Sign Spotting: Part 2– Canadian Signage

By Lauren Smith @AlbatrossTales

For some reason, it seems like a lot of my sign picture collection comes from Canada. Maybe I just paid more attention to signs because I was traveling alone, and I had the freedom to take the time to stop and take pictures. But I also think that there was a greater number of interesting signage.

Whatever the reason, here are a few more signs for your sign-spotting enjoyment.



On the ferry to Grand Manan Island

What does this mean?

I think it has to do with emergency procedures, in the event that the ferry has technical difficulties and starts sinking or otherwise becomes unusable.

As far as I can tell, this sign is instructing you to do the following:

  • Gather in a group, small children in front. You will change from a small power-walking person into either a large white-bodied person, or a small or medium-sized green-bodied person.
  • Hanging lifeboat. (How is this an instruction? Do you gather at the hanging lifeboat? If so, it shouldn’t be in it’s own seperate square on the sign. Or is this just informative, to let you know that there is a hanging lifeboat?)
  • Run towards the white rectangle (I’m guessing this is the door). Question: is this the door out to the deck? Also, it’s a good thing that stick-figure is hunched over, because he definitely would hit his head if he wasn’t.

I’m confused by the order. Gather and then run? Shouldn’t you maybe run outside and gather at the lifeboat? The gathering of people and the lifeboat are seperate pictures, hence the confusion with the order. And aren’t you not supposed to run in case of emergency? Don’t they always tell you to calmly walk to the nearest exit? And in that running picture, are you running inside or outside? Though you can’t tell from this picture, the way out to the deck was actually to the right, not the left, as the arrow is indicating.

Confusion.

Anyway, here is where I believe you are meant to gather, in case of an event necessitating such measures:

At one of these fun-looking lifeboat pods. Well, I’m assuming that these are lifeboat pods, based on the pictures on them. To me they look like giant barrels, but apparently they open up into lifeboats.

Which, if you follow these instructions, turn into life boats. Not sure how that happens, but I guess it works.

Somehow this goes from being a white barrel to a giant orange lifeboat (See steps 5 to 6, 3rd row down). I guess when you pull the cord magic transformation happens.

These seem to make more sense than that first sign at least. However, I’m not sure where you go to get the green suit which all the people in the diagram are wearing.

Luckily, we didn’t have to test this on either of my trips on the ferry.


Riverside Albert

One last picture, also from Canada, a tiny town outside of Fundy National Park, in New Brunswick.

The sign reads:

Welcome to Riverside Albert

Home Of

Heritage Buildings * Old Bank Museum

Crooked Creek Trail/ Park & Lookout

NB Trail System * Free Email

Free email?!?!?! Whaaaaat? No way!

I’m definitely stopping there!

(note: I didn’t stop there. Other than to take this picture. I didn’t want to be the one to them that you can get free email from anywhere with an internet connection.)



There’s a few more pictures yet to come, so stay tuned!