These are signs, tokens

As I wrote last week, a visible indicator of the ever-nearing completion of the S7 extension (Stretch A, 6.7km from the airport junction to Lesznowola), is the appearance of road signs. And quite odd they are too...

Imagine - you are sitting in your car, driving north up the S7 (European route E77); you pass Węzeł Zamienie (junction 66); the next one to the north is coming up soon - junction 65 for the S2 is but a kilometre away. But what's this? You do a double take at 90km/h. Siedlin? Where's Siedlin? MORE TO THE POINT -WHERE'S WARSAW? AND WARSAW AIRPORT MUST BE AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE! HAVE I TAKEN A WRONG TURN?

Siedlin, it turns out, is a "village in the administrative district of Gmina Płońsk, within Płońsk County, Masovian Voivodship. Population (2011): 369. It lies around 5km south-east of Płońsk and 59km (37 mi) north-west of Warsaw" (Wikipedia). On that basis, you can surmise that you are some 21km from Warsaw. But what a daft place-name to put on a road sign! It turns out (for those who really know their Polish trunk-road geography) that Siedlin sits on the junction of the S7, the DK50 (Warsaw's de facto and incomplete ring-road) and the DK10, the road to Szczecin. So now you know!

Signs for Raszyn from Węzeł Zamienie are downright misleading. In both cases, if driving from the south, you'd be much better placed to carry on to the next junction for Raszyn, then take the S2 eastbound one junction to Aleja Krakowska, then turn south. Avoiding the villages of Dawidy Bankowe, Dawidy, Jaworowa and Rybie.

Below: a few years ago, standing in this spot, the view would have been entirely unrecognisable. Above all, you'd be in the backyard of a farm, just fields ahead. My local landscape, utterly changed.

How it looked in the summer of 2018, click here.

Below: this sign is for drivers coming down the eastern service road from Dawidy. At least Warsaw is mentioned on this one. And don't even think of taking your horse and cart that way. Raszyn? Carry on for Warsaw, one junction north, then turn west, and come off after one junction. Faster, avoiding four villages.

Meanwhile, a misleading sign for anyone heading to Zgorzała from Warsaw. The southbound slip road shows the turning right to Zgorzała along with Zamienie and Raszyn... it is not! You'll end up on the western roundabout having to backtrack, assuming you realise you need to return from where you came.

This, below, is the real turn for Zgorzała - on the other side of the viaduct, the slip road leads to a spiral ramp, up and over the S7 on the viaduct, around the roundabout two photos up, and on to Zgorzała that way. A saving of half a kilometre of pointless driving.

Another misleading sign is at the top end of Zgorzała, for Mokotów, herding local traffic down ulica Karczunkowska towards ul. Puławska. This is madness. From here, to get to, say, Galeria Mokotów down Karczunkowska, then Puławska, then Rzymowskiego is 10.4km, passing 16 sets of traffic lights. If instead you go to Galeria Mokotów along the S7 and its continuation, the S79 turning onto ul. Marynarska, it's only 9.4 km. The first and last lights are on Rondo Unii Europejskiej and that's it. So why is the suggested route longer, more congested and far slower?

Below: it's straight on for Mokotów, actually, unless you like sitting in traffic jams.

This time last year:

Am I a serious man?

This time two years ago:
Sunset's trip

This time eight years ago
The importance of the rucksack for the body

This time 11 years ago:
How I almost saved Barrack Obama

This time 13 years ago:
Some anniversaries missed

This time 15 years ago:
Hissing of the summer lawns