🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 9 Dec 2011 13:57:21 +0000, Mike Barnes
<mikebarnes@bluebottle.com> wrote:

>"Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <mail@peterduncanson.net>:
>>On Fri, 9 Dec 2011 11:47:44 +0000, Mike Barnes
>><mikebarnes@bluebottle.com> wrote:
>>
>>>"Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <mail@peterduncanson.net>:
>>>>On Fri, 9 Dec 2011 07:41:56 +0000, Mike Barnes
>>>><mikebarnes@bluebottle.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Duggy <Paul.Duggan@jcu.edu.au>:
>>>>>>On Dec 8, 11:45 pm, "Django Cat" <notar...@address.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> Duggy wrote:
>>>>>>> > > > I've seen it usually when large vehicles are regularly accessing
>>>>>>> > > > the road from place they usually don't and/or are hard to see.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> > > The (many) examples I saw seem to indicate a lane closure associated
>>>>>>> > > with road works. Often - not always - there'd be lollipop man.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> > Yes, but instead of having a "Changed Traffic Conditions Ahead" and a
>>>>>>> > "Changed Road Layout Ahead" sign, they have one that covers both.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I quite often see 'changed priorities ahead', which is a tad
>>>>>>> existential.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>OK I don't know what that means.
>>>>>
>>>>>It means that you have to give way to a stream of traffic that you
>>>>>didn't previously have to give way to, or vice-versa. "Priority" is a
>>>>>clearly-understood concept for traffic.
>>>>>
>>>>>The one I struggle with most in the UK is TEMPORARY ROAD SURFACE. I
>>>>>remember as a child asking my father what it meant, and it makes no more
>>>>>sense to me now than it did then.
>>>>
>>>>There may be various ways in which a road surface may be temporary. The
>>>>one I've met most often is where a road is in the process of being
>>>>relaid and part of it has been reopened to traffic before the final top
>>>>surface of tarmac has been laid. The surface on which you are driving is
>>>>not the final surface and is in that sense "temporary". It is not in
>>>>that example temporary in the sense that it will be removed and replaced
>>>>with a better one.
>>>
>>>Yes, but its temporary nature is of no immediate interest to me as a
>>>motorist. I'm more interested in knowing whether it's rough, slippery,
>>>pot-holed, undrained, lacking markings, etc.
>>
>>Mere details!
>>
>>I think the sign is warning that it could be any of those - "Don't
>>expect a normal road surface".
>
>"Poor road surface", "Substandard road surface", "Rough road", anything
>like that would be fine. But the allegedly temporary nature of the
>surface is irrelevant and uninformative. It does no harm to say what you
>mean rather than leaving the reader to solve a riddle.

There may be lawyers involved in the wording.

-- 
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)