Why can't our road signs have N,W,S,E on them?

[PINBALL]

How much simpler would life be to have one letter depicting the general direction the road follows like 'N' for North etc.

I seldom ever see this & it makes me madder than mad to see perhaps only 2 - 3 large signs around the whole circumpherence of the M25 with a letter of direction on it.

In my past 35 years of driving, I'd be a millionare if I had just 1 penny for the countless miles wasted in unknown directions.

In the USA theyr'e used all the time, mostly due to thier clever block roads system, but even they have the foresight to put up these letters going through deserts etc.

I have fond memories of several trips up to inverness in Sottyland, where any northerly directional signs were completely missing on the motorway around Glasgow.
The mileage & fuel wasted must be incalculable.

The government & Greenpeace / environmentalist's seem to have completely lost the plot & the same blinkered outlook when it comes to a sensible human efficiency.
Just goes to show how barmy they all are.

Like all large companies & government, they think they know what people want, but can't be bothered to ask them, in case its seen as a sign of weakness.

 

[turnipsock]

I have fond memories of several trips up to inverness in Sottyland, where any northerly directional signs were completely missing on the motorway around Glasgow.
The mileage & fuel wasted must be incalculable.

Ah...the M73 turn off. Why do you think there was so many cars on the inside lane?

How many people leave this one until the last minute before cutting into the que of slow cars only to find they are staring at the back of hearse with the next of kin in the rear view mirror.

I don't use a sat nav either. Satallite dishes point south. It does help to have knowledge of the stars and moon at night. Other than that, you don't need to know much more.

Yachty shops will have comapsses that are more suited to taking a bearing. You might get a decent compass at the outdoor/climbing type shops though.

 

[Silver Arrow]

Compasses may work in Fibreglass cars. Virtually all cars have large metallic lumps situated in them. These cause deviation. (No jokes please!)
Yachties have enough trouble working out deviation and variation using a big map on a chart table.
Boy scouts can work out S using a watch and the Sun. I once read an academic paper which claimed that the Vikings could do it with an overcast sky. (Polarisation, it does sort of work with Polaroid sunglasses, which were in short supply in your average longboat). Polaris tends to be too high to see unless you have an open top, but I suppose that Orion can usually be spotted in the S and the arc hight estimated depending on the time.
That is assuming that you havn't run into the chap in front with all this gazing about!

 

[SLinKyjoe]

all the signs on the M25 which relate to the M1 M11 A1 all have in big huge writing on them..."the north".....

and all the ones on the M1 A1 (&A1M) over 100miles from london have "the south" written on them too.


Boring tho it is. the sat nav systems have a compass on them. so you dont need to set a route. you just drive and it tells you which direction you are pointing in.


what i am missing here is why we need this info? i am sure you have a reason it wil help drivers so what is that? maybes i am looking to deep into it and it is a really simple idea which will help loads of us!

 

[Silver Arrow]

Quote from Slinky:-
Boring tho it is. the sat nav systems have a compass on them. so you dont need to set a route. you just drive and it tells you which direction you are pointing in.

This is true, but satnav systems work out the compass direction from the track. They can be set to display magnetic or true directions. If you rely on the compass readout just following a turn you will get the last averaged value. Most of the time, with normal speeds this won't be a problem.

Quote:
what i am missing here is why we need this info? i am sure you have a reason it wil help drivers so what is that? maybes i am looking to deep into it and it is a really simple idea which will help loads of us!

I'm with you on this.

 

[PINBALL]

Thanks for the answers ...

 

[SLinKyjoe]

This is true, but satnav systems work out the compass direction from the track. They can be set to display magnetic or true directions. If you rely on the compass readout just following a turn you will get the last averaged value. Most of the time, with normal speeds this won't be a problem.

cant say i ever noticed that point.....still, worth knowing...which means the original poster needs a Silva or some other decent compass....not very practical as he would have to hold it....and it may not be accurate in the car..

 

[angus falconer]

I have seen this in the US and found it very confusing to be honest - all their freeway ramps are primarily marked n, s, e or w and it can be very confusing heading south to join a road that ultimately goes north.

 

[42864]

Compass

It's quite easy, -- the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West, if it's on your left you are looking South inthe morning or North inthe afternoon.

Dave.

 

[davidsl500]

unless your at the North Pole in which case every direction you look is south....

 

[SLinKyjoe]

what happens when you look up?

 

[Silver Arrow]

You could fall off your iceberg!
(No land up there, and what with global warming and all that)
Interestingly, in Winter, with no sun all day, and all the observable stars being circumpolar, getting the right bit of south to head off in can be tricky.

 

[Myros]

ah but

I'm doing my best to melt all the icebergs by sitting in traffic with my SL. I tend to navigate that by the wind in the hair method. If my hair is anything other than swept straight back off my head, I must be clarkson-ing around a bend. if it's not blond, it must be the wife's.