A Sign Of The Times?

[Bper]

Has anyone else noticed temporary road work signs that are placed at roundabouts sometimes obscure one or more of the exit signs and sod's law it's the one you want. This is really irritating if you are unsure of the route or the sat nav freezes.

[Rhymes with Paris]

Traffic management and diversions are usually handled by third party contractors.

ie, subcontractors to the main contractor to the highways authority responsible for road repair and maintenance in that county.

The resident engineer is ultimately responsible for the safety of traffic management, but the practice of the placing of signs sometimes falls to untrained sub contractors.

[Bper]

If the road signs in this country were better we probably wouldn't need sat nav. It shouldn't have been sorted many years ago.

[Puglet]

On road round the corner from us few weeks ago they had more signs warning of the obstruction causing an obstruction,than the size of the hole in the road they were warning about. I wouldn't mind, but they happily leave dangerous potholes with no warning for weeks or months on end. Although talking potholes in the last few weeks they have filled quite a few in, ahh don't you just love local elections! Also they don't seem to put those flashing beacons on any more, not sure why, probably too disco for peeps nowadays.

[Bper]

47 minutes ago, Puglet said:

On road round the corner from us few weeks ago they had more signs warning of the obstruction causing an obstruction,than the size of the hole in the road they were warning about. I wouldn't mind, but they happily leave dangerous potholes with no warning for weeks or months on end. Although talking potholes in the last few weeks they have filled quite a few in, ahh don't you just love local elections! Also they don't seem to put those flashing beacons on any more, not sure why, probably too disco for peeps nowadays.

I think the flashing beacons may probably belong to a bygone era, potholes are the bain of motorists lives and sadly councils do not see these as a priority. They always have money for projects they justify but they see motorists as just cash cows.😢

[Big_D]

1 hour ago, Bper said:

they see motorists as just cash cows.😢

Too true !!

[Roy124]

There are many redundant signs.  The  one I love is on the M5 south of the Avon IIRC.  "No crash barrier for X miles".  So? 

What do they want me to do?  It is the lefthand side off the emergency lane.  

A new set of road markings have appeared on the A1.  Large red bar across lanes 1 and 2 and SLOW painted on them.  One set is before and exit and the other before the entry lane.  What do they want me to do? 

Lane 1 is full with trucks and traffic at 60 and lane 2 at 70.  Slow to 50, or 40 or what? 

In Germany, sensibly, there will be a speed restriction, say 60 mph, so you slow down from your 100+ cruising speed. 

Other signs get hit; a clue that they are in the wrong place?

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

What annoys me is when they put up a diversion sign making you head away from the road works, and don't bother to put up subsequent diversion signs to complete the diverted route.

The worst diversion we've experienced was on the A82 when we were heading towards Skye. A crash at Tyndrum had closed the road, and we got diverted towards Oban. Ended up being an 80 mile detour.

[Roy124]

Or near us we have a pair of signs.  Left one says Diversion Ends and the other is Diversion and an arrow. 

You're on your own sunshine. 

[Cyker]

Yeah we've learned to ignore diversion signs; Often there is a rat run through residential streets they don't want you to use but the canny motorist can find!

It is getting trickier tho' with the LTNs - If there's e.g. an accident in just the right place, it can quickly snowball as there is no longer any escape route!

[Big_D]

Near where I live they have a number of "Road Closed" signs. These go on for about 6 miles. I still haven't seen the closed road, and they've been there for about 9 months. 

 

[Bper]

I often wonder if it wasn't for sat navs would we still be capable of finding our destinations with just the use of the road signage.

Without a passenger to read a map what would we do keep stopping to read it. And of course if we haven't visited a place before we would probably have to buy local maps like we used to eons ago.

A couple of times we have been diverted by signage that has also taken us away from our destination only to find if it wasn't for the sat nav we would probably give up and try to find our way back home.😊

[Cyker]

To be fair, UK signage is generally pretty good; I don't use satnav, and usually plan my route in advance if it's somewhere I won't know, usually with google maps admittedly! But I can usually muddle my way just with signs as long as I know vaguely which direction I need to go.

If you want bad signage, try Spain!!  I don't think they quite understand what the purpose of road direction signs is...

[Puglet]

Agree, when i've listed out directions/map, the motorway/road signs have got me basically where I needed to get to, it just the last 5-10 miles where I'm struggling and you can never find that obscure side road etc. Although as mentioned throw in diversion and it can all go wrong pretty quickly.

[Rhymes with Paris]

Before sat nav I used to write down the major roads with the road numbers on a post it note and stick it on the dashboard.

Then ask random strangers for directions to the address I wanted to find.

It's amazing the amount of people who have no clue where anything is , despite living there for decades.

I soon learned to just drive to the town centre, and find a taxi rank, the drivers usually know where things are, and can give proper directions.

 

[Bper]

3 hours ago, Cyker said:

To be fair, UK signage is generally pretty good; I don't use satnav, and usually plan my route in advance if it's somewhere I won't know, usually with google maps admittedly! But I can usually muddle my way just with signs as long as I know vaguely which direction I need to go.

If you want bad signage, try Spain!!  I don't think they quite understand what the purpose of road direction signs is...

Sense of direction helps unfortunately not all of us have this trait and need a sat nav to find our A**e😅

[Bper]

2 hours ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

Before sat nav I used to write down the major roads with the road numbers on a post it note and stick it on the dashboard.

Then ask random strangers for directions to the address I wanted to find.

It's amazing the amount of people who have no clue where anything is , despite living there for decades.

I soon learned to just drive to the town centre, and find a taxi rank, the drivers usually know where things are, and can give proper directions.

 

I remember a guy many years ago who was telling us that he was unable to find the place he was looking for and was late for a meeting so he saw a taxi office and paid the driver so he could follow him in the car.

[Bper]

I am not sure if someone is having a laugh but again today as we drove back from Norwich another one of the road works diversion signs was completely blocking the main road sign and this was on a 3 junction roundabout.

I know the route really well so I knew the junction I needed but some other motorists would not. No road works visible anywhere and it looked like this sign had proberly been put up years ago but I never noticed it before. 

To put this up blocking the road sign makes me wonder if this is not done on purpose as I cannot see any other reason for this and why has it never been taken away. 🤬