No Pedestrians

Pedestrians are banned here; the figure shows who the ban applies to. The design follows the international rule for prohibition signs: a red ring, often with a diagonal bar, around a picture of the thing forbidden. Put a cigarette inside and you get no smoking; put a bicycle inside and you get no bicycles. 🚷 puts a walking person inside, so the forbidden thing is being there on foot.

The real sign is one of the prohibitory signs of the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Signs, which most of Europe, much of Asia and many other countries follow, where it is called “No entry for pedestrians.” You meet it at the mouth of a tunnel, a bridge or a fast road that has no footway, at the start of a private or industrial access road, and at the end of a footpath that stops at a carriageway. Motorways and similar expressways are closed to walkers by law, so the ban there is usually implied rather than posted at every slip road.

The United States uses a different convention. Its closest sign shows the same crossed-out figure but is titled “No Pedestrian Crossing,” and it forbids crossing the road at that spot, often sending you to a crosswalk, rather than closing a whole route. So an American reader tends to see 🚷 as “don't cross here,” while a European reader sees “no walking along here.” Both are correct for the signs each is used to.

What does it mean when someone sends 🚷?

Usually a practical note: you can't, or shouldn't, go on foot. In plans and directions it stands for “take the bus or drive,” “the path is closed,” “that bridge has no footway” or “don't try walking from the station.” Hikers, runners and travellers use it next to a photo of a shut trail or a closed promenade, and councils and venue accounts use it in notices about closures and road works.

Away from directions it works as a blunt keep-out or a joke. Next to “my room,” “the kitchen until dinner” or “the office on Monday” it reads as “nobody comes in.” After a long day it can mean “I am done walking,” and in a reply it can be a playful “stay away from me.” The tone comes entirely from the words around it; on its own it is a sign, not a feeling.