Poor Road Signage Pictures

icdg

For those interested, the Sunday Independent has gone on the poor road signs crusade today with a complaint (among others) that the M50 J11 s/b sign saying "Dun Laoghaire" should have been removed by now. (you should be taking J14 for the N31 instead).

There's a whole page of road-related articles today, some of them are at www.independent.ie to spare you the possiblity of having to actually buy the Sindo, something I can't conciously do myself!

Wishbone Ash

icdg wrote:

For those interested, the Sunday Independent has gone on the poor road signs crusade today with a complaint (among others) that the M50 J11 s/b sign saying "Dun Laoghaire" should have been removed by now. (you should be taking J14 for the N31 instead).

There's a whole page of road-related articles today, some of them are at www.independent.ie to spare you the possiblity of having to actually buy the Sindo, something I can't conciously do myself!

Those articles seem to be more about personal rants than good journalism. One of the writers whinges about being aprehended for speeding and the editor (Fanning) rants about being done for parking on double yellow lines while he goes for a swim!

Sounds as if they were discussing their misfortunes on a tea break at work and decided to write up a page about them.

cyclopath2001

I scanned through one article (in my parent's copy of the Indo), something along the lines of: "I'm too busy being an experienced driver to be bothered paying attention to speed limit signs...why don't they leave middle-aged-pringle-sweater-wearing-Indo-readers-with-ABS-brakes alone."

Typical Indo reader fare.

MathsManiac

Just landed at this board for the first time, and it occurs to me that you guys might get a laugh out of this one.
StraightRoadAhead.jpg

I cracked up when I saw it. It reminded me of a cartoon that I saw once (I think in the funnies section of phoenix magazine). In the cartoon, the title was something like: "Irish road signs #63: danger - straight road ahead". And the drawing was exactly this!

Anyway, I did realise what this sign was really telling me, (as one can eventually figure it out from the context in which I came across it), but I'm certain that the VAST majority of people who encounter it have no idea what it means.

Anyone want to guess?

Victor

Is it possible that the road used to bend (or there was an exit), but now one has to go straight?

Is it on a motorway?

MathsManiac

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Does anyone else find the "USE BOTH LANES" signs at roadworks a bit silly? :rolleyes:

Near Inchydony beach in West Cork, there are signs saying "No parking both sides"


(It also brings a tear to my eye when I consider all of the slow children that are crossing all around the place!)

MathsManiac

Victor wrote:

Is it possible that the road used to bend (or there was an exit), but now one has to go straight?

Is it on a motorway?

No, and no.

MathsManiac

MathsManiac wrote:

Just landed at this board for the first time, and it occurs to me that you guys might get a laugh out of this one.
StraightRoadAhead.jpg


Anyone want to guess?

Maybe it means, no turns or junctions (or passing places if a narrow road)for the next 1Km.

Wishbone Ash

MathsManiac wrote:

Just landed at this board for the first time, and it occurs to me that you guys might get a laugh out of this one.
StraightRoadAhead.jpg

I cracked up when I saw it. It reminded me of a cartoon that I saw once (I think in the funnies section of phoenix magazine). In the cartoon, the title was something like: "Irish road signs #63: danger - straight road ahead". And the drawing was exactly this!

Anyway, I did realise what this sign was really telling me, (as one can eventually figure it out from the context in which I came across it), but I'm certain that the VAST majority of people who encounter it have no idea what it means.

Anyone want to guess?

AFAIK that sign is not statutory and this could pose problems with non-compliance.

The yellow hard shoulder line appears to be 'continuous' which would generally indicate a motorway (although you say it's not).

Is it supposed to indicate that a road which was previously two-way in now one-way for 1km?

murphaph

Is it a dual carriageway that has had median crossings closed recently? It's a silly sign anyway. Unsurprisingly the UK has nothing like it in the TSGRD!

daymobrew

MathsManiac wrote:

(It also brings a tear to my eye when I consider all of the slow children that are crossing all around the place!)

Similarly with "Caution Children" - I never know what to say to them.
Just adding a colon makes all the difference.

MathsManiac

Wishbone Ash wrote:

AFAIK that sign is not statutory and this could pose problems with non-compliance.

The yellow hard shoulder line appears to be 'continuous' which would generally indicate a motorway (although you say it's not).

Is it supposed to indicate that a road which was previously two-way in now one-way for 1km?

I don't think non-compliance is an issue, since it's a warning sign.

I did also notice the continuous yellow line. There might be an excuse for it in the context, but if I tell you the road-type, I might be giving the game away. It's definitely not currently classed as a motorway.

I don't want to give the game away yet. If people on this board, who think deeply about roadsigns, can't figure out what this sign means, what hope is there that the average motorist will figure it out in real time at speed?

If I'm just being too irritating for you, click the following link for the answer, but it's much more fun to try and guess!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2%2B1_road

Well, it can sometimes be difficult to guess the meaning of a sign in the absence of other visual information. Perhaps it would have made more sense if there were two additional arrows indicating the oppsoite flow.

