Cycling UK Forum

Why do none of those signs have a red line through them, like other "banned" signs?

The no smoking sign isn't a fag in a circle, it's a fag in a circle with a line through it...

The UK traffic sign convention is that the red circle signifies a ban. It's explained somewhere in the HC 'Know your traffic signs" or somewhere like that.

That doesn't explain "why" our traffic signs were designed with a fine disregard for established convention and logic.

I'm sure I've posted somewhere before that these things are devised by people who spend their lives looking for an 'elegant' solution, based on their background. (Think cryptic crossword clues.)

[XAP]Bob wrote:Why do none of those signs have a red line through them, like other "banned" signs?

Interesting question. Some history here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_signs ... ed_Kingdom, although it doesn't quite answer it.

When I said that about elegant solutions I was thinking about things like the total prohibition on waiting, signed by the words "At any time." Two clever by half or even 3 and a half. (NB the same thing in Welsh says something like 'Dim o gwbl' which is not a literal translation (and I hope meic and other will recognise that my intention is sincere, if my Welsh is sometimes poor ))

[XAP]Bob wrote:Why do none of those signs have a red line through them, like other "banned" signs?

If you look at the common signs giving orders in the Highway Code, most prohibition signs don't have lines.

drossall wrote:

[XAP]Bob wrote:Why do none of those signs have a red line through them, like other "banned" signs?

If you look at the common signs giving orders in the Highway Code, most prohibition signs don't have lines.

But outside the HC they all do.

[XAP]Bob wrote:... But outside the HC they all do.

To be fair to the menfromtheministry (not something I'm known for ) I think their signs pre-date the signs like no smoking, no dog fouling etc. which I'll guess were modelled on the traffic signs (but by somebody who couldn't tackle the Times crossword, or translate Cicero, seen or unseen.)

Quite. I don't see how the road signs can be blamed for being copied badly.

Put the issue another way: why does "no left turn" etc have a diagonal red line? I suspect because people mistook the meaning as "turn left here".

[XAP]Bob wrote:Why do none of those signs have a red line through them, like other "banned" signs?...

If there's a window in your diary for 27 October and you have £245 spare, why not go on a course and find out?

http://www.theihe.org/events/courses/im ... -in-traff/

thirdcrank wrote:

[XAP]Bob wrote:Why do none of those signs have a red line through them, like other "banned" signs?...

If there's a window in your diary for 27 October and you have £245 spare, why not go on a course and find out?

http://www.theihe.org/events/courses/im ... -in-traff/

Can someone else go - I'll still be in Finland....

I did just email them though....

IHE wrote:The DfT are currently considering this very issue as part of their major policy review of traffic signs.

Historically the reason is simply that a red bar obscures a lot of the detail, making it more difficult to recognise that the symbol is a cycle.

Utterly boring, and practical.