Scotland Day21: Why Do Old People Cross the Road . . . Here?

Signage is just another wonderful aspect of culture and its differences met in travel.

A favorite of mine in Scotland has to be the elderly people crossing signs.

A much younger and much less kind me would have made crude jokes about how thoughtful it was for the locals to provide a place to line up the old folk so we motorists could knock them down in a form of driving sport.  I would have been joking -- of course.

The middle-aged me often wondered how on earth the local authority knew with any certainty that here, right here, is where the old ones will actually attempt to cross the road (much like I wonder the same thing about deer crossing signs along the roadways back home).

The approaching old me is now both grateful and petulant at the same time (a sure sign of old age, I’m guessing): it seems thoughtful that someone would provide a place for me to cross the road, but generally, the crossing is never where I actually want to cross the road, making it more a bother than a blessing.

And if you aren’t from these parts, aren’t familiar with the sign convention for identifying road crossings, all you will see is an odd picture of old people, and here in Scotland, anyway, lest you misunderstand, a written sign below simply saying ‘Elderly people’, which, absent some additional necessary information, would leave you wondering why on earth the Scots choose to alert you to the presence of the elderly.  Do the Scots segregate their old?  Are the elderly in Scotland remarkable, somehow?  Should I as a tourist get out my camera and prepare to take a picture of some spectacular, one-of-a-kind old people?  Why, exactly, are you telling me this?

Which takes me back to one of my own travel axia: Signs are helpful only to people who already know where they’re going and what they’re doing.

Case-in-point: signs are seldom, if ever, placed where the eyes of the uncertain will alight on them, let alone have time to read and comprehend them.  You think I exaggerate?  Consider: in Glasgow (perhaps in the whole of the UK), street name signs are often actually on buildings.  Once you figure that out, you’d think you had it made, but no, for seldom, if ever, are they on the same spot on buildings – some are high up; some are quite low to the ground; some are right at the edge of the building, some are quite far in; some are on the building on the left side of the road; some on the right.

Emerson might be right that consistency is the hobgoblin of the little mind, but it is the savior of the traveler attempting to read the signs.

So on behalf of all the travelers to the UK, I would like to say a hearty thank you to the sign folks for alerting me to the presence of the elderly in my travels and to the elderly who are apparently sufficiently thoughtful to cross the road where they have been told they may.