Bournemouth's peculiar TAXI sign

[TS]

This thing has been in this spot for as long as I can remember (since about 1980!) and it's still going strong, the letters T A X I flickering on and off at apparently random intervals. It's at the taxi rank on Westover Road, by the former Tourist Information Centre.

I asked the driver at the front of the rank and he explained it thus:
There is a rank with four spaces down at The Square (opposite the Wetherspoon) and this sign indicates when there are vacancies down there. Effectively, this rank is an extension of that one and the guy at the front is actually fifth in line for a fare.

The letters T A X I represent the four spaces at The Square, and they light up when vacant. So if it's full down there, the sign will be completely blank, if it's empty the sign will be full. This tells the front driver that (if the sign is blank) he can't pick up a fare from here because it's not his turn, but (if it is fully lit) he can pick up a fare because he'd be front of the queue at The Square.

This instance, with just the X showing, denotes that the guy at the front in The Square has pulled off (illuminating the I), and the guy in second position has moved forward, thus turning off the I and illuminating the X - and the guy currently in position A hasn't yet moved forward.

Has anyone ever seen such a bizarre thing anywhere else?

[Chris5156]

How completely bizarre. The fact that the four letters of "taxi" are used as four separate indicator lights is incredibly strange. But it clearly works, in a way.

This is the only similar thing I can think of - an indicator light for taxis outside Leeds City Station. When illuminated, it shows the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 running down vertically - the 10 appears in the wider window at the bottom of the signal. It's there because the head of the taxi rank is around a blind corner, and the queue of taxis can't be continuous because the queue passes through the approach to some bus stops, so the first two or three taxis are out of sight round the corner. How it works, and why it shows the numbers 6-10, and why it's all the way back there when you can fit several taxis ahead of it, I have no idea.

[Al__S]

That Bournemouth one seems amazingly complicated. I like it. There's a much simpler "Spaces" indicator in Cambridge

[TS]

Here is the other side of the sign, taken at 7:30am - a predictably quieter period, so with three of the four letters illuminated.

[scott125]

Theres something similar in Glasgow.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.86008 ... 8192?hl=en