h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

... to see what visitors find odd. I hadn't noticed that street names are mainly on roads with approaching traffic. I feel compelled to check now.

Please do, this is only my observation of a small section of the city. In the US we usually have posts showing the name of each street on every corner. At major intersections the names are on larger plates on the wires or posts that support the signal lights, sometimes they are even lighted.

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I think it depends on the local council where they put road signs, if at all. Many of the ones in Leeds are just the name painted on a convenient wall, which aren't easy to spot in the dark. Most seem to be just above ground level. If you're navigating in the dark, whatever the council's done, they'll be difficult to spot...

<BB<

Most of the ones in central London used to be on buildings at first floor level, so that they could be read by pedestrians or carriage drivers over crowds and other traffic.
But that required getting way-leaves from building owners.

Nowadays it seems to be a hunt the sign contest.

I have to respond to both <BB< and >BB>
As I said most, of my observations were only in a small part of Central London. When I typed Second Storey, I meant above the level of ground floor windows. We even have that confusion here about the numbering of building floors. Our lifts (elevators) have a large star next to the floor level button that leads you the street.

I did find one building (I think it was in Holborn) where the owner had helpfully painted the his address on the sidewall in the colourers (black letters on a white rectangle) usually used for the street name. Unfortunately the street named faced the other side of the building

None of this is meant as a complaint, only an observation

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