Road signage on the cheap endangers us all!

[mjr]

Mostly, around here the tractor driver keeps going, trimming the signs as well!

Ah, is that what it is? I was worried we had a metal-chewing ogre roaming the countryside!

 

[Globalti]

Once in the era before satnav around Woodleigh near Leeds we had trouble finding the house of friends because certain gentlemen of the road had stolen all the aluminium signs. It's not cheap, it's good quality aluminium.

 

[mjr]

Once in the era before satnav around Woodleigh near Leeds we had trouble finding the house of friends because certain gentlemen of the road had stolen all the aluminium signs. It's not cheap, it's good quality aluminium.

Hence it being cheap not to put them up and just paint on the roads, as the OP complains?

Anyway, many signs now seem to say "NO SCRAP VALUE" on the rear.

 

[classic33]

They tend to be the newer design, with a "foam layer" between two aluminium sheets.

And the buying of stolen metals is being treated a bit more seriously these days.

 

[Drago]

Signs are great. Gives us yokels something to shoot at with our shotguns

 

[Bazzer]

Following a trip in the car to Edinburgh for a course, and driving in wet and dark conditions, I have come up with a theory which potentially endangers us all. It's not an excuse for poor driving, but it certainly doesn't help.

I've noticed a huge increase in recent years of the use of white painted direction signs on the road surface, instead of properly mounted signposts at the side of the road. Presumably this is a cost cutting exercise as I can imagine there is some expense involved in the manufacture and mounting of proper signs. Paint on the road is fine, as long as you know it's there! But take a driver out of their regular environment and it's a different matter, as I have been finding out recently. On dark, wet, busy roads the white paint is all but invisible until you are quite literally almost on top of it. Especially because in true British style it is not renewed as often as it should be and can be faded to the point of uselessness.

It goes some way to explaining why you see so many drivers not looking beyond the few feet in front of their bonnet at roundabouts in particular, as they try to pick out lane markings and direction arrows on the road. It's maybe cheap, roads bosses, but it's dangerous and has the potential to cost lives!

View attachment 441165

This abomination of a road is one local example. If you're going straight ahead you need to be in the left lane on approach to the first set of lights, but note the absence of arrows on the road until a few yards short of the lights. So if there's even a short queue of traffic you're not going to see them, even in good light conditions... Once through the lights you have to switch to the RIGHT lane to go straight ahead as left is for left turn only! Again the arrows are just prior to the mini roundabout, which is only about 30 yards from the lights... Fine if you're familiar with the road layout, but they don't consider someone driving a large vehicle coming across this on a wet dark night for the first time.
I consider myself a very experienced road user - bikes, motorbikes, cars, artics, and being driving since 1982. But I was struggling to negotiate similar road systems in Edinburgh traffic last week.

I'm glad you brought this up. Having just returned from a few days in the Evesham area, I repeatedly found this a ball ache on unfamiliar roundabouts at busy times.

 

[DRM]

I'm glad you brought this up. Having just returned from a few days in the Evesham area, I repeatedly found this a ball ache on unfamiliar roundabouts at busy times.

Exactly, I have this every day, driving in unfamiliar areas following the sat nav, you approach a roundabout to take the second exit, only to find the arrow that was under the vehicles in front of you is left turn only, so then the locals assume you’re trying to push in and won’t let you across, cue ranting & the long angry horn blast because you have the audacity to be in the wrong lane.

 

[tamiya]

They tend to be the newer design, with a "foam layer" between two aluminium sheets.

Repurposed building cladding, hmm...

 

[classic33]

Repurposed building cladding, hmm...

First encountered one in 2003. A No Entry sign, which I cycled 15 miles with it on my back

Found a rolex watch, wallet with over a £1000 in it(Approach to Chain Bar, J26 M62), 15,000 unsigned credit cards.
Just your every day run of the mill stuff, like a human skull at the side of the road.

No Entry sign, still in the shed. Rode to work with it on my back. Also had to ride home with it though.

 

[Threevok]

It's very rare to see a "complete" road sign around here, especially on motorways and especially around the Merthyr area.