The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Jumble of Standrews road signs ‘a joke’
ST ANDREWS MOTORISTS are being bamboozled by a set of road signs that have created one of the shortest 20mph speed zones in the country.
Drivers heading up Langlands Road towards Lamond Drive are confronted with a confusing jumble of signs all within the space of a few yards.
Although most of the street has a 20mph speed limit, towards the end of this zone there is a final, light-controlled sign again telling drivers the speed limit is 20mph because they are within the vicinity of Greyfriars Primary School. But this is cancelled just 30ft later by another sign warning drivers the 20mph zone has come to an end and the speed limit has risen to 30mph.
It means the light-controlled 20mph zone lasts no more than 10 yards. To make matters more confusing, there is also a lightcontrolled 20mph speed limit on Lamond Drive that operates when schools are in.
George Scott, of nearby Kilrymont Road, branded the road signs “a joke”.
“It’s been like this for a few months but they only put the big 20mph signs up last week,” he said.
He added that motorists travelling in the opposite direction down Lamond Drive, which has a 30mph limit when schools are out, would not see the 20mph signs as they turn on to Langlands Road, making it easy for unsuspecting motorists to get caught speeding.
“If you are manoeuvring on the roundabout and looking for other traffic, you will be past the sign before you see it,” he said.
“The police sit in an alley down there with a speed gun trying to catch people.
“They should have put a 20mph sign further up on Lamond Drive with an arrow on it so people could see it.”
He added: “The residents will probably get used to it but St Andrews is a town with a lot of visitors and they will be pretty well flummoxed by it.”
Derek Crowe, senior manager of roads and engineering services at Fife Council, said: “We realise it might look strange to have several signs in the one street, but by law the council has to have separate signs for things like speed restrictions, roundabouts and cycle paths.
“But we’ll look into the concerns raised about the speed restriction signs as soon as possible.”