Safe Speed Forums

Yesterday I was driving along the Upton Bypass when I noticed a car coming down the slip road. It took me a couple of seconds to realise why this seemed odd, yes it was coming the wrong way.
Not very quickly, so I I flashed my headlamps a few times and drove across its path to come to a stop next to the driver's side. I spoke to the driver and mentioned that she was going the wrong way and she decided to turn around and all was well.

Later on I wondered if the signs were somehow defective. Maybe they'd got turned around or the lights were out or something. So today I went back and drove around the roundabout to look at them.

There are no signs. Not either side of the road. Nothing at all to say "this path leads to certain doom" except for double give way lines. But that's not obvious to everyone. And a "no pedestrians" sign which doesn't help. (if it was the wrong way you'd only see the back of the sign, right?)
Maybe I should mention this to...? The police? Dorset County Council?

I gues this means it is also perfectly legal to drive the wrong way down the road there...

The Upton Bypass is a good (for Dorset) quality two lane dual carriageway. It's one of the only roads nearby where you can actually go pretty damned quickly.

Map here.

I probably shouldn't say this, but if I was going slower (say, sticking to the speed limits) then I could have easily met this lady on the Upton Bypass its self, perhaps while I was overtaking the Micra round the bend... But it's an interesting thought...

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Andrew.

The absence of signs is normal isn't it? A zillion rural roundabouts have just the angle of the road meeting the roundabout and some have a keep left sign to inform us.

Should we worry?

Do we need signs for everything?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

you really think a sign would have prevented this?

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

I was sort of assuming that yes, there were no entry signs on the wrong way to fast/big dual carriageways. The next junction along has some. But then there aren't many dual carriageways in Dorset.
Normally I wouldn't want extra signs, but I think in this case it might be an idea. It is not obvious where the road leads, it's got trees both sides and you can't see the end when looking down the slip road.

No entry or wrong way signs could be placed a little way down the slip road, so they would only be seen by someone who has gone the wrong way.

I just think that some explicit indication that it's not somewhere you want to be going would be a good idea...?

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Andrew.