By
EWAN KENNEDY
10 November 2008
“Way Free” said the traffic sign on the road in front of my car.
Having grown up in an era where hippies and beatniks were a colourful
part of the social scene, my mind wondered what was so free. The “Way
Free” presumably fell into line with phrases like “way out”,
“way cool”, perhaps even “way to go, man”.
It
turned out that my third guess was the closest to the mark. The sign
painted on a Sydney road was indeed telling people the way to go.
Advising drivers which traffic lanes to use to get to the M4 Freeway.
But
why “Way Free” instead of “Free Way” was my next question.
Some
signs are too long to be painted on the road in one line, so they are
spread out over two. As my eyes get older and the aging brain loses some
of its computing power I appreciate the larger size of the words thus
achieved. But why run the words back to front; “Lane Bus”, “Clear
Keep”, “Turn Right No”, and so on?
OK,
so you come across the first word before the second one as you drive
along. But I’m sure that anyone with half a brain doesn’t need the
message spelt out in such a fashion. And I feel very strongly that
anyone with less than half a brain should never have been given a
driver’s licence in the first place.
If
you look up at any overhead sign, your eyes will see the bottom line
before the top one. Yet no-one would expect an overhead sign to say
“Left On Park Car”, so why should it be any different when the
message is painted on the road?
Confusingly,
it can be done different ways in the same cities. So sometimes you’re
told to “Keep Clear”, while in other places you have to “Clear
Keep”.
To
their credit the Victorians seem to get it right more often than anyone
else. And I’ve never seen traffic congestion or crashes caused down
Mexico way by signs on the road saying “No Stopping” or “Right
Turn Only”.
Isn’t
it time the other States fell into line with Victoria? Given the nature
of bureaucracy it wouldn’t be easy; but if the various governments set
up their first committee meeting within the next 12 months it
shouldn’t take much longer than five years before a sensible decision
is reached. Then a couple of years beyond that to put a sensible system
into operation.
?Me
with you are
ewan@marque.com.au
