| I hear you mutter: I've seen hunderds of this already.
It is indeed a very familiar European design. But still, it's
different from all other designs. The differentiating characteristics
are the round heaps and the shaft giving in under the force of the man.
A bended spade in also shown in Greece and
Norway, but in both countries the heaps are more
irregular and the Norvegian worker is struggling to keep his
feet on the ground.
This type of roadsign was also found in the northern part
of Italy.
Visit Bahnhof Ost in Basel for a work of art inspired by
the man-at-work sign.
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Switzerland is almost synonymous with efficiency and the Alps are swept
clean first thing every morning. It's therefore disturbing (and simultanously comforting)
that at least two different kinds of roadsigns are allowed to coexist.
The first type
features heaps which are round and slightly undulating. The other kind
is provided with more edgy heaps.
On both signs the worker transfers earth from one heap to the other.
His labour won't do any good to the country's cleanness. Nor to his mental equilibrium - some
countries may consider this torture - except when he's a landscape garden architect.
We have a scientific approach of the number of heaps in Argentina. |
