Councils around Sydney have been making great progress in developing safe paths for cyclists and are now even advertising them before movies at the cinema. I’ve personally been delighted by the networks, which allow me to get around or just to get outside for some exercise.
The cycleway alongside the M2 has been rerouted due to long-term roadwork, but the temporary signage doesn’t meet the quality I’ve come to expect. Oddly, the signs indicating the detour have been placed halfway along roads rather than at intersections. The result, when I tried to follow the new path, reminds me of a game I used to play in my teens.
The idea of Chalk Chasings was for the leaders to get out and back to base before the hunters (who departed 5 minutes later), but they had to mark their trail clearly with chalk. In order to throw the pack of the scent, the leaders would place X markers partway down a wrong turn, but often only visible once you turned back the way you’d come. You might not know you’d taken the wrong turn until you’d already gone a few hundred metres in the wrong direction. Similarly, you might not know you were on the right track until you were almost ready to turn back.
I don’t know why the RTA has chosen such a frustrating system of signs, but I’m glad for the memories they have given me.