Readers' questions and comments

Newest questions and comments

A question from Nic Blinston

The symbol appears to be a horizontal line with two vertical lines through it, something like two plus signs next to each other: ++

The first time I spotted them was on a variety of directional road signs around Telford, where they appear to be vinyl cut-out symbols stuck on. They are often green, and have rounded ends to all the lines (making them look like a long horizontally-aligned hot-dog sausage with two shorter sausages arranged vertically!)

On holiday in Wales last week, I spotted a number of them on the carriageway for the first time - if I recall correctly, mainly on the A458 through Welshpool. Roughly painted in yellow, they are clearly the same symbol. Imagine my excitement when I saw a few which had three vertical sausages!

The carriageway markings appear in the centre of the lane, and must be about six inches by four.

A question from Stephen Bott

I have noticed that in mainland Europe, road signs in all the countries apart from Albania (which has no route numbers at all!), have E route numbers For example, in France, the A26 is the E17, so on road signs, it is displayed A26/E17. I know for a fact that the M1 is the E13, the M6 is the E5 and the A1 is the E15. Also, the A69 is the E18, I think. I have noticed that our road signs don't publish the E-route numbers. Would you, or other users of your website, know why we don't show E-routes on our road signs? Not many European road maps display E-routes in our country.

Recently answered questions and comments

A question from Russell Edmonds

The A41 Tring bypass was going to be a motorway: I have an atlas which designated this four mile stretch so. It also has a hard shoulder and a couple of blue signs. I'd like to know who pulled the plug on this raised status, though I can't blame them. The short answer is that it was originally intended to be part of a London-Birmingham motorway. For more details, see here.

A question from Russell Edmonds

What happened to Junction 3 of the M1? The Gateway to London (Scratchwood Services) is there, though the slip road is dual carriage and double bridge like a regular junction. Was this originally designated as a Borehamwood turnoff? The short answer is that it was intended to be a link road to the A1. For more details, see here.

A question from Julian Dommett

The B5444 runs from Mold town centre southeastwards to join the A541 (the Wrexham road). It fits in naturally with the other local B roads.

So why is there a stretch of the B5444 on the eastern outskirts of Swansea, where the A4217 used to run until realigned? It has been there for some years, according to a succession of Ordnance Survey maps.

The short answer is that it's a mistake. M4 Man has been on the case and has more or less extracted an apology from the government! Details are here.

Older questions and comments

A question from Dave

Does anyone know of any publication that lists all the A and B roads in the UK showing the starting points and destinations? Guy Barry answers:

Chris's British Road Directory at http://www.error-404.co.uk/roads has a list of all the motorways, and the A-roads from 1 to 99;
UK Roads at http://www.pberry.plus.com/ukroads/ now has a complete list of the A-roads from 100 to 999, under the heading ``Roads by 10'', which was put together by members of the SABRE web community. UK Roads will also shortly be publishing a document based on the original 1922 list of routes from the MOT.

A question from Roger Nowell:

For many years I have puzzled over the barcodes beside the roads. They seem to be very wide spread, I have seen them on the M25, A12, Cumbria... They are about 30cm by 50cm with horizontal bars. They are pretty faded now so I wonder if they were a failed experiment. If you have any information, it would be very helpful.

Kevin Flynn answers:

I too wondered for a long time what these were all about. If you tell anyone about them, their first reaction is to think you're making it all up (I once had to drag a sceptical work colleague out to examine one during a lunch break) but if you do manage to convince them then they are quite likely to become ``infected'' too and start spotting them all over the place: at or shortly after just about every major road junction and sometimes midway too. And, yes, they do often look very dirty and neglected (the signs, I mean; oh, I don't know though).

I finally found this answer in the uk.transport FAQs:

Q.: What are those barcodes on posts by the side of the road for?
A.: They are used by the authorities responsible for the maintenance of the roads. A special vehicle is driven over the road, measuring the wear of the surface. It uses the barcodes in order to know where it is.

The real question, though, is: do we really believe that?

A question from me:

What is the point of Scotch Corner (junction of A66 and A1)? There's almost nothing there, but it's signposted from about 30 miles away. Are there any more non-places like this? Is there a generic name for them? Mike Lowe adds:

Scotch Corner used to be quite a landmark for us because my grandparents lived in Carlisle and us down south, so we would head north up the A1 for what felt like forever and then head West on the A66. Scotch Corner was the vital left turn and was the only point you had to look out for. I guess a lot (?) of other traffic made a similar journey and so the warnings were a reminder, after hours of monotony, that your turning was coming up.

A question from Janice Myburgh

I have noticed small yellow squares, triangles, rectangles and circles on some off-ramp roads information signs. Do you know what these symbols mean? A traffic management consultant answers:

These are emergency diversion symbols to follow when motorway is closed. The signs telling you to follow them to rejoin (at the next junction) are called ``trigger signs'' and are not normally displayed - usually folded up.

An announcement from Ben Murgatroyd

www.benjaminmurgatroyd@hotmail.com

A question from Stephen Bennett

I saw your website and thought you may able to help me. I have heard about a group of people who picnic on roundabouts in the uk but can find nothing on the web. Do you know anything about them, or how I can contact them?

A question from Simon Frampton

I'm trying to find a website with British road information signs. I'm looking to try and write a computer based test program as my final project for my degree course and would love to be able to include some graphics of road signs. Any site address would be gratefully received, but don't suggest the Department of Transport's highway code site as I've already tried to no avail! Chris Marshall suggests looking at http://www.roads.detr.gov.uk/roadsafety/hc/index.htm

A question from Karen Gibson

Do any of your contributors happen to know when the British road classification system was invented and where I might read more about the process by which it happened - that is, things like whose bright idea was it, how was it implemented, were there any teething problems, etc.? See James Bufford's brief history of the numbering system (written in response to this question).

Back to the roads page