Every time I drive past Geiranger, I find people lounging about, enjoying the view, in an active rockfall zone where it is illegal to stop. Based on how people react when I advise them to move on, I don’t think they’ve noticed or understood the road sign. In most countries it is used to ban parking, but in Norway when it is combined with the warning sign for rockfalls, it bans all stopping for a certain distance in order to save lives. 

Usually, we accept the danger of rockfall along our roads, but there are a few places where the danger is so high that all stopping is banned. You are obligated to drive through as efficiently as possible. The Geiranger road has at least two of these, the first for one km, the second for three. There are a couple along the Hardanger fjord, and a few in Sogn that I know of. There used to be many more, but most such roads have been replaced by tunnels. I remember one place in Møre og Romsdal, where the parents demanded two school buses, so siblings could ride separately to school. That way, not all the kids would be lost if the mountain side came down. The government provided a boat instead while the tunnel was constructed. 

Only the most extreme places get this combination of signs. The warning sign for rockfalls placed alone is common, and there you are expected to use common sense. For instance by not camping under the cliffs, and getting out of there ASAP if you hear rumbling or see loose stones in the road. For the latter; please call 177 and let them know. It is often the first sign of a larger event. I don’t know how to explain it for people from flat countries; this is not me being alarmist or trying to scare tourists, but rather our reality that we deal with. One of my local roads is usually closed 5-10 times a year, for up to a week every time, due to rockfalls. Odda is usually isolated for a few days every spring, due to rockfalls and landslides blocking all roads. E134 to Haugesund has been closed for a long time due to a massive rockfall destroying the road. 

The extreme rockfall danger along the west coast is due to geology: the ancient Precambrian gneiss has been folded and turned on its side. When the softer layers erode, they cause a slip zone for the harder layers. The Tafjord tsunami was caused by this, and the coming Geiranger tsunami will be caused by the same happening in Åkneset. 

No stopping + danger of rockfall