Botched Roadsigns

[B4133]

It looks like the signing department had ran out of red stickie back plastic for sign, although it could be used on a motorway e.g. M531.

Actually, to make the sign even more pathetic, it is actually on blue corrugated plastic!!!!

Local council running in cheap mode then . Whatever next, a cornflake box with 'No Parking' marker penned on and its sellotaped on to a post rater than the usual fittings.

[AndyB]

A classic example would be the sign that my friend misunderstood:

Mon-Sat
8am-6am
Waiting limited
to 20 minutes
Return prohibited
within 40 minutes

She never really got the meaning of the sign and misunderstood it completely...

Thankfully that sign has now been withdrawn.

Sign makes sense to me... between 8am and 6pm on Mondays to Saturdays, waiting is limited to 20 minutes, and after those 20 minutes you can't come back for forty... Also not sure by 'now been withdrawn' as there are loads of them around, including some new ones on the road between Sampford Peverall and Tiverton Parkway Station (incidentally, that road is also NSL!!!)

Possibly the botch is that it says 8am-6am

[Truvelo]

Possibly the botch is that it says 8am-6am

It's not exactly a botch but it's not easy to understand at first glance. Some signs have 8am-midnight and midnight-6am to make things clearer.

[J N Winkler]

Possibly the botch is that it says 8am-6am

It's not exactly a botch but it's not easy to understand at first glance. Some signs have 8am-midnight and midnight-6am to make things clearer.

Actually, it counts as a botch. Chapter 7 of the Traffic Signs Manual requires overnight restriction periods to be split with the word "Midnight," so instead of

8 am-6 am

the sign should read

8 am-Midnight
Midnight-6 am

(the gap between the hour and "am" or "pm" being a half space--it being not correct either to provide a full space or to butt "am"/"pm" against the hour).

[Truvelo]

Has it always been a requirement to use midnight or is it only a recent thing? I ask this because I've seen signs with and without the midnight split. Can the midnight thing also be used to avoid a parking ticket if the sign doesn't conform to the requirements?

[J N Winkler]

Has it always been a requirement to use midnight or is it only a recent thing? I ask this because I've seen signs with and without the midnight split. Can the midnight thing also be used to avoid a parking ticket if the sign doesn't conform to the requirements?

The language requiring "Midnight" appears on PDF page 112 (out of 161) in the current edition of Chapter 7. Although I don't have my copy of it to hand, I know that the 1997 edition of Chapter 7 had similar (if not identical) provisions.

As to the enforceability or otherwise of parking signs which don't use the correct expressions, I'm afraid I don't know (this is something for which it would be useful to be able to consult court precedent).

[nowster]

M62 eastbound next to Birch Services. Gantry sign for junction 19 says 1/2 mile; fork sign 25 yards beyond it says 2/3 mile.

[Johnathan404]

Then there's M62 J18, a normal upwards-pointing gantry with a black-on-yellow sign next to it pointing at lane one reading 'J18 only'. As someone who navigates with road numbers not junction numbers, it's caught me out a few times.

[nowster]

Then there's M62 J18, a normal upwards-pointing gantry with a black-on-yellow sign next to it pointing at lane one reading 'J18 only'. As someone who navigates with road numbers not junction numbers, it's caught me out a few times.

That's a temporary arrangement from the M60's opening in 2001, pending the full widening of the M62 from Simister to Milnrow to D4M. What? It hasn't happened yet? Surely not!

[Stevie D]

Then there's M62 J18, a normal upwards-pointing gantry with a black-on-yellow sign next to it pointing at lane one reading 'J18 only'. As someone who navigates with road numbers not junction numbers, it's caught me out a few times.

That's a temporary arrangement from the M60's opening in 2001, pending the full widening of the M62 from Simister to Milnrow to D4M. What? It hasn't happened yet? Surely not!

