I have noticed a number of ‘Ice’ road signs appearing on the side of the road. These are apparently temporary as they are just the self standing type but have been in the same place for a while.

I understand that in one of these places an accident occurred but whilst it may have been icy at the time it certainly isn’t now.

Anyway to the point; it appears that these signs are left in place to remind drivers to be careful but of what? Certainly not ice as it is currently well above freezing!

In a similar manner there is a stretch of road near where I live that has permanent ‘slippery road’ road signs. These appeared after a couple of accidents occurred (one fatal) and after a special sticky road surface was laid down. Now I have driven this stretch of road for over twenty years and have at no point felt that the road surface was slippery in any way, as long as you drove at the correct speed for the conditions.

Now I can understand why certain road signs are in place but these are in my opinion ridiculous!

You could be right.
However there’s a short bit of road near me that’s always icy when everywhere else if fine. I wish they’d put a sign up there, so that drivers might think twice about overatking there.

forget the signs – just stick it into folks sat navs ….

round here folks dont seem to drive any more – just stare at a 3 inch screen and press go and stop ….

i see the same folks daily – with their sat navs on for the daily commute …… EH !

There is a permanent “Ice” sign not far from me. Crying wolf really. Completely daft.

Yeah permanent icy road signs around here too and countless slippery surface signs, I’ve driven on the roads for 21 years and they sometimes are. I know that of course as I’m local but apparently there’s none local use these roads too, maybe it’s the same where you are.

Er…. not crying Wolf round here. During the cold weather water flowing down farm tracks and overflowing from ditches froze on country roads creating massive areas of choppy ice like the Arctic. Ice signs are still out and only last Saturday my cycling pal and I found ourselves bumping over some sheets of ice a couple of inches thick and several feet wide that are still lying on the roads. This is in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire.

globalti – I live in the sunny south so tropical compared to you. I suppose I would hav to agree that it can get down to freezing overnight but this is the first year I have seen the temporary ‘Icy’ signs. I would still have to say that if you drove according to the conditions, which is well over 90% of drivers, you wouldn’t need the signs!

there has been a temporary FLOOD sign at the southern end of the M3 for about 4 years. every time it does flood (maybe every 6-9 months) it makes me crack a little smile.

Well the alternative is to employ an army of workers to go out an put them up every time the temperature gets arround zero.

The slippery road signs are often found near farms, same with livestock signs, should they only be put out for a couple of hours after (or during) milking, or do you the average motorist and see the warning, slow down a bit in case theres a problem then carry on as normal.

Your argument holds as much water as “Speed limits should be abolished because no one sticks to them anyway”.

I like this one in Eldwick on a clear blue summers day. It’s there all year round.

thisisnotaspoon – My comment is based upon the fact that there is only a temporary ‘Ice’ sign where there has been an accident. One was near a farm with potential field run-off but another was on a roundabout! Initially I did slow but soon realized that as it was warmer then obviously there is no ice.

Do you think that there should be more signs put up that may serve a purpose at a particular time but in the future are just a bit pointless?

They’re supposed to go on areas of particular ice hazard- wet spots, sheltered bits on road under trees etc. So places that ice might linger when it’s gone everywhere else, which is what catches people out most.

Joe Public is supposed to apply a bit of common sense and not worry about ice when it’s hot out but then Joe Public has no common sense- there’s one on the road between edinburgh and glentress and I saw someone slow to about 30mph past it in July.

It’s so that in the event of someone having an accident they can’t sue the local council for not gritting the road.

Anyway to the point; it appears that these signs are left in place to remind drivers to be careful but of what? Certainly not ice as it is currently well above freezing!

Still ice at night up here despite 9 degree daytime temps. Imagine the manpower required to put them all out every night and take them in when no ice was due. There’s a better idea – put them out when the icy weather arrives and remove them when all threat has gone.

Shakey, do you mean this sign?

They don’t mean slippery road, they mean skid risk.

You could have a perfect section of that coloured high grip surfacing before a junction, but if a couple of cars crash into a car in front and lock the wheels in the process, they will stick a skid sign up, even though the road is grippy. If a couple more accidents involving skidding occur, they will replace the sign with one that has a grey background. If there are more accidents, they will replace the grey backed sign with the fluorescent yellow backed sign.

Its a shame they don’t make drivers more aware of this. I was only told the above after doing a driving course involving a commentary drive with a ex traffic cop. So if you see any type of warning sign that has a yellow background, you know there have been a significant number of accidents where the warning is a contributing factor.

Place near where I lived was apparently the first in the country a few years ago to have a permanent one fixed?!

Well, its not muppet proof but seems fine to me!

Only someone hard of thinking or out to find fault would think the sign there in the middle of the summer might be warning of ice and needs heeding in the middle of june. To have a sign that is essentially saying “when the temperature is low enough for ice to be a problem, this is a trouble spot” seems perfectly reasonable.

There is a place a few hundred yards from where I am typing that gets run off from a sloping field that turns to sheet ice in the right (or wrong) weather and it’s on a blind bend. I know it’s there and crawl around in icy conditions but I think we could do with one of those signs for the non locals.

i see the same folks daily – with their sat navs on for the daily commute …… EH !

It’s there so that on May 11th 2012 SKYNET will suddenly divert drivers form their usual commute into a nearby river/gorge/canyon/cliff, thus striking the first pre-emptive blow in our war with the machines.

^^^^ Ha ha ha

convert – Member

Well, its not muppet proof but seems fine to me!

Not sure I like to be referred to as hard of thinking or out to find fault by hey ho!

Just think it would be better to have a permanent sign that says ‘Risk of Ice’ or ‘Skid Risk’. As I said it is not something that bothers me as I drive to the road conditions.