Irish White Roundabout Sign?

[Unbreakify]

I have NO idea what this is.
My friend is pretty curious too. He's passed it many times.
Anyone know what this means?

[wallmeerkat]

Where is it? Near an airport/military base where it might be used for identification?

Perhaps an industrial estate or new development with multiple roundabouts? (I could've done with such a naming scheme finding my hotel in Milton Keynes once )

[Unbreakify]

Where is it? Near an airport/military base where it might be used for identification?

Perhaps an industrial estate or new development with multiple roundabouts? (I could've done with such a naming scheme finding my hotel in Milton Keynes once )

I dont think so. Im still pretty unsure

[murphaph]

Looks a bit like Citywest campus off the N7.

[wallmeerkat]

Looks a bit like Citywest campus off the N7.

Correct!

And it does look like it is some sort of roundabout identification ("You'll find us off roundabout 4B?" https://www.google.com/maps/@53.2933464 ... 384!8i8192 )

Main Citywest Avenue has 5 on the N82 road, then 5A and 5B running west to east, and then 5B has 4B to the north, looks like some grid system.

[Paul7755]

Looks a bit like Citywest campus off the N7.

Correct!

And it does look like it is some sort of roundabout identification ("You'll find us off roundabout 4B?" https://www.google.com/maps/@53.2933464 ... 384!8i8192 )

Main Citywest Avenue has 5 on the N82 road, then 5A and 5B running west to east, and then 5B has 4B to the north, looks like some grid system.

Yes, a further virtual look round shows 2 and 3 are the roundabouts either side of the N7, and 7 is right down the bottom at Magna Drive, 6 doesn’t seem to be used yet, but there’s an obvious crossroads that could become a future roundabout 6…

Paul

[Owain]

Looks a bit like Citywest campus off the N7.

Correct!

And it does look like it is some sort of roundabout identification ("You'll find us off roundabout 4B?" https://www.google.com/maps/@53.2933464 ... 384!8i8192 )

Main Citywest Avenue has 5 on the N82 road, then 5A and 5B running west to east, and then 5B has 4B to the north, looks like some grid system.

Yes, a further virtual look round shows 2 and 3 are the roundabouts either side of the N7, and 7 is right down the bottom at Magna Drive, 6 doesn’t seem to be used yet, but there’s an obvious crossroads that could become a future roundabout 6…

Paul

As it's common for roundabouts in Ireland to be given a name for navigational purposes, it makes perfect sense that those on university campuses, retail parks, or industrial estates might simply be given numbers or letters for the same reason.

[Vierwielen]

Correct!

And it does look like it is some sort of roundabout identification ("You'll find us off roundabout 4B?" https://www.google.com/maps/@53.2933464 ... 384!8i8192 )

Main Citywest Avenue has 5 on the N82 road, then 5A and 5B running west to east, and then 5B has 4B to the north, looks like some grid system.

Yes, a further virtual look round shows 2 and 3 are the roundabouts either side of the N7, and 7 is right down the bottom at Magna Drive, 6 doesn’t seem to be used yet, but there’s an obvious crossroads that could become a future roundabout 6…

Paul

As it's common for roundabouts in Ireland to be given a name for navigational purposes, it makes perfect sense that those on university campuses, retail parks, or industrial estates might simply be given numbers or letters for the same reason.

An equally valid approach would be to number the roundabouts in terms of their distance from the start of the road, possibly rounded to the nearest 10 metres. In this way, it would not be neccessary to use "a" suffixes should a new roundabout be built. BOth US and Spanish freeways use this approach (US in miles, Spain in km).

[wallmeerkat]

Yes, a further virtual look round shows 2 and 3 are the roundabouts either side of the N7, and 7 is right down the bottom at Magna Drive, 6 doesn’t seem to be used yet, but there’s an obvious crossroads that could become a future roundabout 6…

Paul

As it's common for roundabouts in Ireland to be given a name for navigational purposes, it makes perfect sense that those on university campuses, retail parks, or industrial estates might simply be given numbers or letters for the same reason.

An equally valid approach would be to number the roundabouts in terms of their distance from the start of the road, possibly rounded to the nearest 10 metres. In this way, it would not be neccessary to use "a" suffixes should a new roundabout be built. BOth US and Spanish freeways use this approach (US in miles, Spain in km).

