12 March 2008

Wanted: Signwriter. Good spelling and attention to detail not necessary.

| Mr Evil
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As seen on Streeton Drive on Sunday afternoon:

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If the street sign manufacture is contracted out, as stated above, then surely someone from the government has the balls to say “I’m not paying hundreds of dollars if you tools can’t spell right”
I blame Commissar Stanhope

Holden Caulfield12:04 am 13 Mar 08

I still like the (altered) signs to Cock Shops.

I am reliably informed that Third World countries have excellent street signage.

This is slightly off topic, but has anyone seen the stickers in some areas of Gungahlin that say “Warning: This equipment is alive”? They always make me laugh.

OpenYourMind29:39 pm 12 Mar 08

You know that things can’t be all that bad in your city when the worst that people are complaining about is an extra ‘e’ in a street sign.

Ever been to a 3rd world country?

I take heart in that it’s not actually the government making the signs, they’re all contracted out.

It seems to happen a lot around here, I remember the “alternative” route on all the GDE detour signs being fixed a while ago and the old “atl” on the sydney alt route on the monaro hwy. Send it into the CT, they seem to get fixed pretty quickly that way lol

As long as somebody is holding that extra ‘e’ hostage, they’ll never be free.

I support the use of two ‘e’s in Freemantle.

There used to be two signs like this in Gungahlin, both of which I think have now been fixed but were amusing at the time.

“Katerine Avenue” and my favourite, “Athony Rolfe Avenue”.

@ neanderthalsis:

pedants? dude – if they are going to spend several hundred rate-payer dollars on a sign (possibly in excess of a thousand) – is it too much to ask that the spelling be correct? 😉

…and remember, even pedants aren’t always prefect 😉

How about the classic sign (that even featured on “Rove” and then mysteriously vanished), when Maccas Yass opened – featured golden arches followed by “Yass – open 24 hours”, but unfortunately read as “My ass – open 24 hours”

CanberraResident5:38 pm 12 Mar 08

The main Palmerston sign (past Mitchell turnoff) was also vandalised at one point. Some tool wrote “CHEESE!” underneath it. Palmerston? Parmesan? Yeah …..okaaaay. In recent days I noticed the “cheese” bit gone, so it must have been cleaned or the sign totally replaced.

There’s a sign in Narooma pointing the way to “Austalia Rock”.

Some years ago one of the signs at the end of Roebuck Street in Red Hill was replaced and has read ‘Roe Buck’ ever since.

neanderthalsis4:30 pm 12 Mar 08

Only one E in the Fre bit of FREMANTLE. Most people would never notice, only the RiotAct pedants and propellerheads spot these things.

Some signwriter years ago apparantly decided that what had been Dairy Flat Road should now be called Dairy Road. Or maybe because the road going across Dairy Flat was now elevated, so it wasn’t flat any more.

Fremantle is the name of the city in WA and also the Drive to which this sign is pointing.
This street sign points to Freemantle Drive, which is incorrect.

Hilarity ensues (apparently).

Somebody mind pointing out what’s wrong with it for us imported people ?

CanberraResident4:19 pm 12 Mar 08

As a former resident of Stirling, I can say that this sign has been like this for a number of years, and yes, it irks me too.

I think they should be made to supply their own drugs.

I’d say that inmates at the new correctional holiday centre should make our number plates and street signs for zip to help cover their resort style living.

The only problem is that Stanhope and co would say it was inhumane to make these victims of life to do that.

Thumper – when is a door not a door?

When its ajar.

King O’Malley’s used to have signs on the outside tables that said “Dont feed the birds”.

Dont!

I still get a giggle out of the big orange and black stickers on the escalators in the canberra centre. There’s one that says the following: “ATTENTION: Please Read The Sign”, with an arrow pointing to another sticker. Heheheh.

Jonathon Reynolds1:50 pm 12 Mar 08

And this example in Gungahlin (reported in the Chronicle)
http://gcc.asn.au/content/view/480/325/

Coming into Canberra along the Federal Highway, not long after Eaglehawk, there’s an advisory sign of some description, its purpose escapes me, however it is irrelevant in the context of this post. The fact is, the paint that was applied to this sign has basically shrivelled up so much that the sign is as good as illegible. But here’s the rub… the signwriter put the name of his firm in small letters on the bottom of the sign, and that paintt looks as fresh as the day it was applied! Not a good advertisement for the company that’s for sure!

If I get the chance I will revisit the spot and post a pickie… or if any phone camera toting RiotActor wants to pre-empt me, the sign is just past the big sandstone border sign.

It’s called a life exit: when life becomes too much for you handle, and/or Nick Cave’s songs have finally gotten to you –

Exit this waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy.

Kinda related, I noticed Canberra Centre management has taken down this exit sign:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/purecaffeine/563608300/

I kind of like it; it’d be a shame if they came and took it down now. 🙂

Morning,

Any concerned citizen can actually file a complaint about a road sign using this form:
http://www.contact.act.gov.au/cgi-bin/canberraconnect.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

Select “Transport Roads & Traffic” as your section and then “Traffic & Road Signs” as your subsection.

Also, point at this thread, so that CanberraConnect and TAMS staff become more aware of citizen bloggery.

Does anyone here know if TAMS make these signs in house, or are they done by a contractor?

Gungahlin Al12:52 pm 12 Mar 08

Guess it’s just an extension of their use of SMS-style signs, where it’s a spelling-free zone…
http://the-riotact.com/?p=6752
Like some ministerials I see…

A pregnant Aussie and a pregnant kiwi are sitting on a park bench knitting jumpers for their unborn babies when the Aussie says to the Kiwi lass

“I hope mines a boy, cause I’m using blue wool”

The Kiwi has a think about it and a few minutes later says,

“Hope mines retarded, I just fucked up the arms.”

Sorry, but I had to post this and it’s the funniest joke I’ve heard in ages.

No spell-checker in the road sign division?

Ah, hell, it’s just a reflection of the modern education system anyway. Maybe it’s misspelled to make the kiddies feel better about themselves?

Is quality control really that hard??
This city is full of spelling errors.
We’d be a national laughing stock for it, if we didn’t share the Commonwealth with Queensland and Tasmania, who out-stupid us.

“Why was the sign changed to begin with? Vandals?”

The ACT Govt seem to be upgrading a few signs around the suburb as a few of them are faded and shabby looking, and the old one at this location was obviously incorrect as it said “Fremantle Dr”.

Could have been worse I suppose: at least it doesn’t say “Freemason Dr”! 😉

Who’s Mantle & what’s he done?

There’s a stack of wrong roadsigns around, once you start looking for them. Eg the southbound exit from the GDE onto Ginninderra Dr wrongly labels the latter as National Route 25.

heh – classic.

Why was the sign changed to begin with? Vandals?

Hehe! I wonder how long until it’ll be fixed?

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