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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Having a lovely time at Leicester comedy festival. Last night I saw Tom Burgess's Peter Fleming’s Dismally Ill-Prepared TV Pub Quiz and had a delightful time. It was so, so funny.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

You can read a full account of this story on my Patreon OR come see me talk about it live at the Leicester comedy festival on Sunday!

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Most of this information, I got from this wonderful article Lund, Ole. "The public debate on Jock Kinneir’s road sign alphabet." Typography papers 5 (2003): 103-126. Accessible here: jockkinneirlibrary.org/assets/media... If you like your academic texts sassy, this is the one for you.

jockkinneirlibrary.org

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Here's an illustration of the two fonts side by side.

Two signs for a roundabout with turnings for Radlett, Watford, Birmingham, St. Albans. The one on the left is in the Kindersley font in all caps with serifs, and the the one on the right is in transport font in sentence case and sans serif.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

The Transport font had already been much more rigorously tested (in a car park beneath Hyde Park) and so this particular test did not convince anyone to switch to the Kindersley font (much to the frustration of Kindersley).

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

But it was almost immediately pointed out that the test was done in fair weather conditions and also that the Kindersley font was written on the signs in larger letters. I don't want to say the whole exercise was a waste of time but the whole exercise was a waste of time.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

The adjudicators could read Kindersley's seriffed, all caps sign from 247ft and Kinneir and Calvert'# sans serif, sentence case sign from 240ft. Which implies that the Kindersley font was actually the most suitable.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Let's talk about that research though. The key question was, which font was easiest to read at speed and from a distance? The test they used involved strapping road signs to a car and driving them (at speed) towards seated adjudicators who made note of when they could read the sign. Science!

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

The choice of font became so contentious that the BBC planned a debate about it on the Tonight programme. Despite receiving significant criticism in the press, Kinneir was advised not to respond to the public discussion. Instead, he and Calvert used their research to justify their design.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Taking a brief interlude in the history of road sign fonts thread to show off this cool new book my lovely wife bought me*. *I'm trying not to buy any books this year and she was worried it would be difficult to get ahold of next year.

A big heavy hardback called Margaret Calvert Woman at Work by Thames and Hudson with a photo of Calvert's woman at work sign on the cover.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Kindersley was a very vocal critic of the Transport font. It may seem that "detest" is a very strong word to use about fonts but it applies here. He detested that it was sans serif and in sentence case and he particularly objected to "the awful M".

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

There were other designers, however, who felt they were better placed to choose the font for the nation's roadsigns. Most notably, David Kindersley who had already designed a font, the Kindersely MOT font, for use on street signs.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

The key change that they made was creating a font with a lower case alphabet. Kinneir and Calvert wanted to be able to write place names on road signs in sentence case as they felt this made them easier to read. They argued that, e.g., Nottingham was more recognisable than NOTTINGHAM.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Transport was designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert in the late 50s. They had been commissioned to create signs for the Preston Bypass, the UK's first motorway, and felt that the existing standard font, the Llewellyn Alphabet, was not suitable when reading signs at such high speeds.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Road signs in the UK use a font specifically created for that purpose, called Transport. (Many countries signed up to the Vienna Convention use variations of this font.) How Transport came to be the font of choice is a fascinating story as many elements of it were highly controversial...

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

The blue of a parking sign (in the UK) is pantone 300. Here are more facts about the colour blue than you thought you needed: www.patreon.com/posts/141127...

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Feeling blue | hashtagcerys

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

The parking sign dates back to the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics! I'll be releasing a full patreon post all about it next week. In the mean time, there's a paid post about motorcycle helmets already up.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

I thought you would think it was cool!

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

I've been doing some reading about parking signs recently and it turns out the history is super interesting. Can you guess when the P in a blue rectangle parking sign was invented and for what event?

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Little parking signs for bikes are always adorable.

A photo of a bike rack, at dusk, with a P parking sign above a little icon of a bike.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Amazing. Who wouldn't want a ham sandwich road sign!

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

You've gotta check they're legit though - there's an underground market in stolen street signs...

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

You can also just buy them. Some of them for like £30.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

They just leave road signs lying around on the floor, no guards or nothing. Anyone could just pick one up and take it home...

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

You can read the full report on the Slough Safety Experiment here: ia801400.us.archive.org/20/items/op1... And see a bunch of cool photos of the original signs and posters etc.

ia801400.us.archive.org

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

This is supposed to be a hand btw but I am not good at hands. Tbf, the original posters, made in the early 50s, have something authoritarian about their nature (I presume bc they're built directly on war propaganda iconography) and so it's probably for the best I didn't accurately capture the image.

A red pen drawing of what is recognisably meant to be a hand - it has four fingers and a thumb but it has a double outline that makes it look super weird. The wrist turns into a res triangle pointing downwards.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

The Great Slough Experiment! Read all about how Slough was turned into a safety town on my patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/148849...

