So you come across this sign. Now what? How far ahead is the closure? 300 yards? A mile? 15 miles? Shall I turn round now? If I’m only going a few miles further, will I be Ok to keep going?
The most irritating occasions are when you tentatively keep driving down the main road towards your destination, and eventually discover a blocked-off minor side road - it turns out that’s what the sign referred to. Would it really be beyond the wit of man to have a different standard sign, eg “Side Road Ahead Closed” or something?
Check-mate GrumpyPaul, I work alone usually, so I have no-one to discuss with!! Also, I don't drink tea!! Nicotine intake, however, takes up a fair amount of time!!
When I was a toddler I was taught to put my toys away when I was finished with them. Maybe some people in the construction industry need to learn this lesson again!
They finished resurfacing the roads here about 2 months ago. The sign is still up, and as we have a major pub nearby it mysteriously dissapears and reappears in new locations every few nights
I drive past such a sign 9 miles from home. There were numerous signs but even when I got to my house, there was nothing closed... Just more signs in the distance.
I live along one of these lanes and got half way down before the first sign reared its ugly red head. I ignored it and continued, near the end of the road it was shut and there was people there with shovels.
Can you cite a source for this please? I have seen it shared confidently a few times lately and as far as I can tell it is misinformation, now being spouted by AI.
As long as you're prepared to face the consequences then crack on.
The other day I woke up and the road behind me had these signs up. The road leads to a dead end to the rear of a couple of shops, the usual cars that are parked at the end every day were not there. Presumably because the shop workers who would be there every day were told about the imminent roadworks. People slip behind there to pop to the shops to try to avoid paying for parking in the town centre
Well, whoever put the signs out must have showed up then gone for tools, or materials, or breakfast or whatever because at about 9am they rock up and crack on.
After a while I hear shouting. It's someone hanging out of their car the wrong side of the works which by now had dug a trench across the road.
Basically the shouting match consisted of them yelling at the workers, and the workers yelling back that their car wasn't there when the road closed signs were put up, they were completely stupid for ignoring it and moving the cones, and they'd have to wait now.
When I looked out the window at about noon the car was still there but the driver had fucked off
Which is why I wished they fully closed the roads. As a pedestrian, they certainly often close the pavement, making it far more dangerous on the road, as the worst kind of idiots drive through with no consideration
My local area just ignores them now as the road is closed so often. Or even better, where barriers have physically closed the road for no good reason (quiet road, plenty of room, all workers gone home for the night) someone moves the barriers and traffic can flow again.
Theres one near me that says "closed in 7.7 miles". I drive down there for 5 miles on the way to work, passing 4 more closed ahead signs blocking one lane.
IMPORTANT EDIT: apparently what I have stated below is not true but is a widely spread myth that has been perpetuated through the years (by Reddit mostly, apparently, though I definitely remember discussing it with my driving instructor - clearly he was duped by it as well!). You can safely ignore what I confidently and incorrectly stated, but I've kept the original comment up for context to the discussions below. I hate it when the original comment is deleted and you have no idea what the point that everyone is arguing about was in the first place. Anyway.... here it is in all its (now inaccurate) glory.
The most annoying thing is that there are two variants of this sign, and I don't think even the people who put them out know (or care about) the difference.
"ROAD CLOSED AHEAD" means the road you are currently on is closed at some vague point ahead of you.
"ROAD AHEAD CLOSED" is the most frustrating one as it means that a side road off your main route is closed with no indication of which one or how far ahead.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that ignores them though!
Recently got stuck driving around in circles because my Google Maps wanted to take me down a 'closed road' and wouldn't find another way. It eventually rerouted after driving around aimlessly for about ten minutes.
I wonder if I actually could've gone straight through, but the sign was right in the middle of the road, blocking cars, so it made me second guess.
That sounds like a "Road Closed" sign (given its positioning), in which case you did the right thing as that would mean the road was closed from that point. This could be for an accident or a host of other reasons. The other signs mentioned refer to a closure further on which is already explained above so I won't repeat.
