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“Sign, signs, everywhere signs”.

The opening line from ‘Signs’, a song originally done by the Canadian group Five Man Electrical Band in 1971, which made the Top Five on the charts in both Canada and the U.S.

There are probably more signs around now than there were back in 1971, and a lot of people seem to figure it’s OK to ignore a few of them.

I noticed this in the past week or so in Prince George. I was driving east on Fifth Avenue and crossed Highway 97, then had to move over to go by a bicycle going in the same direction.

This would not ordinarily have been a problem, except the cyclist had to pass a sign saying bikes had to go down Central to Eighth Avenue, and not ride on Fifth.

I wonder if this cyclist was related to some drivers I saw in a couple of locations around the city. On a number of major streets, there are signs making it very clear graphically that you are not allowed to make a U-turn.

In the space of five minutes, at two different intersections, I saw three vehicles pass the No U-turn sign – and make a U-turn.

With the problems local people seem to have with signs as simple as these, I can only imagine what would happen if they came across some of the signs I have seen posted on the Internet.

For instance, what do you do when you come to a Stop sign with four other signs underneath it: one saying no left turn, one saying no right turn, one saying you can’t go back the way you came, and the last saying (you guessed it) you can’t go straight ahead. I can’t think of any other options for directions, but I’m sure some of our Prince George drivers would just pick one of the signs to disobey, and keep going.

Another one, in a school zone, says “Speed limit 25” (which I’m guessing means it’s an American sign), but then proceeds to list the times the limit is in effect. Now, in Canada, a sign like that would probably just say “8 a.m. to 4 p.m.” or something like that, but not this sign.

No, it lists a series of times like “6:49 a.m.-7:15 a.m.” and “7:52 a.m. – 8:22 a.m.”, which to me increases the odds of an accident as drivers check their watches to see what speed they should be going.

One I saw is only confusing if you didn’t bother to get the COMPLETE address of your destination. It shows an intersection with Montreal Avenue, Montreal Way and Montreal Circle coming together.

It could be worse. Atlanta apparently has 71 different thoroughfares named Peachtree in one form or another.