In Latvia, 34 indications of the distance to Moscow are fixed on a 60 km long regional road section / Article

For long-distance drivers, everyday life is spent behind the wheel, driving on the roads of different countries, however, in order not to get lost, they rarely look at similar signs, because they use navigation.

“I don’t really know how anyone can watch something like that these days,” said Gatis Roze, executive director of SIA “AEEG transport”. “For example, in Poland, where road repairs are constantly taking place, navigations are more difficult there, so you have to look more at the signs. Where those roads are built, you can really drive with navigations, there are no problems. “

The description of the road says that it has ten two-level junctions. So, theoretically, a completely absent-minded driver who wants to go to Moscow can turn off the roads ten times and go to one of the small towns in Latvia. However, the number of signs goes well beyond the number ten alone.

Traffic and car expert Timrots is categorical – in this time of the war started by Russia, there should not be signs to the capital of the aggressor country, because symbols, signs and words have a huge meaning.

“Even if there are some standards, as it should be done according to the principles of road construction in peacetime, then in wartime we can ignore this standard, proving that this is our gesture and our attitude,” Timrot admitted. “If I see that we demolished that object in Pārdaugava, if we rename the streets in Riga, then why the hell are we leaving an inscription on our own highways, at our own expense, for a city that we rather hate and are not going to drive there?”

The solution would be to indicate the farthest place in Latvia before the border, where you can reach by driving along the specific road. Otherwise, any other city to the east can be specified.

“We write that you can go to Ulaanbaatar or Tokyo; somewhere that way!” suggested Timroth. “Why do we have to write exactly that city? You can go to Georgia. Let’s put something like that, some friendlier place for us.”

As a traffic expert emphasized, by keeping and illuminating the sign of the city that is bombing Kyiv, “we are making the environment toxic for ourselves.”

Meanwhile, “4. studio” received the following explanation from the company “Latvijas Valsts ceļi” about why so many conspicuous signs about the capital of Russia are needed:

“Direction signs are placed at intersections, indicating the end points of the respective routes. In this case, a large poster road sign is installed before each multi-level road node, which depicts the entire node and directions. When entering the node, direction indicators of a specific route are installed, while behind the node, there are distance indicators, which also appear the settlements located behind the node – according to the principle nearest, middle, farthest.”