Japan’s most meaningless road sign

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5 thoughts on “Japan’s most meaningless road sign

  1. Oh, admittedly it’s odd, in the sense that it isn’t the usual format of a sign containing only that info. But a sign with only that info is often the most useful of road signs. Knowing I’m on Hwy 85 or Hwy 237 can tell me I’m on course or maybe that I missed my exit. There are maps & there are directions. Road designation signs are key to equating a squiggly line on paper to where you are in the real world.

    This is basic. Only a child doesn’t know the worth of such a sign. It simply is not accurate to call it “meaningless.” Sure, maybe we could say it “wastes space,” or that it’s hard to read, or something.

    Besides, the comments at that link, unlike the mindless tweets the story quotes, point out that the sign has clearly been painted over. So in reality, there’s a back story behind this sign to understand what it used to say & why it was changed. No one was curious enough to look into it. But the drive-by snipers gonna snipe.

    1. I don’t have any context. I take the sign to mean “this road continues,” and that would be downright silly on an American interstate, but it may be a surprising condition in rural Japan.

      Or it may be that the road used to end there, requiring cars to seek another route, and the sign is informing the drivers that such action is no longer necessary.

      Or it may just be dumb. I don’t know.

      My favorite sign in Wisconsin is “No center line, next 500 yards.” I have to think it would be both cheaper and safer to just paint the fucking line instead of ordering a custom sign, but what do I know?

      1. Downtown Hayward CA had a street named “A” Street. Which was great, because the freeway exit sign read “A Street Downtown”.

    2. I have been on plenty of highways that had signs that did nothing but identify the highway. Some of them may have also indicated the direction, but not all of them. Then again, maybe I am misremembering because I gave up driving a decade ago after I started taking opioids for my back. As I am sure many people here that disagree with me politically will probably find easy to believe my brain ain’t what it used to be.

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