‘Absurd’ street sign proves they might have finally gone too far

“Wow… surely that’s a print error!"

Sometimes it feels as though parking signs are getting harder and harder to read.

Different colours, differently sized fonts, 14 different time frames - surely it doesn’t have to be that difficult?

One Reddit user has taken to the platform after spotting an honestly insane street sign, and now people are wondering how much crazier it can really get.

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Image: Reddit.

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The world’s worst street sign

A Brisbane Reddit user has posted on the platform after coming across a local street sign that, let’s be real, is borderline illegible.

“Street parking signs with absurdly small font. Is this potentially deliberate??” they wrote in the post.

In the image, you can see a sign which in large letters, reads ‘4P meter’.

It’s underneath, though, where the problem arises, with the time frames so small you could barely read it up close.

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“Surely that’s a print error!”

Commenters on the post were shocked over the sign - as if regular signs aren’t bad enough.

“Apparently, we are supposed to be able to read it from the driver’s seat doing 40km/hr, no stopping,” one commenter said.

“Brisbane's parking signs are already bogus enough as it is,” another agreed.

“I'm often confronted with 4 signs on one pole specifying 4 sets of rules for different hours on different days. You're expected to decipher them all whilst operating a moving, deadly vehicle. I've seen no-standing signs completely faded or obscured by trees.”

Many were even convinced it must be a mistake.

“Wow… surely that’s a print error! I’ve worked in projects that require signage, and it’s all standardised by BSD (Brisbane Standard Drawings).. that doesn’t look like one I’ve ever seen,” said one commenter.

“That's definitely an error. There would be guidelines on minimum font size for accessibility,” a second person agreed.

“Signwriter made a booboo. The zone portion of the sign is too big and its throwing out the size of the signs. Report it and you will see this corrected in a few weeks,” said another commenter.

“Doesn’t meet the standard drawing for this type of sign. The meters are there to make sure parking is available, not to trick people.”

“This has got to be an error, right? … I didn't even notice the tiny text at first and thought you meant the words along the bottom,” a fourth said.

“They’ve deliberately made it small”

Others, however, said it was done intentionally to get as much information on there as possible.

“They've deliberately made it small so they can cram lots onto the sign. I don't think they're doing it to trick people into parking there,” one commenter said.

“This is just them trying to cram more and more information in and choosing the worst thing to make smaller. Making the signs bigger would be costly, and more people need the Zone than not,” another agreed.

“They *should* have made a new format that has a yellow border indicating (without writing) ‘Resident Permits Excepted’ because there aren't that many local residents and they can be independently informed about the meaning of the yellow border etc. If you're not a resident with a permit, you don't need to know that they're excepted, and if you have one you'd be told separately. Some numpty just thought ‘The times take up too much space, so they're the ones we need to shrink’ and never stood back 20m from the sign.”

“It is merely an inconvenience”

Some, though, said that regardless of their intentions, it is simply not that big of a deal.

“Is the font size of the hours/days component far too small? Hell yes. But it is merely an inconvenience and not going to stop you from deciphering it. The sign merely states rules for parking, and does not construe any rules for ‘standing’. Hence, you can stop your car in a spot. Read the sign properly, and then either drive away again, or use the spot,” one commenter said.

“Honestly this doesn’t matter. It’s pay by meter, so you either pay, or the meter lets you know when it’s free. It’s not like it turns into a clear way at midnight,” said another.

“The 4P means you can park there for a maximum of 4 hours, and you have to pay for it. The fine print is when you don't have to pay for it,” a third agreed.

Change is coming!

In a statement to Kidspot, Brisbane City Council have said that now that they know about the issue, they will be making plans to fix the sign.

"We have heard the concerns of residents and will update the sign as soon as possible to make sure it can easily be read by everyone," a Brisbane City Council spokesperson said.

Originally published as ‘Absurd’ street sign proves they might have finally gone too far