Spelling mistakes in road signs - various examples

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Cambridge NCP road painters in '20 minuites' spelling lessons


The extra "I" was painted over as a temporary measure, the car park managers confirmed

Workmen have corrected the spelling of road markings in Cambridge by covering the offending letter with black paint.

The "20 minuites max parking" sign was painted at an NCP car park at the railway station about two years ago.

Last week contractors arrived, but instead of removing the extra "i" in "minutes", they repainted it.

It has now been painted black. An NCP spokeswoman said: "Everyone involved has committed to playing Scrabble in their lunchtimes as spelling revision."


Workmen arrived last week but instead of correcting the error, they painted it a brighter yellow

Steve Buckley, who works opposite the station, photographed NCP contractors arriving on Thursday.

He said he thought they had come to correct the original error, but instead repainted it, making it brighter and more noticeable.

"I've seen what they've done now, it's just a black stripe over the errant "i", but I guess it's slightly less obvious," he added.

The NCP spokeswoman said the newly blacked-out letter "i" was a temporary measure and contractors would be returning to repaint the whole word - correctly.

"You don't think you actually have to check whether they know how to spell 'minute'," she said.

"We'll be testing them from now on."

The NCP would check the spelling on its signs and road markings in the future, she added.

[JayMac]

Not the first time contractors in Cambridge have made an error with their paintbrush:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6774727/Council-ridiculed-over-bus-lane-error.html

[grahame]

The "S" on the end of the word bus is like a route diagram, indicating a service that goes a very long way round from one end to the other - the ends are quite close but the distance traversed over the route is quite long.

For services from suburbs / outer towns to major centres, let me introduce the "Bup".  From the centre it runs more or less direct for about half the route, then loops around picking up and dropping off passengers in the suburbs.   Advantages of replacing Buses by Bups include faster journey times for passengers, and higher loadings over the main portion of the route and thus overall - are we about to see Buses replaced by Bups elsewhere than in Bristol?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/25/bristol-bus-stop-misspelled-bup-stop?

It strikes me that the 272, Bath to Melksham loop, is already a Bup in all but name!

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

'Septermeber' misspelled road sign put up in Oxford


The bungled sign in Oxford city centre has been called a "glaring mistake" and left people "disgusted"

A roadworks sign that spells September as "Septermeber" has disgusted locals.

The temporary sign in Oxford city centre is meant to instruct readers of a three-day closure in Becket Road.

A county council spokesman said it was "not immune" to "typographical errors" and compared the council to the BBC.

Zoe Blackman, who spotted the mistake, said: "A typo is one thing; adding several letters to a widely recognisable word such as September is an entirely different matter."

In a lengthy critique of the bungled sign, she added: "As a moderately intelligent and seemingly well educated person-type I tend to notice glaring mistakes such as this upon immediate discovery. Perhaps the person in charge of signs was a budding neologist, or maybe they decided they wanted to use more of the enticing letters that lay before them on their keyboard. Who knows? It could be a salacious poke at the Oxford University educational standards within the city. Whatever it is, it annoys the living daylights out of me, and I hope someone's cheeks are flushing red with embarrassment at their desk."

Mo Bacon from Buckinghamshire who retweeted a photo of the sign, said: "I was just disgusted that it was put up with no-one bothering to check it first. Having been a teacher I'm very aware of bad grammar."

Oxfordshire County Council did not apologise for the error.

Spokesman Martin Crabtree said such spelling mistakes were "unfortunate" and said the BBC also made such errors. He added: "The mistake is easy to rectify and the meaning of the sign in the meantime is still clear. There will be no cost to the county council as the wording on the sign is the result of an error made by our contractor."

Two years ago the county council came under fire after contractors wrote "schoul" on a road outside Wolvercote Primary.

