Page:Report of the Traffic Signs Committee (1963).pdf/12

 7. We believe that our existing traffic signs are seriously out of date in relation to the present and foreseeable numbers and speeds of vehicles; we recommend a radical and urgent modernisation (paragraph 301).

8. We envisage a system of main roads other than motorways clearly distinguished by the colour of their directional signs from any other roads in the country. The object of this distinction would be to assist travellers, especially those on longer journeys, to follow the most generally satisfactory routes through our very complex road system. We have called these 'Primary routes' in our report and have suggested in paragraph 137 some criteria for their selection. We think they would be predominantly trunk and class I roads.

9. The directional signs on Primary routes should be green with white lettering except for route letters and numbers which should be yellow. On other roads directional signs should be white with black lettering and black route numbers. In both kinds of sign place names should be in lower-case lettering with initial capitals (paragraphs 136 and 143).

10. Letter sizes should in general be considerably larger than on our existing signs and should vary with the vehicle speeds and width of the roads they are on, reaching 10 inches on the fastest roads. But the principles of design we have suggested will avoid a proportionate increase in the size of signs (paragraph 141).

11. Advance direction signs should whenever possible be in map form, graphically showing the lay-out of the junction ahead, with the relative importance of the roads at the junction indicated by the width of the arms of the route symbol. We believe that this use of map signs will make an important contribution to road safety (paragraph 148).

12. We recommend that the rest of our roadside signs should, where considered appropriate, be brought into line with those in use on the Continent (paragraph 37).

We investigated the efficiency of our existing system of signs compared with that on the Continent and other systems abroad and came to the conclusion that the Continental signs using mainly symbols and not words, set within their triangular, circular or rectangular frames according to their significance, were the most effective. We considered too that whenever possible symbolic signs should speak for themselves. Nevertheless we consider that the new signs should be given powerful publicity because of the inherent difficulty of teaching the public at large (paragraph 305).

13. Since half the fatal and serious accidents on our roads take place at or near junctions we recommend that in the interests of safety the minor road be very clearly distinguished from the major. This should be done by a new and emphatic carriageway marking at the mouth of the minor road. At the junctions where sight lines are obstructed or there are other dangerous features, and at all junctions with Primary roads where there are not traffic signals or Stop signs, this carriageway marking should be supplemented with mandatory Give way signs. We thus envisage that our Primary routes will be protected at all junctions so that they effectively become 'priority routes' as in certain countries abroad (paragraphs 53 and 224).