Life is full of surprises – as the Dalek discovered when he tried to get frisky with a dustbin.
Driving around Wales, I sometimes see road signs that surprise me. Not in a “Ooh! I wonder what that means?” way.
No. I get surprised by the pointlessness of some signs, as I was last week when I was travelling on a country road that took me alongside a picturesque river and I saw a sign that warned drivers “Weak Bridge Ahead”.
As I got nearer the bridge that crossed the river, I could see it was very old, perhaps well over 100 years old. That’s a century’s worth of traffic, from the days of horses and carts to horseless carriages right up to today’s lorries, buses and electric cars.
No wonder it was feeling a bit weak.
As I drove over the stone bridge, I thought to myself, “If this bridge is weak, why, has it been here for decades. Hasn’t anybody thought about doing something about it? You know . . . like strengthening it?”
I know I have a tendency to look at matters that interest and/or annoy me with rather too much cold logic for some of you.
But it occurred to me that by putting up a ‘Weak Bridge’ sign, the local council (who believed their duty had been done) were at best lackadaisical and at worst irresponsible.
Because in the time it took the council to have a couple of meetings to discuss the merits/costs of a “Weak Bridge Ahead!” sign, getting it made and put in place by half-a-dozen council employees, watched by representatives of the Highway Department, a couple of Health and Safety Executives and the Mayor (disappointed that the sign wasn’t encircled by a ribbon he could cut with his ceremonial scissors), local builders could have put a joist under the bridge to prevent it being weak.
For another 100 quid they could have filled the cracks with fresh cement.
And don’t get me started on road signs that warn, “Slow! Men Working!” . . . and for the next three miles there’s no sign of any men working slow . . . or fast!