Again I managed to miss posting my weekly blog on the Friday... but in this case I'm glad I waited since a road trip to Edinburgh gave me an opportunity to make a few observations I felt worth reporting.

Clearly one of the concerns with the current economic climate is cost... and it is noted in the new document that some signs need to be slightly larger to include both sets of units and in some cases a seperate sign is actually required. Another factor that was brought to my attention in a previous email exchange with the Highways Agency was that in the case of temporary signs in roadworks that the size of signs was actually a health and safety issue.

My observations over the weekend just go to show though how inconsistently these arguments are applied across the country. Some local authorities have clearly seen the light and have been erecting dual unit signs for some time, some have even made the "mistake" of putting up metric-only signs only to have them vandalised by a certain group that I won't mention here, some metric-only signs have even been replaced with imperial only signs (or even plated over in such a manner). This is a problem that seems to be shared by road contractors.

In the early days of this blog I had noted that there was an increasing use of dual-unit width restriction signs in road works across the UK, although this seemed to be more prevalent in the north and that on roads in the south, including those closer to the Kent and Hampshire ports, seemed to have a problem with metric signs. My first complaint to the Highways Agency got a response that they planned to change this, the second one when I'd seen no action seemed more along the lines of "we can't really be bothered". Given the changes in the Traffic Signs Manual one might have thought that things would start to change for the better... however, as I recently reported, works on the M1 and A1 in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire seem to have switched from dual-unit signs to imperial only ones. More disturbing to me was the fact that the smaller signs which I'd been told were too small to include metric information (and were also easier for workmen to move) had been replaced with larger ones... which were still imperial-only. So I was a little surprised at what I saw on my road trip this last weekend.

The route I followed was... from Cambridgshire I took the A1 north all the way to Edinburgh. My return journey took me cross-country to the A74(M) from where I then travelled south, joining the M6 and continuing south to the A14.

What did I see along the way? Well, unfortunatly I wasn't able to get photos or take notes as to exact locations of any given sign, but I did see the following:

• On the A1, generally all road work width restriction signs south of Doncaster were imperial-only. As I travelled further north there was greater use of dual-unit signs.
• On the M6 north of Manchester there were dual unit width restriction signs, however the usual assumption that 6 ft 6 in equals 2 m was being challenged as the metric equivalent actually read 1.95 m (my own car is 1999 mm between the tips of the wing mirrors... so I'm guessing my car was too wide for that lane!
• I seem to recall in Northumberland seeing at least one information sign for road workers giving distance to a work entrance in what looked like "metres" but the units after the number had been blacked out.
• Elevation of a particular stretch of motorway in Cumbria was signposted in feet only.
• Some width restriction signs (of the type that the HA had said were too small for dual units had been "modified" to show dual units... the style of typeface on these signs clearly didn't meet DfT requirements however many were still readible and left the driver in no doubt what they said... although a few were quite unreadible and possibly changed as a direct response to the new recommentations without thought to how it was being done!

Before Christmas there was a lot of noise in the press about the DfT carrying out a consultation on road signs and it did seem as though we might all get a chance to tell them what a mess this is... and insist that metric becomes compulsory, however the DfT website has been rather quiet on this in recent months!

There was one positive to the journey though. Next time you're travelling through Cumbria on the M6 do take the time to stop at Tebay Services. This is, as far as I can tell, the only independant service station on the whole motorway network and has a feature that is common in many other European countries... a farm shop. Take a look around at the produce on sale, particularly the fresh meat and vegetables. All, without exception, were properly labelled and there was not a single "lb" or "oz" in sight. Well done to the management and staff at Tebay Services for showing the travelling public (particularly the tourists who visit our country) that we're not all stuck in the 19th century!