Road signs in Vilnius

Road signs in Lithuania ensure that transport vehicles move safely and orderly, as well as to inform the participants of traffic built-in graphic icons. These icons are governed by the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic and Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals.[1]

Sign design is most similar to countries that comprised the now dissolved USSR with most of the signs having identical design. This includes neighboring Belarus and Russia. Neighboring post-Soviet Baltic countries Latvia and Estonia which were also part of Soviet Union have modified their road sign designs a little bit further than the road sign standard that was applied for the whole USSR before dissolution in the early 1990s.

Lithuanian road sign design saw minor changes in 2014. Some of the warning signs design were changed, a few new signs were added, like the sign indicating speed bump (formerly uneven road sign was used for indicating speed bumps), or sign indicating emergency stopping lane. Also, Lithuania is the only post-Soviet state to use both a blue and green background on the "Motorway" road sign. Lithuania formerly used only green background on the "Motorway" road sign, as do the rest of the post-Soviet states.

History

The first road signs arrived in Lithuania on October 1, 1930 after the President of the Republic Antanas Smetona signed the International Convention on automobile traffic.[2] In 1940, after the Soviet Union occupied and subsequently annexed Lithuania, the Soviet road traffic rules and road signs, which had been in force in the Soviet Union since 1936, were adopted in Lithuania. On January 1, 1980, the standard GOST 10807-78 (Russian: ГОСТ 10807-78) was adopted in the Soviet Union, including the territory of present-day Lithuania. In 1990, after Lithuania restored its independence by the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania and the dissoltion of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviet road sign design used remained unchanged.[3]

Due to the fact that modern road signs in Lithuania are very similar in design to Soviet signs, including modern Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan signs, there have been proposals to change the design of road signs used in Lithuania. In 2020, Seimas deputy Kęstutis Masiulis addressed the Minister of Transportation Jaroslavas Narkevičius with a proposal to change the design of road signs, which had not been changed since Soviet times.[4] He stated the following about it:

Lietuvos kelio ženklų dizainas per 30 laisvos Lietuvos metų mažai keitėsi ir yra beveik toks pat, kaip buvo naudojamas Sovietų Sąjungoje, o dabar vis dar yra naudojamas Rusijoje, Baltarusijoje, Ukrainoje, Moldovoje ir kitur. Taip simboliškai vis dar esame buvusios SSRS įtakos zonoje. Lenkijoje, Vokietijoje, Prancūzijoje ir kitose Vakarų Europos šalyse kelio ženklinimo dizainas pastebimai skiriasi nuo lietuviško. Jeigu jau esame Vakarų pasaulio dalis, kodėl vis dar išlaikome net ir simbolines sąsajas su SSRS?

The design of Lithuanian road signs has changed little in the 30 years of free Lithuania, and is almost identical to that used in the Soviet Union and still used in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and elsewhere. Symbolically, we are still in the zone of influence of the former USSR. In Poland, Germany, France and other Western European countries, the design of road markings is markedly different from that in Lithuania. If we are already part of the Western world, why do we still retain even symbolic links with the USSR?

— Kęstutis Masiulis

Warning signs

Priority signs

Prohibitory signs

Mandatory signs

Regulatory signs

Information signs

Service signs

Additional panels

References

  1. ↑ Kelių eismo taisyklių 1 priedas – www.ketbilietai.lt
  2. ↑ Žičkus, Ričardas. "Įdomioji istorija: pirmieji kelio ženklai Lietuvoje, kai dar nereikėjo žalių rodyklių". 15min.lt/verslas (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  3. ↑ "Konservatorius nerimsta: vėl kreipėsi į susisiekimo ministrą dėl "sovietinių kelio ženklų keitimo"". infa.lt (in Lithuanian). 2022-05-16. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  4. ↑ "Konservatoriui nepatinka sovietinio dizaino kelio ženklai". Kauno diena (in Lithuanian). 2020-01-21. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
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