Page:Report of the Departmental Committee on Traffic Signs (1946).djvu/55

 of traffic emerging from the minor roads, may be sufficient. In the case of T Junctions a sign should be placed directly opposite the side road. On straight lengths of road without intersections the street name-plates should be repeated at intervals of not more than 200 yards. It may be necessary in a few exceptional cases, e.g. where two streets branch off obliquely from a common junction with a third street, to use special name-plates of the fingerpost type erected ‘on boundary walls or on special posts. Where the street name changes at a point other than a junction (possibly at a local authority boundary) both names should be displayed at the point of change, with arrows or other devices to indicate clearly to which parts of the street the names refer.

(d) The signs should be fixed so that there is a clear space of at least 12 in. in all directions between them and any notices, advertisements or other printed or written matter, but where possible a greater clearance should be provided.

(e) Where gardens or forecourts are in front of buildings it may be necessary to erect posts and boards for the reception of name-plates and this should always be done where it is not otherwise possible to conform to the recommended dimensions.

(f) Where possible within the limits already recommended name plates should be fixed so that they can have the benefit of light from street lamps.

(g) The street name should be in black letters, not less than 4 in. or more than 5 in. high, on a white background. The first consideration in choice of lettering must in our view be legibility, and we recommend that the attention of local authorities be drawn to the suitability, both from the point of view of legibility and of character, of the standard lettering recommended for traffic signs generally in paragraph 21 and shown in Appendix I of this Report.

(h) Where an area is divided into postal districts the appropriate postal district number should be shown on the street name-plates in distinctive colour (we suggest signal red) in letters and/or numbers not more than half the height of the letters in the street name. We see no objection to the inclusion of the name of the local authority, particularly where building development extends over local authority boundaries. The local authority’s name should be in distinctive type and colouring (we suggest Old English lettering in signal red) the letters being not more than one-third of the height of the lettering in the street name, so as not to detract from the conspicuity of the street name. The margin between the lettering of the street name and the edge of the name-plate should be not less than half the height of the street name lettering. Diagrams 117 and 118 show specimen name-plates. We see no objection to reasonable abbreviation at the discretion of the local authority, e.g. “Rd.” for Road and “Gdns.” for Gardens, etc.

Street Numbering

(i) All properties, whether public, business or residential, should be numbered in roads or streets in developed areas.

(j) Numbering should be carried out on a uniform system and where there are, or will ultimately be, buildings on both sides of the street, odd numbers should be on the left side and even on the right, starting from that end of the street which abuts on the more important traffic route.