Odd MWay gantry sign messages

[Andrew]

REDUCE TRAVELlers ? :-)

[Andrew]

This year it should be "Don't choke on a scotch egg"

[Andrew]

I am always tempted to straddle the white line separating the two lines

[#Paul]

Some passengers - such as those in a family group - may well be carrying a collection of passports and boarding cards.

#Paul

[Andrew]

Maybe because there is more traffic in England, constantly making the need for a gantry message.

[Andrew]

The M48 is wonderful. Ignore the nanny signs as you travel west on the M4 past Bristol and follow the M48 which takes you over the old Severn Bridge, with very few other vehicles.

Also still has a Costa Coffee and toilets, though the original Granada services with its panaramic windows overlooking the Bridge is now an office building.

On the other side the M48 is almost empty until it rejoins the M4.

[Andrew]

It was a while before the M4 went all the way past Cardiff

[Dave Plowman (News]

Does anyone have a car which doesn't display the time somewhere?

[John Rumm]

Only one of which would be theirs specifically. So the sign is at best still inappropriate for the majority of readers.

[polygonum_on_google]

That is slightly inaccurate. What is now the M48 was the motorway in operation since the first Severn Bridge was opened!

There is also the A48(M) which comes off the M4 and goes towards Cardiff.

[polygonum_on_google]

I meant checking that the sign, rather the computer bit, has not crashed! Not read the time.

Both cars I drive regularly clearly display time. One gets its time automatically, the other not. Which seems odd as that one has built-in GPS...

[ARW]

Derbyshire has the same sign showing today.

Leicestershire was reduced to LEICS REDUSE TRAVEL but DERBYSHIRE had the full name.

suggests that the full name is now showing between 21 and 21A

[#Paul]

Well, since we're all now indulging in a frenzy of very slightly amusing pedantry, a wording directed specifically at each individual passenger would then necessarily suggest that small children, even babies - since they are also "a passenger" - must themselves have to have their own passports and boarding cards ready. Or, I suppose, you could - in order to be strictly accurate and unambigous, make the statement longer and list all the allowed exceptions.

Fortunately, whatever the mild deficiences of the current wording, almost everyone seems to understand the intent of the message.

#Paul

[ARW]

All that is showing is

SLOUGH REDUCE TRAVEL

on the A404(M)

I want to see

SLOW REDUCE TRAVEL

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Yes people always also moan about dab displays. Surrey spelled surry I do wonder if the designers might be better off simply fitting a speech chip and speaking the station while ducking the volume. Should be good for drivers. Brian

[Dave Plowman (News]

My car is distinctly odd. You can set the clock to what you want - but it locks to the RDS radio. ie, always rolls over the minute in sync with the R4 pips.

[John Rumm]

Sure everyone understands, that was not really the point though.

The wording just highlights the airline/airport don't think of their passengers as individual customers, but as a class or herd. Perhaps not the feeling they would want to project (even though true!). It would not be difficult to reword the sign as "please have your passport and boarding card ready as you check in" or something similar.

[Robin]

ISTM that still leaves problems for the pedantic when travelling as a group with one person carrying passports and boarding cards for others. Does the use of the singular "passport" and "card" require the documents to be carried by each individual - which may include babies?

Such points* are why when it comes to legislation there is a provision that "unless the contrary intention appears,...words in the singular include the plural and words in the plural include the singular". I find that generally worth applying more generally.

*a more obscure one is what of travellers with multiple citizenship and multiple passports on them. To be unambiguous seems to require something like "...the passport on which you are travelling today" ;)