Here's the latest idea/initiative to come from someone in an office somewhere. These signs are popping up around Suffolk at the request of Parish Councils. I went out the front to get the bin in a few weeks ago and saw 4 men - 3 Parish Councillors and the Local History Recorder just finishing fixing up the sign and posing for a photograph.
The sign is on a small lane that loops round the village, it's the one I walk along to take the photos of the view over the village. In the lane there's a farm, a couple of small businesses and less than a dozen houses so is used by some traffic but not many as it's narrow and annoying to drive if you meet another vehicle- definitely not a short cut.
Now the sign is up it doesn't stop traffic driving round the lane or making them go even more slowly than they have to go already and if a person is walking and a car comes you still have to squeeze up on the side of the road or climb up onto the field edge. There's no room for a car to get past a bike so anyone cycling has to get off and stand on the side anyway.
That's what I mean by a unnecessary sign, it really makes no difference to what happens already.
On well - I suppose it keeps the Parish Council busy.
(On the other side is the same picture with a red line through it and "Quiet Lane Ends". Hope people don't start being too noisy as they exit the lane and go past my bungalow!)
WEll at least they are trying...
ReplyDeleteTrying is the right word!
DeleteFour people involved in putting up a sign, now that is rather expensive for you taxpayers. I do like the idea of a Quiet Lane, it sounds charming but a bit dangerous for close encounters.
ReplyDeletePutting up the sign wouldn't have cost anything but I have no idea what they cost to be made
DeleteI wonder if the sign will solve any problem. Narrow winding roads can be challenging especially when they are well-used. In my town, there are bicycle clubs that like to ride as a group. Our roads are also winding and narrow. Sometimes the bikes ride side-by-side rather than single file and this makes it tough for cars to pass. By law, bikes have the right-of-way on the road. I just wish they would ride single file.
ReplyDeleteThe same here for cycling. On many of our narrow back roads there are places where it's impossible to pass even single file.
DeleteThere really is no problem to solve for the road - it's quiet anyway
Our reason for such a sign would be "Share the road", which is what I thought it was leading to. Wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt is sort of for making drivers aware of other users but makes no difference to what drivers do
DeleteI wonder who came up with that lol
ReplyDeleteSomeone in an office in Ipswich- who doesn't use these little back roads anyway!
DeleteWhat a waste of public money!! xx
ReplyDeleteHopefully not too much
DeleteIt certainly seems unnecessary to me. X
ReplyDeleteAnd me and many others
DeleteGoodness me , I can just about understand the sign, but another one just down the road from it crossed through? Totally unnecessary
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
The "end of quiet road sign" is affixed to the back of this one and of course two similar at the other end of this little lane where it joins the bigger road out of the village
DeleteSimilar but smaller wooden signs throughout Wiltshire many years ago. Nobody understood them and/or took any notice of them. What remains of them today are now left rotting by the roadside. Total waste of money.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how long these will last until they rust away
DeleteHow pointless!
ReplyDeleteSomeone's Bright Idea! You might get similar in Norfolk
DeleteI believe the average cost of erecting a warning sign on a new post is between £150 and £500, but is dependent on the size of the sign.
ReplyDeleteNameplates for village and towns on a new post can cost up to £350. Road safety messages that have to be added to these posts will cost an additional £150. Of course illuminated signs will cost a lot more. A total waste of public money as many would just ignore the sign and responsible people do not need one.
Our council has just erected some permanent long mesh type banners dropped over the front of the town hall bearing the coat of arms and have covered the two notice boards with a painted panel with the coat of arms so no-one can display notices of upcoming events anymore. All this unecessary decoration to a building that has been there unadourned since Victorian times and when money is tight - doesn't make sense. What they actually need to do to make the town hall look better is clean the surrounding pavements of pigeon poo and remove the litter, tab ends and weeds and paint the lovely iron railings. Our whole town is looking so run down now.
Parish Councils just love wasting money, it makes them feel important. We have big new signs and arrows all around us declaring a new walking route has been developed. Those of us that already walk these routes don't need signs. I doubt anyone else will be inspired to get their boots on.
ReplyDeleteSeems an utter waste of money to me. Far better putting "Narrow lane, please drive carefully" if they're going to put any sign up!
ReplyDeleteAs you said Sue it would only have been the cost of the sign as Parish Councillors are volunteers.
ReplyDeleteThe signs I particularly like are the one imploring you to drive carefully through a village. I always think the end of the village sign should say “now carry on driving like an idiot again.”
I always liked the informal signs people put up in the villages. 'Ducks crossing', 'children playing, please drive slowly'. But perhaps the local officials are picking up on the mood of the villagers...
ReplyDeleteI just completed my Safe Pass course again this week and it said blue signs are mandatory. I prefer humps or sleeping policemen to reduce the speeds where people are walking, cycling or on horseback.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should have added the words 'Patience Required' under Quiet Lane. As it is it's just a strange picture.
ReplyDeleteI would have thought 'they' could have found something more necessary to spend your rates on really.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago the powers that be transformed the pathway along the very busy main road though my village into a shared pedestrian/cycle space (meaning that anyone brave enough to walk along it is in danger of being mown down by someone on a bike approaching from behind and impossible to hear, even if they shout a warning, because of the traffic!) At every field gateway there is a sign either side with a picture of a pedestrian and a bike on it, presumably to warn anyone exiting the field, usually sitting 7 foot up in the air in a tractor cab and perfectly able to see over the hedge, that they may encounter a pedestrian or a cyclist. What a waste of money and a real blot on the landscape.
ReplyDeleteRead your title and thought you'd be reporting on your building project! Couldn't figure why your builders would be putting up a sign but of course that's not what you were referring to. Joke's on me.
ReplyDeleteOh my.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
That is as bad as road signs that say "Slow down" when approaching an intersection and you are already on a road where you have to drive slowly anyway because it is unsafe to go any faster.
ReplyDelete