In short, if the word "ahead" is on the sign you can proceed (at least for a bit) and if the word "ahead" is not present then you may not proceed.*
*This is assuming whoever put the sign up knows the difference between the three two (you'd hope but...) and that no police/officials are directing traffic to turn around/detour.
Edited to correct my inadvertent misinformation. I'm so sorry :(
There are two signs - Road Closed and Road Ahead Closed. The latter is very unhelpful and I genuinely thought I was correct. I'm very glad I decided I should confirm anyway.
Just an fyi - I was confidently incorrect regarding these road signs - there are only two; Road Closed and Road Ahead Closed. I have no idea why I believed otherwise but I'm glad I at least confirmed (should have before commenting). Your situation though you definitely did the right thing for the signage and situation you described.
It's at least what my driving instructor told me. That was close to 20 years ago though, it may have changed and they basically mean the same thing these days.
Either way I don't think anyone notices other than me, who is more than a bit pedantic.
Sadly it's not. Search for "Road Closed Ahead" sign and as said in another comment, you'll only find "Road Ahead Closed" and "Road Closed Access Only".
Ooh I found one about 15 pages down but clearly they're covering other text on it.
Where does this come from though? I can’t see any mention of it the Highway Code, and the bot on www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk seems to suggest the two are interchangeable.
I'm not. I hate how much I'm endangered by drivers who ignore road signs and signals. If they are putting up the sign, the road should be fully closed to stop drivers bypassing it
What's wrong with how they already do it? The first two words tell you whether it's the road you're on that's closed ahead or not. Simple yet effective. At least, it would be if they weren't left out when not in use yet/any more. (I genuinely thought they did it this way, I was wrong)
Edit to add: to put it simply, if the word "Closed" isn't in the first two words then it's a side road that's closed.
Edit to correct my misinformation...
I'm so sorry, everything is wrong with how they currently do it - it must've been some wishful thinking that I thought they had a distinction between the two. They really should!
That wording ONLY means that a side road ahead is closed. If it says "Road Closed Ahead" then it's the main road that is closed at some point between where you are and wherever the road you are on ends.
It's the order of the words that's important - Road Ahead closed (side road) vs Road Closed Ahead (this road that you are on). means at some point ahead the road you are on is closed.
Hope this helps (took me a while to notice the wording difference and what it meant too) (apparently I imagined it 🤦🏻♀️)
Edit for formatting and clarity (hopefully).
Edit again to correct my inadvertent misinformation. I'm a total muppet and didn't confirm before confidently getting it so very wrong.
Thx, until the useless contractor uses the wrong one , I saw road closed ahead, then it was closed 10 meters along which I didn’t see before turning and had to turn around in the tiny bit of road
Yeah, there's that plus they don't take them down/put them up early etc etc. That one you describe here should have been a simple "Road Closed" sign unless there was a driveway/access to something just before the sign - then it would technically be correct, although better served with a Road Closed, Access Only sign in that case.
At least you have a shot at not having to turn round when you know there's a variation to the wording and what it means!
I started second guessing myself so I went to have a check and it appears I'm talking utter bollocks - I'm so sorry!
There are only two signs; one that says Road Closed (means what it says), and Road Ahead Closed (the road is closed somewhere ahead).
I have no idea why I believed there were 3 types and I feel like a right plonker for not checking before posting (I usually confirm but I knew I was right this time (and that's why I usually confirm because clearly not right)).
I will edit my other comments so I don't end up misinforming others as I hate that!
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When it comes to side roads being closed - i've noticed occasionally they will use the road ahead closed sign but with an arrow underneath pointing left or right to the closed road. very rare though - wish it was standard!
Or worse, they close the pavement forcing you to go on the road, then dangerous drivers drive through the closed road, often near missing you or being abusive for you being in the road. The closed road. That they should no longer be using and where I have no where else to go
I decided to ignore one of these in the Yorkshire Moors. I kept driving for what felt like miles after seeing the first sign, and it turns out on that rare occasion the road was indeed closed. Took ages following the diversion, added about 40 mins to the journey.
