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Well the biggest difference is that the dutch signs would completely fail to communicate the parking restrictions for a busy street.

Its not uncommon for streets to allow parking but not at night or during rush hours so that all lanes can be used for traffic.

For instance the usual restrictions are no parking before 6am and then no parking between 7 and 9am and then no parking between 4 and 6pm and then no parking after midnight.

The dutch signs are fine for sleepy towns but wouldn't be acceptable for a city.




There are busy streets in Holland as well. Such more complex restrictions are perfectly possible with the Dutch style signs. Northern Europe goes by traffic signs adhering to Vienna convention, and while rules are not always that simple, getting the basic message does not require you to read the local language. The signs are standardised within nations, and not that different across nations in EU.

Let's take an example (Google Maps link below). The round sign with blue background with red stripe over it is "no parking", and the additional sign below says "payment required during 9-20 hours weekdays, 16-20 hours Saturdays, 16-20 hours Sundays, other times free parking", then "price zone 2, maximum parking time with payment is 2 hours", then "free parking with resident parking permit for zone H". And the blue sign is "payment machine that way".

https://www.google.fi/maps/@60.178388,24.927116,3a,15y,18.47...


Those signs are from our largest cities (500k-800k inhabitants). We just don't have such complicated restrictions, probably because we have a stronger separation between through roads and parking space. We just don't have any parking space that is used as a traffic lane during rush hours; if you can park at all in a multiple-lane street, the space tends to be clearly separated. Street cleaning happens during the day; cleaners just have to deal with traffic and parked cars.




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