A road user was left baffled by what he described as the ‘waffliest street sign’ prompting Reddit users to poke fun at possible explanations for its lengthy wording
A British driver admitted he was left baffled after spotting the “waffliest street sign” during a recent trip out.
Lacking any punctuation, the motorway signage referred to a delay in maintenance work and an apology from the highways authority. “UK’s waffliest street sign?” the motorist asked in Reddit’s CasualUK subreddit.
The sign in question proved quite a mouthful, reading: “Apologies for the delays unknown underground utility of poor condition which has delayed the work completion.” It prompted dozens of people to poke fun at it, with one person quipping: “An ex of mine had a tattoo in Mandarin on her back that said much the same thing.”
Another joked: “This sounds like it was Google translated for some reason.” A third added: “Reads like a Hugh Grant line in a romcom, just needs a ‘terribly sorry’ at the end.” And a fourth laughed: “When you ask ChatGPT to rewrite your s*** short story in the style of a Victorian novella.”
“Do they have all sort of signs with different types of text in stock or do they make them bespoke for situations like this?” asked another Reddit user equally as perplexed as the original poster. “Bit of both,” responded an expert. “Most traffic management departments/companies will have a variety of common signs in (all the conventional road works signs). You can also get signs with interchangeable lettering (such as ‘work starts/ends’ dates).
“Custom signs are also very common; just a blank yellow board and some vinyl stickers applied using standard fonts and sizes. Simple matter of cutting (laser or knife) sticky-back vinyl sheet and applying it to the board.”
A roadworker who chanced upon the post went onto explain how the sign may have come about, suspecting the delay could be the result of broken pipes.
“We have come across pipes and ducts that were rusted/broken/decayed so badly no one wants to dig near them in case they break and we were the ones left with the blame (and cost of repair),” he said. “There may well be a massive bun fight going on about how much to excavate and repair, isolating supplies, who’s going to pay etc.”
