[tokamak-teapot]

This is the opposite of my experience. I often navigate by road signs alone in the UK.

Maybe your experience is from a particular part of the UK where this depletion has happened, but I thought things like direction signage were centrally managed.

[detritus]

I'm with you here - I find the UK much easier to drive around than Spain or Italy, at least.

Before I set out somewhere, I look at a map and scrawl on a piece of paper a list of the roads and junctions I need to use and after a brief familiarisaiton with the route visually, I rely thereafter solely on road signs.

Britain's got great (and beautiful) signage, in my opinion.

[prennert]

Are you native to the UK? (I.e. do you have a good knowledge of the cities and areas you are driving to and passing by?)

Is there a system you are using to navigate / prepare when driving to areas that are new to you? Particularly off motorways?

[djaychela]

I'm native to the UK, but I've not found any of the difficulties that you mention in your previous post. I'm 49, so I'm from the pre-sat-nav generation, and I will generally not use one [x] until I get to the city in question, or traffic/isues necessitate it, so I'll navigate from major town to major town to get where I'm going.

I don't find that they will generally disappear from signs (unless you're past them), and I find the system used in the UK very logical.

Also, I don't find the lack of reflectors at the edge of country roads to be an issue - most are delineated by white lines, which means it's easy to see the edges at night. This is not the case in most African countries, and I found driving through Africa at night a challenging, tiring experience because of this, but maybe if you're used to reflectors, it's the same situation just at a different level.

x - I don't think it's good to be babied and feel you need a sat nav for every journey. Since ditching mine (I was a keen user until maybe 3-4 years ago), I've felt much more independent and capable, and happy to drive wherever. I'm sure I'll be in the minority in this opinion, though.

[Nexxxeh]

I try to remember to sat nav as much as possible, for the live traffic updates. I also follow the local police force on Facebook as they post road closures due to RTC etc on there.

[nicky0]

In the pre-satnav days I would consult a road atlas before the trip, and note the roads, turnings and principal destinations on a piece of paper.

e.g. M1 North to J21 for M69 South M69 South to J2 onto A5 North A5 North for 11 miles to Tamworth turning etc.

[tokamak-teapot]

Native to the UK and I’ll use signs for navigation both in areas I’m familiar with and those I’m not.

Some examples:

1. I want to go to a show at a popular venue (arena or theatre sized) in an area I know. If I know vaguely where it is, I’ll drive into the city centre and probably meet a one way system and follow the signs for the venue.

2. I want to visit a National Trust property. Head for a major road that runs past it and there will be brown signs that give you the best route to it.

3. Travelling somewhere and decide there is a problem with traffic / the weather and look for a detour. Signs are often perfect for choosing the best roads to head for another waypoint and then the best way from there to where you were originally heading.

I’m not some kind of crazy person who will only navigate by signs - I check things out on maps and put sat nav on, but I know the limitations of all and often the signs send me on the best route.

The people who figure these out and keep them updated are amazing at their job.