Distance marker signs

What does this sign mean? Not the M1 sign but the one below it. It seems to be some sort of distance marker but I can't work out what unit it uses. I've seen these on most N roads, the N21 near Tralee comes to mind.

Licherandkebab

Overpass

marno21

Karsini wrote: »

What does this sign mean? Not the M1 sign but the one below it. It seems to be some sort of distance marker but I can't work out what unit it uses. I've seen these on most N roads, the N21 near Tralee comes to mind.

These are really old "mile marker" signs on national roads. The N-01 obviously is the national road and the four numbers is the distance from the start of the road in tenths of miles. This sign tells you it's 54.3 miles to the end of the national route 1 (likely wrong now due to upgrades).

A lot of these now appear on regional and local roads that have been upgraded and the signs left in situ on the old route. Several can be found on the R445 (ex. N7) through Limerick, the old L road through Croom that was once the N20, the old N21 between Castleisland and Abbeyfeale and the short sections of N22 that were superseeded between Killarney and Macroom. Some of those signs are over 20 years old.

Aontachtoir

marno21 wrote: »

Karsini wrote: »

What does this sign mean? Not the M1 sign but the one below it. It seems to be some sort of distance marker but I can't work out what unit it uses. I've seen these on most N roads, the N21 near Tralee comes to mind.

These are really old "mile marker" signs on national roads. The N-01 obviously is the national road and the four numbers is the distance from the start of the road in tenths of miles. This sign tells you it's 54.3 miles to the end of the national route 1 (likely wrong now due to upgrades).

A lot of these now appear on regional and local roads that have been upgraded and the signs left in situ on the old route. Several can be found on the R445 (ex. N7) through Limerick, the old L road through Croom that was once the N20, the old N21 between Castleisland and Abbeyfeale and the short sections of N22 that were superseeded between Killarney and Macroom. Some of those signs are over 20 years old.

Are they really in miles? That's surprising to me. I assumed they would be in kilometres, as we started signing road distances in kilometres back in the late 70s and early 80s.

Victor

Aontachtoir wrote: »

Are they really in miles? That's surprising to me. I assumed they would be in kilometres, as we started signing road distances in kilometres back in the late 70s and early 80s.

It seems the system predates that significantly.

Thanks. That would make sense alright. This particular sign is at the airport roundabout so 54.3 miles to the border would be about right.

JupiterKid

On a related note, does anyone else think that the distance marker signs on our motorways every 500m or km are ridiculous overkill?

Victor

Not necessarily. Motorways lack natural markers that other roads have like named crossroads, houses and other buildings.

We were following a jeep that was towing a trailer that was shedding its load of timber. I was able to phone Traffic Watch and tell them exactly where it was happening.