Page:Report of the Traffic Signs Committee (1963).pdf/14

 the years. We realise that a positive effort must be made to acquaint the public with the meaning of the new signs and systems, but with the signs recommended we consider that we have made the task as easy as possible. We believe that it should be possible in such an educational campaign to obtain the co-operation of local authorities, the motoring organisations, motor car and tyre manufacturers, oil companies, etc., as well as the press, radio and television authorities (paragraph 305).

23. In the nineteen years since the 1944 Departmental Committee on Traffic Signs reported great changes have taken place in the volume and character of road traffic in Great Britain. At the end of the war there were 2½ million motor vehicles on our roads. Today the total is over 10 million and it is likely to reach 20 million by the early 1970's, and by 1980 may reach 25 to 30 million.

The number of private cars has increased from 1½ million at the end of the war to over 6 million today, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all motor vehicles. Their acceleration and speed capabilities are considerably greater than they used to be. Although visibility from the driver's seat has been improved, the average height of private vehicles has fallen so that drivers' eyes are at a lower level. This has an effect upon their ability to see and read traffic signs and markings and it influences such problems as the height of street bollards. The number of goods vehicles has also increased, particularly in the heavier categories; there are today about 300,000 vehicles of over 3 tons unladen weight compared with 40,000 at the end of the war. Their performance has greatly improved and over this period their permitted speed has been raised from 20 m.p.h. to 40 m.p.h.

24. To accommodate this enormous increase in the volume of traffic and its changing character much road improvement and new construction has been done, and motorways will relieve to some extent the pressure upon all-purpose roads. But at the same time every resource of traffic engineering and traffic control will be necessary in the urgent task of making more efficient and safer use of the road space available. Traffic signs are an important instrument in this process and to be effective they must be modernised to accord with the changed conditions in which they operate. But since they cannot, like the traffic for which they cater, be in a continuous process of alteration, because uniformity and familiarity to drivers are so important, it is necessary that when modernisation takes place it should look beyond the conditions existing at the time and take account of those which are likely to exist within the reasonable life of these numerous and costly signs. That is to say, any review must look forward fifteen to twenty years and plan a traffic sign system which will remain efficient during that period. It must not overlook that road users include pedestrians and that drivers at some time are also pedestrians wishing to cross the road. Nor must it ignore that among pedestrians elderly people are likely to increase considerably with the rising age level of the population, and that many children must continue to use increasingly busy roads on foot or by bicycle to reach school. Though the number of accidents