[grahame]

Zoe Blackman, who spotted the mistake, said: "A typo is one thing; adding several letters to a widely recognisable word such as September is an entirely different matter." In a lengthy critique of the bungled sign, she added: "As a moderately intelligent and seemingly well educated person-type I tend to notice glaring mistakes such as this upon immediate discovery. Perhaps the person in charge of signs was a budding neologist, or maybe they decided they wanted to use more of the enticing letters that lay before them on their keyboard. Who knows? It could be a salacious poke at the Oxford University educational standards within the city. Whatever it is, it annoys the living daylights out of me, and I hope someone's cheeks are flushing red with embarrassment at their desk."

It is, of course, be a very clever way of getting lots of cheap publicity for a road closure 

[Chris from Nailsea]

Personally, I prefer the 'salacious poke' theory. 

[trainer]

I guess the Bup stops here.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I must admit to having been really struggling to work out how to include a 'burp' reference here somehow. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Bristol Post:

Bristol "bup stop" gaffe picked up for Specsavers advert


The Specsavers advert in today's Bristol Post

Someone in the Specsavers advertising team was quick off the mark - in today's Bristol Post the optician chain has placed an advert capitalising on the "bup stop" gaffe in the city, which was reported over the weekend.

Council contractors have now fixed the temporary bus stop, but that hasn't stopped Specsavers producing the ad, alongside their catchphrase "Should've gone to Specsavers".

The city council took a light-hearted approach to the mistake in Old Market after pictures hit national news websites. A spokesperson said: ^It is not often we see our roadworks hitting the headlines worldwide, but we understand why this rare mistake has captured people^s imaginations. While it became something of a temporary tourist attraction, the contractor has now corrected the error earlier today at no cost to the local taxpayer.^

The gaffe, discovered by the Bristol Post on Sunday, was made as part of road repairs which are likely to cause drivers and passengers disruption lasting up to four weeks.

Lane restrictions have been put in place, while upgrades are made to the road surface at bus stops. Since Old Market Street's bus lanes were redesigned in 2007, the volume of buses has caused grooves to be carved out and humps to rise.

The city council has said that the current surface will be replaced with a more durable concrete surface, which will require less maintenance.

[thetrout]

Pfft, we've had a sign in Frome which has an incorrect spelling for years. It made the standard eventually and even the Council themselves admitted it had been like that for a very long time!

[Chris from Nailsea]

Here is the latest example - from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Warsop 'rihgt' turn road marking spelt wrongly


The spelling mistake was spotted on Friday afternoon

Contractors were left red-faced after incorrectly painting the word "rihgt" on a road off a supermarket car park.

The spelling error was spotted close to the High Street in Warsop, Nottinghamshire on Friday afternoon.

Eric Hill quickly photographed the sign, which should have read "right", prior to the error being painted over.

A spokesman for the Co-op said the contractors were made aware of their mistake and would amend the spelling "as quickly as possible".

[Phil Farmer]

Should Warsop be spelt Worksop

[PhilWakely]

Should Warsop be spelt Worksop

Not sure whether this was a serious comment, but 'no' is the genuine answer.......Warsop is a civil parish in the District of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, England, located on the outskirts of Sherwood Forest. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 12,365. (courtesy of Wikipedia)

[Chris from Nailsea]

Irrespective of the smelling pistake, wouldn't it be better as, 'TURN RIGHT' ?

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Jane Austen's name misspelt on Hampshire museum sign


The error was spotted by a visitor to the museum

The name of one of English literature's most famous figures has been spelt incorrectly on a road sign directing people to the writer's former house.

Eagle-eyed visitors to the Jane Austen's House Museum saw the author's name had been misspelt "Austin".

Madelaine Smith, who works at the attraction, said: "It is one of those names you shouldn't spell wrong."

She said she had contacted Hampshire County Council about getting the sign corrected. "The council has been really helpful and really lovely," she said. "We have had a few people spot it."

She also pointed out another sign, next to the one for the museum, that had misspelt the name of the nearby village of Selborne.

The council has been contacted for a comment.