Town sign
A town sign or city limit sign is a road sign placed at the side of the road or street at the boundary of the territory of a city, town, or village. Town signs may be placed for reading both by drivers entering the town and, in a different format, by those exiting it. Signs give the name of the town in the local official languages, and sometimes in other languages. In some countries, town signs are also an essential part of the traffic law, for example by defining the speed limit within the town's territory.
By country
In some countries, such as Germany and Austria, town signs aren't placed exactly at the city/town boundary, but rather where the continuous urban area begins and ends.Austria
Bilingual sign issue
On September 6, 1994, Austrian lawyer Rudi Vouk drove faster than the speed limit of 50 kilometers per hour while driving through St. Kanzian, also known as Škocjan. In the court case that followed, Vouk refused to pay the speeding ticket, arguing that the monolingual sign was unconstitutional.In December 2006, the Constitutional Court of Austria found that city limit signs had to be bilingual. The facts of the case were that the district authority of Völkermarkt District had ordered signs for the city limits of Bleiburg, Ebersdorf, and Schwabegg to be put up only in German. After this was found to be unconstitutional, the signs were also put up in Slovenian, but smaller; the court found that this too was unconstitutional.
As of 2010, the issue of bilingual city signs in Austria has not been resolved.