Valid approach yes, but would it be used? I've encountered that folks across Ireland prefer descriptive naming and don't tend to use junction numbers for example, but "The <town> turnoff" or "Sandyknowes roundabout/Red Cow roundabout (despite it being a complex non-roundabout now)", and rather than eg. A/N roads would be "The Antrim Road", "The Naas Road"

[AndyB]

I can’t see it changing - Ireland has used sequential numbering for so long on public roads that I doubt they would bother changing to distance-based numbering. In the case of CityWest (which is not nice on an October Saturday), they would need to number on a whole site basis anyway, and if they were to use distance-based numbering, the unit for the numbering would be difficult.

The Antrim and Naas Roads are indeed officially called that, but for example the A36 Shane’s Hill Road is generally known as The Larne Line. Traffic bulletins use official junction names and numbers, street names and road numbers (for example, “The A6 is blocked going into Glengormley from M2 Junction 4 Sandyknowes” or “Two lanes of the M2 country bound between J2 and J4 are blocked” might be translated into “The M2 hill section is down to one lane country bound”

[wallmeerkat]

The Antrim and Naas Roads are indeed officially called that, but for example the A36 Shane’s Hill Road is generally known as The Larne Line. Traffic bulletins use official junction names and numbers, street names and road numbers (for example, “The A6 is blocked going into Glengormley from M2 Junction 4 Sandyknowes” or “Two lanes of the M2 country bound between J2 and J4 are blocked” might be translated into “The M2 hill section is down to one lane country bound”

Yep that was kinda the point I was making but failed, we tend to use description rather than numbering

Interestingly I've only ever heard the A8 be called the Larne Line but I guess it's relative (eg. Belfast bias vs Ballymena)

[AndyB]

To make it worse, to me the Larne line has blue and silver tubes running up and down it via Carrickfergus and Whitehead.

(Yes, the Larne railway line)

[Vierwielen]

As it's common for roundabouts in Ireland to be given a name for navigational purposes, it makes perfect sense that those on university campuses, retail parks, or industrial estates might simply be given numbers or letters for the same reason.

An equally valid approach would be to number the roundabouts in terms of their distance from the start of the road, possibly rounded to the nearest 10 metres. In this way, it would not be neccessary to use "a" suffixes should a new roundabout be built. BOth US and Spanish freeways use this approach (US in miles, Spain in km).

Valid approach yes, but would it be used? I've encountered that folks across Ireland prefer descriptive naming and don't tend to use junction numbers for example, but "The <town> turnoff" or "Sandyknowes roundabout/Red Cow roundabout (despite it being a complex non-roundabout now)", and rather than eg. A/N roads would be "The Antrim Road", "The Naas Road"

This sort of approach is common in the UK as well, but it does not help the driver who does not know the area. One of my pet hates are signs that state "Congestion Charging after <xyz> roundabout" (or something similar). Where is the <xyz> roundabout? The sign would be much more useful if it had a distance rather than a roundabout name.

[wallmeerkat]

An equally valid approach would be to number the roundabouts in terms of their distance from the start of the road, possibly rounded to the nearest 10 metres. In this way, it would not be neccessary to use "a" suffixes should a new roundabout be built. BOth US and Spanish freeways use this approach (US in miles, Spain in km).

Valid approach yes, but would it be used? I've encountered that folks across Ireland prefer descriptive naming and don't tend to use junction numbers for example, but "The <town> turnoff" or "Sandyknowes roundabout/Red Cow roundabout (despite it being a complex non-roundabout now)", and rather than eg. A/N roads would be "The Antrim Road", "The Naas Road"

This sort of approach is common in the UK as well, but it does not help the driver who does not know the area. One of my pet hates are signs that state "Congestion Charging after <xyz> roundabout" (or something similar). Where is the <xyz> roundabout? The sign would be much more useful if it had a distance rather than a roundabout name.

When I lived in GB I encountered both on the radio traffic - landmarks eg. Scotch Corner would be named, but otherwise junction numbers on the longer motorways eg. M1/M6

[Vierwielen]

Valid approach yes, but would it be used? I've encountered that folks across Ireland prefer descriptive naming and don't tend to use junction numbers for example, but "The <town> turnoff" or "Sandyknowes roundabout/Red Cow roundabout (despite it being a complex non-roundabout now)", and rather than eg. A/N roads would be "The Antrim Road", "The Naas Road"

In 2001/2 I spent about nine months in Italy, returning home alternate weekends. During the weekends that I was in Italy, I did some sight-seeing. Apart from the Rome Ring Road (Grande Raccordo Anulare or GRA), they seemed to name their junctions rather than numbering them (whether sequentially or by distance). If I was driving up the A1 Autostrade to say Sienna (without SatNav) from Rome, it was a right pain spotting the correct junction (or uscita) for my exit.