Observations from a Devon trip

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Lockwood
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Observations from a Devon trip

Post by Lockwood »

Last month, I was on a holiday in Devon. I did do a mini-post on Facebook and was advised to post here. It took me a while to remember to, and I think I forgot one of the things.

I noticed a few things:
The local signage:
I remember reading in an older edition of the Highway Code or Know Your Road Signs a section on Devon signs. I couldn't remember the details. I seem to remember seeing a road sign somewhere in Devon years ago that explained them. We didn't pass one.
After doing much Googling as we were driving along, I found an old Sabre thread about them. (Googling "Brown Devon signs" gave results on how to erect a brown tourist sign and such stuff). I remembered there was an order of quality to the signs, but couldn't remember which. I ended up forming a basic mental model: Quality increases by colour as per snooker. Avoid potting the white.
Is there a way to make this colour scheme more friendly? I would say "Make it wider spread" so people get used to it, but since everywhere else lost its blue border signs for being too complicated, this is unlikely.
Why does Devon get signs for the different quality of roads and other places do not?


A strange sign:
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.5317288 ... 312!8i6656
No motor vehicles. Over 3 tons unladen. Except for access.
Is there any legal difference between that and a 3T (Except for access) sign? Why reinvent the wheel if not?
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Bryn666
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by Bryn666 »

Lockwood wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:31 Last month, I was on a holiday in Devon. I did do a mini-post on Facebook and was advised to post here. It took me a while to remember to, and I think I forgot one of the things.

I noticed a few things:
The local signage:
I remember reading in an older edition of the Highway Code or Know Your Road Signs a section on Devon signs. I couldn't remember the details. I seem to remember seeing a road sign somewhere in Devon years ago that explained them. We didn't pass one.
After doing much Googling as we were driving along, I found an old Sabre thread about them. (Googling "Brown Devon signs" gave results on how to erect a brown tourist sign and such stuff). I remembered there was an order of quality to the signs, but couldn't remember which. I ended up forming a basic mental model: Quality increases by colour as per snooker. Avoid potting the white.
Is there a way to make this colour scheme more friendly? I would say "Make it wider spread" so people get used to it, but since everywhere else lost its blue border signs for being too complicated, this is unlikely.
Why does Devon get signs for the different quality of roads and other places do not?


A strange sign:
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.5317288 ... 312!8i6656
No motor vehicles. Over 3 tons unladen. Except for access.
Is there any legal difference between that and a 3T (Except for access) sign? Why reinvent the wheel if not?
The Devon signs were authorised because Devon has more miles of road than any other county I believe and very few of those miles are adequate for modern traffic levels. It's a system that has largely fallen into obsolescence thanks to Sat Navs. It would be better to just sign the roads that are suitable with a special symbol than to have a massive classification system no one understands.

As for the no motor vehicles sign, this is a very 1960s way of doing it. Environmental weight limits were first properly codified in 1975.
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by multiraider2 »

I don't know if it was this thread you saw?

viewtopic.php?t=15950

As suggested there, the explanation of the colour scheme used to be present in places when entering Dartmoor National Park. The scheme was extended to Devon generally and when I went via Dartmoor last weekend I didn't notice any remaining signs. I'm not sure there are any. You're just supposed to guess Grockle
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Lockwood
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by Lockwood »

Having had a specialist satnav take me offroading in a Merc Sprinter, I would question if satnav obsoletes signage that says "This route is only really good for cars".

I suppose you could have all the "Do not follow satnav down here if you are bigger than a Yaris" signs in the world, and someone would still say "I went down here because my satnav told me to"
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Lockwood
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by Lockwood »

multiraider2 wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:44 I don't know if it was this thread you saw?

viewtopic.php?t=15950

As suggested there, the explanation of the colour scheme used to be present in places when entering Dartmoor National Park. The scheme was extended to Devon generally and when I went via Dartmoor last weekend I didn't notice any remaining signs. I'm not sure there are any. You're just supposed to guess Grockle
That's the one. I was going to say "The one I saw mentioned Canadian flags", then saw that question a few replies down.
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by Bryn666 »

Lockwood wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:46 Having had a specialist satnav take me offroading in a Merc Sprinter, I would question if satnav obsoletes signage that says "This route is only really good for cars".

I suppose you could have all the "Do not follow satnav down here if you are bigger than a Yaris" signs in the world, and someone would still say "I went down here because my satnav told me to"
That is the problem, yes, because apparently the human brain is inferior compared to a computer programmed by a.... human brain.
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Lockwood
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by Lockwood »

I can understand where some of the satnav stuff comes from - my example, driving to a house down a small road, and then the last bit of it was unmade road. Is this just a rough rural driveway to a house? Without knowing the area, it's not easy to tell if that was a byway or a long rough drive. Situations where you end up being led to a strange position because you don't know that you should take the second turn on the right, instead of the first that satnav wants you to take are understandable.

The frustrating ones are the "I ignored the no entry sign, because satnav said to turn there. I didn't know it changed to one way last year! I ignored the no right turn and no entry signs." or the "It said to turn left immediately, so I turned left immediately on the ford into the river/on the level crossing onto the track"


When we get a fully detailed road network on satnav, and satnavs have to have the vehicle configuration entered into them, these issues will reduce. Until then, however... So, some kind of well-known signage that says "Your van will have a bad time on this road" would be handy
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by DavidB »

I spotted a blue survivor a few weeks ago on the A3052 in the very far south-east of the county near the Dorset border close to Lyme Regis:

https://goo.gl/maps/1aG6DYQsxrm6Di897
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by Chris5156 »

DavidB wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 20:56 I spotted a blue survivor a few weeks ago on the A3052 in the very far south-east of the county near the Dorset border close to Lyme Regis:

https://goo.gl/maps/1aG6DYQsxrm6Di897
There's a white one on the other side of the road too.
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by multiraider2 »

Here is a good example I passed a week ago. Going to Hele? Perhaps Hell on this road. But it does seem to have been kicked into the long grass by Devon in recent years and they don't really promote it any longer and I'm not sure they really have the will to keep it going. Perhaps if everyone else had taken it up? Down the road from here, at the A38 junction there is a more standard prescriptive sign here.

As an aside, up the road at Holne Bridge over the Dart, the Google car ran into a spot of bother. Perhaps the coach chickened out or was just too wide and perhaps should have genned up on the signs. One for the driving on the right thread, as in the next shots the Google car and Merc do re the coach.
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by DB617 »

Lockwood wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:46 Having had a specialist satnav take me offroading in a Merc Sprinter, I would question if satnav obsoletes signage that says "This route is only really good for cars".

I suppose you could have all the "Do not follow satnav down here if you are bigger than a Yaris" signs in the world, and someone would still say "I went down here because my satnav told me to"
Mmm, offroading in a Sprinter. Bouncy. Mine goes airborne on the bounce back from Bristol speed bumps...
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Lockwood
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Re: Observations from a Devon trip

Post by Lockwood »

Yeah, not my finest journey. Glad we went back out on a normal road!
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