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Comment by Throw84949 | Hacker News Reader

I am immigrant, and I like "stupid" simple messages. Renting car, driving car in strange environment, dealing with speed limits, road signs in foreign language, new weather like snow... It is all already pretty stressful.

I really do not care about your stupid local humor while driving. I do not follow TV or pop music. I do not get the "references". The same way you would not get Chinese humour.

> "To the left, to the left / Passing only in the lane to the left."

I would probably read only the first part, and assume right lane is closed. Or even worse, I would be like "oh shit they drive like in UK"!!!!

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Well the good news is that all of the normal signs that tell you stuff like that are still there, and these humorous messages on the digital signs above the freeway have absolutely nothing to do with those.

So if digital board says something like "icy road" or "collision ahead" I should just ignore that as "humorous" message? It should provide real time useful information, not some BS advertising!

Imigrants are not stupid, people who listen to Beyonce are!

Doesn’t this basically conclude with “don’t let immigrants drive at all”?

If you can’t parse the difference between “collision ahead” and “use yah blinkah”, then you shouldn’t be driving at all.

“Immigrants” are not uniquely unable to parse these things.

Do you know anything about usability? And relative cultural meanings?

About 1.5 billion people drive on left (India, UK, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia....). Road sign "to the left" has VERY important meaning for big part of globe. Some people travel a lot and change left/right driving a few times every month..

But perhaps Beyonce songs and American pop culture, should be part of driving exams globally! So everyone can parse your "funny" jokes.

These signs are above the freeway. There is no way to drive on the wrong side of the freeway once you are already on it.

The people writing these messages are part of the DOT. Not surprisingly they already think of this stuff. They’re not stupid.

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