On reclaiming road sign culture

(Baonghean) -I don't remember clearly, about 15 years ago, people replaced road signs (BBDB), the type with the name of the town, in some places, the name of the city, town with the image of a multi-story building with a red slash to indicate the end of the city, urban area... And the image of a blue high-rise building without a red slash to indicate that an urban area is coming...

What we want to discuss first is that the red cross means that something needs to be removed, not allowed to exist, or is a signal to prohibit a dangerous thing from being done. Second, using a blue drawing of a multi-storey house to indicate the approach of an urban area is not suitable for reality. Because, currently, in many rural areas, the ratio of multi-storey houses per capita is much higher than in urban areas.

Specifically, the two communes of Cuong Gian and Xuan Hoi in Nghi Xuan district - Ha Tinh province, have a higher per capita average than Vinh city. Nghi Xuan district is right next to Vinh city. When going from Vinh city to Nghi Xuan, we see the red diagonal lines drawn on the road with multi-storey houses, proving that there are no more multi-storey houses in Nghi Xuan? This is unreasonable and impractical, and does not satisfy the people, making many people upset. Third, there are disadvantages of the red diagonal lines, for example, when traffic participants, especially those traveling for the first time by bus, when they want to go to work in a commune, district, town, or city, when the bus has passed the place they intend to get off, they have to go back, often having to walk very hard, especially for those carrying heavy, bulky luggage. Or when a bus passes the place where a group of passengers intend to get off, the bus must stop in the middle of the road for passengers and their luggage to get off, causing congestion and obstructing traffic, especially when there are many people and luggage. If the bus turns back, it will obstruct traffic because on that stretch of road there will be 2 more buses going in the opposite direction, also causing traffic congestion. Along with the above disadvantages is the waste of time. The writer himself has traveled many times with many buses, because there was no BBDB recording the location, the whole group (sometimes 3-4 buses) had to turn back, leaving little time to work, sometimes running late and missing work. Recently, on September 29, 2012, we traveled from Tam Ky - Nui Thanh - Quang Nam to Vinh to meet a close friend we had not seen for a long time. That person had prepared a party to entertain the group over the phone, but because there was no BBDB recording any location, the bus drove nearly 40 km too far. It was inconvenient to come back so we had to miss the appointment, very sad for both sides.

Thus, it is necessary to reclaim the BBDB culture. That is, instead of the urban cross-shaped sign, we can make a large sign with the name of the place. For example, when people go from Vinh City to Ha Tinh, when they see the BBDB with the word Nghi Xuan, they will immediately know that they have passed through Vinh City. Similarly, if they go from Nghi Xuan to Nghe An, when they see the BBDB with the word Vinh City, they will know that they have passed Nghi Xuan to enter Vinh City with many cultural and historical imprints... Thus, the BBDB with the name of the place on both sides is an outdoor historical and geographical museum.

Currently, many people earnestly want the relevant authorities (such as the Ministry of Transport) to, if possible, establish a BBDB Project Board with the place names on both sides of all routes from the central to local levels, to both restore a BBDB cultural feature and limit many shortcomings as mentioned.

Dr. Ho Ba Quynh (35, Ho Han Thuong, Vinh City)