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European traffic signals explained
(mastodon.online)
Blue square is more like
"Eat a banana if you can, but no pressure"
More like you have to eat the banana here if you want to eat a banana
This is false, the signs are about whether you can, should or can't peel a banana.
And a warning of a peeled banana.
Right! Obviously different from a warning for a hazardous banana peel:
And the warning sign for two unpeeled bananas, (really dangerous stuff)
Also, we import ~~all~~ most of our bananas from outside the EU.
//Edit: I stand corrected. :)
Banana da Madeira from Portugal left the chat
🤓 Ackshually one can get EU-grown bananas from the French DOM-TOM.
or the Spanish Canary islands. To my own surprise EU grown bananas make up over 10% of EU banana consumption:
I was once driving though one of the island (La Palma IIRC) and stopped to ask some older guy for directions. They guys says "yes, you're going in the right directions. do you want some bananas?". We thought he wants so sell us some so since he was nice to us we were like "sure, well take some". The guy goes to his garage and comes out with huge bunch of bananas. We're like 'eee... how much is that?" and he goes "no, just take them, I have too many".
The Spanish banana industry must be fairly recent, as in the 1960s, the largest producer of banana in Europe was said to be Iceland, largely from a few experimental greenhouses.
It is not. Bananas have been introduced to southern Spain by the Arab Conquest. The industry on the Canary Islands is obviously newer, but was run as large scale plantations since the beginning of the last century. However the Canary Islands are probably African rather then Europe.
There is also banana production on the Azores (Portugal), including on the islands that are on the European tectonic plate.
Holy crap bananas grow so much further north than I expected, even without the gulf stream. Or wait never mind, the gulf stream apparently hugs North America until Virginia before heading to Europe. Wild stuff
A lot of, not all. In Spain, most bananas are produced domestically in the Canary Islands. Also there's a small but significant production in the French Caribbean.
Spain does grow some.
It's Your turn to eat the banana.
Depends on where in europe i guess.
Does it? Where in Europe is it different?
for blue signs it's not the shape that matters. a blue sign with an arrow is always a must. circular ones indicate what you need to do in your current lane (eg "keep right"), square ones on a lane you could turn onto (eg "the crossing road is one-way in this → direction")
It absolutely is the shape that matters. A blue circle with an arrow indicates you MUST follow it, a blue square with an arrow indicates you CAN follow it. A blue circle with an arrow pointing forward can be replaced with a red circle with arrows pointing in every other direction, because it indicates a mandatory, I.e. you must eat the banana.
it varies. france and norway have some square mandatory "keep " arrows and sweden has the aforementioned "one-way in your direction" square arrow.
No, in general the shape 100% matters. Rectangular signs (not to be confused with supplementary plates) are almost always purely informational, with the singular exception that you mention ("one way" which is regulatory). See also: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/know-your-traffic-signs/regulatory-signs
idk if using the uk in particular as an example there is very useful.
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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