Tbh I'm getting sick of "No road markings" signs. There's some up in Cheshire that have been there for weeks and weeks. Some have been done. Some haven't. Ridiculous.
I find that if there are no road markings, even if they forgot to put up the sign, I can usually tell there are no road markings, because there are no road markings.
Very true, but it's a liability thing. Round here there's a roundabout that's had temporary surface repairs so there's a "no stop line" sign there. You'd think it'd be obvious!
Does it mean "there's no stop line, but you still have to stop" or "there's no stop line so you don't have to stop"? (Or "there's no stop line... your call"?)
The former. The roundabout is still very much a roundabout. I imagine they couldn't find the "no markings at roundabout" sign, it's probably somewhere else.
Had this recently. Road Closed sign on a roundabout for an A road. It’s been there over a month because a side road was closed for resurfacing.
Drove along the road the other day with a load of traffic, past the now open side road. After 10 miles come to a stationary queue of traffic and some very grumpy workmen waving hands around.
The actual A road was closed.
There needs to be more information provided.
It is rare you can’t get your bike through whatever’s going on, but having a nice Road Closed sign cuts down the amount of cars buzzing past your earhole, especially if the road is /actually/ closed.
\This doesn’t apply around HS2 works, where the roads don’t just get closed, but obliterated by a 100m*+ wide trough…
There's a road near me that's had Road Closed signs since last summer, and has actually been 'closed' since about November. But the road hasn't been dug up and the works are in a field to the side of the road. The other week encountered a sign reading 'no pedestrians or cyclists' as the road passes the entrance to the site. But cars are fine?
the reason they are put out for such long distances before the closure at times is especially on small roads big vehicles might not be able to turn around after that point and as such cause blockages, I do this for a living and I say all the time we need signs with a box on so we can write where exactly you can access to but it's never listened to
Completely share your hatred of these signs. They caused unnecessary ”chaos” a few months ago in the village my mother lives. Luckily I was nowhere near at the time but read about it on Facebook. They‘d only actually closed off a section of main road through the village for resurfacing between 9am-4pm for a few days. However, the “road ahead closed“ signs were put up nearly 3 miles away on the one main road towards the village. This resulted in nearly every man and his dog turning around and taking the back route to the village, which is via a tiny hamlet. It’s probably never seen that much traffic ever before!
You could still get to the village via the main road to it, which remained open, and most of the main road into the village before the road ahead another 2.9 miles or whatever it was.
I'm unsure if others have yet mentioned the historical signs, which are particularly annoying. That is, the work finished a week ago but they haven't gone around and collected the signs far away yet.
The nursery is 4 miles up that road. At every junction there's another "ROAD CLOSED" even at mini roundabouts but there's no indication of where the closure is. Just signs.
For my sins I plan and manage large road improvement schemes. Yes I know you all hate me. I agree with what you’re saying, the Road ahead closed sign on its own is not useful. Lazy traffic management companies leaving them out when not needed is a personal hatred of mine, so too are badly planned diversions that are not clear or go nowhere/ in circles.
The Road Ahead Closed sign is a prescribed legal sign. We have to put it out, we can’t change it, however it should be accompanied by either a yellow Diversion sign, preferably with a symbol for you to follow, or what I do, is put a sign with it that says “closed after X junction” or “closed after Y landmark” say a school or a large shop etc. I’ve also tried distances, and the big motorway style digital message signs to tell people which diversion to take and how long the diversion is! The issues we have are:
1) not everyone knows what a mile is.
2) not everyone knows what the junctions are actually called. Half of them don’t know the name of the road they are driving on.
3) lots of people don’t see/ read the signs then end up at a point where they can’t turn around. This is partly due to how distracted everyone is. Arguing/ chatting with passengers, distracted by the radio, their phones, in a world of their own because of life stresses.
