Great North Circular Road?

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Brock
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Great North Circular Road?

Post by Brock »

Just heard a traffic report on Radio 5 Live referring to the "Great North Circular Road". What?

Bet they wouldn't have made that mistake when they were based in London :)
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roadtester
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by roadtester »

Brock wrote:Just heard a traffic report on Radio 5 Live referring to the "Great North Circular Road". What?

Bet they wouldn't have made that mistake when they were based in London :)
Perhaps not - but it just balances out the howlers of London-based broadcasters when mentioning provincial English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish locations...
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by WHBM »

roadtester wrote: Perhaps not - but it just balances out the howlers of London-based broadcasters when mentioning provincial English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish locations...
I can assure you that there are just as many gross blunders done by London travel broadcasters about their own location.

A classic was when there were a series of cancellations on the Shoeburyness to Fenchurch Street railway one morning. "And .... uh .... the following trains like is cancelled. 0645 Sness to F Street. 0715 Sness to F Street. 0745 Sness to F Street .....".
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by SteveA30 »

Yep, that's what happens when young, badly or untrained people do announcements. Rail announcements that talk of a train station. Station will do.
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Chris5156
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by Chris5156 »

SteveA30 wrote:Yep, that's what happens when young, badly or untrained people do announcements. Rail announcements that talk of a train station. Station will do.
I realise we're drifting from the topic now, but the one that really grates on me is most often heard on the Tube, though I've heard it on the railways as well - an announcement that a train will be "non stopping" at a particular station.

That's jargon and can be replaced with something that is just as short and with no change to the surrounding grammar - "not stopping".

:hammer:
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by chris486 »

Chris5156 wrote: I realise we're drifting from the topic now, but the one that really grates on me is most often heard on the Tube, though I've heard it on the railways as well - an announcement that a train will be "non stopping" at a particular station.

That's jargon and can be replaced with something that is just as short and with no change to the surrounding grammar - "not stopping".

:hammer:
Topic has now suffered a double blowout to the offside and has barrel-rolled over the crash barrier into oncoming traffic.
We are now arriving into Macclesfield
The 'into' grates on me every time I am on the train.
..
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by PeterA5145 »

chris486 wrote:
We are now arriving into Macclesfield
The 'into' grates on me every time I am on the train.
I was just about to post that one :@
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WHBM
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by WHBM »

Back to trivia, and a regular issue in London is giving out road numbers which are not in any common usage. For example, "Heavy traffic on the A4202 southbound", when there is hardly a user of that main route who knows it by its number. Do other places suffer from the same ?
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by Brock »

Chris5156 wrote: I realise we're drifting from the topic now, but the one that really grates on me is most often heard on the Tube, though I've heard it on the railways as well - an announcement that a train will be "non stopping" at a particular station.

That's jargon and can be replaced with something that is just as short and with no change to the surrounding grammar - "not stopping".

:hammer:
Well, not quite. You need to switch round the words "be" and "not" as well. :wink:
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wrinkly
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by wrinkly »

Or "will not stop at".
Brock
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by Brock »

Brock wrote:Just heard a traffic report on Radio 5 Live referring to the "Great North Circular Road".
The light has dawned. It was to distinguish it from the Pathetic South Circular Road.
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by Fenlander »

WHBM wrote:Back to trivia, and a regular issue in London is giving out road numbers which are not in any common usage. For example, "Heavy traffic on the A4202 southbound", when there is hardly a user of that main route who knows it by its number. Do other places suffer from the same ?
Yes! "The Asomething is closed between its junction with Bgodknowswhat and the Roadyouveneverheardof".
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c2R
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by c2R »

As I recently wrote in another thread, the A1 matrix signs are terrible for this in S Yorks/Notts

They tend to say "Delays after A6xx" or "Road closed after A6xx" when most people would know junctions generally by their names or the towns they pass at this stretch. This is helped less by some of the numbers either meeting with more than once or multiplexing with the A1

Redhouse=A638
Marr=A635
J36=A630
Blyth=A614
Blyth (s)=A634
Ranby = A620
Apleyhead=A614(again) /A57
Markham moor=A638 (again) /A57 (again)
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by Chris5156 »

c2R wrote:As I recently wrote in another thread, the A1 matrix signs are terrible for this in S Yorks/Notts

They tend to say "Delays after A6xx" or "Road closed after A6xx" when most people would know junctions generally by their names or the towns they pass at this stretch. This is helped less by some of the numbers either meeting with more than once or multiplexing with the A1

Redhouse=A638
Marr=A635
J36=A630
Blyth=A614
Blyth (s)=A634
Ranby = A620
Apleyhead=A614(again) /A57
Markham moor=A638 (again) /A57 (again)
That's the Highways Agency's national policy - on non-motorways the matrix signs will refer to road numbers. The problem with using names is that they don't always appear on signs, so you might know that the A638 junction is called Redhouse but there's nothing at the junction itself to tell you that. Road numbers might be tricky but at least they do appear on signs.

One alternative might be to refer to large towns instead - so rather than referring to Markham Moor, you could say "between Doncaster and Newark". That would be very easily understood but you must sacrifice some precision to make it work.
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by Mark Hewitt »

Doesn't always work eg if it says road closed after A167 when it meets the A1 several times.
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Lockwood
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by Lockwood »

A27 closed after A259 is common.

We'll sometimes get
A3 closed after A283
and sometimes get
A3 closed Hindhead Tunnel
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by Benny »

One that caught me out yesterday was the radio announcing that Roughcote Lane (Weston Coyney) was closed following an accident, what they failed to mention is that the Police had actually closed the A520 as well (no one knows why) so everyone tried to use the A520 to avoid Roughcote Lane and caused a 3 mile tailback.
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hoagy_ytfc
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by hoagy_ytfc »

wrinkly wrote:Or "will not stop at".
In fairness, that would be a bad announcement, as people would lose faith in the announcements if it subsequently stopped there (e.g. for signal check).

"not scheduled to stop at" works better.

And it's what is usually used, IME.
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hoagy_ytfc
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by hoagy_ytfc »

Not sure why people are fussed about radio announcements, they're usually so far out-of-date.

Your (*) satnav live updates will be way more accurate and up-to-date.

Order of reliability, ISTM:

1. TomTom HD Traffic *
2. Radio
3. Guesswork
4. Overhead signs

* I can only personally vouch for TomTom HD traffic, but I imagine others are good too.
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Re: Great North Circular Road?

Post by Jam35 »

Chris5156 wrote:I realise we're drifting from the topic now, but the one that really grates on me is most often heard on the Tube, though I've heard it on the railways as well - an announcement that a train will be "non stopping" at a particular station.
Not as bad as "pass to Caerphilly", which translates as calling at Cardiff Queen Street, then skipping Heath High Level, Llanisien, and Lisvane and Thornhill, despite the former two of those three having the highest counter-peak ridership on the line (and if Arriva weren't totally incompetent, they'd just turn those late Bargoed trains short at Ystrad Mynach to make up the time instead).
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