Advertising signs and traffic safety along roads

A sign that disturbs road users' attention or blocks the view at a road junction is not just a design problem — it is a safety hazard. Therefore advertising and propaganda signs along roads and in open countryside are subject to a separate set of rules beyond ordinary municipal sign bye-laws.

Section 21 of the Nature Protection Act establishes as a general rule a prohibition against erecting signs, billboards, freestanding signs, light advertisements and other facilities for advertising or propaganda purposes in the open countryside. The provision is intended to protect both the landscape and traffic safety against signs that do not belong in urban areas.

The practical rules for when and how signs may nevertheless be put up along roads in open country are set out in the regulation on the placement of signs and other structures for advertising and propaganda purposes in open country. The Road Directorate oversees the rules along state roads and assesses among other things whether an area is considered open land.

• 01A sign can be traffic dangerous in one place but completely unproblematic in another — the assessment is always site-dependent.
• 02The Road Directorate supervises signage along state roads; the municipality supervises at municipal roads.
• 03The rules apply to both physical signs, light advertisements and other structures erected for advertising or propaganda purposes.
• 04The rules apply in open country – in urban zones it is instead the municipality's sign decree and local plan that set the framework.

If you get a task with a sign that must be placed close to a country road, motorway, or at a road intersection in open country, you should at minimum alert the customer that the placement may require special assessment by the road authority. If you are unsure whether an area is open country or urban, it is the authority — not you or the customer — that decides.

“A sign that distracts the road user at the wrong moment is not just a legal problem — it is a safety hazard for everyone on the road.”