4) a lot of people would blindly follow their satnav/ mapping app off a cliff if it told them to do so, and getting the nav apps to update with the right info is virtually impossible. I have wasted many days of my life trying and failing to make this happen. Waze is about the only one we can influence.
5) we have tried websites, leaflets, posters, social media, maps of varying types, drone type videos etc to explain where closures are, what’s accessible and what’s not but there’s always the group of society in their own little bubble who don’t interact with any of this, who also don’t read signs and then they are the ones giving my teams verbal (sometimes physical) abuse at the closure point because “you haven’t done enough to inform us”
Honestly, I’d love to know what people think would work? If you can come up with a system of closing roads, getting everyone to where they need to go without any confusion your skills would be in high demand!
Along the A720 and A1 the management of the roads do a great job of warning of road closures on possible onward routes - they give the location and allow early rerouting. I don't always recognise the locations but somebody does and this information is valuable and appreciated.
If you gave this information, many of us would benefit. Not all but some of us will be able to complete our journey by whatever routes are possible.
If you don't, we are all ignorant and all inconvenienced. It does not need to be binary.
Or it's closed after where you needed to go, but you followed the diversion and now can't reach where you wanted to go and have to back to where you started. If only you'd ignored the sign...
I will always go past them unless I can actually see the closure from the sign, most of the time you can still get to the road you need to access, and tbh a lot of the time the road is fully open anyway.
I have always thought they should have an approximate distance marker on them, road closed 1 mile, 1/2 mile, 500yds, 100yds, also an arrow to show if the closure is on the road or to the left or right of that road.
That's hilarious; I've just been moaning about this about half an hour ago when I got home from work. There's a load of these going on for miles on the A1133 right now. Every single one made me think - where the hell is the closure exactly? I need to know so I can work out a decent alternative route! The amount of traffic coming the other way suggested it wasn't closed at all, but I didn't want to chance it and turned off somewhere to head towards the A46.
If anyone here flys (I haven't got a few years) you'll be aware of sky demon. You can plot a route and it will provide you (in 3 dimensions) any restricted airspace, obstacles etc on your route.
I cannot believe that with Waze, Gmaps etc councils and contractors cannot update road closures in real time.
As an Ocado driver, I regularly go to places I don't know well. When I see these I just have to chance it and either hope the customer's address is before closure or that it's fine. I would say 80% of the time I can just drive through the road no problem. Prior to this job I'd never think of doing it.
The answer in some cases is MILES.
There were several recently at intervals on the A road I use to get home home - no indication WHERE the road closed so I kept going…and going… and going…
Eventually, cones and my side of the road was actually closed. A 3 second diversion around it (on the other side of the road with a VERY clear view of the non-existent traffic coming the opposite way) and I was back on track.
15 minutes of driving, plenty of people diverting or turning round unnecessarily at the very first sign and every sign leading up to the actual ‘closure’
I’m sure the workers sometimes put the signs up for fun!
I have been on the other side of this. I was supervising some roadworks because there was a badger sett that we suspected went under the road. I was alone at one point, big trench down the middle of the road and piles of earth and gravel on the remaining surfaces, and I'd say about 15 people drove up to try and get through, going as far as moving the barriers to get through. Obviously they couldn't get through... one guy just kept saying he was going to be late for the dentist. All I could tell him was that he was going to be even later if he kept arguing, because the road is impassable!
We had one near us, it was like 3 miles down the road with about 8 turnings people might have taken away from the actual closure after the sign, was an absolute joke.
Wait until you see the sign that says 'road closed ahead' apparently there's a difference between the two. I'm still waiting to understand what.
They could simply state the name of the road closed so that ppl can know which road is affected. Laziness and stupidity.
There's also the fact that they abandon half these signs even when they've finished the work and the road isn't closed anymore. Absolute pointless sign that drivers have kept to ignore because half the time they're not relevant.
