Cycling not prohibited

04 Jun 2014

What does this sign mean? Look closely - and notice that it’s had a diagonal red/orange bar carefully and skillfully added to it. The intention is clear: no cycling, right?

I admit to cycling past this sign regularly. I have my pedantic defence prepared (leaving aside the fact that a sign like this might have dubious legal status). “Yes, officer, I saw the sign. I interpreted it as ‘end of no cycling zone’.”

A feeble and geeky form of rebellion/loophole exploitation, I admit. The correct sign for “cycles prohibited” is a red circle without a bar across it. Official signs are self-consistent and easy to understand. Here’s three, taken from wikipedia:

Inconsistent (incorrect?) signage irritates me. It’s common at motorway services. Why can’t they have standard signs after you exit the motorway? It’s probably something to do with the Highways Agency; I dunno. Turn off the motorway tired, needing a rest and you are suddenly required to interpret differently shaped and coloured signs from usual. You’ve been following white arrows on rectangular blue backgrounds for 100 miles and now you have to look for black arrows on white circles with blue rings, as you decelerate rapidly and turn into a car park full of dozy pedestrians. Strikes me as a pretty silly place to do this.

I suspect I’m a member of a pretty small, pedantic minority of people who actually notice these things, let alone grumble about them. On their own website…

I’m sort of pleased to discover I’m not the only one.

Tags: signage, pedantry, rant

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