Common Sense Signage

[Rollo]

http://www.geocities.com/rollo75/a2sign.jpg

This probably looks dead boring to you but here in Sydney, it's possibly the single most important event in the last 5 years.

The UK has a logical system for numbering roads such that you can find stuff fairly easily. I could probably tell you where any given road is roughly in the UK just by what the number is.
But in Australia, it's a haphazard mess with the Federal and the State Government both providing funding and direction.

This sign with the apparantly harmless label "A2" tells me that somewhere someone has actually decided that there should be a sensible method of designating roads rather than just with a name, and then expecting people to get the idea.

We now have the M7, the M2, the M5 and the M4 all which make sense, there is the A40 and the A44 which both run west and the A1 and the A10 both run north from Sydney.

I've not yet seen a policy document, but it would appear that finally common sense is likely to prevail in the colony of NSW.

[Daniel]

http://www.geocities.com/rollo75/a2sign.jpg

This probably looks dead boring to you but here in Sydney, it's possibly the single most important event in the last 5 years.

The UK has a logical system for numbering roads such that you can find stuff fairly easily. I could probably tell you where any given road is roughly in the UK just by what the number is.
But in Australia, it's a haphazard mess with the Federal and the State Government both providing funding and direction.

This sign with the apparantly harmless label "A2" tells me that somewhere someone has actually decided that there should be a sensible method of designating roads rather than just with a name, and then expecting people to get the idea.

We now have the M7, the M2, the M5 and the M4 all which make sense, there is the A40 and the A44 which both run west and the A1 and the A10 both run north from Sydney.

I've not yet seen a policy document, but it would appear that finally common sense is likely to prevail in the colony of NSW.

I don't really see the fuss. In Perth you have only a few main roads and I'll name them all.

Great Eastern Highway
Tonkin Highway
Roe Highway
Leach Highway
Stirling Highway
West Coast Highway
Albany Highway
South Western Highway
Reid Highway
Great Northern Highway
Brookton Highway
Canning Highway

Then you have the Freeways

Mitchell Freeway
Kwinana Freeway
Graham Farmer Freeway

This system works well in Australia where you typically just travel around in your own city and only very occasionally go to other cities. Names are easier for people to remember when there are only a few different ones :) For instance I can remember much easier that your name is Andrew rather than what your user ID is :mark: The advantage of a name is it can indicate where a road is or where it goes to a person who doesn't know the ins and outs of a numeric system like the one the UK has. The disadvantage is that in a place like the UK with so many roads is that this becomes quickly confusing where for a city like Perth you have 15 odd freeways/highways and you have lots of large cities in close proximity then it doesn't work. Perhaps Sydney and NSW have just got to the size and amount of roads where a number based system makes more sense?

[Erki]

For instance I can remember much easier that your name is Andrew rather than what your user ID is :mark:

I THINK Rollo's old user ID was 2006. Is there a way to see the old user IDs? Maybe in the archive the old user IDs are retained?

[Rollo]

This system works well in Australia where you typically just travel around in your own city and only very occasionally go to other cities.

The A3 in Sydney follows:
Mona Vale Rd, Ryde Rd, Lane Cove Rd, Devlin St, Church St, Concord Rd, Homebush Bay Drive, Centenary Drive, Roberts Rd, Wiley Ave, King Georges Rd.

Only recently are we seeing decent and logical signage for all of this. The route passes though about 40 suburbs all of which are indicated, and if you're a traveller passing though, why should you have to care about 11 names when the whole thing is marked "A3"?

By the way, Perth actually has numbered roads. So there is already a system in place. In Sydney, the numbers which designate routes hardly ever appear on signs which is bloody confusing.

I'd say that the number of roads on the east of of Australia is probably fourfold of what's in WA anyway.

[Daniel]

The A3 in Sydney follows:
Mona Vale Rd, Ryde Rd, Lane Cove Rd, Devlin St, Church St, Concord Rd, Homebush Bay Drive, Centenary Drive, Roberts Rd, Wiley Ave, King Georges Rd.

Well that's just silly :mark:

Do they all continue as one road in the sense that you never have to turn off Mona Val Rd to get onto Ryde Rd and so on? :mark:

[Erki]

I THINK Rollo's old user ID was 2006. Is there a way to see the old user IDs? Maybe in the archive the old user IDs are retained?

Yup, just checked, Archive has the same old good IDs. :)

Rollo: http://archive.motorsportforums.com/vb2/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=2006
I told ya! :D

[Rollo]

Well that's just silly :mark:

Do they all continue as one road in the sense that you never have to turn off Mona Val Rd to get onto Ryde Rd and so on? :mark:

Yes. It's a 3 lane contigious road for its entire stretch. Now it's just posted A3 and makes a lot of nice logical sense.

[Daniel]

Yes. It's a 3 lane contigious road for its entire stretch. Now it's just posted A3 and makes a lot of nice logical sense.
I agree with that :) It's very seldom in Perth that you get one continuous stretch of main road that is labelled with different street names.

[Mark]

There is a reason that most countries use road numbers and not road names. Firstly they are much easier to write on a map, and they can make long contiguous routes out of lots of different street names.

It's much easier to refer to the A1, than say the Great North Road IMO.

Looks like they are using the UK fonts for at least the bottom part of that sign, although it's bold and the box around the A2 doesn't conform to TSR&GD, they are doing their best :p

[Livewireshock]

Roads with in most parts of Australia have had a numbering system. Especially at State & National levels. This was for administrative purposes initially and determined it's funding.

It is only in the past few years that efforts have been made to publicly show a numbering system. Especially for smaller local & regional roads. It helps for route designating & for funding purposes.

Most Victorian roads have been entered into this system. NSW is slowly changing with major roads as they are repaired or built, but nothing has been laid down for other roads yet. As it will be part of my job to sort the numbering out for my local council in northern NSW, I am constantly checking to see for mandatory changes.

Also the new numbering system differs from the previous administrative numbering system. Will be interesting when the full rationale for what makes an A road different from a B road and on to C & D roads.

PS.. Even in WA the names of highways & roads do change, it is commonly when a highway enters a town & has a local street name rather than the continuous highway name.