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The Safety Town | hashtagcerys

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Signs from the Margaret Calvert Exhibition at the OSH Gallery last year.

A wall of road signs (an arrow pointing right in a circle), a man at work sign, a woman at work sign, a 70mph sign) but in bright colours - yellow, blue, red, orange and green.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Another excellent road sign from Italy.

A red triangular warning sign with a yellow background and a black exclamation point.
A supplementary sign that reads "LKW Ausfahrt uscita automezzi" and beneath that a drawing of a little digger with a person driving it.
In the background is a beautiful blue sky and a ski lift and a mountain.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Welcome to Italy! If you want to know what specific brand of car it is you can read the deep dive on my patreon! (Spoilers: I don't know very much about cars.)

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Reposted by cerys

cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

The Vienna Convention on road signs lays out basic shapes, colours and concepts for consistency across countries but allows for a lot of individuality within that. Can you guess what country this road sign is from based on its unique car symbol?

A red triangle warning sign depicting a highly detailed icon of a car with four rear lights, a bumper, a license plate and a rear window driving on a road that is disintegrating on the right hand side.
The sign is on a very picturesque road under a deep blue sky.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

I feel like so much of traffic control measures is about finding the balance between surprising drivers enough that they have to stay focused on the roads but not so much it causes an accident. I really like the painted on the road optical illusion speed bumps for this.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

You too can be an annoying-I-mean-knowledgeable passenger by reading my patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/146350...

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Bump in the road | hashtagcerys

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

I now know the difference between speed bumps (designed to reduce speed to about 5mph), humps (designed to reduce to 20mph ish), cushions (don't cover the full length of the road) and tables (raised out of the road for pedestrians to cross) which makes me a super fun passenger.

A Bump In The Road Sign (red triangular sign with a little black bump in the middle)

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Did you know that red paint on signs often fades faster than blue? It's therefore not uncommon to see No Through Road signs sans the red bar. This has led to a rumour that some No Through Road signs signal if there is space to turn (a white T) and those that don't (with a red bar) which is not true!

A no through road sign (a blue square with a white T cut out of it, the top bar of the t is coloured red).

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Was late to an event today taking a photo of this nice tiled street sign.

Messina Avenue spelled out in white lettering on black tiles on a brick wall.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

You can find out all about this sign in my brief history of the Give Way sign here on my patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/147796...

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An upside down triangle and a dream | hashtagcerys

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

An excellent guess - this is a precursor to the Give Way sign. It has variously meant Give Way and, before that, Major Road Ahead.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

That would be a good reason for it to be discontinued. IMO decisiveness is the best approach for quizzing.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Would anyone like to guess what this no longer in use road sign signals?

A red triangle (point down) in a red circle.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Did you know that the modern day speed bump was invented* by a Nobel prize winning physicist. *in so far as anyone can invent such a thing as a speed bump.

A red triangle warning sign with a drawing of a bump in the road (a horizontal rectangle with a semicircle sticking out of it).

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

I have wiped myself out twice in two days (which I appreciate is embarrassing). I think I'm most annoyed that the first time was in front of two people who walked away without helping.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

In the 60s, road signs in the UK had a glowup. They moved from mostly text based designs (like the sign on the right) to mostly icons. The redesign was commissioned by the Worboys Committee, led by Sir Walter Worboys, and so these signs are often referred to as pre and post Worboys signs.

A new style cul de sac sign (a blue square with a white T shape cut out of it and the top bar of the T is coloured red) on the left and an old style sign (a white rectangle with black border and black text that reads NO THROUGH ROAD on it) on the left.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Did you know that the cow on the warning sign for cattle is based on a real cow called Patience?

Four messily decorated cupcakes covered in butter cream, brightly coloured gel icing and smarties. The bottom left cupcake has a red triangle with what is just about recognisable as a cow inside it.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

London was divided into postal districts in 1857, using the points on a compass. In 1917, the districts were subdivided with numbers. Signs like this one can be dated to between 1857 (because they have the NW) and 1917 (because the 6 looks a little different we might guess it was added later).

A photo of a brick wall inset with black tiles, each tile has a white letter that spells out SPRINGFIELD LANE N.W.6.
The 6 looks a little peculiar.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

An artist's* rendition of an original bump in the road sign, one of four signs proposed at the 1908 World Road Congress in Paris which was the first attempt to standardise road signs across the world. *It's me, I am the artist.

A drawing of a black circle with a white icon of two bumps on a line with the word cassis written beneath it.

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cerys @hashtagcerys.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

So I did actually get trapped in a magical stew until 2026. Beware the curses, predictions and tricks of @zoepaskett.bsky.social I have emerged, covered in gravy.

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Reposted by cerys

Zoe Paskett @zoepaskett.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Look deep into the swirling cauldron @hashtagcerys.bsky.social. Look deeper. Closer than that! Closer... Ahahaha you have fallen into my magical pot of stew! I tricked you! You will remain here until 2026, please make yourself comfortable, help yourself to stew, let me know if you need anything xx

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