what does this sign in the netherlands mean?

June 29, 2010 12:46 PM

What on earth does this sign mean?

We saw this sign on a few trains in The Netherlands on a recent trip. We can't figure out what it is supposed to mean!

Can anyone help?

posted by crapples to Grab Bag (17 answers total)

Don't throw bottles out the window?
posted by Perplexity at 12:47 PM on June 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

don't throw bottles out the window
posted by jannw at 12:47 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yes, it's telling you not to litter.
posted by venividivici at 12:49 PM on June 29, 2010

There's no line through the red circle, so it's not a "do not" sign.

I think it's warning you that your beverage may tip over.
posted by goblinbox at 12:52 PM on June 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

I think the red circle itself means don't do it, so one more vote for don't throw bottles out the window
posted by dabug at 12:55 PM on June 29, 2010

Not familiar with transit in The Netherlands, but that looks like the general design of a train window. I, too, vote for don't throw your stuff out of the window.
posted by phunniemee at 1:03 PM on June 29, 2010

If you were on a train or bus I would think it means Hang On To Your Beverage, with sudden stops, starts, turns, it's susceptible to spill.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 1:04 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm with Gerard Sorme - it looks like a warning that if you put a bottle on that ledge it will spill.
posted by kanewai at 1:11 PM on June 29, 2010

Another possibility is that the bottle is not a bottle but a generic blunt object, and the sign is saying "in an emergency, don't break this window."
posted by smackfu at 1:13 PM on June 29, 2010

Best answer: In traffic signs, the red circle in itself is prohibitory - which seems to be the case in the Netherlands from the wiki article. Perhaps the more emphatic 'no' sign with the red line through the middle isn't used because it makes the shape of the window and bottle (and thus the message of the sign) less clear?

Of course, the big question would be - did the train have openable windows? If was an air conditioned train with no windows that open, then we're definitely wrong!
posted by Coobeastie at 1:13 PM on June 29, 2010

Well ... I live in Amsterdam, and it says don't throw bottles (or other litter) out the window.
posted by jannw at 1:13 PM on June 29, 2010

Best answer: It is, as others have said, a "don't throw things out the window" sign. A lot of "do not" signs here in NL (maybe all of them, I couldn't swear to it) just have a red circle, without a line through it. No idea why, it's just a different convention.
posted by rubbish bin night at 1:14 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's harder to make a sign with a line through the center that still makes sense, since you end up blocking a lot of the icon. So I can see why they would come up with an alternative.
posted by smackfu at 1:17 PM on June 29, 2010

I saw a similar sign on a train in the UK and asked a conductor what it meant. He said "don't throw bottles out the window." "People do that?" I asked naively. After pondering for a few moments I then realized that I'd grown up riding Amtrak and VIA Rail trains, neither of which have windows that can be opened. And hanging on to bottles has been ingrained in me since I was a youngin' and Michigan's bottle return law went into effect in the mid-1970s. Ten cents for pop bottles and 5 cents for beer bottles. (Doesn't sound like a lot, but back when outdoor concert venues still let you bring in your own beer, my brother and I would take a supply of trash bags with us to Pine Knob and collect as many empties as we could carry. He was able to buy a Commodore 64 after a 18 months of diligent collecting.)
posted by Oriole Adams at 1:23 PM on June 29, 2010

A lot of "do not" signs here in NL (maybe all of them, I couldn't swear to it) just have a red circle, without a line through it.
Yes, see Dutch traffic signs. A round sign with a red band means that you cannot do something. A triangle with a red band means that you should watch out for something.
posted by davar at 1:28 PM on June 29, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks! Growing up in the US I assumed that no red slash meant that it was not a prohibitory sign. When I first saw it I thought "Please do throw bottles out the window", but that didn't make much sense.

Thanks - The mystery is solved.
posted by crapples at 1:40 PM on June 29, 2010

The bottle floating on the line thing makes me wonder if it isn't a "this is a rescue window should you need to escape" alert.
posted by gjc at 6:54 PM on June 29, 2010