I remenber driving on roads like this in the UK in the late 70's, haven't come accross one for years.

murphaph

I'm not going to go to the answer, it is more fun to guess. There's a sign plate mounted on the other side of that sigh, so I presume it's intended for traffic coming the other way? Is it on a slip road perhaps? It's a pretty pointless sign whatever the location.

If the sign was similar to the first one below then it would be clearer to understand.

I couldn't find the exact sign I was looking for so have substituted a roadworks one instead. as it is like a contraflow. Currently this type of road doesn't exist in the UK (well I've not seen one recently).

cast_iron

I couldn't resist:). It's not quite as stupid as one might think.

It's more an extra visual aid to road markings and setup.

Wishbone Ash

I couldn't resist either. Makes sense alright when you get all the info!

(I don't think I've ever been on one of those roads!)

Zoney

The sign makes sense when you're on the relevant road setup. It's part of a set of new signs. They're related to the diamond sign with opposing arrows (older ones have text underneath the arrows).

parsi

Signage on that road is a tad dodgy - on the sign referenced it means that the single lane is lasting for a further 1 km but on other signs (on that stretch) the measurement is given as the distance _before_ the configuration depicted by the icon on the sign eg 1km before a double-lane.

Victor

It came to me in the middle of the night!

spacetweek

I cheated and looked. It makes sense, but only just.

What do people think should have been used? A blue and white "compulsion" setup?

murphaph

spacetweek wrote:

I cheated and looked. It makes sense, but only just.

What do people think should have been used? A blue and white "compulsion" setup?

Exactly! Or better still, no sign at all! What precisely is the hazard being warned of? A single lane carriageway ahead? It's pointless. The other signs in that series actually warn of a hazard, especially the lane drop one, and so are worthwhile additions to the signage set. If we must use a straight on arrow it should be a white on blue compulsory move sign, but there's no need for a sign really.

Zoney

Well, I'm partly in agreement with murphaph, but I would more specifically suggest that where this sign is used, instead they should put the "lane gain" sign up with the "x km ahead" style. This would in fact more adequately convey the point of the "one lane" sign; avoiding the "for x km"/"x km ahead" confusion that parsi refers to. The two lane stretches would similarly only worry about "lanes merge" "x km ahead".

cast_iron

cast_iron wrote:

I couldn't resist:).

Nor could I

MathsManiac

I agree that it's easier to make sense of in the context. However, I've been on this road with other drivers on 2 or 3 occasions and asked them, as we were passing it, what they thought it meant. They didn't know.

I still think it's pointless, as other contributors have mentioned. Is the intended ultimate psychological message: take it easy boyo and stop driving up the ass of the person in front, because you're not getting a chance to get past for another 40 seconds or so.

Anyway, what cracked me up originally was how it reminded me of the cartoon I mentioned. After all, if you were to design a sign that said "Warning - straight road ahead" it would have to look exactly like this one, wouldn't it?!!!

And by the way, it's quite an irritating road to drive on, and not an efficient use of space, in my view. I'm glad to hear they're not planning any more.

MathsManiac

MathsManiac wrote:

"Warning - straight road ahead"

There used to be a warning sign on the Birr - Ferbane road that warned you that the "road widened" it was a road narrows sign upside down.

It was recently removed as part of road improvements in the area.

MathsManiac

Deleted User wrote:

There used to be a warning sign on the Birr - Ferbane road that warned you that the "road widened" it was a road narrows sign upside down.

It was recently removed as part of road improvements in the area.

Ah, the upside-downers; don't you just love them. There's an upside down Y-junction sign (roads not of equal importance) near me somewhere. If I remember where it is I'll take a pic. Obviously the lads came out from the depot with the wrong sign - it showed the minor road joining from the wrong side, so they decided to turn it upside down, on the basis that it's close enough!

(Picture a sign for a Y junction where the major road veers left, and the minor one goes off to the right. Now turn it upside down. Bingo! the little road is on the left. Never mind that the bottom of the sign no longer has a vertical bit to represent your approach to the junction in question; sure you can just take a guess as to whether you're on the bit at the bottom right or the bottom left!)

Victor

MathsManiac wrote:

(Picture a sign for a Y junction where the major road veers left, and the minor one goes off to the right. Now turn it upside down. Bingo! the little road is on the left. Never mind that the bottom of the sign no longer has a vertical bit to represent your approach to the junction in question; sure you can just take a guess as to whether you're on the bit at the bottom right or the bottom left!)

They should have done this.

Ok, I know these are not used on a road, but if one is going to use road signs for instructing pedestrians how to enter & leave a building , at least use the correct signs. :rolleyes:

The "Please do not use this door" has a sign that indicates "national speed limit applies"

and the "Please use this door" has a sign that indicates "give way to oncoming vehicles" (Continental version).

Terrontress

Deleted User wrote:

Ok, I know these are not used on a road, but if one is going to use road signs for instructing pedestrians how to enter & leave a building , at least use the correct signs. :rolleyes:

The "Please do not use this door" has a sign that indicates "national speed limit applies"

and the "Please use this door" has a sign that indicates "give way to oncoming vehicles" (Continental version).

Yeah! And I always thought these signs looked like "no waving"!