Cryptic word messages on traffic signs

[djsinco]

Wow, someone needs to make a mock-up of a "STUPID KIDS" sign.

Google's contribution to humanity: proving that nobody has any original thoughts anymore.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22stupid%20kids%22%20sign&tbm=isch

You are a wise, yet colorful goat.

[1995hoo]

Well, the horn is needed for people who remain stopped at a light that's turned green, but are intently looking at their phone. Unfortunately, I'm using it a bit more than before (and I even wait 5-6 seconds before honking).

I don't think I've even pressed on a horn button for more a half-second; anymore than that is either being a bigger douchebag, slumped over the steering wheel, or suffering from horn/steering wheel pad failure.

I'll beep the horn gently when the phone user doesn't move, but if that doesn't work I will absolutely give a longer blast. Some of the hardcore phone users are unaware you're honking at them–a woman illegally talking on a handheld phone backed into my car a few years ago despite my frenzied honking, for example. Dumb bitch then didn't even want to hang up to talk to me about it.

I've always assumed the intended logic is "honking won't work to get that kid standing in the street out of your way". But you're right of course; that's not additional or helpful information, since any person who doesn't get out of your way due to a honking, you still have an obligation not to mow down. Hearing people ignore honks as routinely as anyone, so I don't know how driver expectation is altered knowing that someone is deaf.

if you honk at me, I will just flip you off and not alter my course otherwise.

honking is the equivalent of going up to someone's face and giving a Beavis and Butthead "uhhhh... durrrrr..."  it conveys no information, and simply identifies you as a douchebag.

You're not seriously saying that if someone honks at you because you started to change lanes when a car is next to you (note, I'm not saying you'd do that on purpose, but everyone makes mistakes at some point) you'd give him the finger and force your way over anyway, are you? There are perfectly legitimate reasons for honking the horn and even a loud sustained blast may be quite appropriate depending on the circumstances.

[agentsteel53]

You're not seriously saying that if someone honks at you because you started to change lanes when a car is next to you (note, I'm not saying you'd do that on purpose, but everyone makes mistakes at some point) you'd give him the finger and force your way over anyway, are you? There are perfectly legitimate reasons for honking the horn and even a loud sustained blast may be quite appropriate depending on the circumstances.

no, but I actually don't see the horn being used all that often around here for that purpose.  here, the horn seems to be a device of aggression when you already know that you are bigger than your target - namely, telling a pedestrian "I'm on four wheels; get the fuck out of my way." 

usually it's people making a left turn when I am crossing the street parallel to their original direction - I will stop in front of the car and give them the finger because, hey, you do not have the right to run me over, shithead. 

[Alps]

I'm from Jersey. A three-second horn blast means "it's green and you didn't immediately go," "you're drifting into my lane," "you're making an illegal move that I'm too chicken to make," "I hate alternate feed, I want to go first." A ten-second horn blast (which I have in fact done) means "you are about to hit me and you have not corrected course after a three-second blast," "you are weaving drunkenly everywhere," "you almost hit 5 people and yet you can't put down the phone," "oh hey, best friend, let's pretend we're super pissed so people around us are unnerved."

[agentsteel53]

I'm from Jersey. A three-second horn blast means

"I like loud noises", generally speaking.

[Brandon]

I'm from Jersey. A three-second horn blast means "it's green and you didn't immediately go," "you're drifting into my lane," "you're making an illegal move that I'm too chicken to make," "I hate alternate feed, I want to go first." A ten-second horn blast (which I have in fact done) means "you are about to hit me and you have not corrected course after a three-second blast," "you are weaving drunkenly everywhere," "you almost hit 5 people and yet you can't put down the phone," "oh hey, best friend, let's pretend we're super pissed so people around us are unnerved."

Damn, you'd do just fine in Chicago and Detroit. 

I've used my horn to get people to move on green (OK, I give them a quarter second first), to warn them that they are encroaching on my lane (I really don't like head-on collisions or sideswipes), and on people who run red lights (pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists).  It's a most useful automotive tool.

[djsinco]

15 years ago, Detroit was the city with the highest level of non-compliance related to traffic laws anywhere in the US.

At the time I was driving a truck in all 48 states, and constantly saw such blatant disregard it was in a league of its' own.

Lately, Houston is a city where your defensive driving skills must be razor sharp. Like being at a bumper car track. Evasive maneuvers are required daily, at least.

[Brandon]

15 years ago, Detroit was the city with the highest level of non-compliance related to traffic laws anywhere in the US.

At the time I was driving a truck in all 48 states, and constantly saw such blatant disregard it was in a league of its' own.

Lately, Houston is a city where your defensive driving skills must be razor sharp. Like being at a bumper car track. Evasive maneuvers are required daily, at least.

Hey now, it's not like the traffic laws really mean anything.  They're like the pirate code, more like a suggestion, especially that pesky thing called a "speed limit". 

[kphoger]

You're not seriously saying that if someone honks at you because you started to change lanes when a car is next to you (note, I'm not saying you'd do that on purpose, but everyone makes mistakes at some point) you'd give him the finger and force your way over anyway, are you? There are perfectly legitimate reasons for honking the horn and even a loud sustained blast may be quite appropriate depending on the circumstances.

I find that, in situations where a collisions is quite imminent–especially at high speeds–I am quite unlikely to use my horn.  I end up using all my mental faculties to avoid the other vehicle–which means both hands on the wheel, eyes focused on the other vehicle, peripheral vision acutely aware of my surroundings (curbs, other cars, etc.), and nothing left to actually reach for the horn.

[djsinco]

A real man will toot the horn with his "tooter."

