Sir, – As a devoted reader of English in the conventional manner, top left to bottom right, I’d like to know how the Department of Transport has come to the conclusion that inverting this convention with road markings makes for safer driving. The paint on the road now reads “Stop To Prepare”, which after a few seconds occurs to me is not an instruction to consider some imminent religious event but rather to “Prepare To Stop”. Similarly “No Right Turn” has morphed into “Turn Right No”, which looks and sounds more like an admonishment than an instruction.
There are many more examples of this which, in my humble opinion, creates a delay in assimilating the information, thereby compromising the two seconds of travel time for detection of guidance markings as specified in that department’s traffic signs manual. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’BRIEN,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.