2023-05-23 14:02:00
“According to the guidelines we use, the language of the destination is used to indicate cities on road signs along highways,” she explains. “However, we do not yet see this very frequently because the introduction is taking place gradually.”
Designations like “Rijsel (Lille)” or “Gent (Ghent)”, which we still often see today on the panels, make the signage heavier without bringing significant added value, develops the head of the Flemish agency. This sometimes results in confusion. “The motorways close to the linguistic border suffer in particular from a lack of continuity in the signage due to the frequent change of language”, she points out.
According to the Flemish Roads and Traffic Agency, it is not for nothing that the destination language is still far from appearing everywhere along the motorways. “The cost of replacing all these signs, especially if they are hanging from gantries, is quite high. This, combined with the inconvenience to road traffic, means that we are not replacing them everywhere right away, but we we do this during major road works such as the Oosterweel” in Antwerp.
Lydia Peeters calls her administration to order
For her part, the Flemish Minister for Mobility Lydia Peeters (Open Vld) calls her administration to order regarding the use of languages on these road signs.
According to the Minister, this new practice is contrary to language legislation. This “is there to be observed. I therefore request that the corresponding traffic signs at the new Antwerp-West (Antwerpen-West) interchange be adapted as a matter of urgency in accordance with the language legislation. So it will once more be Luik and name.”
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