In Beijing the Traffic Section of the Police Department is busy reversing traffic instructions painted on tarmac roads. They do it in such a way that when you drive you suddenly realize that the Chinese characters painted on the road lanes do not read in the normal, such as when you read a warning that runs from top to bottom (京承高速/Beijing-Chengde High Speed or Express Way or Highway). Alas, the instruction now reads from bottom up (速高承京/Speed High Chengde-Beijing), that is, you read the first Chinese character that is the nearest to you, and as you move along, you will read the second, the third and the fourth. You read all these Chinese characters as you are fast moving along. This is very dangerous if one is concentrating on the characters and their meaning instead of looking ahead, for it is quite likely that if a car is running in front and suddenly pulls to a stop, you will bump right into the car in the front. I hope you now understand the situation I am describing. I googled traffic signs painted on roads to see what westerners are doing with regard to road surface traffic signs. I have found out most of the pictures I have collected here show us the top to bottom way of painting road signs (in word form), that is western drivers read the road-surface instructions in the usual way, that is, they read the first word that appears in the farther end of a string of words, and they read it at a glance without difficulty of comprehension. But there are two exceptions. Two Australians were puzzled about the “Only Lane Tax Bus” painted on the road as is shown later in this message. What I wanted you to do is that show me some other traffic instructions painted on the road that reads in the normal way, or otherwise. And it would be better if you could give me some pictures.
Quote:Right Turn Only, with Directive Arrows, Painted on Lanes, Broadway Street
Date
creation date: between 1954-1959
Location
Creation location: Arlington (Massachusetts, United States)
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The car park exit to the Co-Op store has been resurfaced and new signs painted. Does anyone have any suggestions on how it could be improved further? If so, place a post in the Discussion Forum.
The following pictures show that the instruction should read “Bus, Taxi Lane Only”. This is correct grammar. But if you read it as “Only Lane Taxi Bus”, it sounds odd.
The following is a blog of an Australian, who criticizes this traffic instruction painted on the tarmac.
Quote:Mark Diamond : Blog
Reading painted road markings whilst driving
2004 August 1
Word-reversed road signage. Image: Mark Diamond
Here in Canberra, the words “LANE ONE FORM” can frequently be seen painted on the road at the point where two lanes of traffic merge. The words are painted in a column, rather than a straight line so that they appear as
LANE
ONE
FORM
Similarly configured signs say things like “ONLY LANE TAXI BUS”.
No doubt the engineers who designed the road signs had convinced themselves that a driver would see, and read, the word “FORM” before seeing the word “ONE”, and that that word would, in turn, be seen and read prior to the word “FORM”. The words never appear to me to read like this. Instead I have learned simply to associate the nonsensical “LANE ONE FORM” with the idea that two lanes of traffic merge at this point.
If the driver of a vehicle were travelling at a speed which was appropriately related to the distance separating the words along the length of the road, then it is obvious that the words would flash into view separately, and in succession, and would be seen in the order “FORM ONE LANE”. However, the necessary relationship between speed and separation does not appear to have been described anywhere that I have looked, and the distance that separates the words as they actually appear on Canberra roads appears, to me, to be absurdly short. Indeed, at the distance at which the words are separated, it would appear to be more sensible to write the instructions in the natural order, namely “FORM ONE LANE”. Nonetheless, my speculations are just that, and I have no empirical evidence to support my view. However, the problems posed by presenting stationary words to moving drivers raise some interesting research questions that might well be within reach of a psychology or engineering student, perhaps at honours or masters level.
Contributors: Angela O’Brien-Malone, Mark R. Diamond
Another guy adds his comment:
Quote:Crocodile
March 29, 2011
I have seen “LANE ONE FORM” near South Dowling Street (I think) in NSW before and I have no idea who thought about that.
I often wonder though why “BUS LANE” is not written as “LANE BUS” in such a case.
The following pictures show similar signs found in New York City:
A similar example I have found: “Way One” instead of “One Way” > one way street.
Other signs that appear normal:
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The following is a photo of a Taiwan street:
You can’t reverse the words in the following sign, can you?
Other signs
Quote:route 66 road sign clip art sign route 66 -of- -tynan-god-bless-america-
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