Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

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vlad
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by vlad »

Al__S wrote: Tue Oct 08, 2019 22:06 53 Yards
I think you're more likely to get things like that at junctions. 95 yards here.
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Vierwielen
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by Vierwielen »

Viator wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2017 09:24 Not so much unnecessarily as charmingly accurate in this case, I feel:
Image
Must be a very small place as 1/4 furlong is only 55 yards, otherwise why is this accurace needed. I checked Wikipedia which stated that it had a population of about 4600.
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Viator
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by Viator »

That the population you found amounts to a figure as large as that must mean that it represent the total for the whole (Welsh local government) unit of Cilybebyll Community. Cilybebyll itself is no more than a handful of houses and a few farms. Having walked this road a few times myself (minus pedometer, let alone new-fangled satellite technology!), I suspect that the figure posted may well represent the exact distance, to the nearest quarter-furlong (10 rods), from this junction (in Rhos) to Cilybebyll parish church door! :D
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by jervi »

TS
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by TS »

https://goo.gl/maps/QU8kLq2oXb5pa24s6
"for next 492 yards"

(Not sure about the need for the word 'next', either!)
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vlad
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by vlad »

TS wrote: Tue Nov 12, 2019 12:12 https://goo.gl/maps/QU8kLq2oXb5pa24s6
"for next 492 yards"
I've never seen that shade of blue on a road sign before! :shock:
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Chris Bertram
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by Chris Bertram »

vlad wrote: Tue Nov 12, 2019 19:56
TS wrote: Tue Nov 12, 2019 12:12 https://goo.gl/maps/QU8kLq2oXb5pa24s6
"for next 492 yards"
I've never seen that shade of blue on a road sign before! :shock:
Looks like a private road to me.
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by AutomaticBeloved »

There is currently an advert for a fast food chain near me saying "219 metres away" - suspiciously specific :)
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by alice »

Coming home today through the roadworks on Boundary Roundabout in Bournemouth/Poole, i spotted a sign informing road users of a "Temporary Bus Stop 103m"

The 3m make all the difference...
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by Big L »

alice wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 23:55 Coming home today through the roadworks on Boundary Roundabout in Bournemouth/Poole, i spotted a sign informing road users of a "Temporary Bus Stop 103m"

The 3m make all the difference...
103 miles!
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alice
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by alice »

I'm sure they meant metres.

Probably :D
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by Stevie D »

alice wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2020 09:52 I'm sure they meant metres.

Probably :D
You'd hope so, but as metres are not a valid unit of measurement on UK road signs – except for height restrictions – they've messed up in more ways than one! The irony is that if they had correctly marked it as 110yds, it wouldn't like quite so ridiculous (although it still should be 100yds for simplicity).
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by ManomayLR »

Countdown markers on motorways are actually 300, 200, 100 meters, even though the Highway Code says yards.
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by Gareth Thomas »

Hump 49 yds.

As an aside, when I did the late shifts at Sainsbury's years ago I would often do the "This store is closing in X minutes" tannoy - and I would be exact. Not to the second, but to the minute. It used to annoy one of the supervisors who would tell me to say "5 minutes" even if it was 4.
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the cheesecake man
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by the cheesecake man »

No services on M1. Undeniably true, but there's only a few hundred yards of M1 to go as you can already see the A1 approaching from the left and joining in the distance, and if you look to the right at the southbound carriageway we're next to the A1/M1 diverge so have already reached the end of the M1. :roll:
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by swissferry »

Drove passed this 599 yards sign today. Unusual to see yards rather than yds on a supplementary plate. Turn around and there is a NSL to 20 change as well.
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by JamesA44 »

Bfivethousand wrote: Mon Feb 27, 2017 20:53 Overtaking prohibitions always seemed to bring out extreme precision amongst sign designers of yesteryear!
Yes, when I saw this thread I thought of the series of signs like this on the A5 past Weston Park, which pretty much all have quite random measurements on them. Unfortunately a lot of them have been blurred by Google's text filter.
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the cheesecake man
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by the cheesecake man »

OK so this a weight not a distance.

This end of the car park has a three tonne weight limit.

The other end has not two tonnes, nor even 1.5 tonnes but 1,524kg. :o I suppose there are some vehicles for whom the extra 24kg might make a vital difference but is enforcement really that precise anyway? :)
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by Glen »

The legal traffic regulation order will specify 30 hundredweight.
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Re: Unnecessarily Accurate Distances on Signs

Post by TS »

Well we couldn't just put "½ mile" - that would be an exaggeration!

https://goo.gl/maps/MKbeY5cnZ6ixUAio7
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