17 November - Confusing signs. Can Bexley council do nothing right?
You
may assume from reading this blog that I don’t often venture far from Abbey
Road, Belvedere and in some respects you would be right. After Bexley took over
parking control from the police many years ago, I stopped shopping in Bexleyheath, preferring to drive to
friendlier towns and now that I hardly ever use a car it’s a habit that
hasn’t lapsed. Getting away from Bexleyheath by train from Abbey Wood is invariably far more
attractive. I now realise it’s a very good job I do tend to confine myself to
such a small corner of the borough; I dread to think how much idiocy I would
stumble upon daily if I went further afield, there is quite enough nonsense
within a few hundred yards of home.
I should have noticed before but I had been pre-occupied with the ugliness of
the plethora of new road signs introduced to Abbey Road and I’d not properly
taken in their full meaning. It looks as though Bexley has bought a job lot of
signs and not stopped to consider what was required following the introduction
of their recipe for collisions.
In the space of a few metres on a pavement devoid of any demarcation between
cyclists and legitimate pavement users there are signs indicating cycles flying over parents and children, others only
acknowledging the rights of cyclists, some accompanied by warnings of elderly
people, and others not. And where signs indicate a demarcation line between
cyclists and pedestrians, even though no such demarcation is present, the signs
contradict each other, some indicating cyclists should keep near to the road and
others the reverse. I suppose it’s what’s to be expected when allowing thickos
to occupy positions of responsibility.