Is it just me or do you folks out there think that we have far too many road signs cluttering up the roads and verges.
I'm thinking of the local back lane where we seem to have 40 mph repeaters every couple of hundred yards and the 'best kept' villages with horrible double yellow lines everywhere.
There also seems to be an explosion of those brown 'places to visit ' signs usually on the way to some minor attraction.
Are they all necessary? Couldn't we have someone getting rid of unnecessary signs instead of sticking new ones up everywhere?
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Have to agree, metallic jungles of too much information....
Also, what were once plain grey roads, have been coated in swathes of communist red paint and silly messages stripes. The whole thing looks tacky and babyish.
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Why is it necessary to place a speed limit immediatly prior to a NSL sign.
It must be me, but I seem to see an awful lot of it going on.
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And every post is one more collision hazard.
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Not if you drive on the road!
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Its a very relevant point.
Twice last week in the icy conditions I saw accidents which were exacerbated by hitting this verge furniture .
In one a car had hit and broken a very tall concrete lighting column . I'm not advocating getting rid of every light but it caused a lot more damage than otherwise would have happened in a normal skid. Try flying into Gatwick at night and see whether we have too many streetlights. What are car headlights for?
The second numskull would have been alright going straight over the roundabout if it hadn't been for the massive stretch of chevrons that he took with him. So what happened to the old keep left arrow?
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Why is it necessary to place a speed limit immediatly prior to a NSL sign. It must be me, but I seem to see an awful lot of it going on.
Just off the A309 Old Kingston Bypass there is a 30 mph road going to Claygate. Just before a T junction it then becomes NSL. If you are turning left you have 36 FEET before reverting to 30 mph. If you turn right on NSL you immediately face a narrow, unlit, blind Z bend over a humpback bridge.
I guess there is a good explanation for this arrangement!!!!
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Hi H - Totally agree! Take a trip to Croydon someday and witness for yourself the plethora of confusing signs - it must be the road sign centre of England. To make matters worse, many of the signs relate to restrictions which operate part time and the new tram link requires its own sign network. It's all a nightmare! I don't drive there anymore.
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I think it would be nice to see signs rationalised, maybe even basic ones doubled up on one post if possible. However one thing that does annoy me and it's maybe going against what this topic was about, is the lack of speed limit signs or the size of some speed limit signs.
For example, you are in a new area looking for your destination, it's a busy road and your eyes don't always pick up what the speed limit is. It looks like a nice open road but you later find a sign of 40mph about 3 miles down the road. If you need a lower limit becuase of previous accidents on a road, at least remind more often of what the speed is.
Our ring road has been a 40mph zone for a long time, until recently a speed camera was put in and the limit dropped to 30mph. No large 30 limit signs to tell you, just small oblong ones with a camera picture above. Why can't there be nice big clear signs telling everyone of the speed limit?
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"For example, you are in a new area looking for your destination, it's a busy road and your eyes don't always pick up what the speed limit is. "
I believe that if the road has streetlights and has no speed limit signs, it is by default a 30mph zone.
V
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Volvoman - I visit Croydon most weeks for my sin's and totally agree.
I lived and worked there for a number of years and revisiting after a couple of years away I got completely confused by a new one way system and found myself in the High St (supposedly buses only )having arrived there the wrong way down a one way next to M & S which had previously been one way the other way if you can follow that!
A kindly foot policeman mopped my fevered brow and guided me back onto the race track that is Wellesley Road where I still see morons who forgo the subway and cross the road 2/3 lane , tramlines ,central railings and another 2/3 lanes just to get to the Whitgift centre 20 seconds quicker.
I actually witnessed a fatality there when an old lady attempted to cross Wellesley ( before trams ) right next to subway, looked the correct way and stepped out to be hit and killed by a lorry reversing slowly because he'd missed his turn.
I saw the ambulance helicopter land in Wellesley road on another occasion when somebody tried to commit suicide ( understandable in Croydon) by jumping from the top of the Car Park.
One of the hairiest take offs I've seen missing trees and street lights by very little margin.
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Our local rag showed a bus stop that has been errected a distance from the Bus Stop sign. So if you wait in the dry the bus passes you by!
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Worse are the road signs that that are there to inform you of speed limits or obscured turnings etc that you completely miss due to the fact that the majority of it is embedded deep within a hedge that the council hasn't got round to pruning yet.
Fill what's empty, empty what's full and scratch where it itches!
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Could the plethora of road signs be in any way connected to the proliferation des apareils de vitesse?
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I think it must be part of the dumbing down process....
You buy a hot drink it says "Caeful Hot Drink" on the cip.
You go to a railway station, and it will tell you not to go near the edge when a train passes by.
You go in a lift and it tells you not to get trapped in the doors.
You buy a mower, and it tells you not to mow your feet or grab the spinning blade etc....
red sign..."New road surface" - what's that all about? Surely ones warning of the plethora of old worn out ones would be more useful.
To protect man from his folly, is to produce a nation of fools.
