Originally published at: Drivers baffled by "cryptic" national speed limit sign - Boing Boing
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The national speed limit sign will soon become your best friend, always there to let you know where you can speed up, and when to slow down. Whether you’re travelling down a dark road without street lights or on your way to visit Wales, these signs will let you know how fast you can go along the whole journey.
and then we learn that it indicates “typically 60mph on single carriageways and 70mph on motorways and dual carriageways” (got that metric system thread-ers? mph) (“blimey, is this here a single carriageway or a farm to market frontage road with divided grade separation?”)
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Every single driver in the UK is supposed to know the highway code in order to pass the test, which includes all the road signs and the national speed limits. Nobody who has a licence should have any excuse for not knowing this one. It’s not even an uncommon road sign, like the minimum speed limit one, or one of the more unusual hazards.
Oh, and as to why it isn’t just replaced by a numeric sign- I think this sign dates from the time where there wasn’t an expectation that all roads would be given a speed restriction. Therefore, this one just means “obey the ordinary rules until you get to another numeric speed”
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“If you’re unfamiliar with it (e.g. a foreign driver), how are you supposed to guess it’s the national speed limit?”
It took me no time at all to figure it out the first time I drove in the UK. It’s the same shape as the specific speed limit signs, and a slash generally means “no”. It pretty clearly meant “end of specific speed limit zone” and so the national speed limit naturally would then apply. It wasn’t difficult.
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Arbitrary laws sound like a great idea.
If a city’s name is in UPPERCASE then that means that dueling to the death is allowed. Foreigners find it a huge culture shock when they fail to queue at the market.
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It means ‘end of local limit’. I believe I’ve seen comparable in many countries.
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Meanwhile I occasionally see this sign out in rural areas:
I know county speed limits still apply, but I’m not feeling my safe speed is your safe speed…
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Nearly all of Europe has a similar sign with similar meaning*.
- which is Balrog Escape Route, temporarily lose 1x wizard, “Fly you fools”.
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In all seriousness, why not just post the speed limit as a number?
Because the national speed limit was an experiment, and they assumed that it would be changed in the future.
Because the limit varies not only by type of road, but by type of vehicle.
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I am old I passed before the 2 part written test, my mum who is 70, passed her motorbike test, by driving round an estate, and the tester was on foot, and walked down alleyways, to appear at spots on the test as she road past…
So no not every one will have had to memorise it for the new tests.
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As it has been pointed out already, Vienna Convention.1)
It means “end of prohibition” and doesn’t just apply to the end of local speed limits, but all limits like for instance “do not overtake” and whatnot.
The only other sign that has a diagonal line in this orientation is “end of priority road”:
All the signs that prohibit anything and use a diagonal line have that line in the other orientation:
Road signs always combine different shapes and orientation of elements and do not rely on different colours alone to get the message across.
1)
- dark green: signed and ratified
- orange: signed
- light green: “accession / succession”; source doesn’t elaborate and I can’t be asked to check for details right now. As it includes the Netherlands and all I’ve ever noticed there was a slightly different aesthetic I’m gonna go with “yeah, we already have that since, like, forever, duh” and “yeah, we sort of already have that, like, an inheritance and will formally join the club when we have a minute”.
- dark blue: SADC Convention. Not that different from the Vienna Convention, though.
- red: SICA Convention. Pretty much like the US MUTCD
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…and the weight of the vehicle, and whether it’s towing a trailer, and whether or not it’s in Scotland.
My father-in-law passed his bike test by answering ‘yes’ when his National Service commanding officer asked him if he’d learnt to ride yet. But he does know what that sign means.
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I have said the same thing as the Reddit OP many times. In good conditions on open roads it’s intensely frustrating to be held at 50mph by someone who clearly doesn’t know the national speed limit.
It’s even more frustrating to be held at 40mph in a 60 limit, only to see them maintain that 40mph through a 30 or 20mph limit village. The level of self-centred ignorance in drivers today is astounding.
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Quoting many, many traffic police and ex-traffic police advanced intstructors – “It (the speed limit) is a limit, not a target”. If people are going 50 there is probably a good reason. Often that reason will be not because they do not know the national limit, it will be because they have local knowledge (e.g. meeting tractors, horse riders, cyclists, hidden or obstructed turnings); then there is the other side of the coin, someone who does not have local knowledge and is uncertain of the road conditions ahead.
Either way, if you want to pass, do so when it is safe to do so, simple no?
Sorry, I don’t want to lecture.
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Precisely.
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Yep. I’m hopeful that they’ll reduce it as it applies to a lot of rural roads that are completely unsuited to travelling at 60mph. Ones that are suitable can be signed to have a higher speed limit.
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I’ve ridden motorbikes and driven cars for decades.
But the first time I drove a long wheelbase transit at 70mph on a dual carriageway I got nicked for speeding. It’s 60 for vans.
Something I learned too late.
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To make it more confusing, it looks almost like the german sign for “End of all Speedlimits” you find on german motorways:
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