Extensive signage work awaits, of course, to correct all the mistakes the Language Council has found. Name-plate bus stops are no longer just a phenomenon in big cities. But putting names to now anonymous bus stops has proven to be a difficult exercise. The Language Council found error after error when they checked some of the new bus stop signs in Vestland. Two out of three were wrong When the language council had to ensure the quality of the names at the bus stop in the Vestland municipality of Høyanger, they found that over two thirds of the names were wrong. On a stretch of 26 km, with scattered bus settlements, they found more than 10 faults. – I think it is regrettable that one has to go through and correct the name on bus signs, after the bus signs have been put up, says Morten Torvund. He is the nearest neighbor to one of the bus stops where the Language Council has found errors. “Torvund indre”, says the sign on the E39 along the Sognefjord. The correct word should be “Indre Torvund”, the Language Council points out. A few turns west of “Torvund indre” along the E39 you will find Aven bay. Here, the Language Council believes that the name should be changed to “Avebukta”. Photo: Astrid Solheim Korsvoll / news Torvund, who can see the bus stop from the stove glass, thinks it’s great that the Language Council is demanding a name change. – It is important that what is written is correct, because people use the name as it is written. And the incorrect signage is not unique to Western Norway, according to the Language Council. Ytre Sogn first wrote about the bus names in Høyanger. Will replace Ikea name The Language Council has gone through the bus stop names in nine municipalities in Vestland. In several of the municipalities there were more wrong names than correct ones. In Bergen, the Language Council believes that, for example, “Birkeland crossing” should be written as “Birkelandskrysset”, “Kalåsvatnet” should be changed to “Kalhusvatnet”. The “Gullgruven” bus stop, which today is named after the shopping center Gullgruven, should have the city name “Nordre Liamyrane”. And Ikea Åsane should be called “Dalakrysset” or “Dalavegen”. The list is long. The Language Council does not want shopping center names on bus stops and requests that the Ikea Åsane and Gullgruven bus stops be renamed. Photo: Sindre Øye Helgheim / news The aim is to go through the rest of the municipalities in Vestland, but also the rest of the county if the Language Council has the capacity to do so. Daniel Ims of the Language Council is not surprised that there are so many mistakes. – The reason we wanted to start the work was that we saw in advance that there were quite a few mistakes. The most frequent mistakes are that names are written incorrectly or that there is the wrong bus name in the wrong place, says Ims. How is it possible that so many names are wrong? – It is not unusual for city names to be written in different ways. It may happen, for example, that names have been provided by individuals, and that the names have not been coordinated. According to him, there are several reasons why names are spelled correctly. Firstly, the public sector, such as the Swedish Road Administration and bus companies, must use the written form that has been determined. In addition, it is quite practical that bus stops are spelled correctly, says Ims and reminisces about the time he couldn’t find a bus stop because the name was misspelled. Not all bus stops have signs yet, as here at the music pavilion in the industrial town of Høyanger. This can save you extra work and error correction. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese Unclear what is happening Names responsible for the western region of the Swedish Map Agency, Erlend Trones, agrees with Ims that the quality of bus stop names in many places is poor. – Some holding places consist of family names or old spellings that do not correspond to public usage, and in some places the holding place names have been displaced, so that they have ended up in other places than where they belong. Fortunately, there will be few new naming issues following the Language Council’s work, says Trones. The Language Council sets up the work in such a way that it will not trigger naming issues. To a large extent, they belong to name forms that are already in the Central City Name Register with an approved spelling. The county municipality is responsible for public transport. That is why they put up the signs, including long European and national roads. It is not yet clear what will be done with the bus stop names, writes Torill Klinker, section manager for transport plans in the department for mobility and public transport in Vestland county municipality in an email. – We are now reviewing all the proposals the Language Council has made. It is a big process, which will take some time. Along the Sognefjord, Morten Torvund can soon look forward to the somewhat bureaucratic “Torvund interior” soon being replaced by the more colloquial Torvund. Of the approximately 14 new town name changes that the Language Council has introduced in the area, there is only one Torvund is dissatisfied with: – They will change Varleite to Vardeleite. It’s a name we never use. Otherwise, the other changes are perfectly fine for me.
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The Language Council found errors in more than half of the bus stop names they checked – news Vestland
