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I returned from holiday in France yesterday, but this isn't about driving on the Paris Perepherique...
At the port in Dover, and on most off-slips from the M20 in Kent there are signs saying "Drive on left" in English, French and German. In Southampton there are similar signs at the airport and port but with Spanish added too.
How common are these signs? Apart from the M20 examples, do they appear anywhere that isn't a port/airport?
I've only seen them in ports/airports as well but some MSA's have signs on the slip roads say No Parking in several languages, I think Stationment Interdit is one.
How would you like your grade separations, Sir? Big and complex.
On the A82 near Fort William, Spean Bridge I think. I was very suprised when I saw them a few weeks ago. I can only think they are because sometimes the road would be fairly traffic free, and tourists could forget.
doebag wrote:On the A82 near Fort William, Spean Bridge I think. I was very suprised when I saw them a few weeks ago. I can only think they are because sometimes the road would be fairly traffic free, and tourists could forget.
I saw "drive on left" in English, French, German and Italian on the matrix signs at the southern end of the Fort William bypass when I was on holiday there three years ago. I found it odd too, seeing as to get to that point, you'd have driven over 90 miles on nothing but S2, and some S1. (unless you did an almost u-turn at the roundabout, otherwise you'd have had that tiny bit of D2!)
"“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations" Thomas Jefferson
Indeed, there's lots in odd places around the country, partiuclarly in Scotland... This is because tourists have a tendancy to forget (very easily done if you're parked facing the wrong way in a lay-by on the wrong side of the road) - hence now there are arrows painted on single carriageways near lay-bys in lots of places in Scotland.
The other thing is that for many people, the A82 will be the first bit of non-dual carriageway they come across, possibly since Poland or Italy....
Very common in the Highlands because of the high number of foreign cars during the Summer. Every year there are accidents caused by a foreign tourist driving on the wrong side of the road. I have met cars on the wrong side several times and it is not a nice! Fortunately there was no accident.
The signs are common were someone is re-joining a main road after stopping at a tourist attraction.
The VMS often have a multi-language reminder on them when no other information - you can see these here sometimes.
As well as outside ports and airports in Ireland, you'll also find them outside marinas along the river Shannon and other navigable waterways as tourists may have been cruising the rver for 2 weeks and completely forgotten to drive on the left! There's one in particular that I remember in the middle of nowhere in the Irish midlands-all bogland around there, quite strange seeing a drive on the left sign in such a remote place!
murphaph wrote:As well as outside ports and airports in Ireland, you'll also find them outside marinas along the river Shannon and other navigable waterways as tourists may have been cruising the rver for 2 weeks and completely forgotten to drive on the left! There's one in particular that I remember in the middle of nowhere in the Irish midlands-all bogland around there, quite strange seeing a drive on the left sign in such a remote place!
There's at least one on the Irish border too...which is bizzare, really
There are 'Drive on the Left' signs at Carter Bar on the A68 at the England/Scotland border. Always struck me as weird considering you will have drive on the left on S2 for at least an hour to get there in the first place, and there are seperate lay-byes on each side of the road for each direction.
The borders, a region (ALMOST) without any D2 at all!
I find there's no problem driving onthe other side, untill I slip into auto-mode and do something without thinking about it.
It only really happened once on my recent French trip, I went down a quet back road, realised I'd taken a wrong turning and did a trhee-point to go back. When I did that I set off on the left for a short distance.
Pulling out from pertol stations ont he left is a good way to do it as well.
They are very common in the highlands. Even more common are the arrows on the road indicating direction of travel, you will most often find a set of these before and after every single layby.
I guess foreign tourists are most likely to forget after stopping off to do some sightseeing, they are thinking about what they've just seen as they pull away.
The Fort William area is where I've seen the highest concentration of foreign registered cars without actually being abroad
Steven wrote: I think there's one coming out of the port at Portsmouth too.
Yes there is, along with "priorite a droite" for the roundabout.
Direction arrows are often applied to the road surface in circumstances where you might forget whether the road is D2 or S2 - for example on the A31 Hogs Back where mature vegetation conceals the other carriageway, or in S2 roads running parallel with a dual carriageway (e.g. the A167 parallel to the A1(M).
