You know you're a road geek when...

[KeithW]

Unless you’re driving more miles than your tank’s capacity surely you’d’ve prepped beforehand?
Christmas doesn’t just appear and cause surprise...
Most supermarket filling stations have 24H pay-at-pump even if the shop is closed.

The route from Dungeness in Kent to My house was 340 miles. I was driving a car with a 10 gallon tank that did 25 miles per gallon - as the Americans say 'do the maths'. By the time I got to Leicester Forest East I was looking for a fill up and I can assure you that in 1985 there was no such thing as Pay at the Pump.

As a Yorkshireman born and bred I hate paying too much for anything but risking running out of fuel on the M1 is not a chance I will take.

[Jeni]

Each person weighs their time and money differently.

In some situations, MSA fuel is a bargain in time saving, others, not.

[Big L]

I have a company fuel card for 15 years, so it matters not where I buy fuel.

I have bought fuel at an MSA once in 15 years, because I was behind schedule and wouldn't have made it on time. I put about a tenner in.

[jonnyf90]

Unless you’re driving more miles than your tank’s capacity surely you’d’ve prepped beforehand?
Christmas doesn’t just appear and cause surprise...
Most supermarket filling stations have 24H pay-at-pump even if the shop is closed.

The route from Dungeness in Kent to My house was 340 miles. I was driving a car with a 10 gallon tank that did 25 miles per gallon - as the Americans say 'do the maths'. By the time I got to Leicester Forest East I was looking for a fill up and I can assure you that in 1985 there was no such thing as Pay at the Pump.

As a Yorkshireman born and bred I hate paying too much for anything but risking running out of fuel on the M1 is not a chance I will take.

1985?! 20p a litre for 4 star then

[Simon_GNR]

.... in 1985 there was no such thing as Pay at the Pump.

Not necessarily entirely true. Pay at the Pump goes back further than you might think, albeit in a rather primitive form. In the early 1970's I remember a local garage having a special "after hours" pump for 4-star. Put a fifty pence piece in and you got 50p's worth of petrol, then about a gallon. I don't know how long it lasted but I'm pretty sure it had gone well before 1985.

Were these pumps widespread? Does anybody else remember one like this? Some of them might have survived till the 1980's.

[nowster]

I remember the Shell garage at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Rochdale Road in Higher Blackley (flattened by M60 J20) used to have 50p out-of-hours pumps for a while in the early 1980s.

[KeithW]

I remember the Shell garage at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Rochdale Road in Higher Blackley (flattened by M60 J20) used to have 50p out-of-hours pumps for a while in the early 1980s.

All I can say is I never saw one so they were hardly common enough to be an alternative to buying fuel at an MSA. Even had I come across one given the reliability of vending machines then I think it highly unlikely I would have trusted it.

By the early 1980's Petrol was about £1.60 per gallon so you have needed a lot of coins to fill up which is probably why they never caught on.

[MayzieY]

When you’re attracted to a Guardian photo feature because one has road signs - but maybe aren’t quite such a geek when it takes you several images to realise what’s missing ...
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gall ... n-pictures

[Jonny A46]

You know you're a road geek when...

You own street atlases which cover parts of the country you've never actually visited.

You know the exact routes followed by F99 A roads in city centres where there's little signage and almost no one actually uses the numbers to navigate.

[Viator]

.... in 1985 there was no such thing as Pay at the Pump.

Not necessarily entirely true. Pay at the Pump goes back further than you might think, albeit in a rather primitive form. In the early 1970's I remember a local garage having a special "after hours" pump for 4-star. Put a fifty pence piece in and you got 50p's worth of petrol, then about a gallon. I don't know how long it lasted but I'm pretty sure it had gone well before 1985.

Were these pumps widespread? Does anybody else remember one like this? Some of them might have survived till the 1980's.

I remember petrol stations (in my case, in rural north Essex) in the 1970s where you could buy 4-star "out of hours" by feeding a machine with £1 notes. They were a god-send when, having driven further than intended, you found yourself in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday -- though also a source of anxiety in case the machine refused your one, rather crumpled, banknote, or (even worse!) "ate" it without giving you any petrol...

