Homemade Signs

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MotorwayGuy
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Homemade Signs

Post by MotorwayGuy »

If for example, I owned a large house on a side of a road with a 50 mph limit, which had a hedge on the front of the garden, If I was to put a metal pole with a 30 sign on one side, and a 50 sign on the other, which followed the road sign guidelines, and had a light on it, and the person who lived opposite did the same thing, would this be legal? I was wondering this as I have seen the fake speed cameras and signs on http://www.speedcam.co.uk (many of which look very fake), what the legal status of this would be, and the opposite (50 sign in a 30 zone).

If it is, and I was to live on a corner house of a busy cutthrough road, maybe a large no-entry sign with £1000 fine sign below it would do the trick, and a few CCTV cameras on the wall as well :lol: .
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Re: Homemade Signs

Post by PeterA5145 »

MotorwayGuy wrote:If for example, I owned a large house on a side of a road with a 50 mph limit, which had a hedge on the front of the garden, If I was to put a metal pole with a 30 sign on one side, and a 50 sign on the other, which followed the road sign guidelines, and had a light on it, and the person who lived opposite did the same thing, would this be legal? I was wondering this as I have seen the fake speed cameras and signs on http://www.speedcam.co.uk (many of which look very fake), what the legal status of this would be, and the opposite (50 sign in a 30 zone).

If it is, and I was to live on a corner house of a busy cutthrough road, maybe a large no-entry sign with £1000 fine sign below it would do the trick, and a few CCTV cameras on the wall as well :lol: .
It would definitely not be legal in the sense of establishing an enforceable speed limit. It would almost certainly also be illegal in terms of erecting a misleading road sign and contravening planning permission - although the authorities do seem to be fairly tolerant towards fake Gatsos, in my view excessively so.
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Post by michael769 »

In order to install traffic signs on the road you need to be an "authorised person" otherwise you are commiting an offence.

In order to install a sign of any type on your property (with a couple of excepotions that would not apply here) you need planning permission, which you would not get. That's another offence.

For the gatsos, erection of cameras (or fake cameras) comes under "permitted development" unless you are in a conservation area, or it is a real camera trained on a public area (or someone else's private property). Even if the fake gatso contravenes the regulations it is unlikely that a LA would view enforcement as a priority. Likewise for many unauthorised warning signs (like mud on road).

I would expect the LA to treat the erection of misleading mandatory signs as a priority. In any case the local roads policing unit would get involved if it impeded their enforcement activities.
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Post by M1 »

So Chris can't make his street the A6144(M)? :(
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Post by scynthius726 »

M1 wrote:So Chris can't make his street the A6144(M)? :(
On-street parking could prove to be an issue :lol:
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Post by Chris5156 »

scynthius726 wrote:
M1 wrote:So Chris can't make his street the A6144(M)? :(
On-street parking could prove to be an issue :lol:
That's where "Motorway Regulations Apply/Emergency Use Only" comes in - always a reserved parking bay :D
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Post by flyingscot »

michael769 wrote:In order to install traffic signs on the road you need to be an "authorised person" otherwise you are commiting an offence.

In order to install a sign of any type on your property (with a couple of excepotions that would not apply here) you need planning permission, which you would not get. That's another offence.

For the gatsos, erection of cameras (or fake cameras) comes under "permitted development" unless you are in a conservation area, or it is a real camera trained on a public area (or someone else's private property). Even if the fake gatso contravenes the regulations it is unlikely that a LA would view enforcement as a priority. Likewise for many unauthorised warning signs (like mud on road).

I would expect the LA to treat the erection of misleading mandatory signs as a priority. In any case the local roads policing unit would get involved if it impeded their enforcement activities.
Certainly Rosie Kane (nutter socialist MSP) supported the replacement of green 20's 'after motorists realised they didn't need to obey them' (which is not strictly true too) with homemade red 20 signs. I usually ignore such measures as a form protest where sensible. If it was done in the proper fasion I have no problems, but to simply make the rulesup for your own purposes is rubbish and NIMBY-ism in the extreme. I've seen residents in this area who hate speeding motorists, and scream "think of the children I ferry in my 4x4"- speeding when it suits them, and making dangerous manouvers and parking badly too- I've also regonised reg plates on cars been driven far too fast through other neighbouring areas in Glasgow too but at 30 in 'their' area. Not to mention their kids who I've seen behaving awfully, handbreak turns on the duel carraigeway, and the police caught a plumber doing 63 in the 30 limit who somehow kept his licence after feeding the court the 'mistook the limit' line. Perhaps £560 and 9 points will hurt him more though. Believe me it's a residential area with loads of juntions although it's wide but it's a decent 30 but you could mistake it for a 40- but not a 60! How he did that I don't know.

It was well known the most vociferous vehicles should drive slowly through my area campainer near here was yep the first one caught speeding and trotted out the predicable 'the BMW was just so powerful and quiet my speed crept up.... :lol:
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Post by PeterA5145 »

There's a story of a village in Kent where the locals actively campaigned for the speed limit to be reduced from 40 to 30. Despite police objections, the council approved it.

Soon afterwards, there was a meeting of the village society at the Village Hall. The police had a field day booking locals for exceeding the new 30 limit :twisted:
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Post by SuperLez »

flyingscot wrote:
michael769 wrote:In order to install traffic signs on the road you need to be an "authorised person" otherwise you are commiting an offence.