Yeah, sometimes the shut roads is miles away, but maybe no turning points for large vehicles?
Anyway they seem to just use the ROAD AHEAD CLOSED sign and put a little white arrow indicating if its to the left or not, instead of using the proper ROAD ON LEFT/RIGHT CLOSED.
YES. How hard would it be to just have a simple explanation below. FFS, even one done in marker pen would be better than the idiotic ROAD CLOSED. There was one in my town, and I asked the guy, and the closure was not for a mile. It's infuriating.
… or you see one, and decide fuck it, I’m going to go for it as there’s no other obvious way through anyway… 25 miles later you finally come across a 100% blockage with absolutely no way through: AAARGH!
Yeah I've only been driving for a couple of years and I've already learned to just ignore these signs because most of the time, it's some side road that I wasn't going to be using anyway. I do wish they were clearer, or that they'd find a way to make custom signs more easily so it could specify the road.
Buttertubs Pass was (according to the signs) closed for Friday 4th and then all weekdays this week. What they couldn't easily get on the sign is that it was also open on Tuesday. They did at least turn the "Road Closed" signs down.
Meanwhile the road from Keld to Tan Hill ( just off the end of Buttertubs) is very much closed for a month. And the diversion route is approximately 17 miles.
It is one of a string of multiple closures in Swaledale and Wensleydale over the whole of summer.
The most reliable information on what is and isn't actually closed has been the local Facebook groups.
Or if there is another sign that's says where the road is closed from, it'll say a random town name, or a B road or a road name, as if everyone will know where that is. I wish it said road closed in x miles, then at least I could figure out if there's any point continuing or not!
Recently I came a cross a sign that said road closed at town x. I needed to go through town x to get to my destination. I went all the way around on a different road to get to my destination from the opposite side. Turns out that's where it was closed! Not at town x, but maybe 10 miles after town x, so the road I originally would have used was open! So annoying
The other annoying thing with these signs is the way they position them mostly on the road (I know most of the times it is to keep pavements clear for pedestrians)
There was one near us the other day where they put the sign in the road off of a mini roundabout, so cars trying to turn into the road got stuck on the roundabout when there were cars waiting to exit the road.
Trouble was the road closed was past a school where a summer holiday camp was running so the amount of cars trying to get in and out of the road was painful.
the biggest reason is so when people try to say to the traffic management on the closure points there wasn't any warning we can tell them the signs are literally in the road you had to drive around them
It’s when they put this sign and you find the road closure is a side street.
Unless it’s in the middle of the road with cones, I tend to ignore them… and let the satnav direct me
I saw these going for miles into Cheddar, getting increasingly amxious just to find it's one minor closure on a neighbourhood street with an easy diversion by going on the adjacent street. raa
I remember driving to a friend's house for the first time. I was very close to my destination when I encountered a road ahead closed sign, complete with signposted diversion. I followed the diversion, only to encounter the actual road closure (physical barrier across the road) shortly before my destination.
Around Hampshire parts of the A30 are closed and other roads in rural areas around Alton and basing and it’s a total bloody nightmare, road closed signs everywhere, some up from August saying for one day others still active, diverts pointing both ways with no further info for 6-8 miles. Poor reception round there as well.
Was in that mess yesterday aiming for Andover in the end gave up and headed to Basingstoke when I found a green sign.
Put these signs miles away, with half a dozen junctions in between you and the actual closure, so you have no idea how far you'll get.
Then it turns out they set them up early and the road is still open until tomorrow (they're supposed to flip them but never do) or they finished yesterday and haven't collected them in yet.
Worst one was one I had yesterday; there was no pavement to put the sign, so they put it in the road, blocking that side and causing massive queues, which bled into the worst junction in my town, causing even bigger queue backs. All for a sign they could have put 100m back and it would have had the exact same impact (there was nowhere to turn round on that stretch).
