"Chris J Dixon" wrote in message
...
"nightjar" cpb@insert my surname here.me.uk wrote:

It is obvious neither of you have read the DoT publication 'Know your
traffic signs'. Circles give orders, triangles warn and rectangles
inform,.

There is, sadly, little understanding of these important
distinctions. I reckon the most misunderstood pair of signs are
"Oncoming vehicles have priority" and "You have priority over
oncoming vehicles", especially amongst workers deploying signs
around road works.

When the driving test theory test was introduced, one of the national
newspapers commissioned a poll of drivers. IIRC, the least recognised signs
was the minimum sped limit, but the priority signs you mention were not far
behind.

I have seen works protected by identical pairs of signs of either
the above types. On chatting with the men, they were convinced
that they had done it right, and showed me the comprehensive
printout showing them exactly what they had to do. Unfortunately,
they failed to appreciate how important it was to have
_precisely_ what the sheet showed, not merely something similar,
because that was all they had on their wagon.

Many years ago, the Electricity Board I worked for used to send out an
engineer to check that their roadworks had been laid out properly. They
rarely were.

Colin Bignell