Road Signs, Please say what you mean

Poor Road signage

Sunday, February 15, 2009

With the recent move to New Jersey, I’ve been driving slightly more than in the past. I’m also currently reading the fine book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What it Says

About Us), by Tom Vanderbilt. So I’m now acutely aware of road signs that have always subconsciously bothered me. Please don’t take this post as a specific indictment of driving in the state of New Jersey. And that’s not due to the fact that there aren’t any New Jersey-specific gripes that I have (believe me, there are plenty of slow pitch softballs in that realm) but because I’ve witnessed these road signs in many states all over country. And poor traffic planning and design can really pop up anywhere. In Eugene, OR, I got caught in a Möbius loop that prevented me from reaching my hotel, even though I could see it just to my left across the road. That I was at the end of a 9 hour drive might have had something to do with it, but I was ready to shoot the traffic engineer responsible for that monstrosity.

The SPEED ZONE AHEAD sign has really bothered me for years. Reading it at face value, which when you think about it, is how street signs should be read, you would think that the sign is alerting you to the fact that you will be able to speed up in the zone ahead. This sign actually indicates that there will be a change in the speed limit ahead, either increased or decreased. I’m not sure why you would need a sign to tell you that you would be able to go faster just up the road a piece, and in practice, most of the signs are placed in areas where the speed limit will decrease. So can we please start uniformly using the more direct and to-the-point REDUCED SPEED AHEAD signs which already exist?

Neither version of the REDUCED LANE sign is very effective at conveying that message. In the top sign here, it really just looks like the road will be getting narrower, with no mention of an upcoming merge situation.

This bottom example is a little better, as the dotted line suggests a lane of traffic that will be ending. But does that dotted line represent the traffic lane itself, or is it an actual representation of the line between lanes? The difference between the 2 solid lines and the dotted line doesn’t clear anything up either.

DANGEROUS INTERSECTION. Really? Nothing can be done to render the intersection less dangerous? This sign is the equivalent of the traffic engineers just throwing up their hands and saying, “Good luck.”

Thanks a lot.

DUCKS CROSSING. I have no issues with this sign.