Over the past 11 or so months, we’ve all been puttering along. Doing our merry old to-and-fros, driving along to work, home, the shops, and if we’re socially blessed, to family and friends. Lots of driving, basically. And, as it tends to happen, some aspects of the driving experience tend to fade into the background. Obviously some things remain pretty up-front and centre, like honking taxis and potholes, but the rest? Well, the rest becomes a bit wallpaper-ish.
Like road signs.
The thing is, with it being December and all, loads of us will be on the road and we’ll need to make sure that we’re paying attention in order to live to enjoy our holiday. Alright, that just got real-o-clock. We don’t want to be fearmongers, but this is typically the time of year when the roads are super dangerous. To keep you sharp, we’ve devised a crash course (excuse the pun) in road signs that you come across during long distance travels.
While we don’t doubt your ability to spot a stop sign or work out what the ‘wild animals ahead’ sign means (the leaping springbok gives it away) there may be a few others that could save your life. So, let’s test your knowledge of some of these lesser spotted road signs that you need to take heed of.
Road signs to be aware of when you’re travelling:
Gravel road begins
To some, this sign kind of looks like the top of the road is covered in bees, and honestly… Driving over crunchy gravel can be just as noisy as a swarm of bees crowding around the tyres. But it’s important to take note of this sign and reduce your speed so that you can hit the rough surface safely. If you don’t cross from tar to gravel slowly, you can hit a speed wobble, lose control of the car, and crash.
Loose stones ahead
Is it an explanatory science diagram? Killer tomatoes focusing all their rage on your tyres? No. It’s a warning that there are loose stones and rocks (although what’s the difference between the 2) on the road. Stones (or rocks) can fly up and hit your windscreen or cause you to blow a tyre. You could swerve and go down the embankment or crash into another car. Basically, if you see this sign, reduce your speed and drive carefully.
Turn on headlights
While it does look a bit like an order to activate a giant Cyclops robot and take over the world, in reality it’s a very simple warning to turn on your headlights. It’s not always clear why, but just do it. Maybe it’s an area where visibility is low due to weather? Whatever the reason, just listen and crank on the lights.
Uneven road
Hands up if you’ve considered this as a sign to put your hands in air and do a solo Mexican wave? No 1? Just us? Alright. Well anyway, this sign indicates that the road is about to become uneven and if you want to avoid nasty consequences for your undercarriage and shocks and even the very real possibility of having an accident, then you should slow down and drive cautiously.
Traffic control ahead
On our lovely national roads there are such exquisite sights to behold. There are also roadworks with the oh-so-charming stops that you have to endure. It’s really helpful to know that these are coming up so that you can slow down and come to a gentle stop. This sign is often confused for ‘taxi rank ahead’ or a call to throw your hands in the air like you just don’t care. Worse, it’s taken as a suggestion to slow down when you feel like it. But that’s not the case.
Please slow down appropriately and avoid scaring the pants off the roadworkers (and putting their lives in danger).
Alert: Bonus sign for your car
This is a super important sign to know about. It can save a lot of money and hassle in an already awful situation; the situation being an incident involving your car. The sign in question is the tow sticker that your insurer gives you to go with your car insurance policy. You should probably stick this on your car, maybe on 1 of the passenger windows so that it’s nicely visible? This sign tells private towing companies that you have help coming if you get into trouble and need your car to be towed.
It’s important for this sign to be clearly visible for 2 reasons. The first being that you can trust your insurer’s approved towing company to handle your car with care without having to do a background and price check. The second being that the towing costs will be covered by your insurer so that you don’t have to pay the chunky fees that many private companies charge. If a private company gets involved, then you’ll have to pay the fee yourself.
If you’ve yet to invest in car insurance and you’re about to hit the road for your holiday, take a few minutes to get a quote. Just click here to get a quote and you’ll be in a much safer position overall.