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I think it must be part of the dumbing down process.... You buy a hot drink it says "Caeful Hot Drink" on the cip. You go to a railway station, and it will tell you not to go near the edge when a train passes by. You go in a lift and it tells you not to get trapped in the doors. You buy a mower, and it tells you not to mow your feet or grab the spinning blade etc.... red sign..."New road surface" - what's that all about? Surely ones warning of the plethora of old worn out ones would be more useful. To protect man from his folly, is to produce a nation of fools.
And, as we did last week, you buy a new dishwasher and the manual contains stern warnings not to touch the heating element as it will get hot in use. Really?
Bags of KP salted peanuts warn that "this product may contain nuts". May??!!
I also recall a Vauxhall handbook from the 80s that warned you to close the dors gently to avoid unnecessary noise, so it might not be such a new thing.
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I agree it all looks pretty stupid but I believe it's less to do with dumbing down than it is to do with the very real fear of litigation.
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Which flows from:
(a) the assumption that Americans speak roughly the same language so their legal system is the same as ours and
(b) their penchant for the lethal combination of (i) no-win-no-fee lawyers who (ii) work on a percentage basis, (iii) the lack of any concept of contributory negligence, and (iv) punitive jury-awarded damages.
Sadly, the thrust of our legal reforms is to move us generally in that direction. We manage to improve on it miraculously, though, by having hugely expensive lawyers and the ever-present risk that you will have to pay the other side's fees.
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Well H - we have something in common. I got done for £40 a few years ago in very similar circumstances to yours. Trying to drop my late wife and youngest son off to do some Xmas shopping and rather than stop briefly on a yellow line, I headed for a quiet side road I knew the other side of the underpass opposite the rear of Allders. With no advance warning and an array of confusing signs I quickly found all my exits blocked or prohibited and my only option was to drive through part of a bus lane at the main traffic lights. I got done by a roasdside camera and paid the fine but did write to LBC explaining just how confusing all the signs were. Incidentally the young lady I spoke to when paying my fine said she'd had exactly the same problem with all the thoroughly confusing signs. You just don't have time to take them all in whilst driving. I did feel very aggrieved about this and consequently haven't shopped in Croydon since.
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Well Volvo - I agree you were unlucky in Croydon to get caught by a camera - As I could only have arrived in the High St by missing a no left turn and going the wrong way down a one way I consider myself lucky not to have been more severely treated by the policeman or to have been creamed by a double decker coming the other way from the West Croydon bus station and ending up in Mayday Hospital (Psychiatric wing !).
The junction opposite the bus station is a nightmare for anyone who does not know the area with cars exiting the multi storey with buses and trams everywhere and three lanes (one bus) going down to two to one in the space of fifty yards or so.
Those coming towards West Croydon from the underpass end in the outside lane wanting to go straight on to 'Forton Eef ' or 'St Reatham 'very suddenly find they are in a right turn lane, panic , cut across to the inside sharply or are forced back onto Wellesley Road and all the way back up to the Fairfield Halls end before they can turn round and come back.
Backroomers take my tip - Avoid Croydon like the plague. If in doubt take the train.
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I'll second that motion H! Shall we start a campaign to rid Croydon of confusing road signs?
BTW although (to the annoyance of some in the BR)) I generally don't take a cynical view when it comes to the enforcement of driving regulations (e.g. speed cameras) I do wonder whether revenue raising is an issue in the example of Croydon.
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Even better V. - lets have a campaign to get rid of Croydon altogether.
For those who do not know the place ,it is a miniature Manhattan in 'sarf London' with huge sixties concrete office boxes including that vilely ugly concrete monstrosity Lunar House , the HQ of the Home Office immigration service.Hundreds of our overseas friends have to come to Croydon to process their applications.
This means when walking near bus or train station you are accosted by a procession of bewildered foreigners trying to find their way there.
If foreign visitors try to drive to Croydon and try to find Lunar House you can imagine what happens to them when even the local drivers fail to know what they are supposed to be doing!
Lets get John Betjemans friendly bombs over from Slough and falling on Croydon!
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This gets on my nerves.
If you're in an unfamiliar area and are driving alone, it can be almost impossible to take-in all the signs whilst also monitoring other traffic, pedestrians etc.
I was driving in central London yesterday and of course there are C-Charge signs EVERYWHERE. I understand why they are there, but I found myself in overload, even though London driving doesn't really phase me.
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peter - thanks for provoding a focus for a question I have been meaning to ask The Independent lately. Like a virus, our language has recently produced a mutation which seems to be spreading rapidly. I suppose you have been Fazed (which is a US word anyway) rather than phased (as traffic lights should be). How come this apparent epidemic?
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Andrew,
Guilty as charged!
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Not just darn sarf.
Once got lost in Glasgow ended up in what seemed to be a no through road, one way only except for buses and taxis and cycles.
There was only one legal way out which seemed to be via John Lewis' car park. This involved taking a ticket, find a spot & park car, get out of car, find a payment machine, pay for minimum duration parking, get back in car, and then emerge out again onto another street with even less idea where I was. DOH!
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Don't start me off on my soap box about Lunar House H - having a foreign wife I know only too well what a shambles that place is!!!!
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Don't start me off on my soap box about Lunar House H - having a foreign wife I know only too well what a shambles that place is!!!!
Ok, we won't. And neither will you. Motoring please.
No Dosh
mailto:Alan_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
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