There are at least 2 other junctions on the M60 that are incorrectly signed, where there is a lane drop but the first (and maybe subsequent) gantry signs have a sloping arrow panel, indicating that all lanes continue through the junction.

[jcpren]

I saw a brand new botched sign recently, just off the A74 approaching M74 J1. It was a lane diagram, and looked a bit like this:

Code: Select all

-------------------------
            |
   (M74)    |
     &      |   C'LANG
   (M74)    |
            |
            |     ^
   <-.      |   <-|
     |      |     |
            |
-------------------------

However, its partner across the road had the correct layout:

Code: Select all

-------------------------
            |
            |   (M74)
   (M74)    |     &
            |  C'LANG
            |
            |     ^
   <-.      |   <-|
     |      |     |
            |
-------------------------

[joshurtree]

There seems to be tons around S. Yorks. The south tinsley roundabout has a sign directing you along the A6102 (its actually the A631). Another one on the A57 gives the ongoing destination as Mosborough despite the fact you have already passed it. One in the middle of Wath directs you along the A638 to Barnsley.

The is also a sign on the A38 south of Derby stating that its 21 miles to the M1. This is followed a mile later by another one giving the distance as 13 miles. I'd imagine its because the second sign uses the A52 to get to the M1.

[joshurtree]

This one has always struck me as completely wrong.



Apart from the fact that A633 should be in brackets I don't see why its even mentioned as the A635 takes you all the way into the centre of Barnsley.

[jcpren]

This one has always struck me as completely wrong.

Apart from the fact that A633 should be in brackets I don't see why its even mentioned as the A635 takes you all the way into the centre of Barnsley.

The top sign does confirm what you say. But guessing from what I can see in the photo, is it not that you have to turn off the A635 earlier, and use the A633 for part of the route, if you want to avoid the low bridge?

[joshurtree]

This one has always struck me as completely wrong.

Apart from the fact that A633 should be in brackets I don't see why its even mentioned as the A635 takes you all the way into the centre of Barnsley.

The top sign does confirm what you say. But guessing from what I can see in the photo, is it not that you have to turn off the A635 earlier, and use the A633 for part of the route, if you want to avoid the low bridge?

The low bridge is on the A633 before it meets the A635.

[owen b]

Over the weekend I spotted a sign on the minor road through Caddington (near M1 J10) :

Dunstable A5
(no brackets around A5). Didn't get a photo, I'm afraid.

Over the summer I saw a sign on a very minor road in Anglesey (near Maenaddwyn, I think) referring to the A5025, again, not in brackets.

[Andrew]

So many dodgy signs are around...

Andrew's avatar tickles me - is it a 1:3 climb or a 1:3 drop?

Thanks - it was somewhere in Exmoor (can't remember exactly now), and it was actually both down and up through a steep sided river valley - so actually the sign is valid, maybe, but does look very weird

[paranoid]

This one has always struck me as completely wrong.

Apart from the fact that A633 should be in brackets I don't see why its even mentioned as the A635 takes you all the way into the centre of Barnsley.

The top sign does confirm what you say. But guessing from what I can see in the photo, is it not that you have to turn off the A635 earlier, and use the A633 for part of the route, if you want to avoid the low bridge?

The low bridge is on the A633 before it meets the A635.

So it's there as reassurance for people who've been diverted off the A633, at a guess.

[DavidBrown]

Thanks - it was somewhere in Exmoor (can't remember exactly now), and it was actually both down and up through a steep sided river valley - so actually the sign is valid, maybe, but does look very weird

It's here on the road to Hawkridge.

[haymansafc]

Sticking to North Devon, there’s a couple of dreadfully botched signs just off the A39 at Bideford, where the place name (East-The-Water) is written in black over a yellow patch. How these signs have lasted for so long without getting replaced, I’ll never know. It has to be amongst the worst patching jobs that I’ve come across.

There’s another good one in Lynton showing a fairly steep unclassified residential road as not only the A39 (which should be in brackets), but also as a primary route.