Page:Report of the Traffic Signs Committee (1963).pdf/16

 signing of motorways by Sir Colin Anderson and his committee, and we were fortunate in having as our designer Mr. Jock Kinneir who had already served that committee and could thus bring considerable experience to the design problems which faced us on all-purpose roads.

28. The main current criticisms of United Kingdom traffic signs are that:

(a) roadside signs are too small to be readily recognisable as such and to be easily read by drivers travelling at the normal speed of traffic;

(b) they do not have a simple, integrated appearance;

(c) the more important signs are not readily distinguishable from the less important at long range;

(d) they are often not effective at night;

(e) they are different from those used on the continent of Europe and only those who can read English can fully understand them;

(f) they are often mounted too high, particularly in rural areas;

(g) they are often badly sited in relation to junctions; and

(h) there is insufficient continuity of place names on directional signs.

29. In considering what changes should be recommended we thought it right to study the systems of traffic signs used in other countries, to discover how British signs compared with them in the efficiency of their impact upon drivers and then to decide whether any one system merited adoption with or without modifications.

30. The system most widely used originated from the United Nations World Conference on Road and Motor Transport which was held in Geneva in 1949. This proposed a Protocol on road signs and signals which should be adopted by those countries that wished to do so pending the establishment of a world-wide system. The Protocol signs have already been adopted for use in about 30 countries including most of those in Europe. The United Kingdom has, however, not hitherto signed the Protocol.

The main difference between United Kingdom and Protocol signs is that the latter rely to a much greater extent on symbols only, whereas current United Kingdom practice is to use both symbols and words. The avoidance of words has the advantage that bigger symbols can be used without increasing the size of the sign and thus its message is more immediately understood. Another advantage is that a knowledge of the local language is not required. In the Protocol system the symbols are placed inside the warning triangle or prohibitory circle rather than below them and the waiting restriction signs have blue centres in a red circle without differentiating by colour between no waiting and limited waiting. The mandatory signs have white symbols on a circular blue background. The inform atory signs, like those used in the United Kingdom, are rectangular in shape.

31. After the 1949 Geneva Conference a group of six experts, drawn from Turkey, India, Southern Rhodesia, United States of America, France and Chile, attempted to devise a system which would be acceptable in both the New World and the Old. This resulted in a United Nations Draft Convention in 1953 but this has not been widely adopted. These 1953 Convention signs, like the Protocol signs,