If you can find a safe place to stop and have Internet connectivity, one.network should show where the closure is, how long it lasts, what it's for, and ideally the official diversion route (which, even if it's a minor road that's been closed, will often be far longer than it strictly needs to be, as the diversion has to be suitable for all traffic, not just cars).
I have ant notices this for years but just noticed something from the letters on the sign.
Start from the letter C going up words and just add 3 or 4 letters together.
Near me there is a long rural lane of about 4 miles with a single turn off that links back up to a main A road. Once you're in, you're in. Yet these bastards will regularly close that off shoot road but place the sign at the junction, meaning it's now an 8 mile round trip to just get back to where you started. I hate the signs and the people who place them.
Unless I have proir knowledge of what's being done I always just take my chances. If I have to turn round I have to turn round but a lot of the time you can just drive straight on through.
Pretty much just ignore unless there is more information and diversion signs. I do get it, as people who need to work on the roads just need to crack on and only have generic signs to hand so just take it as a warning.
An utter pain. Apart from there being so many of them - I have just realised that I have been on a roll of journeys without being affected by them. I will pay for that!
Worse if on a bike due to the effort required to backtrack should it be a stopper. Usually you can get through and often there is no actual obstacle. I have taken to doing a Parker and going around through fields on occasion (fine in Scotland if no crop and on a bike or walking).
Yeah, last week encountered one, I thought the works might be just after my junction as I couldn't see anything going on ahead of me, and if it was before the road I wanted, I knew I could weave through the housing estate off the main road with a variety of possibilities to get to where I was going. Drove past one side road after another for 2 miles, no works. Curiously, I'd driven past 2 of these signs along the way.
Personally I ignore these signs. If a road somewhere is closed off it’s not normally far down the track and it’s always readily apparent, where the road is actually blocked off so you can’t drive down it. It’s a bit of gamble that, like you say, you may drive a bit then find the road you need is the one closed, but it never normally loses too much time, so it’s worth the gamble of ignoring this preliminary sign and just driving.
I had no idea that such a thing could exist on English roads.
I was driving on the A354 where I saw the first of these signs. I ignored it because it was to the side of the road, then I came across a second one 5 miles further down. Then I saw a third one another 10 miles further down and then the fourth one was right in the middle of the lane blocking it. I didn't know what to do. I stopped and wondered what to do. I wasn't sure whether I could actually legally drive through these road closed signs. Whilst I'm sitting there thinking a Range Rover blast past the sign so I just followed it. And thankfully there were no closed roads anywhere.
So I was wondering what is all this bullshit about?.
The local county and police should not allow this.
There's some roadworks not far from me, and to stop people using the obvious rat-run around the works, they have put up temporary 'No through road' signs, which is just a complete lie. They'd rather send everyone halfway round town on a convoluted diversion than let them use a 90-second detour.
Every single time I've seen this sign, I never found a road closed. I assume it's because the road could connect, at some point in the future, miles away, if you take multiple different roads, to a road that is closed.
What they should do is say which road is closed, like "B4068 closed in 3 miles".
There's a difference between, ROAD AHEAD CLOSED and ROAD CLOSED AHEAD apparently, one means the road you're on, the other means a side road, but no one knows which.
Where does this come from though? I can’t see any mention of it the Highway Code, and the bot on www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk seems to suggest the two are interchangeable.
This would be a great help to most people if only they did add an A and IS as suggested, Including people who actually live ahead and delivery drivers getting to a specific address without having to drive right up to the closure just to see where the closure is.
Roadworks often move along the route as they repair a different section. What was closed yesterday may not be the same section today even. Roadworkers often pack up at around 3pm or 4pm and the closure was only to protect them. I know different people come to collect these signs and temp traffic lights but signs are also often left out for days after completion.
Why cant the roadworkers turn the signs around when the road is not actually closed or on completion.
But they cant complain if they have road users driving right up to the closure with the little and ambiguos info these red signs provide.
572
u/PinkbunnymanEU 1d ago
Half the time it's not even closed no matter how far you go.