There can be few drivers who have not, at some time or another, found themselves lost because the terrain of a once-familiar route has been changed, as a consequence of new roundabouts, by-passes and the like. It happened to me recently. I was coming out of Cheltenham, driving west, and I thought I could reach Ledbury by peeling off at a sliproad I once knew well. Either I was on a different road or the slip-road had been replaced by a roundabout…

Not to worry, big signboards indicated the place I wanted. Alas, it was dark, raining, and heavy traffic was thrusting home. I saw the Ledbury direction too late to turn off safely at the roundabout where it was situated, but not easily read. This makes me wonder whether, as well as useful road numbers, marked on fast dual carriageways such as this, it might not be helpful if, at its commencement, turn-off points could be shown after the town names, as 2L 3R and so on, so that the place to turn off would be obvious in advance? Rally navigators will see what I have in mind, even if they wouldn’t need such indications.