Marker posts on major roads.

tescobabe69

Hope someone knows.

On all major roads I see small marker posts, roughly every 100 yards about a couple of feet high, anyone know what they are there for ?

SHIPSHAPE

The ones that mark a specific location? They have a unique number on them, usually used by the emergency services.

Jay_Tee

If you look on the back of them they also indicate the direction of the nearest emergency telephone.

agrinnall

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver_location_signs

Nearly_Old

The original small Marker Posts were installed to a) direct the driver of a broken down vehicle to the nearest emergency phone; and b) to designate the 100m lengths which were used to record the inventory and all maintenance works. The emergency phones were connected directly to the police control centres and from the number on the phone the controller knew exactly where the driver was.

The increasing use of mobile phones started to cause problems; e.g.
Driver: I've broken down.
Controller: Please can you give me your location?
Driver: On the motorway.
Controller: Which motorway?
You can guess the rest :doh:

So now at considerable expense the new Driver Location signs are being installed on new roads and are being retro-fitted to other roads.