has his own idea of it!

It is possible that destination signs could increase danger as a driver can pretend to be going to your destination. This is not a problem if you are just thumbing for a lift as you can ask where the driver is going. A good compromise is to have a sign with the road name rather than your destination, this allows you to ask which direction the driver will be going.

Examples for Germany

Signs for hitchhiking trough Germany: Write the following letter(s) on a card board sign when hitchhiking in Germany, because thus people can easily understand where you want to go to. It's always the number plate sign of the city you want to reach. For destinations with many foreign drivers it's probably better to write out the full name, e.g. there are always plenty of Polish drivers on the way from the Netherlands or Belgium towards Berlin, they might just not understand if you only put a big B.

HH for Hamburg
B for Berlin
HRO for Rostock
M for Munich/München
DD for Dresden
H for Hannover/Hanover

For more cities and districts check the list at Wikipedia.