Why are there no "The EAST" primary destination signs?

[w0033944]

I'm not saying this should be the situation (especially when you consider the lack of difficult terrain for roadbuilding), simply suggesting it as a possible explanation as to the lack of high quality routes

Inland East Anglia is flat and wet, and has considerable drainage problems, so the terrain isn't as good as you might think. Major roads typically have to be built on an embankment to prevent them flooding. For example, some sections of the A47 would be hard to widen because they have to be raised to avoid the floodplain of the river Nene.

You've picked the western/north-western parts of the region (the Fens) and used them as an example of the entire region. I live in an inland part of East Anglia, and I can assure you that, a bit of boulder clay notwithstanding, it's not wet. Indeed, this part of the country gets less rainfall than most, and our back garden at present is pretty dry after a spell without significant rainfall.

[thatapanydude]

There's a few The EAST signs in Carlisle like here.

Well in Carlisle all there missing is 'The North' sign here.

[rhyds]

There's a few The EAST signs in Carlisle like here.

Well in Carlisle all there missing is 'The North' sign here.

Its Carlisle, there is no more "north" from there!

[thatapanydude]

There's a few The EAST signs in Carlisle like here.

Well in Carlisle all there missing is 'The North' sign here.

Its Carlisle, there is no more "north" from there!

well from 2012 there is!!

[CallumParry]

There's a RCS on the A66 E/B at brough that states A66 The NORTH EAST
and shouldn't Wetherby be in Brackets because it's not along the A66 and i'm surprised Middlesbrough or Durham isn't on it.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.52446 ... 312!8i6656

[M5Lenzar]

Brackets around place names hasn't been allowed for a while now.

[Vierwielen]

Well in Carlisle all there missing is 'The North' sign here.

Its Carlisle, there is no more "north" from there!

well from 2012 there is!!

Maybe, in this case, "The North" should be replaced by "Scotland"!

[vlad]

You need to get out of Carlisle a bit before they mention Scotland.

From the same roundabout, apparently the A7 doesn't go to Scotland, only to Hawick, Galashiels and Edinburgh....

[Stevie D]

There's a RCS on the A66 E/B at brough that states A66 The NORTH EAST
and shouldn't Wetherby be in Brackets because it's not along the A66 and i'm surprised Middlesbrough or Durham isn't on it.

Brackets haven't been used on RCS destinations since 1994. They are still used to indicate distant road numbers as normal.

Middlesbrough wouldn't be used from that far out ... Teesside is used outside the area, only breaking down to Middlesbrough and Stockton once you get close. I agree that it's slightly surprising that it isn't included, but I guess it is covered by "The NORTH EAST".

A lot more traffic from A66 turns right onto A1 South than turns left for A1 North or A66 East, which I guess is why Wetherby is shown but nowhere north of Darlington. Wetherby has always struck me as a slightly odd place to be so heavily signposted, taking precedence over the much larger York, Leeds and Darlington.

[Chris Bertram]

Wetherby has always struck me as a slightly odd place to be so heavily signposted, taking precedence over the much larger York, Leeds and Darlington.

It is/was a significant waypoint for navigation, being where the road to Leeds diverges from the road to London. Of course it's not so obvious now, since the Wetherby roundabout was bypassed and traffic for Leeds is encouraged towards the A64, but prior to that you knew that it was a place where route choices were made.

[wrinkly]

You need to get out of Carlisle a bit before they mention Scotland.

On the M6 mainline Scotland is first mentioned at J40 (unless it's mentioned earlier on an RCS):

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.64949 ... 312!8i6656

And according to a recent discussion, it was also mentioned on one sign at Wednesbury!

[Arcuarius]

We don't like to go east, it's not the done thing

There lies dragons

Like my ex-wife, for one

[thatapanydude]

Looks like the person who designed the sign couldn't be bothered to add all the possible routes on the A45 e.g. cambridge, st neots, kettering so they just left it as the east!

[Osthagen]

I'm fairly certain that 'EAST' exists on some signs in Newcastle in the Central Motorway...

The coast is only about 10 miles. Maybe they were talking about Holland?

[NICK 647063]

I can quite see why wetherby is used as it's next to the A1(M) and at one was on the A1 both Leeds and York require a drive along the A64 to get to them from the A1(M).......also as mentioned people used to leave at wetherby towards Leeds although most now continue down to J44 and use the A64 to Leeds rather than A58 I admit myself I always now use the A64 over the A58.

[Osthagen]

The EAST, A69, (M6) on a direction sign on the A7 Georgian Way through Carlisle.

As a fact, 'The EAST' is a sanctioned regional destination in LTN 1/94.

I suggest the extreme rarity of 'The EAST' signs is explained by the fact that the road network and signage tends to revolve around London so much. Immediately east of London is the Thames Estuary, and there are slim pickings for primary destinations there, with Basildon, Southend-on-Sea and Tilbury, so they probably don't see much point in generalising with terms like 'The EAST' when you could just sign the PDs in question (all of which are within 30 miles of the M25). East Anglia and surrounding areas all require a substantial drive NORTH from London, meaning that 'The EAST' wouldn't be entirely appropriate for that either, in fact, I remember seeing a sign on the M25 anticlockwise just north of Dartford saying something to the tune of 'For EAST ANGLIA, follow A12 Chelmsford'.
It would also explain why 'The WEST' signs are generally (but not entirely) restricted to the M4 corridor, it's the main route to The WEST, where there are far more potential destinations, from within the M25.

Plus, in other parts of Britain, there is no obvious route to the 'east'. If I'm on let's say the M6 South approaching J44, both Newcastle and Norwich are 'east' of my current location, but I'm going to need vastly different routes to get to them.

[BF2142]

We could also replace The South bc "the south" really means London and the South East. As someone commented upthread, this regionalised naming system is a London thing bc no one outside of London identifies with regions., I'm pretty sure there is a sign on the M25 for "East Anglia" - where is that? It's not a city or county, it won't appear on any satnav. No one identifies as East Anglian, definitely not people in Essex who pivot more towards London than rural Suffolk and Norfolk.

[Big Nick]

One place to put The EAST is on the A11 turn off from the M11. But having Newmarket and Norwich on there does the same job adequately.

[wallmeerkat]

Me: aha, the M2 Belfast has a lot of compass destinations...

M2 Belfast: the NORTH, the SOUTH, the WEST....

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.6295738 ... 384!8i8192

[Disgruntled Goat]

We could also replace The South bc "the south" really means London and the South East. As someone commented upthread, this regionalised naming system is a London thing bc no one outside of London identifies with regions., I'm pretty sure there is a sign on the M25 for "East Anglia" - where is that? It's not a city or county, it won't appear on any satnav. No one identifies as East Anglian, definitely not people in Essex who pivot more towards London than rural Suffolk and Norfolk.

It's here approaching the A12 junction anti-clockwise: https://goo.gl/maps/a986HZzF5crbkQcx7

You could make an argument depending on your definition of East Anglia that parts of it are actually better served by using the M11 instead of the A12