September 05, 2005

Horse 396 - Signs

Sometimes I wonder about the stupidest things and danged if I know why. Like only this morning I was worried about the wording on street signs.

On the motorway you'll find these big red signs on the off ramps which read Wrong Way - Go Back. I would have thought that that would have been glaringly obvious considering that you'd be driving head on into traffic that's coming at you at 60mph.

On the inside of those little traffic refuges there's the sign that reads Turn Left At Any Time With Care. Why? Would people react differently it it read Turn Left At Any Time With Reckless Abandon? I get visions of people driving through with the tail flicking out and laying screechies on the pavement.

Pearl Jam named one of their albums Yield after the street sign in America that bears this word. I think in Australia we have it better with Give Way. I know that the road is a battlefield, but Yield makes it sound like the motorist is conceeding defeat whereas Give Way implies that one should literally Give Way to those already in the intersection.

Then there are those slow speed limit signs. Up at Green Point there's one of these on the grounds of Green Point Baptist that reads Caution 8 Children. Should one be cautious of these villanous 8 children? What did they do?

Then I wonder about those signs that read Keep Left. The general rule of the road is to drive on the left anyway, why would one instantly decide to break this?

The best sign bar none par excellence is the signs erected by Wyong City Council telling people to avoid throwing their rubbish out the windows. These have to rank up there as the most ambiguous signs in existance, they merely read... Slobwatch.

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