OT: Pavement reflectors(?) in York or someting else...

[Fitz]

Admittedly nothing to do with DIY, but someone here is bound to know or at least propose a feasible explanation...

Around York recently a number of strange items have appeared set into pavements. They are around the town center and are a flat ring of coloured plastic of about 10cm diameter with a raised half sphere of transparent material (presume it's glass) in the centre of diameter approx 3cm. These things are coloured either red, white or blue. The ring and the transparent half sphere are the same colour.

They are deliberately set into the pavement and must have been core drilled in. They are relatively sparse and not consistent with marking anything obvious (like shop boundaries or driveways etc).

They appear to be a fairly constant distance from the closest building or structure (some white ones are next to a wall on a bridge) being approx 1/2 a metre away.

So - fire away if you have any ideas. Appologies for not having a photo to look at, but I havn't taken my camera into town recently.

cheers

[Fitz]

Typical. We've been mulling over this in the office for weeks and then someone goes an finds it on bloody Google seconds after I post.

In case you're interested they are a tourist thing for marking trails around the city... quite dull really.

sorry to bother you.

[Owain]

Red white and blue ... they wouldn't be aimed at Americans would they.

I thought there was already a perfectly good tourist trail round the city ... called a Wall.

But I suppose the Merkins need some subliminal programming to make sure they don't get lost between Yorvik and Betty's and accidentally wander into Duttons For Buttons.

Owain

[Mary Fisher]

Not at all dull for tourists.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

What colours would you suggest?

No, that doesn't take in all the interesting sights.

I don't think that's fair, if it was an attempt at humour it's not funny and not worthy of you.

And you can't spell Jorvik.

Mary

[Bob Eager]

But if the Merkins fall over the bumps, they'll sue.

It's all a plot by the insecure Yorkshire people, so that they can laugh at foreigners (and that includes people from as far away as ... I dunno ..Rutland?)

[Fitz]

Or residents... York is one of the few places I've actually managed to do most of the tourist things as a resident. In fact I often walk around the wall at lunch time for a stroll. You can do a complete circuit in about 50 minutes at a comfortable pace.

I didn't mean that the tourist trail and associated stories themselves were dull, just that in our own childish way (30-something children that is) we were hoping it was some staggeringly clever new fangled idea for solving a problem that no-one even realised was a problem ;-)

[Mary Fisher]

I've done it often, pity it's not complete though :-( The roofscapes are the best parts, in my opinion.

Well, in a way it is ... fingerposts are good but not as easy to follow. Maps are difficult if you don't know where you're starting from - I've spent a lot of time in York over the last 60 odd years, know it well and often help confused visitors who don't know where they are. Colour coded marks(such as waymarkers for ramblers) are very common and easily understood but would be hard to find on buildings.

We saw similar trailmarkers at Easter in Ely and wondered what they were. We followed them and worked it out but wished we'd known earlier so that a printed guide could have pointed out more places of interest for us. It was our first visit and could be the last.

Mary in Leeds

[Rod]

"Mary Fisher" wrote in news:42dd1579$0$12562$ [e-mail]:

Blue, Brown and Green/Yellow?

[Matt]

Are they the same as the ones all over York that are set into the roads?

If so, the blue ones are marking the location of Fire Hydrants. No idea on the red and white ones.

[Mary Fisher]

What a shocking suggestion!

Mary