UK vs. Portugal

Sun, deep blue skies and sandy-coloured hills with deep green vegetation - we must be in southern Europe! This is the A22, approaching the junction at the end of the A2. Until very recently Portuguese motorways (or auto-estradas) were few and far between, but there is rapid expansion at present.

Much of the A22 southern coast motorway was opened in 2002, with westward extension still planned. It is free in order to draw as much traffic as possible from the N125, the old coast road, which has one of the worst safety records of any road in Europe. The A2 is more typical - fewer junctions and a toll (the word 'Portagem' means toll).

A Portuguese company invented the electronic toll collection system, which in Portugal is called 'Via Verde' - now used all over the world.

Another section of A22, approaching junction 5. Newer auto-estradas seem very well designed, with lots of heavy engineering (particularly long viaducts) to cross quite ordinary terrain, wide sweeping curves and good sightlines. This sign at 2km from the exit is the first for any junction.

The second sign will look familiar to British motorists - a motorway fork sign. The symbol in a white box is a fountain and refers to Monchique's spa.

Another advanced feature is the provision of solar-powered emergency telephones at frequent intervals. A full hard shoulder is maintained throughout.

On joining, there's a barrage of signs once you hit the main carriageway. The first of these specifies upper and lower speed limits, but the second is clearly an attempt to explain something that must be a novelty to Portuguese motorists. It simply says "sound guides for your safety" - referring to the rumble strips that have been used on our roads for many years. They seem to be improving Portuguese lane discipline (or at least stopping people from drifting into the hard shoulder).

The high level of investment (mostly thanks to EU money) doesn't stop at the evolving network of auto-estradas: this section of N125 has been equipped with a stunning new bridge, about three years before the parallel A22 took most of its traffic load.

The Portuguese have no fear of urban road construction - though some of the urban roads they construct can be quite fearsome to drive. This major road passes through Portimao in the Algarve, and despite having no central reservation, a support for the bridge has been dropped into the middle of the road, causing the lanes to suddenly narrow and swerve away. It's guarded by some striped plastic markers.

There is also a typical European love for simple right-of-way junctions to be engineered with lots of traffic islands. This example at Silves is made particularly interesting by the fact that the road directly ahead is a brand new grade-separated dual carriageway until about 200m before the junction. Most of its traffic is heading for the town to the right.

Outside major towns, traffic lights can be a rarity. Most have red lights that are larger than amber and green (like the top light here). Signals are always preceded by pairs of flashing amber lights mounted to the side and above the road.

Many street lights are on concrete supports and these continue to be installed. This particular four-way one, in the middle of a roundabout at Faro's marina, is now the home of a stork.

Portugal probably has the most prominent bus stops of any country I've visited. Even seemingly minor country lanes had a bus stop in each direction outside the smallest gathering of houses, always marked out with a large blue sign like this one, and often with a shelter too. Once, I saw a bus as well.

Portugal's road signs are made more interesting by the fact that they use both Transport and Motorway, the typefaces developed for British signs. Many countries use Transport but Portugal is very unusual in also borrowing Motorway.

This sign is on an exit sliproad from the A22, approaching the dumbbell junction above. For some reason it provides directions to get back on the A22. But the most interesting point here is the road that is crossing us - a spur of the N124 which, in a fit of bureaucracy, has been named N124-1.

Back on the auto-estrada, the exit sliproad is signposted using the colour scheme of whatever road is reached; in this case black-on-white.

While the road numbers are in Motorway (with taller digits), the letter prefix (A and N) is in Transport, because Motorway doesn't include an N. The junction number is also in Motorway.

Portuguese road numbers are unfathomable - A for Auto-estrada, IP for Primary Itinerary, IC for Complementary Itinerary, then N for National as the lowest class. Here we are on the IC4 into Faro, unless you read the right-hand sign, which thinks it's the N125-4.

As well as brown-background tourist signs, Portugal also uses orange-background signs for sport and leisure facilities.

Out on the minor roads, the black-and-white signs are reminiscent of France, with each destination on a separate flag, though the Portuguese aren't as fussy about having all the sign panels the exact same width. The design of the signs themselves is very British.

These older flag signs are the standard European design, which Portugal has seemingly abandoned in favour of the British chevron (above). Take that, France! They take the interesting approach of having all signs the same size, with the text of each sign then made as BIG AS POSSIBLE.

In urban areas the European flag sign survives, and stacks of them like this are commonplace, replacing most other direction signs once you get within a built-up area of any size. Often they mix place names (Lisbon and Faro) with urban destinations (hospital and market) indiscriminately just to add to the enjoyment.

All these signs so far have been excellent at keeping to the standards - unexpected given Spain's record in that area and Portugal's reputation for a relaxed attitude to life. So it wouldn't be right if we missed out on some seriously shoddy signs like this one - they don't turn up as often as you might expect, but when they do, they're very bad! This particular one has vast expanses of white space and uses Helvetica instead of Transport.

Faro is the largest urban area in the Algarve and as such fancies itself as a cosmopolitan sort of place - perhaps that's why it paints its signpost with a jaunty stripe of whatever colour the sign is.

There was clearly a concerted recent effort to start educating drivers and improving the road safety record. As well as a heavy police presence (with zero tolerance policy), these signs were popping up at every corner and town boundary. They all carried obscure messages written in an illegible font with an unnecessary picture, but this was my favourite: "Mr Driver, moderate your speed"!

The education was for pedestrians too. This sign says what British public information films said in the late 1960s: "Signals on the Avenue / To cross PUSH the red button / Wait for the green light / Continue in safety".

Small urban areas on fast rural roads often had traffic calming - but instead of an engineering solution these took the form of a random set of traffic lights. These warning signs preceded a set of signals placed at the entrance to the town (not relating to any crossing or junction) that would periodically turn red for ten seconds. Needless to say it was only the tourists who stopped for them.

At St Vincent's Point, this lighthouse stands on the westernmost point on the European mainland. And at the bottom of the picture is, quite literally, the end of the road!