Did botched road signs used to be any more common than today?

[RJDG14]

There seem to be a lot of post-Worboys road signs from the 1960s and 1970s which look a little botched in one way or another (some survive to this day, while some have been replaced with newer signage), with the proportions often being a bit inconsistent compared to signs today. I'm curious as to why this was, and why you generally see fewer such signs that have been installed in the past 40 years?

[jervi]

I'm far from old enough to comment factually on this, but I'd presume the "botches" of road signs now are different from historical ones. But overall I'd expect botches (incorrectness) would of increased.
Of course some people here will have better knowledge on this subject than me, so correct me if I'm mistaken.

Before signs were designed on computers, only specialists would of designed and made them. These specialists would of known the ins and outs of road sign regulation, so mistakes in their designs (to comply with regulations) would of been minimal. However the physical application of signs may of been botched when altering a sign due to limited access to materials and a more make-do attitude.
Nowadays signs are designed by anyone who has access to sign making CAD software. This means that inexperienced, untrained people can & do design signs. The signs are then fabricated usually by an external company to those who designed them. The sign fabricators likely have good knowledge of sign regulations, however are only there to fabricate the sign, they are not paid to quality check the design.
Also now when signs are in need of altering, it seems the cost/effort of modifying an existing sign is similar to just putting up a new one, so we see less of "botching" an existing sign.

[Bristol]

roads.org.uk has something on the matter: https://www.roads.org.uk/photo/mistakes

A 1980 gantry sign points to "Datrford" whereas a 1959 one at the opening ceremony for the M1 was placed in the hard shoulder by mistake.

That doesn't answer whether botches were more common in the past - I suspect not, especially looking at the quality of temporary signs at roadworks around Bristol at the moment.

[DavidB]

I recall that when the Berkshire section of the M4 opened in 1971 the local paper (the Reading Evening Post) ran some articles about incorrect distances on RCS which led to them being corrected.

[MotorwayGuy]

roads.org.uk has something on the matter: https://www.roads.org.uk/photo/mistakes

A 1980 gantry sign points to "Datrford" whereas a 1959 one at the opening ceremony for the M1 was placed in the hard shoulder by mistake.

That doesn't answer whether botches were more common in the past - I suspect not, especially looking at the quality of temporary signs at roadworks around Bristol at the moment.

The first one on that page is horrific for many reasons other than pointing to a non-existent motorway. For a start the (M25) bits shouldn't be in Motorway, M20, M23 (and M24 if it existed) should all have separate brackets around them, as should M11 and M1 which have none. There are no spaces after the commas either. The corners on the A282s aren't rounded either, and "The North" should be "The NORTH".

[Chris5156]

The corners on the A282s aren't rounded either, and "The North" should be "The NORTH".

You're right about everything except the corners on the A282 patches. Under the 1981 regulations, primary route patches did not have rounded corners, just square ones. It was a very strange anomaly and probably shouldn't have been the case, but it was, and most signs of that era had square-edged primary route patches as a result. Strange but true!

[Bryn666]

The corners on the A282s aren't rounded either, and "The North" should be "The NORTH".

You're right about everything except the corners on the A282 patches. Under the 1981 regulations, primary route patches did not have rounded corners, just square ones. It was a very strange anomaly and probably shouldn't have been the case, but it was, and most signs of that era had square-edged primary route patches as a result. Strange but true!

The drawings were never updated from 1964 - motorways didn't have blue patches until 1981 as Chris points out, and were given rounded corners.

You do see some old signs where motorways were shown in a green patch, this was an error in design though. Here's an example: https://goo.gl/maps/fkvuQGvuKToVWRNK7

[Bfivethousand]

Agree that that particular sign is painful to look at, however

M20, M23 (and M24 if it existed) should all have separate brackets around them

isn't correct. Traffic Signs Manual Ch. 7 Figure 3.12 shows a couple of examples where more than one motorway route number is grouped within a single pair of brackets.

[Jonathan24]

roads.org.uk has something on the matter: https://www.roads.org.uk/photo/mistakes

A 1980 gantry sign points to "Datrford" whereas a 1959 one at the opening ceremony for the M1 was placed in the hard shoulder by mistake.

That doesn't answer whether botches were more common in the past - I suspect not, especially looking at the quality of temporary signs at roadworks around Bristol at the moment.

Not the last time a sign has been placed in the hard shoulder either...fortunately, this one has been removed too, along with the island build out.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.84853 ... 312!8i6656

[AndyB]

I didn’t even notice that on the night it opened - do you remember they initially stuck the gore sign on the other side of the junction in the middle of the hard shoulder - on three poles?

"The North" should be "The NORTH".

Was capitalising regions not post-1994?

[Jonathan24]

I didn’t even notice that on the night it opened - do you remember they initially stuck the gore sign on the other side of the junction in the middle of the hard shoulder - on three poles?

Yes! That is the one I was originally looking for on Street View, but it can't have lasted too as it doesn't seem to be in any of the historical images (my memory was that it was there for a long time and was only removed relatively recently, but >10 years have obviously passed very quickly...). However, when I was looking for it, I found the one linked (which I don't actually remember in reality).

[AndyB]

I think it was moved within a year. Wesley posted about it at the time.

[MotorwayGuy]

The corners on the A282s aren't rounded either, and "The North" should be "The NORTH".

You're right about everything except the corners on the A282 patches. Under the 1981 regulations, primary route patches did not have rounded corners, just square ones. It was a very strange anomaly and probably shouldn't have been the case, but it was, and most signs of that era had square-edged primary route patches as a result. Strange but true!

The drawings were never updated from 1964 - motorways didn't have blue patches until 1981 as Chris points out, and were given rounded corners.

You do see some old signs where motorways were shown in a green patch, this was an error in design though. Here's an example: https://goo.gl/maps/fkvuQGvuKToVWRNK7

That is interesting, I always assumed it was laziness on the part of the sign maker when both were mixed but it's actually the opposite.

[Bryn666]

I didn’t even notice that on the night it opened - do you remember they initially stuck the gore sign on the other side of the junction in the middle of the hard shoulder - on three poles?

"The North" should be "The NORTH".

Was capitalising regions not post-1994?

It was inconsistent - signs in the 1975 regs showed capitalisation but then signs in guidance manuals didn't.

It was formalised in 1994 though.