[baroudeur]

I remember petrol stations (in my case, in rural north Essex) in the 1970s where you could buy 4-star "out of hours" by feeding a machine with £1 notes. They were a god-send when, having driven further than intended, you found yourself in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday -

There was a similar one on the A5 between Telford and Capel Curig ( or Oswestry?) and I remember one in France many years ago.

[B4444]

You're on holiday in Jersey and can't decide whether this sign To the bathing pool is pre-worboys, rare, local or just interesting . .

[mikehindsonevans]

I remember petrol stations (in my case, in rural north Essex) in the 1970s where you could buy 4-star "out of hours" by feeding a machine with £1 notes. They were a god-send when, having driven further than intended, you found yourself in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday -

There was a similar one on the A5 between Telford and Capel Curig ( or Oswestry?) and I remember one in France many years ago.

I remember one of these, in Ropley in Hampshire, around the mid-80s. I think the idea was "sunk" by the Citizen-Band nutters, who discovered that their transmitters could disrupt the measuring signal within the pump, enabling free fuel to be stolen. Not surprisingly, the fuel companies protected themselves by discontinuing the experiment.

[B4444]

You laugh at this sign For people who have had too much to drink?

[lefthandedspanner]

.... in 1985 there was no such thing as Pay at the Pump.

Not necessarily entirely true. Pay at the Pump goes back further than you might think, albeit in a rather primitive form. In the early 1970's I remember a local garage having a special "after hours" pump for 4-star. Put a fifty pence piece in and you got 50p's worth of petrol, then about a gallon. I don't know how long it lasted but I'm pretty sure it had gone well before 1985.

Were these pumps widespread? Does anybody else remember one like this? Some of them might have survived till the 1980's.

If memory serves, this garage in Port William, on the Machars peninsula in Galloway has an out-of-hours pump which works the same way.
It must a godsend if you're running low on petrol round there, as it's the only place you can buy petrol for miles and miles.

[Norfolktolancashire]

You laugh at this sign For people who have had too much to drink?

and for scores of return leg football matches

[Nicholas]

Me too! Today I went to Liverpool for the day and between Manchester and Liverpool took the A580 East Lancs Road - just to see what it is like. For many years I've seen this long, straight dual carriageway on the map and wondered what it was like to drive. Pretty much as expected - nice straight dual carriageway, but no NSL at any point in nearly 30 miles.

It used to be, about 20 miles worth from Astley to the M57. I remember having driving lessons on the A580, as it was the closest thing to motorway driving I could do, thanks to the NSL.

Anyone who chooses to fill up at an MSA is a complete moron 149.9 for Unleaded at Toddington last week.

That is a rather insulting remark. What if someone was making an emergency journey, and it was the first place to fuel up en route? I've had to do it, although that was in the days before satnavs and smartphones. But I only put in enough to get to where I needed to go and fuelled up again after.

Or what if it was a tourist? Or just someone who isn't familiar with the area? I've had to do it in France, and certainly because I wasn't prepared to pay twice for a toll when I didn't know where any off-motorway services were! Sometimes, you just need to take that hit, and for a smaller fuel-up, the difference wouldn't be that much overall. Only like comparing Aldi with the local corner shop.

[KeithW]

The route from Dungeness in Kent to My house was 340 miles. I was driving a car with a 10 gallon tank that did 25 miles per gallon - as the Americans say 'do the maths'. By the time I got to Leicester Forest East I was looking for a fill up and I can assure you that in 1985 there was no such thing as Pay at the Pump.

As a Yorkshireman born and bred I hate paying too much for anything but risking running out of fuel on the M1 is not a chance I will take.

1985?! 20p a litre for 4 star then

Which seemed like a lot of money as in 1973 I had been paying less than 10p per litre (40 p per gallon).

[nowster]

You watch the film Atomic Blonde and notice the pedestrian crossings in "East Berlin just before the fall of the wall" have the wrong red man symbol.

[Duncan macknight]

When you cross the Scotland-England Border and the “A74(M)” sign is more exciting than the actual “Welcome to Scotland” sign .