Monday 16 March 2009

(40) signs - endangered species


Since the proliferation of 30mph zones a decade or two ago, we've been used to (40) signs marking the end of the lower limit area...







.. this year however, all these (40) signs are gradually vanishing and are being replaced by...





.. one less familiar to island motorists who haven't driven elsewhere... sometimes known as the 'derestriction' sign, has the international meaning 'end of maximum speed limit'. In the UK, however, it has been given the meaning 'national speed limit applies' - http://www.abd.org.uk/speed_limit_signs.htm





A variant previously used locally.




So we are now back to square one where the visitors to the island have to remember that 40 is the 'national' limit, because there aren't any signs to help them! (Is this yet another part of the current ministerial vogue for Jersey to model itself as a nation? LOL)

Rumour has it that all this has come about because the (40) signs were actually illegal as far as standard regulations go, and this loophole was used by someone to get off the hook for a speeding offence..... so TTS had no option but to make a whole load of new signs and travel the island replacing them to correct the earlier ****-up :)

2 comments:

wobblybean said...

You have been very busy lately. Thank you so much for all your pics. I love looking at them and really appreciate all the time and effort you put into taking and publishing them. If I ever get to meet you when I am over on the Island I will buy a very large drink as a token of MY appreciation of all you have done so far(and hope you continue for many moons to come!!)

crapaudmatic said...

Thanks so much! If only there were more than 3 or 4 of you so willing to give feedback :)
The other day I had no hits whatsoever during the working day, compared to hundreds when there was a link from Stuart S's blog... so I obviously didn't impress those visitors enough for them to return! I was pretty close to giving up at that point, but then I realised I do it for my own enjoyment as much as anything else, and if blogger.com keeps on going, maybe my efforts will be appreciated more as a look back in time long after I'm pushing up daisies :)
Cheers - mine's a real ale!