This Sign is Not in Use

It must be one of the strangest signs you see on the road. THIS SIGN IS NOT IN USE it informs you – and with considerable effort if the forty-foot gantry post and all that expensive electrical equipment is anything to go by. But why? The sign seems to be telling you to ignore it; which you would have had it not grabbed your attention with an enormous message suspended above two lanes of the carriageway. If it's got nothing else to say, why not display: JUNCTION 25 35 MILES 30 MINUTES, which could be useful if it didn't assume an average speed of 70 mph, a speed at which few vehicles actually travel. DON'T DRIVE TIRED has replaced DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE now that most people have got that message, so it could be used to encourage drivers to take a break. 

There is a problem with these messages, though, in that they sound like an order. Whenever controls are imposed, something inside us reacts to make any limit seem like a challenge. If we can't avoid it, we'll exploit it. In this way a limit becomes a target; if it's not possible to exceed, then it must be reached. I'm sure this behaviour is deeply rooted in instinct, and that all animals have it. My Labrador will eat anything, all day if I let her; any survival expert will tell you, eat whenever you can, it may be your last meal for a while. It's this trait that supermarkets exploit when they offer special deals. Four bottles of beer for a fiver; which makes you pick up more than you wanted, or is probably good for you. Buy one, get one free; when we all know one could be sold cheaper. We snap it up. Logic says it must be a sales pitch but our minds won't let us see it that way. That thing inside us all which says we must get as much as possible, straight away, concludes that a limit has been set and we must go to that limit. The fact that we believe it's a bargain, clinches it. Subtly, we have been convinced that this is the most we'll be able to have, and we are left with only one option: 'go for it now'.

Drive down any country lane and you will see car drivers hurtling along at speeds where no margin is left for error. Too fast for the width of the road and the view available through the bends, while thinking they can travel at the speed limit of 60mph. Tachograph hours can cause the same type of confusion: 4.5 hours driving without a break is permitted under the regulations when, according to the road safety charity BRAKE, we shouldn't drive for more than 2 hours without stopping.  And there's the problem: by implementing tachograph regulations the law has created a limit.  One that we chase, often ignoring other signs that tell us something might be wrong, all in the false belief that we must use every minute of driving time, immediately.  DON'T DRIVE TIRED doesn't seem such a bad instruction after all.

Normal sleep does not occur without warning and most people would recognize the signs of its approach: increased difficulty concentrating; yawning; heavy eyelids; eyes starting to ‘roll’; and neck muscles relaxing, making the head droop. Winding down the window, listening to music and talking to a passenger do not help prevent sleep, although they may temporarily help us to stay alert until we find somewhere safe to stop. Again, according to BRAKE, 'microsleeps' of about 10 minutes seem to be the answer, so a 15 minute break followed by a 30 minute break around a couple of hours later (permitted by the tachograph regulations) might be what's needed to both comply with the law and allow us to respond to the signs our body is giving. Signs we simply can't afford to ignore.

It could be that all signs have a genuine message. Maybe by displaying, THIS SIGN IS NOT IN USE instead of simply remaining blank, those gantry signs are telling us that they can't warn us, and their real message is: THERE JUST MIGHT BE A PROBLEM AHEAD.