In order to install a sign of any type on your property (with a couple of excepotions that would not apply here) you need planning permission, which you would not get. That's another offence.

For the gatsos, erection of cameras (or fake cameras) comes under "permitted development" unless you are in a conservation area, or it is a real camera trained on a public area (or someone else's private property). Even if the fake gatso contravenes the regulations it is unlikely that a LA would view enforcement as a priority. Likewise for many unauthorised warning signs (like mud on road).

I would expect the LA to treat the erection of misleading mandatory signs as a priority. In any case the local roads policing unit would get involved if it impeded their enforcement activities.
Certainly Rosie Kane (nutter socialist MSP) supported the replacement of green 20's 'after motorists realised they didn't need to obey them' (which is not strictly true too) with homemade red 20 signs. I usually ignore such measures as a form protest where sensible. If it was done in the proper fasion I have no problems, but to simply make the rulesup for your own purposes is rubbish and NIMBY-ism in the extreme. I've seen residents in this area who hate speeding motorists, and scream "think of the children I ferry in my 4x4"- speeding when it suits them, and making dangerous manouvers and parking badly too- I've also regonised reg plates on cars been driven far too fast through other neighbouring areas in Glasgow too but at 30 in 'their' area. Not to mention their kids who I've seen behaving awfully, handbreak turns on the duel carraigeway, and the police caught a plumber doing 63 in the 30 limit who somehow kept his licence after feeding the court the 'mistook the limit' line. Perhaps £560 and 9 points will hurt him more though. Believe me it's a residential area with loads of juntions although it's wide but it's a decent 30 but you could mistake it for a 40- but not a 60! How he did that I don't know.

It was well known the most vociferous vehicles should drive slowly through my area campainer near here was yep the first one caught speeding and trotted out the predicable 'the BMW was just so powerful and quiet my speed crept up.... :lol:
I cannot believe that those 20 mph signs with green borders have any sort of legal significance. Insurance companies might take them into account should an accident occur if they were called upon to cough up on behalf of one of their clients, but otherwise what value do they really have?
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Post by michael769 »

SuperLez wrote: I cannot believe that those 20 mph signs with green borders have any sort of legal significance. Insurance companies might take them into account should an accident occur if they were called upon to cough up on behalf of one of their clients, but otherwise what value do they really have?
You are absolutely right. IMHO this is just a way for councils to spend all their roads budget before the end of the year.

In theory the police could use them to support a conviction under the RTRA for "driving at exessive speed for the road and traffic conditions" or of course careless or dangerous driving offences. In practice only happens after an accident which involes death or injury.

However as the Highway Code recomends driving at 20 through residential areas anayway, the absonce of the signs would make no difference.
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Post by PeterA5145 »

michael769 wrote:However as the Highway Code recomends driving at 20 through residential areas anayway, the absonce of the signs would make no difference.
I don't think it does, unless you have a different version in Scotland.
130: Narrow residential streets. You should drive slowly and carefully on streets where there are likely to be pedestrians, cyclists and parked cars. In some areas a 20 mph maximum speed limit may be in force. Look out for

* vehicles emerging from junctions
* vehicles moving off
* car doors opening
* pedestrians
* children running out from between parked cars
* cyclists and motorcyclists.
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Post by antster1983 »

Chris5156 wrote:
scynthius726 wrote:
M1 wrote:So Chris can't make his street the A6144(M)? :(
On-street parking could prove to be an issue :lol:
That's where "Motorway Regulations Apply/Emergency Use Only" comes in - always a reserved parking bay :D
Don't you also need an End of Motorway sign? :lol:
All roads point to "Exit".
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Post by M1 »

antster1983 wrote:
Chris5156 wrote:
scynthius726 wrote: On-street parking could prove to be an issue :lol:
That's where "Motorway Regulations Apply/Emergency Use Only" comes in - always a reserved parking bay :D
Don't you also need an End of Motorway sign? :lol:
Yeah, whatever happened to the A6144(M) end of motorwaqy signs, as well as the motorway T-junction ones?
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Post by DavidBrown »

M1 wrote:Yeah, whatever happened to the A6144(M) end of motorwaqy signs, as well as the motorway T-junction ones?
Probably scrapped, sadly. Remember, cars don't hold a heck of a lot of metal signs! :wink:
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Post by Bryn666 »

Don't worry, you can still see signs for a t-junction on the UK motorway system if you know where to look :wink:
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Post by Steven »

Bryn666 wrote:Don't worry, you can still see signs for a t-junction on the UK motorway system if you know where to look :wink:
Yeah, on PM's A6144(M) page!
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Post by Bryn666 »

:roll:

Yes, there as well. :wink:
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Post by M1 »

Bryn666 wrote::roll:

Yes, there as well. :wink:
Where else?
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Post by M1 »

Oh nevermind. A601(M)'s southern terminus?
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Post by Steven »

M1 wrote:Oh nevermind. A601(M)'s southern terminus?
Yes - though there's quite a few like that on diamon junctions, for example.

Bryn's talking about the style where there is an exit marked horizontally with a vertical forward destination.

I'll give you a clue - there's one on another motorway on PM, in the Midlands, early construction date and isn't the M45...
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