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Bicycles (or other)

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The photo below shows the western end of the prom in Salthill, a popular walking route near where I live in Galway. It’s local tradition to kick the wall on the right before turning around and retracing one’s steps; alternatively you can walk past the gate for further shore views across the bay to the Burren hills.

Take a look at the sign on the gate:

stan-carey-salthill-prom-galway-gate-sign-bicycles

Emergency Access. Bicycles (or other) attached to this gate will be removed.

What I’m curious about is the meaning of the phrase bicycles (or other). Other what?

Bicycles are first and foremost vehicles; this is what most definitions hinge on. But other vehicles doesn’t really apply here: the only other vehicle that might be attached to the gate is a motorbike, in which case it could be named, and anyway I don’t think the gate would appeal to motorcyclists looking for a parking spot.

Some people see or use bicycles mainly as a form of leisure transport. If this is implied by other, the warning message could encompass things like scooters and Segways. But that’s quite a conceptual leap to have to make from the elliptical phrase in parentheses.

Maybe it’s meant more broadly, referring open-endedly to any other objects that (1) could physically and (2) may plausibly be attached to the gate, and in doing so (3) could hinder emergency access.

That raises the question of why bikes were specified in the first place. Maybe it’s because they’re the most likely objects. Galway is chronically lacking in bicycle parking, and though a couple of racks have finally been installed nearby, I think the gate predates them.

How would you interpret bicycles (or other)?

[more posts on the language of public signs]

Filed under: Ireland, language, semantics, signs Tagged: ambiguity, bicycles, cycling, ellipsis, Galway, Galway prom, Ireland, parentheses, public signs, Salthill, semantics, signs

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