Signage for Self-Propelled Travel

KILSBY AUSTRALIA

transport policy, planning and management advice

Avoiding Surprises

Motor vehicles travel at high speeds and hence plentiful warning signs to alert drivers to imminent complexity in the road environment are necessary.

Traffic engineers sometimes err on the side of safety when passing similar information to cyclists. The signs in the top row do tend to add insult (implicit opinion of cyclist's mental acuity) to injury (provision of deficient facilities). Click on any image to see the context.

And signs which start "Pedestrians ..." seem to bring out the authoritarian streak in signwriters (bottom row).

It would actually be quite helpful to know that this cycleway ends here if, as I was, you were riding along here for the first time at night. But if it was dark, you wouldn't see the sign either ...

This is, or rather was, in Canberra. Cycleway sections are built as part of housing developments, and where that development is discontinuous, so is the path. It has been connected up since this photo was taken.

The good news is that there is a superb path reserved for cyclists along the western side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The access to this path leaves something to be desired - it is indeed an "uneven surface" as the sign proclaims. Most cyclists would probably have noticed this for themselves.

If motorists had to push their vehicles up similar steps before crossing the Bridge, some of the alternative modes might now be better used !

A cyclist crossing this bridge without dismounting would be an interesting thing to watch.

This bridge is part of the "Parramatta River Cycleway" route in Sydney. Cyclists are expected to cross the river between Rydalmere (on the north side) and Camellia (on the south side) by this bridge, which is basically a couple of high-pressure gas mains with rudimentary steps and planking inserted between them.

And this is the road pedestrians are not to walk on. They might hurt it?

The wooden stake is a bus stop. Isn't this a superb example of how to make public transport users feel valued. (Put them out with the other rubbish ...)

The tragic thing is that this has not happened by accident. Somebody has designed these facilities. This is part of the new campus of the University of Western Sydney at Rydalmere, which has only been open for a couple of years.

"Pedestrians - Watch for Vehicles On Bridge"

Is it the pedestrian's fault that this bridge (over a railway cutting) was built without any footpath on either side ?

Why doesn't the sign advise drivers to watch out for pedestrians on the bridge ? The implication here is that it is the pedestrian's duty to keep out of the way of motorised traffic.

Ah, gotcha. That was a perfectly appropriate sign for its circumstances - the industrial waterfront in Sydney, with no public access allowed.

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