[jeffandnicole]

I find myself driving often with one hand on the wheel, and one hand hovering over the horn, waiting for that guy/gal to do what it looks like they're going to do, which either is going to delay my trip or alternate my trip to include a ride on a tow truck.

[J N Winkler]

My reaction (as a deaf person) to "DEAF CHILD" signs:  go ahead and paint a target on my back, why don't you.

"DEAF CHILD" etc. signs are not diagrammed in the MUTCD, though they are, at least in theory, covered under the general grant of permission to use word messages that are not explicitly shown in the MUTCD and do not have the same purpose as any other standard sign.  However, they appear in many state signing manuals as an option.  In practice I suspect most engineers use them to accommodate demands from concerned citizens who do not realize that these signs do not give drivers any meaningful information and instead call attention to the presence of a vulnerable (or potentially vulnerable) person in the neighborhood.

I've always assumed the intended logic is "honking won't work to get that kid standing in the street out of your way". But you're right of course; that's not additional or helpful information, since any person who doesn't get out of your way due to a honking, you still have an obligation not to mow down. Hearing people ignore honks as routinely as anyone, so I don't know how driver expectation is altered knowing that someone is deaf.

I'll take the risk that this sounds like a lecture, but the reasoning that seems obvious to me apparently isn't obvious to others.

It's easy for hearing drivers to assume that a child will hear a car approaching or that companions will warn the child.

The reason for the "deaf child" sign is to warn you that the behavior of the child you see playing in his yard may not be what hearing people would expect, because the child can't hear the normal sounds of your car approaching that would warn a hearing child not to dart into the road. If he isn't looking at a playmate or caregiver, he won't hear their warning.

This reasoning assumes that hearing children hear a car and draw the conclusion, "Must not go into the street," which is generally true only for older children (whether deaf or hearing).  Plus, as Empirestate points out, plenty of hearing people hear sounds which are intended to warn them and fail to register them as applying to themselves personally.  It is almost an aural version of the "looked, didn't see" syndrome.  This is why many people never use their horns even to warn, and why many cyclists (myself included) never use bicycle bells.

A big part of defensive driving is choosing the most pessimistic of several possible assumptions about the behavior of other drivers or road users that can be made in any given situation.  This is why you don't assume a "DEAF CHILD AREA" sign gives you useful information--you just look at very young children, whether hearing or not, and assume that they will act like they are deaf and have never been taught to stay behind the curb line except when adults are present.  If you see an adult with the kids, you assume that supervision has lapsed.  If you see a ball, you always assume it will bounce out into the street.  If you know your neighbors have very young children or grandchildren, you walk around your car before you get in to make sure you don't back over them.  Etc.

[kphoger]

This is why ... many cyclists (myself included) never use bicycle bells.

I have a bicycle bell, but I rarely use it.  It has come in handy, for example, when cycling on what amounts to a sidewalk through a large park, about to overtake people walking.  What I find, actually, is that sometimes a person hears the bell, then moves in the opposite direction I was anticipating–sort of like when a rabbit darts across the highway directly into your path.  Without ringing the bell at all, I run the risk of clipping someone's elbow, but I'm unlikely to bowl them completely over.  I don't know, it's been a toss up for me.

[kphoger]

Snapped this one earlier today.  In context, it isn't cryptic at all.

[agentsteel53]

Snapped this one earlier today.  In context, it isn't cryptic at all.

the context being this, if you pan left...

[kphoger]

Maybe it's regulatory.  It is white on black, after all.  So maybe one is compelled to point like that at some location over the crest of the hill.

[Big John]

Except the Indian is pointing left, not ahead.

[agentsteel53]

ahead relative to the sign.

[jeffandnicole]

Except the Indian is pointing left, not ahead.

Depending which way the statue is facing.  If that is the road to the left, then he's pointing down the hill.  And you must go that direction.

[kphoger]

OK, now for the real answer...

It's just after a fork in the road, heading to Indian Point.

[Pete from Boston]

Driving up the I-93 Northbound tunnel last evening I saw the following VMS message, followed by a second one:

CAUTION -- DMV AHEAD

This was puzzling, because a) we call it the RMV here, b) MassDOT never seemed concerned about us knowing the dangers of the RMV (though they should), and c) there's no branch on 93.

I finally realized this must mean "disabled motor vehicle," but it's a lousy way to put it, particularly using an abbreviation already commonly understood to mean something else.

Then I remembered this is the agency that periodically displays a VMS in Charlton with the phrase, "I/C 9" on it, which every passing motorist of course understands to mean Interchange 9 (not really).

It amazes me how arcane they make messages intended to communicatewith the masses. It's like using "BGS" on there. 

Any other examples out there of signs with terms/abbreviations destined to communicate ... nothing at all to the motorist viewer?

[ChoralScholar]

There's one in Conway, AR that says

Univ. Cent. Ark.
Exit 129

Couldn't we have completed at least ONE word?!?

[sp_redelectric]

T-4, T-5

(The sign refers to the Port of Portland's Terminal 4 and Terminal 5)

T-6

(Port of Portland Terminal 6.)

TV Highway

(All the locals know that "TV" is short for "Tualatin Valley" but the non-locals probably have no clue what "TV" means.)

Beav-Hlsdl Hwy

(Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway)

[1995hoo]

I've seen a few street signs that abbreviate "Turnpike" as "Trnpk" ("Little River Trnpk"). I always think, "why bother at all if that's how you want to abbreviate it"? (Most of the local street signs use "Tpke" and most of the local BGSs use "Tnpk.")

[roadman65]

How about "Gd" for Grand in Grand Rapids, MI.  I think they could have used "Gr" instead.