SafeSpeedv2 wrote:
There is such a plethora of road signs or road furnishings, that the 'Cry Wolf' issue arises too.
This is the big issue for me, especially with the flashing LED signs we have nowadays.
When these first came in, there were the ones that flashed up if you were over the speed limit upon entering a town. Great, thanks for letting me know. I'll slow down now.
Then we started getting ones that flash up for particularly bad hazards, I remember a deceptively sharp bend in Warwickshire getting one of these and yes it was bloody sharp, then one cropped up warning of a crossroads ahead.
Nowadays the speed limit ones flash up even if you're under the limit which has resulted in me ignoring them, even the ones that are speed activated, and there are flashing sharp bend signs (or are they 50 limit signs? I can't remember since I stopped paying attention to them) on the M606 just after you leave the M62 and that bend isn't a problem at all unless you're getting into triple digit speeds.
And the LED signs were presumably brought out originally because people wern't taking notice of the regular signs that had been put in place where they actually matter, because of the cry wolf syndrome, my favourite example of this being one in Oxfordshire informing me that this bend is unsafe if you're travelling above 30mph. I've done it at 60+ mph on a regular basis and this isn't just because I drive a Scooby, it was fine in all the other vehicles I've used, even the complete sheds like my '94 Passat CL