This story raises an interesting point. A Gloucestershire driving instructor is bemoaning the absence of speed limit signs on a local dual carriageway. Basically, there are speed limit signs – but these occur before a roundabout, and there are no subsequent repeater signs after it.
We have quite a few such roads in Nottingham. The regulations say that small repeater signs should be placed at appropriate intervals, but as long as there is a main sign to indicate where the limit comes into force then no rules are being broken. Usually, repeater signs are missing because someone has forgotten to put them back after road works or the replacement of lights which have been damaged in accidents.
If you look at the photo accompanying the story from the Gloucester Citizen, the street lighting in the background is the new “energy efficient” kind.
I’d lay odds that before this lighting was put in there would have been repeaters, and whoever authorised/planned the lighting upgrade was responsible for not replacing the signage to the same standard. It’s a script played out by councils up and down the country.
It isn’t just speed limits, either. This one around here uses the mini-roundabout sign to warn of an upcoming mini-roundabout.
As far as I’m aware, it should be the red and white triangle sign that warns of an upcoming hazard. The blue mini-roundabout sign is supposed to say “here it is, so give way as necessary”. In fact, just round that bend there’s another blue circle correctly placed at the actual roundabout.
Then there’s this roundabout which is on test routes. Note the blue circle with the arrow – which denotes that you should “keep to or pass on the left”.
All the signs on all exits of that roundabout are the same. They should be a horizontal left-pointing arrow which denotes that you should only “turn left”.
Indirectly it is a dumbing-down problem. Specifically, dumbing-down has resulted in people who are too dumb to put the correct signs back up when they take them down or install new road layouts.
The problem is even worse in road works – and Nottingham is the Road Works Capitol of the World.
I’m not convinced it is specifically a problem for learners, as is claimed in the original article. It’s the same for everyone. In fact, learners should have it easier if they have a good instructor to explain it to them. However, it sometimes takes several trips on the same route to figure these things out, and that can’t be right.
the theory test or to being a safe driver once you have. At worst, it is an obstacle which has to be overcome (it’s pretty obvious that difficulty in reading or comprehending words is going to be an issue, but it doesn’t have to be a terminal one).
test as his wife was due to give birth that day and he’d have to be at the hospital. As it turned out, he DID go to the hospital – at 2.20am that morning to see his wife give birth to a baby girl – and then had his test mid-morning. Talk about everything coming together at once!
