There's a famous seaside place called Blackpool

[venta]

On the way to collect zandev for work this morning I noticed a sign near the Original Swan which read:

"Holloway Closed
Use Ring Road"

Now, to the best of my knowledge Holloway is (a) perfectly open and (b) part of the London Borough of Islington.

On the other hand, Hollow Way in Oxford is currently closed and using the ring road is a sensible alternative.

I'm not seriously suggesting that anyone is likely to confuse the two, I just think it's really rather uncceptable to have errors like that on road signs. Even temporary road signs.

Although if wikipedia is to be believed, Holloway got its name from a sunken cattle track, and is thus presumably a contraction of Hollow Way anyway. I'm not sure etymology is really an excuse for producing inaccurate road signs, though.

Can anyone who's been closer to Hollow Way than I have confirm or deny my suspicions that there aren't diversion signs in place ? "Use ring road" is a fair enough instruction for a local, but no use at all to a visitor.

Which reminds me. Just before Christmas a bunch of circumstances conspired against me, and I was forced to call the AA out. The call I had with the AA operator went (roughly) like this:

Me: I'm on the Oxford ring road between the end of Abingdon Road and the Heyford Hill roundabout where the ring road joins the A4074.
AA: Oxford doesn't have a ring road.
Me: Yes it does. I'm on it.
AA: No it doesn't. What is the number of the road you're on ?
Me: I've no idea. <E starts walking back towards the previous junction to read the sign>
AA: Are you on the Eastern Bypass ?
Me: I'm afraid I don't know. It's always referred to as the ring road. Can you find the Heyford Hill roundabout ?
AA: I don't have roundabout names. Are you on the A4142 ?[*]
Me: I'm sorry, I don't know. By this time, I've reached the sign at the junction. It says "Ring Road".
AA: So, are you on the Eastern Bypass ?
Me: I don't know. If you follow Abingdon Road out of Oxford, and turn left at the first roundabout, I'm there.
AA: There isn't an Abingdon Road in Oxford.
Me: There is!

Some more minutes of this followed, with me becoming increasingly convinced that the Oxford I lived in was a complete work of fiction. We concluded with the AA man deciding "So, you say you're on the A4142" and me agreeing on the assumption that he was presumably somewhere in the right area, and, since the actual mechanic would call me to let me know he was on the way, I could sort the finer details out with him.

Shortly after, the police happened by to ask what a nice girl like me was doing loitering on a ring road bridge at that time of night. They seemed friendly, and even rang the AA for me to tell them my position correctly.

And even then, the conversation with the actual mechanic who rang me to say he was arriving went like this:

AA: Where are you?
Me: Are you in an AA van[**] which just turned right at a large roundabout ?
AA: Yes
Me: Go back to that roundabout and take the other exit.

So, in summary: all road signs in Oxford - plus temporary roadworks signs - refer to the ring road. But the ring road is known by completely different names on maps, and these names are never mentioned on the road signs. This does not seem sensible to me.

I would have thought that, if you looked at a map of Oxford, it'd be obvious which road people would call the "ring road". Although I can see confusion arising because that's actually a whole series of A roads and bypasses, all with different names, chained together. It clearly wasn't obvious to the bloke on the other end of the phone just before Christmas.

Today's advice: learn your local road numbers in case you ever need the AA. But learn them off a map, because that's what they AA operator will be reading.

[*] The more Oxfordly astute among you may have deduced by now that I was on the bit of road which is about (a) where the Southern Bypass becomes the Eastern Bypass, and (b) where the A4142 may or may not become the A4074 (before joining the A34).

[**] Not as stupid a question as it sounds. The AA contract out sometimes, so you may well get a local garage coming to your rescue.

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

There's at least one diversion sign in place, at the Slade end of Hollow Way. Whether there's currently any convincing reason for a diversion yet, I haven't explored.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I lie: the sign at the end of the Slade says the same as the one you've quoted, including the contraction of Holloway (sic.).

I don't know what the sign says as you come off the ring road. It'd seem a bit mean for it to still say "Use the Ring Road!"

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

The fact that the road is closed should be reason for diversion, but it didn't deter some drivers last night...

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Which is why I added my convincing requirement.

Signs, but no activity, isn't very convincing.
A sodding huge JCB coming in the general direction of your car is makes the closure more credible...

And, if the road is closed (not just "closed except for access"), how do you guys get in and out?

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Hollow Way is closed between Horspath Road and Marshall Road, so we don't have much of a problem, except for the lack of buses.

They'd just about finished resurfacing that bit last night, so the next stage is to close the road between Oxford Road and Salegate Lane, and to resurface that bit.

It's unclear as to whether they'll resurface the bit in between...