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A robust libertarian attitude to road signs

Ben Macintyre argues in the Times that the proliferation of road signs that order, warn, chide, and harry drivers, not to mention giving involuntary Welsh and Gaelic language lessons to those navigating busy roundabouts, has become a danger in its own right. “We’ve lost our way when it comes to road signs”. I suppose that link should have been preceded by:
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PAYWALL AHEAD

…but I thought it would be more fun to place the warning where it was too late for you to do anything about it.

Now, where was I? (as the actress said to the bishop coming on to the M6 from the A38(M)). Oh, that’s right. I did enjoy this exchange from the comments:

mumqueem

Sometimes I think there aren’t enough signs. Such as when negotiating an unknown town and directions to your destination just disappear. So you drive in circles until you pick up the relevant signs. I never have this problem in France.

John Hatch
@mumqueem

I also never have this problem in France.

It is one of the many advantages of not going there.

When my father first went to France, he disregarded the road signs. He relied on his map and the fact that he was sitting in the turret of a tank.

25 comments to A robust libertarian attitude to road signs

  • Paul Marks

    Roads should be private (either commercial or charitable trusts) – signs should be a matter for the owners.

    “We all know that Paul”.

    I like stating the obvious.

    I am a hobbit – even down to my hairy toes.

  • woodsy42

    mumqueem has obviously never tried to drive through the middle of Tours on market day.

  • Mr Ed

    In the UK in May 2010, just after the General Election, I thought that I noticed a drop in the agitprop on the illuminated signs on England’s major A roads (dual carriageway, long-distance roads that aren’t Motorways). These signs can display whatever is written up on the lights (for non-UK readers) and apart from telling you about accidents ahead, or traffic speeds (via ANPR) e.g.’Grantham 24 miles 22 minutes’, they also spouted ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ ‘Tiredness Kills – Take a Break!’ ‘Stop beating your partner’ (I made that one up, or rather, I anticipate it for 2016).

    However, after about 3 months the agitprop appeared again. We will know that they have jumped the shark when the signs warn about obesity just before you get to a service station ‘Eat 5 a Day’ etc. however, we would be making progress if the signs read ‘Ignore Government Propaganda’.

  • Regional

    The proliferation of road signs discombobulates the senses making them meaningless.

  • Tedd

    Regional:

    I agree. And not just road signs, signs in general. I long ago gave up bothering to look at most signs, the signal to noise ratio is way too poor to waste my scarce intellectual resources on. Almost all signs tell you something that is self evident, redundant, unimportant, or incorrect, or they give you information that might be useful if it was intelligible, but it’s not. Plus, if you ignore a sign and it turns out that it mattered, there’s always someone around to point out your error, usually not armed (where I live).

    Am I well on my way to becoming an curmudgeon?

  • Regional

    Tedd,
    It’s compulsory to become a cranky old bastard.

  • mike

    Here in Taiwan, roadsigns have not yet been used as agitprop by the government but, far more amusingly, as unintentioanl advertisements of State misdirection, innumeracy and general incompetence. They thus complement the actual design of roads in this respect too, particularly some of the freeways in which the slip road to join and the slip road to leave are… the same dangerously short stretch of tarmac.

  • The Sanity Inspector

    I spent a holiday driving around South Korea’s Jeju Island, which has many fewer traffic signs than I’m used to. I was much more careful than usual, too.

  • The Sanity Inspector

    Oh I’m proud to be a citizen of Cardiff
    The finest spot upon the map of Wales
    We’ve the City ‘All, the Arms Park, and Brains Breweries
    Where they makes the beer they calls the Prince of Ales.
    But now they’re trying to alter all our signposts
    And make us live in streets we cannot say
    I don’t mind the Pakistanis and the coloureds
    But I wish the bloody Welsh would stay away…
    –Gareth Jones, _Welsh and Proud of It_, 1974

  • Very retired

    I would tend to believe that tanks have the right of way in just about any situation, with or without traffic signs.

  • Laird

    We have some strange ideas about signs over on this side of the pond, too.

  • Natalie Solent (Essex)

    Very retired,

    I was in the OTC at university. At the start of one of our weekends on Salisbury Plain we were told that if one of the tankies who where on exercise at the same time were to run over one of our little bashas, we were to scream. We all agreed it was a good thing they had given us clear orders in advance.

  • Rob

    It isn’t so much that there are too many, it’s that most of them are near or completely useless. Note that this campaign of overwhelming your attention with road signs has run in parallel with the State campaigns to criminalise distraction by other sources, eg phones. Odd.

  • Rob

    My favourite ever useless road sign was on a trunk road outside Bedford (I think), proudly announcing their position as midway between Oxford and Cambridge.

  • the other rob

    Laird – this is the one that most bugs me. It’s practically meta, in a way.

  • Dave Walker

    Matrix signs on motorways warning about delays are often wrong, and I’ve started ignoring them; the Highways Agency (or whichever body looks after them) should keep them accurate if they want drivers to take note of them.

    There’s only two circumstance where I’d like to see more signs:

    * shortly before a speed camera, to remind motorists unfamiliar with the area what the limit is
    * when roadworks force people to take diversions (Reading is particularly bad at this, and the last time I had to deal with roadworks there the signage was completely inadequate and made the town centre wholly unnavigable; the only way out that I was able to find, involved incurring a fine).

    There’s also one typographical correction I’d like to make; a circular white sign with a diagonal black stripe across it should mean “notional speed limit” rather than “national speed limit” ;-).

  • pete

    The most useless road sign I know is one in Knutsford which says ‘Tatton Park 4 1/4’.

    An entrance to the park is half a mile away.

  • elboAltins

    A guy named Hans already figured this out:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Monderman

  • bloke in spain

    My least favourite sign is on the M25, just before Tilbury. It exhorts: “DON’T DRIVE TIRED. TAKE A BREAK”. A snooze in the services will cost you £8. Failure to comply will result in a £60 fine.

  • Tedd

    I’m surprised that we’ve gotten this far into the comments without any discussion of Hans Monderman’s work. He seems like a bit of a libertarian hero, to me.

  • Laird

    @ The Other Rob: Perhaps this is a more succinct version of the same thought.

  • Tedd

    Laird:

    Years ago I started collecting examples of signs that were bizarre or ridiculous. I wish I had kept it, it would have made a great blog. One of my favourites was a sign in a laundromat in Melbourne that said, “NO DRYING ONLY.” Talk about a libertarian paradise!

  • nemesis

    If you have an hour to spare, this lecture by the late Hans Monderman is well worth it. A libertarian hero indeed.
    http://www.urbannous.org.uk/Hans-Monderman-Presentation.htm

    And this one is just for Dave Walker
    http://englishblogmmg.edublogs.org/2014/06/01/funny-road-sign/

  • Very retired

    Natalie—some screaming, and a sticky bomb, would surely grab their attention.

    Might be a bit late for the squished one, but c’est la guerre.

  • SC

    >Matrix signs on motorways warning about delays are often wrong, and I’ve started ignoring them

    Yes, they’re often hours out of date, and very unhelpful.