I know this is old, but it is a bit irksome that this post is titled “Fact of the day” when it can’t even keep its facts straight about which country does what.
Those signs aren’t from Sweden. Our traffic agency (who prints the signs) doesn’t use ‘fart’ meaning ‘speed’ - except for ‘gångfartsområde’, ‘walking speed area’, which disappointingly enough doesn’t even have the text on it - but mainly uses ‘hastighet’ meaning ‘velocity’. Other commenters in this thread have posted examples of ‘fart’ in a different meaning being used on Swedish traffic signs.
“fart” is colloquial swedish for speed, but it’s not used on signs like that. as mentioned previously the correct word is “hastighetskontroll”, but we don’t actually have signs like that for permanent speed cameras. those signs are blue, and just depict a camera.
when “fart” appears on signs, the actual meaning is akin to “travel” or “fare”, like german “fahr-” words. so we have “sjöfart” (seafaring), “rymdfart” (space travel), “fartvind” (wind rushing by when moving quickly), “uppfart” (driveway) and, importantly for signs, “utfart” and “infart” (exit and entry for vehicles).
my favorite of this is a sign nearby on a narrow road that warns about multiple exits with no sight lines.
You’re never going to believe this -
Unbelievable
I will never not laugh at this
Always practice fartkontrol, when you go to the slutstation.
This is either Norwegian or Danish.
It’s true that ‘fart’ means speed in Swedish, but in this context ‘hastighet’ would be used (~‘hastiness’).
i think we figured out last time this was posted that it’s danish.
‘Hastighet’ means velocity.
You’re just fartblind.
Probably Denmark then. European route E47 goes from Germany to Sweden, E55 from Greece to Sweden. In Denmark they share the same physical road for a while.
Hmm I’ve been to Sweden and I’ve seen many fart kontrol signs. I know because I took funny selfies in front of them
then you weren’t in sweden. we dont even signpost them.
‘Fart’ does refer to speed occasionally, but the key here is that it’s always called ‘Hastighetskontroll’ in Swedish. Note the double ‘L’ in ‘kontroll’ and the compounding of ‘hastighet’ and ‘kontroll’.
I guess this is where we get “haste”?
and “fart” is where you get “fare”, as in to travel. or rather, we both got them from german.
It’s not the fart that kills, but the smell.
For the uninitiated: This is a Swenglish joke, a mistranslation of “It’s not the speed(/fart) that kills, but the impact(/smäll)”
That kind of speed is called hastighet in Swedish…
What is that 2 - 12 kmh sign? A speed limit for a pedestrian road?
I guess you need to expect your farts being controlled over the next 2-12 km.
It’s not km/h, just km. So maybe from km 2 to km 12 on this road, they are “controlling the farts”.
Hah, just wait until you get to the slutstation!
I am only learning this now??!?!
this post stinks
I have to say, I normally find the “ha-ha, this word sounds like something else in English” stuff to be a bit… provincial, but I’ll admit some are a bit
.
