Driving through the village of Castleconnell [Co Limerick] recently, I found that it had acquired one — nay, two — of those stupid signs.
Road closed display 1
They’re stupid because, with the information spread over several displays, you can’t take it all in quickly. Unless, of course, you’re prepared to focus entirely on reading the sign, ignoring everything else on and around the road. Which in this case is passing a primary school.
I suppose you could stop and photograph it ….
Road closed display 2
The information on the first two displays could have been compressed and put on one:
8AM 13th – 6PM 14th
That still leaves two displays, but on the last one, the important one, compression has been taken too far:
Road closed display 3
Road closed at X, eh? Well, there’s a useful piece of information … or it might be, if we had Long John Silver’s map, with X marking the spot.
X is, of course, the unknown quantity, so this sign is telling us that the road will be closed at a specified time but at an unspecified place.
What dictionary are road-users to consult to find the meaning of X?
And why can’t the powers-that-be communicate clearly in English?
x might be a cross but which one ? Castleconnel has its fair share
“For all of our languages, we can’t communicate…”
Far cheaper would have been to actually print up a normal orange warning sign in standard roadwork fashion with all the information in one go. A classic case of too much technology and not enough brains.