Rarely a day goes by that I don’t look out of my window to notice a car travelling east down my quiet little street. That is unremarkable, you might think — except that the street is one-way, running west. The street doesn’t function as a cut-through, so my guess is that these drivers aren’t flouting the rules. They’ve just failed to realise they’re making a mistake.
And why would they realise? I’ve noticed something curious about one-way street signs in the UK. If you’re driving the right way, you will notice white arrows on a blue background indicating as much.
But if you’re driving the wrong way? Nothing. If you miss the No Entry sign at the start of the street, there are no “stop, turn around, this is potentially a disaster” signs. Instead you must notice subtle clues — like the alignment of the cars parked on the side of the road, or perhaps the expression on the face of the oncoming driver. This is a curious design decision, it seems to me. Of two drivers heading towards each other down a one-way street, surely it is the one driving the wrong way who is most sorely in need of feedback.